Multi-ethnic coexistence

“In the national consciousness of the native population, the defenders of a multicultural immigration society are an obstacle to the realisation of their plans. They therefore attempt to fight against it. In this process, Germans make a connection to the troubled national self-image that developed after World War II in reaction to the exaggerated nationalism of the “Third Reich”. […] The notion of brotherhood among the peoples of Europe and the construction of the European community served the interests of the West Germans, who saw it as a way to “overcome” their past. For many people, the nation became a scapegoat.”

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Mißtrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft. [Against the society of mistrust. Argument for a better future.] Piper, 1995, p. 120

“A directionless youth which is not integrated into a larger community and its value system is particularly susceptible to ideology, and some even use the solidarising effect of collective aggression to establish we-groups with their own values. At the same time, efforts to build a contrasting multicultural, immigrant society which serves to defend identity can also provoke aggressive nationalism.”

“Incidentally, well-known publicists warned of this shortly after the war, arguing that purifying the evil spirit of National Socialism should not be taken so far as to destroy national commitment.”

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Mißtrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft. [Against the society of mistrust. Argument for a better future.] Piper, 1995, p. 121

Newsdetail“And in Bern in 1949, Konrad Adenauer advocated: “We can but welcome the reawakening of a healthy and balanced sense of nationalism, because a people that no longer has any national feeling has abandoned itself”. Adenauer was undoubtedly a convinced opponent of nationalism.”

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Mißtrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft. [Against the society of mistrust. Argument for a better future.] Piper, 1995, p. 122

“Throughout the world, groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through language, customs, and faith, both at the level of primitive peoples as well as at the level of state-organised civilisations.”

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Mißtrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft. [Against the society of mistrust. Argument for a better future.] Piper, 1995, p. 124

“However, it may well have become clear from what we have said so far that the development of a multicultural immigration society in a relatively homogeneous nation-state is problematic, and even irresponsible. We must not carry out “experiments with people” which endanger inner peace and thus threaten the continued existence of free democracy. Furthermore, it is highly contradictory to put one’s own ethnic identity at risk in the long run while at the same time standing up for cultural diversity, because by cultivating one’s own culture one contributes to the preservation of diversity. 

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Wider die Mißtrauensgesellschaft. Streitschrift für eine bessere Zukunft. [Against the society of mistrust. Argument for a better future.] Piper, 1995, p. 155