Interdisciplinary views of the debates over and transformation of German cultural identity since unification. The events of 1989 and German unification were seismic historical moments. Although 1989 appeared to signify a healing of the war-torn history of the twentieth century, unification posed the question of German cultural identity afresh. Politicians, historians, writers, filmmakers, architects, and the wider public engaged in "memory contests" over such questions as the legitimacy of alternative biographies, West German hegemony, and the normalization of German history. This dynamic, contested, and still ongoing transformation of German cultural identity is the topic of this volume of new essays by scholars from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Ireland. It exploresGerman cultural identity by way of a range of disciplines including history, film studies, architectural history, literary criticism, memory studies, and anthropology, avoiding a homogenized interpretation. Charting the complex and often contradictory processes of cultural identity formation, the volume reveals the varied responses that continue to accompany the project of unification. Contributors: Pertti Ahonen, Aleida Assmann, Elizabeth Boa, Peter Fritzsche, Anne Fuchs, Deniz Göktürk, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Anja K. Johannsen, Jennifer A. Jordan, Jürgen Paul, Linda Shortt, Andrew J. Webber. Anne Fuchs is Professor of German Literature at the University of St.Andrews, Scotland. Kathleen James-Chakraborty is Professor of Art History at University College Dublin, Ireland. Linda Shortt is Lecturer in German at Bangor University, Wales.

Building on a long tradition in German-language literature and culture, this volume focuses on contemporary engagements with ethical concerns in literary texts, essays, and films. There has been an "ethical turn" in the literature, culture, and theory of recent years. Questions of morality are urgent at a time of increasing global insecurities. Yet it is becoming ever more difficult to make ethical judgments in multicultural, relativist societies. The European economic meltdown has raised further ethical difficulties, widening the gap between rich and poor. Such divisions and difficulties heighten the widespread fear of "the other"in its various manifestations. And in the German context especially, the past and its representation offer ongoing moral challenges. These ethical concerns have found their way into recent German-language literature andculture in texts that deal with history and memory (Timm, Petzold, Schoch, Strubel); materiality (Krauß, Overath); gender (Berg, Schneider); age and generation (Moster, Pehnt, Schalansky); religion, especially Islam (Senocak, Kermani, Ruete); and nomadism (Tawada). The relationship between self and other; the connection between particular and general; the personal and political consequences of individuals' actions; and the potential, and danger, of representation itself are issues that are vital to the shaping of our future ethical landscapes, as this volume demonstrates. Contributors: Monika Albrecht, Angelika Baier, David N. Coury, Anna Ertel & Tilmann Köppe, Emily Jeremiah, Alasdair King, Frauke Matthes, Aine McMurtry, Gillian Pye, Kate Roy. Emily Jeremiah is Senior Lecturer in German at Royal Holloway, University of London. Frauke Matthes is Lecturer in German at the University ofEdinburgh.

“This book brings fresh light to previously marginalized subject in German history. It is an original approach, up-to-date written without scholarly jargon, easily accessible to students, both at undergraduate and graduate. It is highly focused departing from the usual “histories” of a single country arguing for the “two German states”, and the three political systems.”- Prof. Dr. László Kürti, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Miskolc, Hungary This book contrasts three very different incarnations of Germany – the totalitarian Third Reich, the communist German Democratic Republic, and the democratic Federal Republic of Germany up to 1990 – in terms of their experiences with and responses to nonconformity, dissent, opposition, and resistance and the role played by those factors in each case. Although even innocent nonconformity came with a price in all three systems and in the post-war occupation zones, the price was the highest in Nazi Germany. . It is worth stressing that what qualifies as nonconformity and dissent depends on the social and political context and, thus, changes over time. Like those in active dissent, opposition, or resistance, nonconformists are rebels (whether they are conscious of it or not), and have repeatedly played a role in pushing for change, whether through reform of legislation, transformation of the public’s attitudes, or even regime change.

Race in the Shadow of Law offers a critical legal analysis of European responses to institutional racism. It draws connections between contemporary legal knowledge practices and colonial systems of thought, arguing that many people of colour experience the law as a part of a racial problem, rather than a solution, to racial injustice. Based on a critical legal ethnography of anti-racism work in Europe, and with an emphasis on the German context, the book positions Black and anti-racist perspectives at the centre, rather than the margins, of critically thinking through the intersection of race and law. Combining this ethnography with comparative legal analysis, discourse analysis and critical race theory, the book develops a critical discussion of the European legal frameworks aimed at regulating racism, and particularly institutional racism, in policy and policing. In linking this critique to the transformative potential of social movements, however, it goes on to examine the strategic and creative possibility of disrupting conventional modes of engaging, and resisting, law.

This book investigates screen representations of 21st century nationalism—arguably the most urgent and apparent phenomenon in the Western world today. The chapters explore recurrent thematic and stylistic features of 21st century western European cinema, and analyse the ways in which film responds to contemporary developments of mounting tensions and increasing hostilities to difference. The collection blends incisive sociological and historical engagement with close textual analysis of many types of screen media, including popular cinema, art-house productions, low-budget independent work, documentary and video installation. Identifying motifs of nationhood and indigeneity throughout, the contributors of this volume present important perspectives and a timely cultural response to the contemporary moment of nationalism.

In The City as Subject, Carolyn S. Loeb examines distinctive bodies of public art in Berlin: legal and illegal murals painted in West Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s, post-reunification public sculptures, and images and sites from the street art scene. Her careful analyses show how these developed new architectural and spatial vocabularies that drew on the city's infrastructure and daily urban experience. These works challenged mainstream urban development practices and engaged with citizen activism and with a wider civic discourse about what a city can be. Loeb extends this urban focus to her examination of the extensive outdoor installation of the Berlin Wall Memorial and its mandate to represent the history of the city's division. She studies its surrounding neighborhoods to show that, while the Memorial adopts many of the urban-oriented vocabularies established by the earlier works of public art she examines, it truncates the story of urban division, which stretches beyond the Wall's existence. Loeb suggests that, by embracing more multi-vocal perspectives, the Memorial could encourage the kind of participatory and heterogeneous construction of the city championed by the earlier works of public art.

The Routledge Handbook of German Politics and Culture offers a wide-ranging and authoritative account of Germany in the 21st century. It gathers the expertise of internationally leading scholars of German culture, politics, and society to explore and explain historical pathways to contemporary Germany the current ‘Berlin Republic’ society and diversity Germany and Europe Germany and the world. This is an essential resource for students, researchers, and all those looking to understand contemporary German politics and culture.