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HISTORICAL AWARENESS AND POST-TRADITIONAL IDENTITY. PRO-WESTERN ORIENTATION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
Jürgen Habermas
; professor emeritus Universität Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt/Main, Deutschland
Abstract
The author deals with the issue of the pro-western orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany. The issue can be reduced to the question whether the prowestern orientation is opportunism or a genuine break with the German political consciousness? By way of introduction, he uses the debate among historians about Germany’s national self-understanding. He focuses on the assumptions of the conservative party, that the pro-western orientation should be based on a renewed national self-assertion and its continuity from the 1930s and the 1940s. The author, however, is of the opinion that historicism and nationalism should not be used as a type of national/historical identity formation. He corroborates this with the example of the failed antitotalitarian consensus from the 1950s which relied on the discrete attitude to the German history. In order to define the conditions for the new consensus, he turns to Kierkegaard and his concept of personal identity, since it is more appropriate for the post-traditional world. This concept may be complemented by the constitutional patriotism based on the differentiation between the culture and the state politics and not by the nationalism of the nationstate. In line with Kierkegaard’s “either-or” in the public process, the author thinks that the decision should be made as to which of the traditions is to be sustained and be prepared to cope with the political and cultural consequences.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
24929
URI
Publication date:
4.6.2001.
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