What About the Turks, Jews, and Other Germans? Reflections on Peter Chametzky's Latest Book (original) (raw)

2023, "Przegląd Zachodni"

In a provocatively titled volume of over a thousand pages, Was ist deutsch? [What Is German?], literary scholar Dieter Borchmeyer noted: "No nation in history has been as intensely concerned with its own identity as the German nation". 1 Similarly, art historian Hans Belting stated in the mid-1990s that "German art always ends up being a measure of German identity." 2 Although it may be difficult to provide solid evidence to support these claims, it is notable that the preoccupation with identity has remained a significant component of German culture throughout history, reaching a tragic climax during the period of National Socialism. 3 Due to this compromising historical experience, the term "German art," particularly in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), elicited chiefly negative connotations and has been met with various reservations in the postwar period 4. To emphasize the FRG's affiliation with the Christian West, known as Abendland, the organizers of the first documenta in Kassel in 1955, which was soon to become a platform for promoting the internationally binding "world language of abstraction," 5 gave the exhibition the working title documenta. Abendländische Kunst des XX Jahrhunderts. 6 This practice was continued, among others, by the influential exhibition Westkunst by Laszlo Gloszer and Kasper König in 1981, which placed the postwar German avant-garde within the tradition of the titular "art of the West." 7 Market successes in the United States of artists such as Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer were initially met in their homeland with great suspicion. 8 After their participation in the

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact