German Essayist Critiques Left-Intellectual Milieu Over Motherhood and Family

In a first-person essay published by the German weekly Der Freitag, an author describes her political awakening and subsequent disillusionment with her own left-intellectual milieu. She dates that awakening precisely to April 2020, when it became public that then-Chancellor Angela Merkel had urged an end to what Merkel called "Öffnungsdiskussionsorgien" — opening-debate orgies. The author writes that this remark jolted her out of a long apolitical slumber and prompted her to question whether citizens should be discouraged from thinking and debating along with policymakers. She states that she once immersed herself in Gender Studies, but now believes motherhood and family are undervalued. Her central argument is that anyone who wants to stop the right must reconsider the dogmas of their own left-wing milieu; she names seven such dogmas. The essay opens against a 2026 backdrop of heightened fear: the danger of a Third World War described as closer than ever, ongoing environmental destruction, people insulting and threatening one another on social media, and eroding social cohesion. She says she is afraid for society, the environment and politics. The piece is framed as a personal reckoning rather than a reported news story, and the available text is truncated before the seven dogmas are enumerated.