Cultural nation

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The term cultural nation describes a conception that understands a nation as a community of people who feel connected to one another through language , traditions , culture and religion , i.e. through belonging to a culture. The national feeling of a cultural nation is based on a common culture. A cultural nation is conceptually in front of a state and is independent of state borders; it also exists without its own nation state . In the case of "delayed nations" can the concept of cultural nation togetherness given time of the founding preceded by a nation-state, as in the case of Germany and Italy in the 19th century.

Emphasis on the high culture existing in a state

Occasionally the term cultural nation is used to emphasize the view that a particular nation has produced a particularly valuable culture and that its members are specially educated. Supporters of this view, for example, find it particularly painful that the Buchenwald concentration camp is only a few kilometers away from the places where Goethe and Schiller worked in Weimar . On October 3, 2008 , Federal President Horst Köhler summed up the evaluative aspect of the term cultural nation with the words: “Lack of culture opens the door to barbarism ”.

Walter Benjamin contradicts the view that culture and barbarism are incompatible opposites : “It is never a document of culture without being one of barbarism at the same time. And just as it is not free from barbarism, neither is the process of tradition in which it fell from one to the other. "

In terms of a "nation-state with a highly developed culture" are countries like France civilized nations to which the defining element of the state borders ignore cultural nation does not apply.

A multitude of museums, theaters, opera houses, etc., which are scattered all over the country, exist especially in those states that came into being late (especially in Germany and Italy; see also polycentrism ). To this day, a country like Germany has benefited from the fact that its small-scale political structures within the larger framework of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and beyond that, up until the founding of the ( Little ) German Empire in 1871, resulted in competition for cultural institutions in the happier phases . The art collections of smaller and larger principalities and kingdoms form the core of a residential culture that the municipalities, the states and the federal government can still fall back on today.

The topos, often used in political disputes, is also to be understood in a judgmental sense : “This is unworthy of a cultural nation.” (Examples: comments on the death penalty in the United States , comments on the drastic cuts in the cultural budget in 2009 and 2010 in Italy or on the withdrawal of the World Heritage status for the Elbe Valley in Dresden .)

According to a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 5, 1974, Article 5, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law must be interpreted to the effect that it contains an “objective value decision for the freedom of art” in Germany. The constitutional norm "sets [...] the modern state, which sees itself as a cultural state in the sense of a state objective , at the same time the task of maintaining and promoting a free artistic life."

The term cultural nation in the German-speaking area of ​​the 19th and 20th centuries

The term became common at the end of the 19th century. It was used by proponents of a definition of the nation represented less by politics and military power than by cultural characteristics, such as the historian Friedrich Meinecke . Meinecke saw in the cultural commonalities in addition to common "cultural property" (e.g. the Weimar Classic ), above all, religious commonalities. There is still no talk of nationality with him. This gives the term German cultural nation an evaluative undertone, namely an undertone that enhances the Germans (cf. the topos of the Germans as the people of poets and thinkers ). In 2005, Wolfgang Thierse wrote about the time before the founding of the German Reich : “The German nation came into being when the German nation-state was historically a long way off. The Germans could not fall back on fixed borders if they wanted to develop a concept of themselves as a nation. What they had in common were language, traditions and national symbols , the memory of some great minds like Martin Luther or Johannes Gutenberg or the memory of the sunken Old Reich. "

The awareness of being a nation emerged in the 19th century . The educated bourgeoisie , later fraternities and gymnastics clubs , were the first to regard the people of German as their mother tongue as an intellectually highly developed nation and, in view of the fragmentation of the German-speaking area, which was known as Germany, in many small states understood the term nation as an oppositional political term . They wanted to be free Germans (abbreviation for the German-speaking people) and no longer subjects in small principalities of medieval character.

The ethnic element was not yet in the foreground among politicians: When fundamental rights were discussed in the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848 , it was determined:

“Everyone is a German who lives in German territory [...]. The nationality is no longer determined by the origin and the language, but simply determined by the body politic, by the State [...] the word that Germany 'is now on a political concept. "

The failed German revolution of 1848 saw Germany as a political nation, not as an ethnically founded community .

The German Empire , which was finally founded after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 , did not initially redefine the nation. The old citizenship law of its member states remained. The Prussian citizenship law of 1842 was not ethnic. It had to be based on the reality of the multi- ethnic state, as Prussia had divided Poland together with Russia and Austria at the end of the 18th century and therefore many ethnic Poles lived in Prussia. At that time, the inhabitants of a certain territory were still primarily viewed as subjects of the respective sovereign , ethnic affiliation was secondary. The Völkische Movement was the first to create the spiritual foundations that gave the concept of nation an ethnic meaning. After all, in a monarchical authoritarian state represented by the German Reich, a concept of nation and citizenship in the republican sense determined by democratic ideals could in any case not come into question. In 1913 the ius sanguinis , the right of descent, became the guiding principle in the legal determination of German citizenship . A ius soli (based on the US model, for example ) was rejected.

At the beginning of the First World War , the idea of ​​a cultural nation contributed to internal unity in the sense of the truce . It was intensified in the ideas of 1914 into an antagonism to France , which was assumed to have no culture, but only civilization . After 1918, recourse to the supposedly superior German culture helped to compensate for the misunderstood defeat.

The idea of a cultural nation on folkish basis was during the Nazi era spread by the Nazis firmly laid, who is from the " body of the people was to exclude". They identified the Jews as “pests in the German national body”, regardless of their services to the German cultural nation.

Thilo Ramm advocates the thesis that, in historical retrospect, the German cultural nation has not become a state nation . Geographically, this was opposed to the option of “ Little Germany ”, and until 1945 there was mostly a lack of freedom in Germany . After 1945, with the transfer of cultural sovereignty to the states, Germany was set back to the time before the founding of the Reich (1871) or the Weimar Republic .

During his tenure as Federal Chancellor, Willy Brandt took the view that there was a “cross-systemic German cultural nation” that could function as a “unifying bond” between the Federal Republic and the GDR . This view is confirmed by Article 35 of the Unification Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic:

“In the years of division , art and culture - despite the different development of the two states in Germany - formed the basis of the continuing unity of the German nation. You make an independent and indispensable contribution to the process of national unity among Germans on the way to European unification. The position and reputation of a united Germany in the world depend not only on its political weight and economic strength, but also on its importance as a cultural state. The primary goal of foreign cultural policy is cultural exchange based on partnership. "

- Article 35 (1) of the Unification Treaty

Gerd Langguth declared in 1996 that with the restoration of German unity in 1990 "the theoretical construct of a German cultural nation had been overcome".

The philosopher Wolfgang Welsch rated the term cultural nation as “dubious” in 2010 : “Once groups were welded together by blood community - now culture is supposed to take over this function. 'Kulturnation' is blood community soft. "

The historian Karl Ditt fundamentally criticizes the conception of traditional cultural research in Germany of the nature of "culture": "Culture" was understood to mean "essentially ' folkism '":

“A people or tribe was assigned a uniform 'being', which was mostly attributed to a 'harmony' of race, landscape and history. [...] The social differentiation of people and tribe [...] did not take place, however, since it would have called into question the conception of the unity of nationality. "

The historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler sees three disadvantages in the concept of the cultural nation: On the one hand, it was not possible to unite all members of German culture as a state: The claim to include Baltic Germans and Germans from Russia was therefore not raised. The concept was also quite suitable for ostensibly excluding foreigners (such as Prussian Poles , German Jews ) or social democrats , as happened in the German Empire , for example . Thirdly, the concept proved to be easily compatible with all political systems that had existed in Germany since the 18th century, whether monarchical like the Empire, democratic like the Weimar Republic, or dictatorial like the Nazi state .

The term in Germany today

The idea of ​​the cultural nation is taken up in the positive law of the Federal Republic of Germany . The concept of German ethnicity in Section 6 of the Federal Expellees Act is also defined in terms of culture: "A German national within the meaning of this law is anyone who has committed himself to the German nationality in his or her home country, provided that this belief is based on certain characteristics such as origin, language, upbringing, Culture is confirmed. ”This definition shows that the term German nationality in Article 116 of the Basic Law is also to be understood in the sense of the conception of a cultural nation .

In its basic program of September 28, 2007, the CSU is committed to the "German cultural nation":

“The CSU is committed to the German cultural nation. Its language, history, traditions and the Christian-occidental values ​​form the main German culture . Understanding our own cultural identity is a basic requirement, not least for dialogue with other cultures. "

The basic program of the CDU dated December 4, 2007 reads:

“Germany is a European cultural nation, shaped primarily by the Christian-Jewish tradition and the Enlightenment. Art and culture not only shape the identity of the individual, but also that of our entire nation. We want to preserve the rich cultural heritage of our country, which is shaped by the diversity of its countries and regions. "

In contrast to the basic program of the CSU, however, the CDU's program does not speak of a “leading German culture”, but rather a “leading culture in Germany”.

In an interview in 2008, Wolfgang Thierse emphasized that Germany had increasingly become a cultural nation thanks to the policies of the SPD .

The term is sharply criticized in historical studies. Christian Jansen describes it as ideological and criticizes the front position it implies against France and the widespread concept of a nation of will ( Ernest Renan ). Ultimately, this is based on the nationalist idea that German culture is superior to French civilization. The term is unsuitable as an analytical instrument, since very few processes of nation building can be grasped with the term cultural nation.

In 2005, the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policy (EIPCP) lamented the “mantra 'Kulturnation Deutschland'”. Under the red-green federal government (1998-2005) there was actually a “nationalization of cultural policy”: The innovations included the introduction of the office of Minister of State for Culture , the Study Commission on Culture in Germany and the transnational Federal Culture Foundation . The establishment of a Berlin “capital city culture” automatically degraded the federal states to the status of provinces . At the same time, the EIPCP criticizes the use of language in the 21st century: Actually, "cultural nation" is a term that is used for peoples who did not live in a common state, but who felt connected to one another through ancestry, language, culture and history. Hence, one could actually no longer apply this term to the Germany of the present.

In 2010, the state of Berlin received 434 million euros from the federal government as a federal grant for the expansion and maintenance of the infrastructure of the capital city culture. These subsidies lead to a sustained influx of prominent cultural workers and to a relocation of cultural institutions to Berlin.

literature

  • Georg Schmidt: Friedrich Meinecke's cultural nation. On the historical context of national ideas in Weimar-Jena around 1800 . In: Historische Zeitschrift 284, 2007, pp. 597–622.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leo Wieland: Catalonia - a cultural nation without a state . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 10, 2007
  2. ↑ http://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Bulletin/2008/10/103-1-bpr.html
  3. ↑ Walter Benjamin: About the concept of history , in: ders .: Illuminations. Selected writings . Frankfurt / Main 1974. Vol. 1, pp. 253 f.
  4. ↑ Kulturnation Frankreich , frankreichkontakte.de
  5. ↑ Julian Nida-Rümelin: Kulturnation - Humboldt never wanted that, Die Zeit , edition 10/2005.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Murmelter: Berlusconi's “Household Massacre ” - A cultural nation abdicates , in: Der Spiegel from August 7, 2008.
  7. ↑ Reinhold Jaretzky: Basta Cultura - Italy abolishes itself , aspekte (ZDF culture magazine) November 19, 2010
  8. ^ "A black day for Germany as a cultural nation". Unesco removes the Dresden Elbe Valley from the World Heritage List , Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 25, 2009.
  9. ↑ BVerfGE 36, 321 (331)
  10. ^ State education server Baden-Württemberg: cultural nation in Germany and Italy .
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Thierse: The culture nation - "Learn from Schiller?" . Deutschlandradio from April 3, 2005.
  12. ↑ Vito F. Gironda: Left Liberalism and National Citizenship in the Empire: A German Path to a Citizenship? In: Jörg Echternkamp and Oliver Müller: (Ed.): The politics of the nation. German nationalism in war and crises 1760 to 1960 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56652-0 , pp. 107–130, here pp. 109 ff. (Accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  13. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : Radical Nationalism and National Socialism . In: Jörg Echternkamp and Oliver Müller: (Ed.): The politics of the nation. German nationalism in war and crises 1760 to 1960 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56652-0 , pp. 203-218, here p. 211 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  14. ↑ Thilo Ramm: The Germans - One Nation? , in: From Politics and Contemporary History , issue 39/2004.
  15. ↑ Art. 35 para. 1 EV (Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the establishment of German unity)
  16. ^ Gerd Langguth: The Identity of the Germans ( Memento of December 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), lecture given on February 28, 1996 at the Sorbonne .
  17. ^ Christian Höppner: Transculturality - Interview with Wolfgang Welsch ( memento from February 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Musikforum 1/2010.
  18. ^ Karl Ditt: The Westphalia area in the historiography of the 20th century. , Internet portal of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe
  19. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: German history of society , Vol. 3: From the “German double revolution” to the beginning of the First World War 1845 / 49–1914 . CH Beck, Munich 1995, p. 951 f.
  20. ↑ Opportunities for everyone! Shaping the future together in freedom and responsibility. ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 341 kB) CSU's basic program of September 28, 2007, p. 144.
  21. ↑ Freedom and Security. Principles for Germany ( Memento of August 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 907 kB), basic program of the CDU of December 4, 2007, principle 125, p. 42.
  22. ↑ Freedom and Security. Principles for Germany ( Memento of August 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 907 kB), basic program of the CDU of December 4, 2007, principles 37 (p. 14) and 57 (p. 21).
  23. ^ Kai Doering: Wolfgang Thierse on federal cultural policy: More cultural nation than before  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), forward , September 30, 2008.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.vorwaerts.de
  24. ↑ Christian Jansen with Henning Borggräfe: Nation - Nationality - nationalism. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 13 f.
  25. ↑ Cornelia Sollfrank: The future of cultural production in the "cultural nation" Germany . 2005
  26. ↑ Philipp Oehmke / Martin Wolf: City of Illusions , in: Der Spiegel , issue 47/2010 of November 22, 2010, pp. 152–156.