German Theory: Ein Nachwort

Abstract. In this afterword to the themed issue „German Theory“, we look back how „German Theory“ started off as a discussion circle at the lakeshores of Zürich and return to the different contributions of the themed issue to reflect on the meaning of German Theory. We propose to understand „German Theory“ as a constellation of German-Jewish thought that flourished in the cultural and intellectual life of the Weimar Republic but also encapsulated the contradictions and antagonisms of that age. Thinking in constellations means more than „thinking with“ – it requires a return to the original territories of thought, in which the questions and antagonisms of these thinkers were debated, and to identify if and how those questions and debates resonate with today's political conjuncture. We identify two constellations – Cassirer-Heidegger and Benjamin-Schmitt – as central intellectual meeting points where key antagonisms of Weimar and today are at stake, which makes them important theoretical resources for contemporary critical theory in and beyond human geography.