Have they really failed? Opinions vary, and answers seem incompatible with each other. Dozens of articles filled literary pages of German newspapers in autumn of 1992, and each one of them could have carried precisely this same question as their tide. Book fairs displayed new titles like Twilight of Intellectuals and The Rise and Fall of Intellectuals, which reminded one (me, at least) all too painfully of Grandeur and Misery of Courtesans .. .1 My own answer to question, incidentally, is yes and no. Strictly limiting myself to internal German debate, my attempt to answer question with help of wealth of printed matter has resulted in three piles of paper, each roughly same size. Each pile represents one of accusations aimed at the intellectuals. (This word refers here and in following pages only to intellectuals in old Federal Republic, not in former East Germany.) First: Intellectuals reacted with skepticism if not with outright rejection to historical chance of German reunification. Even now they are not yet ready to draw consequences or perspectives from new situation in Germany, Europe, and world. Second: This failure is due largely to typical illusions of a generationally specific group of intellectuals who are usually referred to, in