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Chapter 3 - Heimat and Renewal at the Water’s Edge

Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2024

Jeremy DeWaal
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

Moving from Cologne to the Hanseatic cities, this chapter demonstrates remarkably similar Heimat revivals and trends in local identity narratives in early post-war Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen. All three cities saw a major renaissance of local culture and emphasis on the value of Heimat in repairing community bonds and mobilizing for reconstruction. Democratically engaged locals argued for “democracy” and “openness to the world” as Hanseatic values and redefined the long-standing metaphor of their cities as “gates to the world.” Abandoning nationalist narratives of them as exit points of German power, such groups argued for their maritime cities as sites of international reconciliation. Locals wove such narratives by drawing on useful local historical memories. Hanseatic locals, however, reflected the same shortcomings in democratic practice, including persistent attempts to evade guilt for the Nazi past, gendered understandings of Heimat, and exclusion of newcomers. As in Cologne, more inclusively minded locals, however, sought to combat hostilities towards newcomers by engaging with the Heimat idea and arguing for “tolerance” as a local value.

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Chapter
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Geographies of Renewal
Heimat and Democracy in West Germany, 1945–1990
, pp. 115 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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