„Deutschland? aber wo liegt es?“ Aktuelle Versuche der Ortsbestimmung

Abstract

Goethe’s and Schiller’s classical demand consists of an obligation of the German people, that their only struggle should be for their cultural identity, and not their political identity. Because something like this would be detrimental for the vocation Germans have of the humanity in general. This demand is confronted with the “new german question”, that is still present since
the unification of the GDR and the FRG in 1990: Should Germany’s rising power inevitably towards the direction of a Supremacy, in order to subject other nations to serve Germany’s purposes or is Germany capable to develop as a Power in the Middle, in order to serve the general European project? In search of an answer to this question this discussion involves the respectable opinions of Brendan Simms, Ilias Thermos and Herfried Münkler and confronts with the present Identity consciousness of the German people.