The politics of identity in Germany: the Leitkultur debate

Abstract

‘Germany is not a country of immigration’ is a fiction of national homogeneity that came under increased pressure with the advent, in 1998, of a centre-left government. New laws for immigration, integration and citizenship were to be introduced, eradicating the concept of Volk tied together by ius sanguinis. But the opposition Christian Democratic Union made an electoral issue of ‘Ausländerpolitik’, 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.