National Identity In Germany Research Articles

IMMIGRANT PLAYERS IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM OF GERMANY AND THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

This paper is based on the research related to the immigrant players in the national football team and the formation of national identity in Germany. Recent analyses reveal that the success of an immigrant player in the national sports team has been regarded as a useful factor to attract public attention to the contribution of immigrants to the progress of the country. During the matches, discourses coming from the fans depending on the result of the game. They target immigrant players as a scapegoat in the situation of loss. Indeed, this is visible in parallel with the increasing strong critics in the media against these immigrant players. In this paper, the case of Mesut Ozil in the German National Football Team is analyzed. The case study offers evidence of whether the success of immigrant players has been an important factor for their inclusion in the national identity in Germany.

Steamship nationalism: Transatlantic passenger liners as symbols of the German Empire

Between 1912 and 1914, the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) launched a trio of transatlantic passenger liners: the Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck. These have attracted considerable scholarly and popular interest, but their promotion and reception as national monuments has received little detailed consideration. This article shows how and in what manner the Imperator-class vessels were presented to the German public in various media as monumental symbols of the achievements of their nation. In particular, it offers a detailed analysis of the ceremonies that accompanied the launch of these liners, especially the speeches designed for national and international audiences. These reveal, in concentrated and explicit form, how the Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck were expressly construed and presented to Germans as foci for collective identification. Evidence also demonstrates that the vessels were greeted as floating symbols of the German Empire in the British and American press. The article argues that the function of Germany’s premier passenger liners as national monuments in the nation’s popular culture, and in the foreign press, deserves serious study for at least two reasons: what it reveals about the construction and contestation of national identity in Germany, and what it demonstrates about popular responses to the German Empire in the transatlantic world.

Media Review: Patriotism and Nationalism in Music Education

Hebert, David G., and Alexandra Kertz-Welzel, eds. and in Music Education. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2012. xviii + 183 pp. Hardcover, index. ISBN 978-1-4094-3080-3, 54 [pounds sterling]. Throughout history, patriotism and nationalism have influenced music curriculum. Patriotic music has been used as a tool to educate students on history, culture, and values of a nation. Editors Hebert and Kertz-Welzel state that purpose of this volume is to examine impact of patriotism and nationalism on music curriculum internationally (1). The book includes a foreword by Simon Keller, an introduction, and chapters by eleven authors--David G. Hebert, Alexandra Kertz-Welzel, Jane Southcott, Wai-Chung Ho, Carlos R. Abril, Ambigay Raidoo Yudkoff, Eugene Dairianathan, Chee-Hoo Lum, Amy C. Beegle, Kari K. Veblen, and Marja Heimonen--with each examining a different aspect of patriotism and nationalism in music education. In first chapter, Patriotism and Music Education: An International Overview, Hebert outlines contemporary practices and positions regarding use of patriotic content in music education (7). The author begins by questioning purpose of patriotism in music education. Examples of its use from United States and Japan imply that its presence in classroom is not to teach musical skills but rather to instill governmental pride and loyalty. Hebert then compares national anthems of several countries-- including United States, Japan, Russia, and New Zealand--and discusses each one's role in music education. Hebert concludes, While few, if any, would question legitimacy of teaching national anthems and other ceremonial repertoire, there appears to be very little philosophical support from within profession for an increased emphasis on patriotism in school music programs (18). In chapter 2, Lesson Learned? In Search of and in German Music Education Curriculum, Kertz-Welzel provides a brief history of development of Germany's national identity, Third Reich's role in growth of formal music education, and a discussion regarding Germany's national anthem, Deutschlandlied. She contends that in Germany patriotism and nationalism do not play an important role in music most likely owing to importance Hitler placed on music and nationalism. After World War II, Germans were filled with shame and regret rather than nationalistic pride because they had not resisted Socialist ideology. Today purpose of teaching students German national is not to instill a sense of patriotism but rather to inform students about history, musical form of original work ... and lyrics of anthem (35). Kertz-Welzel successfully outlines role of patriotism in German music and reveals potential negative effects that can occur when patriotic music is taught solely for political gain. Southcott begins chapter 3, Nationalism and School Music in Australia, with following statement: Nationalism is a pervasive and often unstated force in shaping educational systems. Schools exist within societies and it is part of function of a school to prepare future citizens (43). From selection of song repertoire--both British and Australian music--to celebration of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day, Australians have deliberately promoted nationalism in their school systems. Throughout chapter, Southcott traces selection of Australia's national and discusses ways in which nationalism is promoted within school setting. In chapter 4, National Identity in Taiwanese System of Music Education, Ho examines the current debate between discourses of nationalism and associated social change that determine cultural diversity of Taiwanese music today (59). …

Mystery of regional identity: Crime fiction and Germany's national identity

Mystery of regional identity: Crime fiction and Germany's national identity

Post-Wall German Cinema and National History, Utopianism and Dissent by Mary-Elizabeth O’Brien (review)

Reviewed by: Post-Wall German Cinema and National History, Utopianism and Dissent by Mary-Elizabeth O’Brien Regine Criser Post-Wall German Cinema and National History, Utopianism and Dissent. By Mary-Elizabeth O’Brien. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012. Pp. 348. Cloth $85.00. ISBN 978-1571135223. With the sudden collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989, the already charged debates about Germany’s national identity became even more complicated. In her recently published monograph, Mary-Elizabeth O’Brien argues that through the events that brought the postwar era and the Cold War world order to an end, 1989 replaced 1945 as the primary caesura in modern German history. Hence, she takes 1989 as the starting point for her investigation of history films produced over the next 20 years until 2009 and approaches them as a crucial discursive network with a decisive impact on the ongoing construction of national identity in Germany. Expanding Alison Landsberg’s notion of prosthetic memory (Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. [2004]), O’Brien sets out to investigate “how history films help viewers to comprehend the dynamics of change, agency, and passivity that play an equally important part in historical understanding” (16). Based on her extensive research of post-wall German cinema, she arrives at the conclusion that utopianism and dissent function as prominent models for the creation of a German identity after 1989. O’Brien’s monograph contributes to a growing number of publications in the field of German Studies that all approach contemporary German cinema as a crucial cultural institution that actively shapes and participates in the creation of a national identity tied together through overarching historical narratives. Despite some overlap with regard to movie selection with recent publications such as Nick Hodgin’s Screening the East: Heimat, Memory and Nostalgia in Film (2011) or Paul Cooke and Chris Homewood’s edited volume New Directions in German Cinema (2011), O’Brien leaves these predecessors unaddressed. This is especially noteworthy, since Cooke and Homewood share a similar starting point with O’Brien in that both publications challenge Eric Rentschler’s claim that post-Wall cinema is a “cinema of consensus” (“From New German Cinema to Post-Wall Cinema of Consensus.” In Cinema and Nation, edited by Mette Hjort and Scott Mackenzie, 260–77 [2000]). A possible reason for these publications’ absence among O’Brien’s otherwise extensive disciplinary and interdisciplinary references could be that Cooke and Homewood’s movie selection is limited to films produced in the 2000s, thus starting significantly later than her own selection, and that Hodgin’s analysis focuses on the notion of nostalgia. In contrast, in her first chapter O’Brien argues for the concept of anamnesis over nostalgia, arguing that in approaching the immediate aftermath of 1989 and the collapse of socialism movies employ tropes of amnesia and imprisonment to address sudden historic change. The four chapters of the monograph are organized around conceptual clusters that guide and establish coherence between [End Page 480] O’Brien’s expert readings of individual movies. In addition to amnesia and anamnesis, the chapters circle around political oppression and resistance, terrorism in East and West Germany, as well as utopianism and violence. While the well-written individual chapters are convincing on their own, these thematic and theoretical clusters connect the cinematic analysis throughout the book and create a narrative and argumentative flow that underscores the thoroughness of O’Brien’s scholarship. Throughout the four chapters she convincingly demonstrates how the GDR and its sudden collapse, the student movement of 1968 as well as German Terrorism, most famously embodied by the RAF, are all equally unresolved episodes of Germany’s national history. By bringing these historic flashpoints and their filmic representations in dialogue with each other, O’Brien successfully points to cinematic trends and shifts and highlights the thematic interplay between individual historic events and their cultural conversions. As O’Brien shows, the void of utopianism after multiple failed experiments with social and ideological alternatives to capitalism have left Germany with yet another challenge in the already difficult undertaking of creating a national identity. The strength of O’Brien’s monograph is twofold: firs of...

Power and the Past: Collective Memory and International Relations

Introduction: Twenty-first-Century MemoriesEric Langenbacher and Yossi Shain 1. Collective Memory as a Factor in Political Culture and International RelationsEric Langenbacher 2. Germany's National Identity, Collective Memory, and Role AbroadBettina Warburg 3. Collective Memory and German-Polish RelationsEric Langenbacher 4. Building Up a Memory: Austria, Switzerland, and Europe Face the HolocaustAvi Beker 5. Memory, Tradition, and Revival: Who, Then, Speaks for the Jews?Ori Z. Soltes 6. September 11 in the Rearview Mirror: Contemporary Policies and Perceptions of the PastOmer Bartov 7. The Eventful Dates 12/12 and 9/11: Tales of Power and Tales of Experience in Contemporary HistoryMichael Kazin 8. The Use and Abuse of History in Berlin and Washington Since 9/11: A Plea for a New Era of CandorJeffrey Herf 9. Of Shrines and Hooligans: The Structure of the History Problem in East Asia after 9/11Thomas U. Berger 10. Popular Culture and Collective Memory: Remembering and Forgetting in Chinese -- U.S. Relations after 9/11Gerrit W. Gong Conclusion: Collective Memory and the Logic of Appropriate BehaviorYossi Shain Contributors Index

The Resilience of the Nation Sate:Cosmopolitanism, Holocaust Memory and German Identity

The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of the proposal of “methodological cosmopolitanism“ in theoretical terms and to substantiate this critique by providing an account of the dynamics of collective memory and identity in postunification Germany. In the first part, we look at the arguments about methodological cosmopolitanism and their derivative, the idea of cosmopolitan memory, illustrated by the case of Holocaust memory. In the second part we look at the case of Germany: firstly at its postwar experience of the attempted construction of “postnational“ identity, and then at more recent trends, contemporaneous with the Berlin Republic, towards a “normalization“ of national identity in Germany. The Holocaust plays a crucial, but different, role in each phase, we suggest. In the conclusion we return to more general themes, asking what the German case tells us about the cosmopolitanization thesis more generally.

Nancy R. Reagin. Sweeping the German nation: Domesticity and national identity in Germany, 1870-1945. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 247 p.

Nancy R. Reagin. Sweeping the German nation: Domesticity and national identity in Germany, 1870-1945. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 247 p.

Humanitarian immigration and German national identity in the media

Immigration can be an important component in the formation of national identity. I draw on Hegelian dialectics to interpret media debate of the recent German immigration law and the role of humanitarian immigration in constructing Germany's national identity. A discourse analysis examines 609 articles published in five daily newspapers between 2001 and 2005. The media represents the German state as safeguarding human rights and international law, but a truncated dialectical process fails to resolve the boundary between the national self and the refugee and asylum seeking Other.

Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945. By Nancy R. Reagin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xii+247. $75.00.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsSweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945. By Nancy R. Reagin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xii+247. $75.00.Annette F. TimmAnnette F. TimmUniversity of Calgary Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 80, Number 4December 2008A Special Issue on Metropole and Colony Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/596695 Views: 31Total views on this site © 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945 By Nancy R. Reagin

<i>Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945</i> By Nancy R. Reagin

Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945. By Nancy R. Reagin (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007) 247 pp. $75.00

<i>Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870–1945</i>. By Nancy R. Reagin (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007) 247 pp. $75.00

NANCY R. REAGIN. Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xii, 247. $75.00

NANCY R. REAGIN. Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xii, 247. $75.00

Sweeping the German nation: domesticity and national identity in Germany, 1870-1945

1. The habitus of domesticity 2. Domesticity and German national character 3. The politicization of housework 4. Domesticity and Volksgemeinschaft 5. Ersatz, whole grain, or homemade: Autarkic households and the four year plan 6. Domesticity and 'Germanization' in occupied Poland.

Constructing a Normative National Identity: The Leitkultur Debate in Germany, 2000/2001

In recent years, public discourse about German national identity has increasingly focussed on the large foreign population within Germany's borders. Whilst right-wing politicians such as Edmund Stoiber foster fears of identity loss (‘Überfremdung’), more liberal observers, and indeed the ruling red–green coalition, acknowledge that multiethnicity has by now become an integral part of this identity. The debate experienced its provisional climax in late 2000 and early 2001. Friedrich Merz, then parliamentary leader of the CDU party, introduced the term ‘Leitkultur’ into the political discourse. The notion suggests the existence of a clearly identifiable spectrum of German cultural values and proposes that foreigners who wished to live in Germany should adhere to these values. Merz's proposal triggered a wave of highly controversial comments which have been evaluated for the purpose of this paper. It draws on roughly 350 newspaper articles and interviews and aims to introduce the English-speaking reader to the complex range of arguments. The Leitkultur debate is taken as symptomatic of the current state of public discourse about foreigners and national identity in Germany.

Discursos simbólicos e símbolos discursivos: considerações sobre a etnografia da identidade nacional

Partindo da ênfase recente que a teoria das nações vem dando ao caráter imaginado ou "construído" da comunidade nacional, este artigo procura estabelecer pontes com a teoria antropológica e analisar as implicações desse movimento para uma antropologia das identidades étnicas e nacionais. Em particular, seguindo a boa tradição empírica da disciplina, procura-se avaliar essas considerações teóricas tendo em vista possíveis desenvolvimentos da etnografia da formação e das políticas de identidade em contextos nacionais. Nesse sentido, é aqui esboçado o projeto de uma "antropologia do discurso", exemplificada com materiais oriundos de pesquisas sobre identidade nacional na Alemanha e no Brasil. A análise desses dois casos conduz à proposição de uma distinção teórica entre construção da identidade nacional centrada no discurso (Alemanha) e centrada nos símbolos (Brasil).

Supranational visionary and builder of Euroland: Former German chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl on the euro's significance for Germany and its neighbors

Executive Overview Dr. Helmut Kohl served as Germany's chancellor during the watershed period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new multipolar world order. He grew into a towering figure of the postwar era, occupying strong network centrality in the heart of Europe. He directed its major developments and was consulted on all key issues: virtually no important decision in Europe could be made without him. Under his leadership, Germany reached a level of economic power and political influence seldom seen in its history, but at the same time it gave up more national sovereignty to supranational bodies like the European Union than ever before. Instead of a German Europe. Kohl's answer to “the German question”—concerning Germany's national identity, unity, and global role—was a Europeanized Germany. He wanted to achieve this vision through the process of European integration that he promoted as a key political player. One of Kohl's major legacies is the euro, the common European currency. It offers the prospect of increased trade in the European Common Market and may serve as an economic catalyst for political union. On the other hand, it may increase tensions between European countries that continue to act and feel like nation states, and between European nations and the rest of the world. This result may lead to the breakdown of the artificially built and structurally unstable European house. Not all inhabitants of this house are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about Europe, which may precipitate its downfall in time of crisis. This interview with Dr. Kai-Alexander Schlevogt, a leading German management expert, is one of the rare occasions on which Dr. Kohl has offered his view on the gigantic economic project and financial mega-experiment which will decisively influence Germany's and Europe's destiny in the 21st century and beyond.

New Citizens — New Voters? Political Preferences and Voting Intentions of Naturalized Germans: A Case Study in Progress

The third millennium witnesses the introduction of a new naturalization law in Germany. Passed by both chambers of parliament in May 1999, the law can be interpreted as a legislative change in Germany's national identity. From January 1, 2000 on, not only German ancestry but also birth on German soil will qualify for the acquisition of German citizenship. The change is remarkable, even though permanent residency of at least one parent is an additional precondition to acquire German citizenship and, in the case of dual citizenship, a final choice of one citizenship has to be made by the age of 23. The naturalization of foreigners also became easier: eight years of residency instead of the formerly required ten will enable a foreigner to become German. Still criticized by the left of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party, as well as by the opposition Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), these changes in naturalization law nevertheless are the most notable ones in twentieth century Germany.

Popularizing the Nation: Audience, Representation, and the Production of Identity in Die Gartenlaube 1853-1900

Popularizing the Nation examines the intersection of national identity and the popular press in nineteenth-century Germany. Central to Kirsten Belgum's study is the Gartenlaube, a magazine that first appeared in 1853 and became, by the 1870s, the most widely read magazine in Germany. In the midst of the magazine's varied fare was a host of writings that touched on the themes of the German nation and national identity. In countless articles on culture, politics, landscape, industry, history, and other topics, the Gartenlaube played an influential role in nineteenth-century Germany's larger effort to forge a national identity for itself. In fact, Belgum argues that the search for, and development of, national identity in Germany was inextricably linked to the writings of the Gartenlaube and other popular magazines. Such publications served both as a public repository of mythic memory for the nation and as a source of new national images for a self-consciously modern Germany. In its careful attention to the issue of national identity formation during a crucial period of German history, Popularizing the Nation is an important contribution to modern German intellectual, political, and publishing history. But the book has a larger significance as well. Belgum's examination of the Gartenlaube's often contradictory images of the German nation - tradition-bound and modernizing, liberal and fervently nationalistic, enlightened and sentimental - provides crucial insights into the complex problems and processes of constructing national identity. Popularizing the Nation is a revelatory account of modern nationalism and its close relationship to mainstream journalism. Kirsten Belgum is an associate professor of German studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Interior Meaning: Design of the Bourgeois Home in the Realist Novel.

Acculturation Attitudes of the Dutch and the Germans towards the European Union: The Importance of National and European Identification

The relationship between social identifications and attitudes towards collective acculturation is studied within the context of the European Union. Berry’s (1980) acculturation model is linked to the social identity theory and applied to the instance of European nations (here, the Netherlands and Germany) acculturating into the ‘superordinate-group’ Europe. Results show that the nation’s participation in the European Union is supported to a higher degree by respondents with high than with low European identification. The maintenance of national culture is more strongly preferred by respondents with high than with low national identification. A cross-national comparison indicates that this impact of social identification can be shown only for the Germans. This finding is discussed as resulting from a different construction of national identity in Germany and the Netherlands.