Frame and Preparation
Desintegriert Euch!
Conceptual Frames and Background
- Integration / Disintegration (Desintegration)
- Illusion of a German Leitkultur
- Right wing extremism
- Jewishness / German-Jewish Studies
- Postholocaust “memory theater”
- Migration
- Native Informant
Introduction
This is the introduction to a collection of essays entitled Desintegriert Euch! This text reads as a manifesto against the concept of integration, which he equates with the concept of assimilation, through his introduction of the term Leitkultur. Czollek also challenges the major tenets of German memory culture and works against the concept of a native informant.
Preparation
There are some foundational ideas that would need to be addressed before reading this with students:
- There needs to be some context on the position of German-Jewish subjects in postwar German society
- We would also recommend teaching this text together with another essay from the collection, that more clearly addresses the concept of Leitkultur, OR in combination with Friedrich Merz’s article “Einwanderung und Identität,” in which he introduces his concept of the “freiheitliche deutsche Leitkultur” (Die Welt, 2000).
- It would be helpful to address the establishment of the Amt für Migration und Integration (2006)
Text and Discussion
Discussion
Below is a series of questions, followed by answers as bulleted comments from which further discussion questions could be developed:
What tone does Czollek craft in this introduction?
How does Czollek separate his biography from his roles as an author, intellectual and political scientist? What is a native informant and how does he see this concept as functioning in German culture?
- Czollek refuses reductive notions of identity, and asserts that he can inhabit these roles but cannot be reduced to any single one of them
- He rejects essentializing notions of ethnicity and their (historically and in the present) abuse through German culture
- He gestures toward his refusal to be a native informant
How is Czollek using terms like “Leitkultur,” “Integration,” and “De-integration” in this essay? How is each term defined?
- He understands integration in contemporary German society to mean something closer to assimilation
Further Development
This text could be paired with any of the following articles to deepen the discusions:
- Yasemin Yıldız and Michael Rothberg’s article on “Memory Citizenship”
- Essay by Czollek titled “Gegenwartsbewältigung” (in Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum)
- Thomas de Maizière, “Wir sind nicht Burka”
- Hartwig Pautz, “The politics of identity in Germany: the Leitkultur-debate in Germany”
- Bassam Tibi, “Leitkultur als Wertekonsens”
Developed by Kristin Dickinson, Mary Rodena-Krasan, Peter McIsaac and Tina ODonnell.