A new Germany in a new Europe

Book abstract:

A collection of contributions from a panel of academics, journalists, writers and civil servants well versed in Germanic studies and the Germanic Jewish experience examine the evolution of post war Germany through unification and its major role in the development of the European Union.

The essays comment on the introspective soul searching and ethical dilemmas with which modern Germany struggles as it opens its cultural identity to the influences of strong immigrant and comparison is made with the Germanic immigrant experience in Chicago.

Five key questions are tackled through these contributions. They are:

What is the future of German immigration policy?
What is the place of German culture within today's European culture?
How diverse is the German cultural market?
Does the new national German cinema have an audience?
What are the sites of memory and memorialisation today and what should they do?

The work closes with a conclusion from Andreas Glaeser that the new Germany will remain a divided Germany as long as East Germans are not treated as equal partners in dialogue and may well inhibit it's potential for partnership in the development of the new Europe.

The book will interest scholars, students, political researchers and activists in the fields of Germanic and European Union studies.

Todd Herzog is an assistant professor of German at the University of Cincinnati. Sander L. Gilman is Henry R. Luce Distinguished Service Professor of the Liberal Arts in Human Biology at the University of Chicago.

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