Situating a German Self in Democratic Community

In times of political or social crisis, issues of identity and affiliationtend to become more salient. In response to the threatened or actualdisruption of the routines of material provision, social order, andideological legitimation, definitions of self and community that hadformerly been considered authoritative come under more frequentand more extensive questioning. Responses to this condition ofuncertainty and doubt about identity and affiliation are typicallyforthcoming from many different quarters: party politicians, leadersof social movements, public intellectuals, religious authorities. Suchresponses can also be quite varied as was the case, for example, inthe aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Only months after theevent and with major questions about the future of the two Germaniesin the air, Jürgen Habermas surveyed the various possible sources of German identity that were on offer at that time-economic prestige("DM nationalism"), cultural inheritance, linguistic unity, ethnicdescent, historical fate, aesthetic experience, and constitutional patriotism-and found all but the last seriously wanting.3 In any givenepisode of crisis and questioning, most responses will ultimatelyhave little or no effect; the eventual reestablishment of the routinesof provision, order, and legitimation usually means that one oranother set of definitions of self and community has won out andbecome authoritative for a critical mass of citizens

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