Representations Of German Identity

This volume examines the multi-faceted nature of German identity through the lens of myriad forms of visual representation from the Middle Ages to the present. A broad spectrum of visual culture is considered - from painting to sculpture, advertising to architecture, film to installation art - to offer new insights into the 'German Question'.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 2.0, University of Southampton (School of Humanities), course: Language, Discourse and Identity, language: English, abstract: Frank Beyer's Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones) is a controversial 1966 film production released in East Germany that had long been anticipated by Party officials, film artists and the general public. Not only was it the most expensive DEFA- production of the day, but its story had caused debate within the studio in the months leading up to its short-lived release. Beyer's work presents multiple perspectives on a construction site crisis and thereby openly questions the possibility of "communion between individual destiny and collective destiny predicated by socialism's utopian goals."

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 2.0, University of Southampton (School of Humanities), course: Language, Discourse and Identity, language: English, abstract: Frank Beyer’s Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones) is a controversial 1966 film production released in East Germany that had long been anticipated by Party officials, film artists and the general public. Not only was it the most expensive DEFA- production of the day, but its story had caused debate within the studio in the months leading up to its short-lived release. Beyer’s work presents multiple perspectives on a construction site crisis and thereby openly questions the possibility of “communion between individual destiny and collective destiny predicated by socialism’s utopian goals.”

Modern Germany, with its ruptures from late unification in 1871 through to the formation of two opposing German states, provides a case study for an analysis of the issue of representations of identity in Germany since the war.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A study probing the ambiguities of German nationhood. Berman takes a theoretical perspective of cultural studies, exploring such themes as: the constitution of nationhood; what holds a citizenry together; and history's role in providing a framework for current identities and institutions.

Kuhlke (geography, U. of Minnesota-Duluth) focuses his teaching on the socio-spatial construction of nationalism. Here he explores the German preoccupation with finding a new national identity for themselves, which began in the early 1990s, emphasizing the impact of the reassignment of Berlin as capital and seat of government for the reunified Germany in 1991. Among his topics are expanding the boundaries of methodologies in search of the nation, the Love Parade on Berlin's historical and contemporary map, body politics and the incorporation of Germany, the aesthetics of raving and the discursive construction of German national identity, finding a place for the memorial for murdered Jews of Europe, and disembodied memory and the construction of national identity. Annotation :2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

During his political career, Helmut Kohl used his own life story to promote a normalization of German nationalism and to overcome the stigma of the Nazi period. In the context of the cold war and the memory of the fascist past, he was able to exploit the combination of his religious, generational, regional, and educational (he has a PhD in History) experiences by connecting nationalist ideas to particular biographical narratives. Kohl presented himself as the embodiment of “normality”: a de-radicalized German nationalism which was intended to eclipse any anti-Western and post-national peculiarities. This book takes a biographical approach to the study of nationalism by examining its manifestation in Helmut Kohl and the way he historicized Germany’s past.