Departure of Habeck and Baerbock: They were only servants of themselves

They are the offspring of the Golf generation: Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock . They grew up in the idyllic West German past of 1968, politically socialized under the banner of the "end of history," and intoxicated by the conviction that the world would never be better without alternatives. The hot war that had forged the Schmidt andStrauss generation of politicians had long been overcome. Even the Cold War, the hallmark of the Kohl generation of politicians, was waning after 1980. After the communist enemy had embraced détente (and demonstrated in Afghanistan just how deflated it had been), no one took it seriously anymore.

The Habeck and Baerbock generation of politicians knows neither the storm of steel nor the fears of the Cold War. After all, with the universal victory of liberal democracy after 1990, politics itself seemed to have been overcome – the struggle between good and evil, between estates and classes, for interests and influence. All of this was history.

This is the very unique perspective of the Gulf Generation, which is also the Green Generation. When politics seemingly disappeared from the world, what remained was the very big – the planet – and the very small: the self. Self-realization and saving the world have been the hallmarks of the Green Generation ever since. Self-realization as self-determination extending into biology, saving the world as the fight for the environment and climate. From identity politics to supply chain legislation, from critiques of capitalism to the energy transition, all Green political goals grow from this root.

Left-green condescension towards everything particular

Hence the green, and especially the left-green, condescension toward everything that lies in between, that is neither self nor world: family, nation, denomination, collective, everything particular beyond the atomized ego. Those who think green identify with their self and the whole. Those who think a step further recognize no difference at all. Indeed, there isn't; in this perspective, self and world are identical.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the political lives of Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck. Their motto is: all or nothing, all or nothing. The – very old-fashioned – counterpoint to such an attitude is service. The word itself is out of fashion; service and self-realization sound like crystal-clear opposites.

The degradation of service to the opposite of self-development is the work of Generation Golf. Those who had been in the hot war had served; this continued in the Cold War. One served wherever one stood: a company, a party, a class, a state, a nation. Or a constituency, one's constituents.

Who did Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck serve? Their selves. They are not alone in this; a large part of their generation encourages them. This is precisely what Habeck is talking about when he says in the taz interview : "I want a new story." He no longer likes the old one; it has likely disappointed him. Now he is looking for one that makes him more content, and for a change, that lies beyond politics.

Habeck, born in 1969, is 55 years old. He could still work in this position for more than two decades, serve his party, and fight his way back to power. But Habeck prefers variety; he wants a new story. In this, too, he is a child of his time, of his generation. They embrace variety, in relationships, in their careers, in every respect. It's easygoing, lighthearted, and, for the moment, quite charming.

It also explains the state of German politics. Without dedicated service over a long period of time, accompanied by an unwavering will to win and persevere, there are neither political careers nor effective leadership. The older generation knew this. They stayed in the business, shrugged off defeats, and worked their way back up.

Robert Habeck is not the only one of his generation who is deemed too light in this regard. His former nemesis, Annalena Baerbock, is different. Jürgen Trittin made his judgment carefully: The former minister "is one of the Green Party's greatest political talents." Moreover, she is a good ten years younger than Habeck and comfortably parked at the UN. While Habeck is exercising the rights of the Golf generation and shifting his male ego down a gear, Baerbock's female ego will continue to take every curve at full throttle. After all, it's done, the goal has been achieved, the glass ceiling shattered. She won't let the election defeats in 2021 and 2025 spoil her success. The woman will still be a force to be reckoned with.

Political class: Increasing impression of arbitrariness

The exemplary nature of both remains, despite all their differences. Both illustrate why politics is so different in the 21st century. All chancellors, especially the one female chancellor, were ego-driven people, and that will remain so. Networks have changed, the structure of the political class has evolved. It has become less binding. There are teams, no longer any secretive cliques. Not only is devotion denied—it is also no longer demanded, not to the extent that it once was.

The political class thus leaves the impression of arbitrariness, of a chorus of interchangeable figures. Who, apart from their own people, still notices that Robert Habeck has disappeared? Who wonders where he is – in the US, in Denmark? Who misses him?

With Annalena Baerbock, there's every reason to fear that she'll return. Until then, the audience is enjoying the silence after the insistent boasting, the slogans and catchphrases: climate action, feminism, global justice. Finally, peace and quiet.