Hineingestreut ins uberflutete Mutterland Contingency, Integration, and Identity in Southeast German Postwar Discourse

Kuehrer-Wielach, Florian (2022): Hineingestreut ins uberflutete Mutterland Contingency, Integration, and Identity in Southeast German Postwar Discourse. In: Transylvanian Review, Bd. 31, Nr. SUPPL 2: S. 91-107

Abstract

This study analyzes a specifically Southeast German as well as postmigrant arrival situation representative of postwar discourse in the early Federal Republic, as it emerged around the Sudostdeutsche Kulturwerk and the Sudostdeutsche Heimatblatter. The aim was to uncover, based on sources, the discourse strategies with which ethnopolitical entrepreneurs attempted to answer existential questions of collective reorientation: Who are we? Who do we want to be? What can we do? To this end, first, the most important aspects of the historical context were described: the historical premises, the various pragmatic levels of identification, and the factors of transformation, especially that of collective liminality. The Southeast Germans found themselves in a state of uncertainty which, on the one hand, made a return to the Heimat seem unrealistic, but, on the other hand, triggered the fear that integration into West German society would, in the long run, be associated with a loss of identity through complete assimilation. Second, a concrete field of discourse was defined, ranging between the cornerstones of contingency management, integration efforts, and identity actualization. Third, the central topoi were identified and bundled and analyzed into five clusters of collective personality characteristics (types): defenders of the Occident, civilizers of the Southeast, victims of history, preservers of Germaneness, and experts in coexistence.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften > Department 1
• Themengebiete: 400 Sprache > 400 Sprache
• ISSN: 1221-1249
• Sprache: Englisch