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important figures such as Adenauer and Bismarck. He rejects the idea that he himself had a political career, only accepting that he has a political biography. Eppler is at his best when making such trenchant comments, as in the chapter where he condemns the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, which he convincingly links to neoliberalism and the denial of the role of morality in politics. As the second part of the subtitle shows, he is at pains to stress the ‘dignity of the political’. The other part of the title that deserves attention is the question ‘was tun wir?’. It is not easy to decide whether ‘what are we doing’ or ‘what do we do’ is the more appropriate translation. There is an element of both in the concluding chapter, which pleads for more political commitment and increased party membership, the need for which is also mentioned in an earlier chapter. Specifically, this chapter is a plea for the primacy of politics, which is seen as indispensable, not least in the era of the anti-political Trump. In his final paragraph he speaks of Germany, and by implication other countries, needing a ‘democratic renewal’ (122), adding that the aim of his book is to contribute to such a renewal. Despite certain problems, in particular, a lack of structure and a tendency to repetition, it can be said to have largely succeeded.