BERLIN — At a Berlin café known for conversations among politicians, journalists and representatives of business groups, historian Jens Nordalm makes a case for a less cynical view of Germany. His argument is that the country should draw greater confidence from its cultural and intellectual history instead of allowing populists and extremists to dominate public debate.
Nordalm has worked as a speechwriter for Joachim Gauck, Wolfgang Schäuble and Angela Merkel, and now writes speeches for Chancellor Friedrich Merz. His new book, “Germany: The Underestimated Country,” brings together figures and achievements from the Middle Ages to the present, including Hildegard of Bingen, Eduard von Keyserling, Theodor Fontane, Heinrich Heine and Thomas Mann.
The book’s central proposal is that greater enthusiasm could bring more political orientation and calm. Nordalm does not call for a new political direction, but for “a different view of ourselves.” He argues that Germans should place more trust in their own achievements, in the country’s democratic institutions and in the ability of public debate to produce workable decisions.
Nordalm believes Germany underestimates both its democracy and itself. He acknowledges the crimes of the Nazi period as an enduring part of the country’s historical awareness, while rejecting the idea that German history must be understood as an uninterrupted chain of democratic and moral failures. That position, he recognizes, may be controversial, but he maintains that it should remain possible to discuss such questions in a differentiated way.
His approach is based on allowing more than one legitimate position on divisive issues such as immigration, climate policy and international law. Rather than avoiding disagreement, Nordalm argues that democracy needs clearly recognizable alternatives and a willingness to challenge prevailing views. At the same time, he stresses that political disputes must ultimately lead to decisions that bring people together.
The historian is also aware of the reasons many Germans no longer see the Federal Republic as a calm success story. He points to disputes over the euro rescue, energy policy, migration and Russia, as well as the rise of the AfD and accusations that the conservative Union is adopting some of its narratives. Nordalm describes these developments as new reasons for an old German tendency toward “self-antipathy,” a concept he borrows from Thomas Mann.
His response is not to ignore the country’s current tensions, but to resist the belief that they make democratic confidence impossible. Nordalm recommends a more resilient political culture, one in which people can argue firmly without losing the ability to smile at the end of the discussion.
The book also advances a liberal-conservative tradition associated with thinkers such as Wilhelm Hennis, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Paul Kirchhof and Odo Marquard. Nordalm presents this tradition as an alternative to the more aggressive forms of contemporary political communication, which he suggests are better suited to angry online videos than to serious debate.
Whether Germany’s current political leaders could turn this cultural and intellectual heritage into a new source of civic energy remains uncertain. Nordalm nevertheless believes that greater familiarity with writers such as Fontane, Thomas Mann and Keyserling could help Germans view their country with more affection and less reflexive rejection.
He closes his cultural argument not with a constitutional scholar or political philosopher, but with the humorists Loriot, Robert Gernhardt and Gerhard Polt. Their contribution, Nordalm argues, was to make the German language more brilliant, intelligent and politically fearless. In his view, appreciating Germany also means being able to find the country funny.
Sources: Handelsblatt.