Merkur
Eurozine
Merkur
2006-09-11
Summary for Merkur 9-10 2006
Fifteen years ago it was just a word -- a hope, a bugbear -- but the Berlin Republic has finally taken form now, like it or not. The new republic differs from that in Bonn in three distinct ways. Through reunification, Germany became a larger, and sovereign state; Germany can no longer duck away from the storm of globalization or retreat into the provincial niches with the moral pretense of "learning from history"; and finally, Germany has a true capital.
How are these differences manifested, what do they look like, how do they feel? A first attempt to answer these questions studies the state's aesthetics: the representative architecture, the semi-official understanding of art, the culture of memorials, and naturally how the nation expresses itself through the people's demeanor. It's called patriotism, and with their new association with their national symbol, Germans surprised many a public pedagogue.
A second look includes the political and social problems: the foreign policy of a "self-confident middle power," the return of a class society, the changes of our parties between leftist conservatism and greenness, the new financial, political, and journalistic establishments.
The third attempt touches upon the Berlin Republic with a perspective on its representations in media and culture: newspapers and television, Berlin style and club culture, and let's not forget the metropolis and its myths, of which spurners of Berlin love above all the dog droppings in which everyone inevitably steps strolling through the capital while dreaming of a "new Germany."