Germany’s Real Political Divide Is Generational

Is is possible for someone to become German the way someone can become American? How many countries in the "Old World", especially Europe, are based on civic nationalism as opposed to heritage, blood and soil? Most of those countries aren't nations which were built by immigration. Compared to the US and most places in the New World they aren't very diverse at all. And most of them don't appear to want to change that. "In a place with no dominant ethnic group, an emphasis on cultural homogeneity is not just unrealistic — it’s harmful." But Germany DOES have a dominant ethnic group- Germans. Not Turks or Armenians or Senegalese but Germans. It's not immediately obvious as to why changing this is a moral imperative.

I found the tone of this article to be mildly offensive. I have a son who has lived 13 years in Germany with his German girlfriend. I have met many of their young friends over my many past visits there. These young people (in Dresden) are as you say, moving beyond the old image of Germany's Nazi past. They are engaged, optimistic, and taking full advantage of all the new opportunities available to them after reunification and the realization of true democracy and exceptional prosperity post WWII. They travel widely , appreciate diversity ( in fact enjoy it), and are active in the counter demonstrations to populist movements. That said, they also appreciate the extraordinary hard work their parents and their leaders have done and the sacrifices they have made to make the world they now enjoy possible. It was no small feat for the boomer generation to stand up in the late 1960's and ask ' What happened in the Nazi time and what did you do?'. This precipitated the only time in history that a country has openly and actively come to terms with a criminal past and writ it large in it's memorials and education to warn others and remind themselves of what is possible when fascism reigns. The boomer generation and all the chancellors since WWII, including Angela Merkel should be deeply honored for making this extraordinary journey from Fascism to democracy and prosperity possible, and showing the world what integrity and honor looks like.

This is an excellent article. The thing is young people were raised in a more globalized world & we see it as a means for our species to progress. Globalization is gradually erasing national borders which scares the likes of Russia, China, India & Islamic extremists alike. collectivist ideologies such as nationalism & religious rule are increasingly seen as outdated & unnecessary which is a good thing, to be honest. Other than that, I don't really get all of the hand wringing about the "threat" of Muslim migrants living in Europe. While I have an issue with housing & integration policies (which is the number one problem for this, not that they come to Europe not wanting to integrate & expected free handouts), we should not demonize or dehumanize them & paint them as an invading army. There are ethnic Russian clusters living in Germany & the Baltics that don't want to speak the local language & are stuck in the Soviet era in wanting to impose Russian culture upon the rest of the population. They listen to Russian propaganda & Russia backs parties that are contrary to western values (human rights, tolerance, openness & social liberalism) which many of these same people defend & vote for. But, Russia is given a free pass because they're white, christian & economically far left conservatives. But. none of them seem that concerned about this. B.t.W, these are the exact same people who don't want to adopt the the values that western society as adopted over the past 20 years.

This article is strange kind of "You-kids-get-off-my-lawn!" type of shouting, only in reverse. Marinic is right of course about the lack of diversity at the top, and the recent rise of the Greens is encouraging. But like a couple of other commentators, I just don't recognize a lot of his claims. The boomer generation is certainly sceptical of nationalism - that's a GOOD thing, isn't it? None of the German boomers I know, however, are anything close to marinating in sentiments that "We're not cool! We're tragic!" They ARE worried that the young generation may forget...and in parts of the ehemalige DDR they are forgetting! That IS more a cause for concern than some generational divide.

Don’t generational conflicts eventually fade away to be replaced by new players? Nobody has ever figured how to live forever. We boomers are on our last hurrah. People, as they age, just get tired of grinding away at issues that will never go away. Younger hands take over. If it is a generational split, it may be mostly over with only leaders at the very top remaining boomers.

1. There have always been generational breaks. The area Merkel is coming to an inevitable end in the foreseeable future (she announced her retirement), and the baby boomers are on the fence of retirement as well because, yes, they are humans and get older. 2. German Angst is a verbalisation that has to be mentioned at all costs when Germany is on the table. 3. When a country finally understands that it has become a de-facto immigration country it admits that its problematic population pyramid can only be neutralised by immigration and hence, what wonder, immigrants and new cultures want to be integrated. That does, indeed, create some friction. As a side note, it may be of interest that Germany had a GDP growth of over 5% in 2017. Perhaps Merkel and her ageing peers understood the zeitgeist and got a lot right, although they are an Angst-baby-boomer-German-dinosaur-elite. Or because there always have been young people in Germany and old people, open minds, less open minds, worries and hopes and the whole premise of the article is, well, no news.

An important counter example to the claim that "the older generations, reared on consensus, are not used to open public debate" is that Germany's leading philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, has been a comprehensive voice for open society for over 50 years. Germany prides itself on being the culture of philosophers. Habermas, now 89 and still vocal, deserves to be hallmarked in the era of EU pessimism as a voice of detailed optimism for the future of the EU. More than that, Habermas has been a brilliant intellectual bridge over the Atlantic in terms of the best of American thought and the best of European thought. Let's bring philosophy back into its rightful place as a venue of enlightened hope.

The elites keep "telling" everyone else how to think and that the new immigrants will become like other Germans. They won't. They will not have a German culture or a German identity. Makes sense though because they aren't Germans and didn't grow up in Germany. So why did the elites, who will never have to deal with the consequences let all of the foreigners into Germany? There's still no good answer. And if the answer from the elites is for Germans to accept people who will never be German or even act German culturally, the elites themselves will soon be gone. As Merkel is finding out.

Lazy reporting. Sure Frankfurt is diverse, its an international city peppered with international corporations. Don't confuse its diversity with a lack of integration however. I'm not sure if allowing immigrants to live in their own cultural bubble is doing them any favours. I believe what they want is to participate in society and for that you need to know the language and have an understanding of the cultural rules of the road. I haven't heard the moans, perhaps it is Ms. Marinic who feels uncool. Just look around and you'll see plenty of skinny jeans, tattoos and beards. Tragic is the few people still pairing checks and stripes. I joined one of these demonstrations against hatred and most participants were over 40, including my 74 year old mother-in-law. I think Ms. Marinic does the older population a disservice when she implies that they are the catalysts of the anti-immigrant movement. These are the people most wary of extremism because they know first hand what it can lead to. finally I would like to point out that young people are not being politically oppressed. They can vote at 18, its a pretty simple path to power.

We are living in a postnational era, when a nation is not defined by it's border, or people, or even culture, but by it's political concept and civic activism. We should realize and embrace, that people look at our nation as a blueprint for their own national identity, and try to incorporate this with their own culture. After all this is what we wanted all the years - integration, spreading of the free world. But now, after the end of the cold war, in a world in turmoil, the political pundits are chickenhearted. We could and should imprint the world, the odds never had been more promising. And our competitors like china, russia or fundamental islamists, or just corrupt autocrats, are busy expanding their dominion and are securing their part of the bounty. The older generation is so absorbed in their national borders or in defying it, that they rather entrench our identity than simply to engage. And many young people and also many migrants, that had come to germany, are promoting the idea of a germany more nimble-footed. And seeing the outcome of the midterms, i think there is something similar happening in the US. This engagement, and especially this engagement among recent migrants. This is a pure sound patriotism. This is what the US needs, this is what germany needs. And this is something the old, white, male brigade does not get. Their antagonism is not the answer of the world of the younger generation, and that's why we defy them.

"angst" ? "pessimism" ? How about Denial? When Shirer's Rise and Fall came out in 58 there was national criticism for bringing up the 3rd reich....German scholars had 13 years post war to discuss it, but could not face up to the holocaust. Denial.

This article reminded me of a saying by a famous Mexican writer, Jorge Ibargüengoitia: "The Spaniards not only conquered us, they left us unrecognizable".

The article is misleading. Merkel listened to Obama and now she ruined her country taking too may refugees. Its on her and Obama.

While it is more possible to discern distinct policy choices in a genuine muli-party state like Deutschland than in a two party state (ie the US), it is still not entirely clear that the recent surge in "Green" votes is entirely, mostly or partly related to desires for 'diversity'...or that this is entirely a generational event. I wish the Press would stop 'telling' us what is going on and invite us to share key data and information: where is the demographic voting data? Where is the 'Issues'/polling information in this article? Let us read the data and interpret. Could it be that the Green vote correlates to the surge in awareness that Global Warming is already upon us and represents a serious, potentially catastrophic threat to the welfare and quality of life of their children and grandchildren? This is, after all, the signature Green Party Issue. On Planet Earth, things are not what they once were: the 'Wild West' days are over, the barbed wire is up and there is smoke on the horizon. Perhaps THAT is what is happening in Germany? Partly? Mostly? Entirely? Please...give us the "information" and help us evaluate it...stop "telling" us what is going on. Still...always nice to read foreign affairs from foreign perspectives :)

A nation that has only existed since 1871 certainly has a strong sense of identity and a powerful, often controversial self-awareness. A beautiful East Prussian paramour from 35 years ago echoes in my mind telling me about how Germans wanted only to keep the seed of their soldiers pure, as well as making other unsettling comments about human breeding that were clearly the result of a father and a grandfather who were Waffen SS and having been exposed to a Nazi curriculum. These false tendencies of ethnocentrism are emerging again in the face of an onslaught of people ostensibly displaced from Syria and elsewhere by civil war but who are probably refugees of a strictly economic variety. Recent outbursts in Chemnitz indicate that the former East Germany is a hotbed of neo-Nazi sentiments that will not soon disappear.

From a practical perspective, there is a need for a national language. I love being part of a multicultural community, and English was not my first language. My family learned English, maintained some of our cultural traditions, but also adopted distinctly American traditions, like celebrating Thanksgiving. We can all go home and speak our native tongues, but we need a shared language to be able to communicate. A study was recently done in Boston which showed that commuters held more negative opinions of immigrants after they were exposed to undercover actors speaking Spanish on a train platform. What a flawed study that was. How about having 3 groups of actors: one white and English speaking, one brown/black and English speaking and the third brown/black speaking a foreign language. My suspicions are that views of immigrants would be more favorable if the actors of both white and non-white heritage spoke English. Immigrants should be provided with free or heavily subsidized English courses upon arrival. It would help on so many levels...

Great article; it gives me hope for a better future. Thank you.

The "generational divide" is really a truism for virtually all societies. It is probably somewhat more pronounced in Germany because of the concerted effort, after WW II, to make the first few post war generations very aware of the disasters of the Nazi era and thus, hopefully, avoid a repeat. I was born in Germany in 1943 and I vividly remember the curriculum in the last year of "Gymnasium" focusing on documentary evidence, in the form of documentary films made by the Nazis themselves, of the horrors of that regime. This left a lasting impression! Younger generations, and even older people from the former East Germany, never experience that degree of reckoning with German history. The good effect of that is that younger Germans are more willing to step up and support a more prominent role in Europe and the world, but potentially that is also the bad effect, as Germany tries to be too dominant in Europe. In terms of being more accepting of cultural and racial diversity, that is a world-wide trend among the younger generation. It is a necessity in this shrinking, interconnected world.

I am one of the baby boomers from Germany, born in 1964, in the west. A big part of our upbringing and education was learning about Germany’s history. But we also are the generation who grew up with the cold war, environmental issues and the discussion about nuclear power. We were the first to vote for the Green Party. The generation you are talking about sounds more like our parents’ generation. And the younger ones - they probably are less “pessimistic” than we were, and that is a good thing.

I live in New York, not Germany, but had followed with excitement the rise of Die Grunen in the 1980s. From what I know of that party's principles, it seems absurd to suggest that its members -- many of the younger generation Mr Marinic extols -- are somehow eager to downplay Germany's commitment to anti-Nazism. The Greens' actual insistence on never forgetting what happened in Germany before many of them were born is especially vital at this moment of far-right resurgence.

This is the same rhetoric as the American Democrats’ idea that the future is theirs because of the Millennials. It’s nice. It’s cute. It’s meaningless. Why wait for the future, look at the present. The radical right wing is ascendant because of arguments like this. The idea that Germany doesn’t need a national culture, that one need not be even German in values, that one need not know German, feel German, want to be German, is sustainable is... laughable. With arguments like this, the AfD will be in power long before the hip youth this article lauds have a chance at governing. And looking at German politics, I for one, as a European and a left-winger, can’t see a Green wave. I see a shift from the Social Democrats, who are nearing extinction, to the Greens. But I don’t see the Greens overtaking the Christian Democratic CDU-CSU, who still have a base in the youth even. In fact, why not look to France too, we’re far more diverse than Germany; though without the hang-ups on our culture. The youth’s favorite parties in the past presidential election were La France Insoumise (left-wing populist, Republican nationalist) and the Front National (radical right, regular nationalists). I suspect, if the traditional makeup of German politics breaks down, and the SPD is annihilated as polling predicts, that will definitely benefit the Greens. But I suspect their growth will stop there. Even a diverse Germany needs a reason to be Germany. Otherwise, it might as well be France.

The litmus test will take place on May 23 and 26, 2019, when elections for the European Parliament will be held in all countries of EU. The results will most probably be in accordance to Ms. Marinic's documentations.