Leftist Criticism
Prussian virtues have been criticised by the middle-class bourgeoisie, for example, for its distance from natural sciences, art, and the state economy; militarism; and opposition to democracy. Labour movements opposed Prussian virtues, specifically those of respect for, or a sense of, law and order and "blind" obedience. Amongst the German student protests of 1968, Prussian virtues were regarded with suspicion, given the previous loyalty and obedience to the Nazi government.
In modern-day Germany, Prussian virtues are occasionally referred to and receive mixed criticism. In 1982, amid the controversy surrounding the NATO Double-Track Decision, in response to Social Democratic Party of Germany Chancellor of Germany Helmut Schmidt's call for a return to such virtues, Saarbrücken's SPD mayor Oskar Lafontaine commented that these were "perfectly suited to run a concentration camp". In 2006, the Prime Minister of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck called for a return to Prussian, citing "good basic virtues, such as honesty, reliability, and diligence.
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“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)