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...together by ius sanguinis. But the opposition Christian Democratic Union made an electoral issue of 'Auslanderpolitik', especially integration, accusing the government of jeopardising 'German cultural identity'. What ensued was the Leitkulturdebatte, about Germany's predominant culture, characterised by the notion of the 'clash of civilisations' and the incompatibility of 'different' cultures. This not only replaced racial belonging with cultural belonging, transforming the ius sanguinis into an equally essentialist ius cultus, it also formed part of a conservative attempt to re-establish a 'normal' German national consciousness, cleared of the memory of the Holocaust.
Keywords: clash of civilisations, culture of remembrance, identity politics, immigration, integration, multiculturalism, nationalism, normalisation
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'Germany is not a country of immigration'--this widely held but brittle fiction of national homogeneity came under increasing fire when the centre-left government of the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party came to power in 1998. The government planned to introduce new laws for immigration, integration and citizenship that would eradicate the concept of a Volk tied together by ius sanguinis or blood descent. Hence, in July 2000, the government set up the Sussmuth Commission (named after its chairwoman), which aimed to draw up 'modern' laws for immigration and integration. The commission was expected to shatter the myth of a homogenous Germany and propose an almost radical shift in immigration policies on the grounds that immigrants are no longer simply guest workers, but have become an integral part of German society and so should be allowed to participate more fully in it, both socially and politically. In reaction to the Sussmuth Commission, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) set up its own immigration commission in an attempt to gain the upper hand in the struggle over the definition of German identity and the discourse on immigration and the assimilation/integration of immigrants.
Then, in October 2000, the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Friedrich Merz, announced that 'Auslanderpolitik' (policy on foreigners), especially in respect of integration, would be a major issue in the forthcoming elections. Given that the 1999 regional elections in Hesse had been won by the conservatives, thanks to their campaign against federal government attempts to introduce dual citizenship, this seemed to be a winning formula for mobilising voters in the CDU's favour--at a time, too, when it was struggling with financial scandals. Playing the nationalist card, the CDU and its Bavarian sibling CSU (Christian Social Union) openly questioned whether the ruling SPD was fit to run the country, accusing it of jeopardising 'German cultural identity' by defining the requirements for immigration too loosely.
What followed became known as the Leitkulturdebatte--a debate about Germany's predominant or guiding culture. On the surface, this was just a debate about Kultur, but it had a number of deeper aspects:
* The Leitkultur's concept of culture was forged on the belief that different, sequestered cultures should remain separate in order to retain their identities and avoid otherwise inevitable cultural conflicts. The notion of 'race' was replaced by that of culture, as cultural belonging was essentialised. Culture, as a vague and broadly interpretable changing cluster of meanings, was able to perform the same exclusionary function as race. This ideology was central to the agenda of the New Right and its neo-racist discourse, a discourse mat also contains elements of and works similarly to, anti-Semitism. (1)
* The Leitkultur debate is part of an international phenomenon, which can broadly be described as the 'culturalisation of politics'. (2) Since the end of the Cold War, cultural identity/difference have become key terms for explaining and rationalising both international and national conflicts. Samuel P. Huntington's 'clash of civilisations' is supposedly taking place domestically through the 'importing' of different cultures via immigration. (3)
* The Leitkultur debate was meant to reconstruct the national state's authority by drawing new boundary lines between nationals and immigrants. No longer was the obsolete ius sanguinis--that is, national identity based on German descent--to be used to define who was part of the national body; rather, what I term ius cultus was to mark this boundary.
* In my view, the Leitkultur debate contributed to the discourse of 'normalisation' that began to take root in the early 1980s. Conservative forces, by attacking the 'culture of remembrance' (Erinnerungskultur), aimed to re-establish a 'normal' German national consciousness. They tried to achieve this either by historicising the Holocaust and so treating it as a closed chapter of German history (Schlussstrichdebatte) or by challenging the postwar consensus over the uniqueness and unprecedented nature of the Holocaust (Historikerstreit). The debate on German Leitkultur sought to re-establish national identity and consciousness within a European context--within, that is, the safe realm of a 'European identity' formed by enlightenment and modernity.
Following these hypotheses, it is possible to discern several continuities with the past. First, the belief in the essentialist nature of what it means to belong to the German Volk, held by the CDU/CSU, remains unchanged. Second, underlying the debate is a neo-racism that is akin to anti-Semitism. Third, there is the concept of 'normalising' German history....
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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