National identity and historical politics of contemporary Germany

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to portray the German national identity in the context of the social and political changes taking place in Europe. The article outlines the discourse which rolled over Germany after the war, returned to the fore in the nineteen seventies, and was resumed once again after the country's unification. Although the intellectual and political circles are in the midst of the debate on whether and to what extent the contemporary Germany can refer to the national paradigm, in its daily practice the public domain pursues the historical policy aimed at reviving the national values in the public life. This historical policy involves the element of mythologising the past, particularly the creation of three historical myths: the myth of expulsion of the German population after the Second World War, the myth of colonel Stauffenberg as the hero of the Nazi opposition movement, and the myth of pulling down the Berlin wall as the symbol of victory over communism. Rooting those myths in the collective memory and their commemoration in the German Capital inject the new component of national pride into the national awareness of the German society and as such grow to become the integrating factor of the contemporary Germany, the country united but still deeply divided.