After his “Abitur” exam at the high school (“Gymnasium”), Schrenck-Notzing studied history and sociology in Munich, Freiburg and Cologne in the years after the war.
Schrenck-Notzing became nationally renowned in Germany for his 1965 book, Charakterwäsche (Character washing), a scathing critique of the Allied process of “re-education” after World War II and especially their licensing system that favored left wing newspaper editors.
[3] Although critical of U.S. influence in Germany, Schrenck-Notzing paid close attention to intellectual debates in America, in particular paleo-conservative, but also classical liberal and libertarian thinkers.
In 1970, Schrenck-Notzing established his own, bimonthly magazine called “Criticón” together with the right-wing publicist Armin Mohler that became a focal point for intellectuals from the right wing of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and non-party affiliated conservative thinkers.
Among the contributors of ‘’Criticón’’ were CDU politician Alexander Gauland, political scientist Klaus Hornung, CSU politician Hans Graf Huyn, Austrian writer Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, social philosopher Günther Rohrmoser, Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann, General and military historian Franz Uhle-Wettler and the historian Karlheinz Weißmann.