What is a German?

For John, BLUF:  What makes a German?  And, more important, what defines who is, and who isn't?  Where is the line drawn, and can the left describe that line?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Germany’s Return of the Repressed

Here is the sub-headline:

The country’s far-right wants to revive ethnic nationalism.  The left must come up with its own alternative.

From Foreign Policy, by Herr Yascha Mounk, 5 September 2018.

Yascha Mounk is an executive director at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and the author of The People vs. Democracy:  Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It.

Here is the lede plus three:

In the years since I was at Cambridge, German students have abandoned the European Union Society, now called the European Society, en masse.  Its current committee appears to comprise an Italian, a Spaniard, a few Dutch people, and—in what is, no doubt, an unintended side effect of Brexit—a surprising number of Brits.

Meanwhile, the university now boasts a thriving German Society, with a predominantly German steering committee that presumably runs with great efficiency.  Dorn would, I imagine, be pleased by its activities.  In the past academic year, it has held serious literary readings and high-minded political discussions.  But the big event of the year is an annual Oktoberfest.  For about $50 a head, celebrants get to enjoy a “Jägermeister reception” and a variety of “German specialities directly imported from Bavaria.”  The dress code stipulates “Lederhosen and Dirndl” are “strongly encouraged.”

Learning about this “immensely successful tradition,” as the society describes it, did, I must admit, fill me with a certain degree of longing for the studiedly anti-patriotic Germany I grew up with.  The tradition in question, I noted grumpily, is completely invented—it didn’t even exist when I was at Cambridge 15 years ago!  But when I looked at photos from the event, my resistance rapidly dwindled.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  And what could better encapsulate inclusive patriotism than the Asian and Middle Eastern students trying to acclimate to the traditional German clothes they had faithfully donned?

Clearly the idea of Germany’s culture propagated by the students who run the Cambridge University German Society includes a number of clichés—as indeed does Dorn’s defense of cultural nationalism.  But the same is true of the Italian pasta nights and the French movie showings I remember so fondly from my days as an undergraduate.  While it will always be easy for intellectuals to gripe about nationalism, it would be silly either to embrace or to condemn all forms of it on theoretical grounds.  Instead of trying to vanquish nationalism altogether, those of us who believe in a liberal, multiethnic democracy would do well to shape its nature as best we can.

I am not sure I have an answer for Herr Mounk, and I have lived in Germany for seven and a half years, three and a half "on the economy" in a German house in a German city.

On the other hand, I would hate to see Germany, as I know it, go away.

Please note that when the author says "Liberal" he is not, I expect, meaning "Progressive" or "Left", but rather in contrast to European dictatorships in the last Century.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff