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CONSTITUTION AS HOMELAND. ON THE GERMAN SUPPRESSION OF THE STATE
Josef Isensee
; Universität Bonn, Bonn, Deutschland
Abstract
The author argues that the word homeland disappeared from the political language and that it has been replaced by the unpolitical word: identity. This raises a question: what is identity to a German if the state cannot provide it? The consequence of Hitler’s legacy is that the tradition is troublesome so that the identity is now linked with the constitution. The author looks into the idiosyncrasies of the German constitutional/legal system by which the old state thinking has been replaced with the “constitutional thinking”. In this way patriotism becomes “constitutional patriotism”, and the constitution becomes the homeland. The consensus about the constitution – the result of the general acceptance of antitotalitarianism – was challenged by students in 1968, when this antitotalitarianism was replaced by antifascism. At the same time, however, an entire political culture of disobedience against institutions evolved, and declared the constitution the “system’s life’s lie”. The system took a long time to recover, but it rehabilitated the state authority within a constitutional state. Nevertheless, this has not restored the individuality of German statehood i.e. the state does not become the homeland. Although the author is aware that this idea is outmoded, he nevertheless points out that the consensual base would be broader if Germans were allowed to be what they are by their history and their position, and not only what they should be according to the constitution.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
24932
URI
Publication date:
4.6.2001.
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