Berlin Republic

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Berlin Republic is sometimes named in the tradition of the terms Weimar Republic and Bonn Republic, the historical period after the unification of the German Democratic Republic with the Federal Republic of Germany . On June 20, 1991 the German Bundestag decided to move the core area of ​​government functions from Bonn to Berlin . The move was completed in the summer of 1999 and officially took effect on September 1, 1999.

Prehistory of the Berlin Republic

After National Socialism and World War II in 1949, the western part of the divided nation was constituted as a Federal Republic with the provisional federal capital Bonn, from which the name Bonn Republic was derived. A new capital was named because the western part of the former imperial capital Berlin, which was part of the Federal Republic, did not belong to the territory of the Soviet occupation zone , but was completely surrounded by this area, the later GDR .

Through the treaty on the final settlement with regard to Germany (so-called two-plus-four treaty ) between the two German states and the four victorious powers , a joint, sovereign German state was restored in 1990 when the GDR joined the Federal Republic. Berlin was designated the capital in Article 2 of the Unification Treaty , but the seat of government and parliament was left open until the decision in June 1991. The concept of the Berlin Republic denotes - with unclear temporal delimitation - the epoch of reunified Germany and tries to differentiate it from the history of the Bonn Republic .

Concept emergence

The term originated in the so-called “capital city debate” in 1990/91. It was introduced into the debate as an artificial word by the publicist Johannes Gross in the early 1990s . The previous capital and today's federal city of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn , was considered an apparently non-national capital because it had only been the capital of the Western Republic, whereas Berlin, which was divided into West and East, was the capital of the whole nation before the division .

In politics and in the media, according to the British social historian Joannah Caborn, this debate raised the question of the new national self-image: “The modest federalist FRG saw itself as the antipode of the nationalist , centralist Nazi state , while in the GDR socialism and internationalism as a pillar supporting the state should replace nationalism ”. “With the end of the division, two states were supposed to become one nation, without one being clear about what this nation should look like.” The shift towards a more self-confident relationship to the nation was also evident in the choice of the capital and the associated term of the Berlin Republic . The term Berlin Republic also stands for a debate about national understanding in the history of Germany (since 1990) .

The Berlin Republic in literature and in the feature pages

In November 1997 the Welt am Sonntag editors Heimo Schwilk and Ulrich Schacht presented their book "For a Berlin Republic" in the German Cathedral in Berlin . Jörg Schönbohm gave the laudation . This book presentation was critically discussed by the author Reinhard Borgmann on January 29, 1998 in the article "Fear of the Euro: The Right Spectrum Makes Mobile" of the ARD / RBB magazine Kontraste . Present at this book presentation, described by Borgmann as a meeting of members of the New Right , were among others the Bundeswehr site commander Hans Helmut Speidel , the controversial historian Ernst Nolte , the former Federal Building Minister Oscar Schneider and the extreme right-wing organizer of the so-called Tuesday talks Hans Ulrich Pieper ( formerly The Republicans , since 2011 NPD ). Then the right book presentation was discussed twice in the TAZ by Barbara Junge . First in a report about the book presentation and later in a portrait of the Berlin site commander Hans Helmut Speidel, quote: "I would rather not have been there."

Another example of the popularization of “expressing oneself positively about the nation” is the patriotic book Eckhard Fuhrs from 2005: Where we find ourselves - The Berlin Republic as Fatherland . The Welt -Feuilleton-Chef integrates u. a. Martin Walser in the discourse about the Berlin Republic and tries "the reconciliation of Martin Walser with Jürgen Habermas ". Martin Walser, who opposes a “negative” national discourse against the backdrop of reunification, sees himself in the tradition of German national poets like Thomas Mann . The debates about Walser, who warned of Auschwitz as a “ moral club ”, shows the close connection between the new national discourse in the Berlin republic and a move away from the claim to “remember the Nazi era and its crimes” (Caborn).

Jan-Holger Kirsch sees a “redefinition of 'national identity' in a united Germany” as typical for the “Berlin Republic”. In contrast to earlier, confessions to the nation and confessions to historical guilt are no longer perceived as contradictions. Dealing with the Nazi past therefore plays only a subordinate role in the dispute over the Berlin “Holocaust Memorial”. It is more about an identity politics in which Jewish commemoration and participation tend to be excluded despite ostentatious appropriation.

Features of the Berlin Republic

Compared to the period up to 1990, some previous political constants in the Federal Republic, which now comprises the united Germany , have changed, which is brought into connection in debates with the psychological demarcation from the Bonn Republic .

The scope of services of the welfare state was changed by concepts that were partially assessed as neoclassical ( Hartz concept , location policy , Agenda 2010 ). According to the prevailing opinion, problems of the welfare state arise from demography (principle of the intergenerational contract ) and from structural weaknesses in the labor market as the financial basis for social benefits. Other welfare state models such as the unconditional basic income are increasingly being discussed with regard to their usefulness and feasibility.

The executive organs of the federal government and internal security were reorganized ( Schily packages , anti-terror files , networking of police and secret service, federal police , homeland security concept , joint counter-terrorism center ). The security policy of the Federal Republic is shaped by the aspect of the fight against terrorism and for this purpose discusses the restriction of basic rights under special conditions . Discussion or planning regarding fundamental rights relate to the restriction of the right of asylum and to the simplification of communication surveillance . Planned measures by the executive were also rejected as unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court ( Aviation Security Act ).

The Federal Republic expanded its military and foreign policy role. The Bundeswehr takes or took part (sometimes with tough mandates ) in United Nations missions ( Somalia deployment , KFOR , SFOR , ISAF ). The Federal Republic took part in the Kosovo war without this mission being legitimized by a UN resolution. Together with France, the Federal Republic argued vehemently against the Iraq war in the Security Council . As a G4 state , the Federal Republic has or had ambitions for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council .

Topics of the Berlin Republic:

literature

  • Joannah Caborn: Creeping turnaround. Discourses of Nation and Memory in the Constitution of the Berlin Republic. 2006, ISBN 3-89771-739-5 .
  • Eckhard Fuhr : Where we can be found - The Berlin Republic as a fatherland. 2005, ISBN 3-8270-0569-8 .
  • Ursula Kreft, Hans Uske, Siegfried Jäger (eds.): Kassensturz. Political mortgages of the Berlin republic. ISBN 3-927388-66-1 .
  • Karl Kaiser (Ed.): On the future of German foreign policy, speeches on the foreign policy of the Berlin Republic. Europa Union Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-7713-0568-3 .
  • initiative not a love song (ed.): Subject (in) der Berliner Republik. Criminal Publishing House. ISBN 3-935843-31-3 .
  • Manfred Görtemaker : The Berlin Republic. Reunification and reorientation , be.bra, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89809-416-0 .
  • Michael Bienert, Stefan Creuzberger et al. (Ed.): The Berlin Republic. Contributions to contemporary German history since 1990 . be.bra Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-95410-101-6 .
  • Schäfer, Christian 2013: “Raumschiff Berlin” - is the metaphor correct? A meta-analysis of current empirical research on the self-image, the working methods and the reporting of political journalists in the 'Berlin Republic' . In: Bravo Roger, Franziska / Henn, Philipp / Tuppack, Diana (eds.): The media must stay outside! Where are the limits of political transparency? Contributions to the 8th symposium of the DFPK (Düsseldorfer Forum Politische Kommunikation, Vol. 3; ISSN  2191-8791 ), Berlin: Frank & Timme, pp. 197-216.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BGBl. I 1999, p. 1725
  2. ↑ Michael Weigl, Lars C. Colschen: Politics and History . In: Karl-Rudolf Korte, Werner Weidenfeld (Ed.): Germany Trend Book. Facts and Orientations . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2001, ISBN 3-8100-3212-3 , p. 71 ( online )
  3. ↑ Joannah Caborn (2006): Creeping turning point. Discourses of Nation and Memory in the Constitution of the Berlin Republic. P. 10
  4. ↑ a b Joannah Caborn (2006): Creeping turning point. Discourses of Nation and Memory in the Constitution of the Berlin Republic. P. 8.
  5. ↑ Contrasts - Fear of the Euro: The Right Spectrum Makes You Mobile , ARD / RBB January 29, 1998
  6. ↑ Ex-Senator Lummer meets right-wing populist Jörg Haider , by Karsten Hintzmann Berliner Morgenpost March 20, 2003
  7. ^ A laudation for the right scribe TAZ February 5, 1998
  8. ^ The highest soldier of the city of TAZ March 16, 1998
  9. ↑ Not a beautiful country at this time. Eckhard Fuhr: “Where we can find each other”. In: Die Zeit , No. 10/2005.
  10. ↑ Klaus Harpprecht : Who does Martin Walser mean? , in: Die Zeit , No. 43/1998.
  11. ↑ Jan-Holger Kirsch: National Myth or Historical Mourning? The dispute over a central “Holocaust memorial” for the Berlin Republic , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-412-14002-3 , p. 125 (cf. review by Nina Leonhard , Social Science Institute of the Bundeswehr , Strausberg ).
  12. ↑ Hans-Ernst Mittig : Against the Holocaust Memorial of the Berlin Republic . Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-87956-302-0 .
  13. ↑ Jan-Holger Kirsch: National Myth or Historical Mourning? The dispute over a central “Holocaust memorial” for the Berlin Republic , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-412-14002-3 , SS 317.
  14. ↑ Jan-Holger Kirsch: National Myth or Historical Mourning? The dispute over a central “Holocaust memorial” for the Berlin Republic , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-412-14002-3 , SS 319.