A German society devoted to the theme of identity. Does a German identity exist? Is there a German opinion on identity? This is indeed a delicate theme.
Germany was originally created entirely from the aggregation of a large mosaic of principalities. Then, in the 20th Century, suffering from national delusions of grandeur and renouncing the individual in favour of the great and unconditional “We”, it became increasingly divided by profound identity rifts and collective self-doubt. Are we really the people who committed all those crimes? Can we still be a country of poets and philosophers? Write verses in German? History has taught us to no longer be able to take pleasure in “big nation” attitudes. Do we know who we are? Can we (once again) walk with our heads held high? What tradition could reunite us?
Sunday, July 26. 2015
The German Perspective – A Goethe Society in Germany
Germany carries a responsibility to critically reassess what it really is. We can no longer blindly accept maintaining any national conviction about ourselves. To use the words of Friedrich von Schiller in his treaty on naïve and sentimental poetry: the Germans’ attitude will never again be naïve, yet it will always be sentimental. Through its own fault, Germany has lost the “possibility to act calmly of its own accord, to exist according to its own rules, to its own internal necessity, or in eternal unity with its very essence.”
We can no longer draw resources from within ourselves like the genius Goethe. We are condemned to see, to know, to think. It is sentimentalism, it is the Schiller which is dormant within us. We can no longer be our nature itself; rather, we must search for our hidden nature. And all this is – naturally – also a quest for our identity. Like Nietzsche’s man with a lantern, who runs around the market square crying “God is dead!” and “We’ve killed him!”, we bury our innocence and cry for it, not knowing what the future holds for us. We, Germans, can no longer remain under any illusions about the world.
A sentimental identity – full of doubts and questions about ourselves and about European discourse – this could indeed be the “German approach” and Germany’s way of focusing on its own identity.
We aim to study the influence of digital media on the theme of identity and how these enable us to escape the confines of national context to open up to a wider European arena: digital media is subversive and has no limits – thank goodness!
Human communities are founded on discourse
“Human communities are founded on discourse,” write the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. This discourse, made possible by digital media, undermines hierarchies and borders. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.
Indeed, what form would be as apt to formulate our discourse on identity in this digital era as circles and salons – the literary salon, rooted in European concept. The salon, where philosophers, artists, encyclopaedists, Enlightenment philosophers, musicians, conservatives and revolutionaries all meet. The salon is an arena for social interaction for discussion and exchange. It is also precisely the very essence of the digital cultural space: discourse, dialogue, memetics and flow.
Let’s revive salons! The place where spoken and written words converge. Let us open circles and salons to everyone; let’s not only allow experts and selected guests to express their ideas, but instead listen to anyone who has something to say. This is the wonder of digital media: we can open structures and make them permeable, we can change, dare to try new things and see what happens. Long live the digital salon!
A list of German publications to read
“Death is a German-born master”
Paul Celan in his poem Death Fugue (1948)
www.lyrikline.org/de/gedichte/todesfuge-66#.VZJtbVK8o3g
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVwLqEHDCQE
“‘Where is God?’ he cried; ‘I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers!…”
Friedrich Nietzsche: Aphorism 125, from The Gay Science (La gaya Scienza) (1882)
www.nietzschesource.org/facsimiles/DFGA/FW2,153
“When I think of Germany at night, I suffer from Insomnia”
Heinrich Heine during his period of exile in Paris, with a perspective concerned with objectivity.
In the poem Night Thoughts (1844)
de.wikisource.org/wiki/Nachtgedanken_%28Heine%29
Friedrich von Schiller: On Naive and Sentimental Poetry (1795)
www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/cgi-bin/neubutton.cgi?pfad=/diglib/aufkl/horen/139961&seite=00000081.TIF
“For me, Germany is Adolf Hitler and Thomas Mann”
Marcel Reich-Ranicki in an interview about Germany (2001)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGUmpAzqHS0
We can no longer draw resources from within ourselves like the genius Goethe. We are condemned to see, to know, to think. It is sentimentalism, it is the Schiller which is dormant within us. We can no longer be our nature itself; rather, we must search for our hidden nature. And all this is – naturally – also a quest for our identity. Like Nietzsche’s man with a lantern, who runs around the market square crying “God is dead!” and “We’ve killed him!”, we bury our innocence and cry for it, not knowing what the future holds for us. We, Germans, can no longer remain under any illusions about the world.
A sentimental identity – full of doubts and questions about ourselves and about European discourse – this could indeed be the “German approach” and Germany’s way of focusing on its own identity.
We aim to study the influence of digital media on the theme of identity and how these enable us to escape the confines of national context to open up to a wider European arena: digital media is subversive and has no limits – thank goodness!
Human communities are founded on discourse
“Human communities are founded on discourse,” write the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. This discourse, made possible by digital media, undermines hierarchies and borders. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.
Indeed, what form would be as apt to formulate our discourse on identity in this digital era as circles and salons – the literary salon, rooted in European concept. The salon, where philosophers, artists, encyclopaedists, Enlightenment philosophers, musicians, conservatives and revolutionaries all meet. The salon is an arena for social interaction for discussion and exchange. It is also precisely the very essence of the digital cultural space: discourse, dialogue, memetics and flow.
Let’s revive salons! The place where spoken and written words converge. Let us open circles and salons to everyone; let’s not only allow experts and selected guests to express their ideas, but instead listen to anyone who has something to say. This is the wonder of digital media: we can open structures and make them permeable, we can change, dare to try new things and see what happens. Long live the digital salon!
A list of German publications to read
“Death is a German-born master”
Paul Celan in his poem Death Fugue (1948)
www.lyrikline.org/de/gedichte/todesfuge-66#.VZJtbVK8o3g
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVwLqEHDCQE
“‘Where is God?’ he cried; ‘I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers!…”
Friedrich Nietzsche: Aphorism 125, from The Gay Science (La gaya Scienza) (1882)
www.nietzschesource.org/facsimiles/DFGA/FW2,153
“When I think of Germany at night, I suffer from Insomnia”
Heinrich Heine during his period of exile in Paris, with a perspective concerned with objectivity.
In the poem Night Thoughts (1844)
de.wikisource.org/wiki/Nachtgedanken_%28Heine%29
Friedrich von Schiller: On Naive and Sentimental Poetry (1795)
www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/cgi-bin/neubutton.cgi?pfad=/diglib/aufkl/horen/139961&seite=00000081.TIF
“For me, Germany is Adolf Hitler and Thomas Mann”
Marcel Reich-Ranicki in an interview about Germany (2001)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGUmpAzqHS0
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