Situating a German Self in Democratic Community: Greek Tragedy and German Identity in Christa Wolf’s Mythic Works

In times of political or social crisis, issues of identity and affiliation tend to become more salient. In response to the threatened or actual disruption of the routines of material provision, social order, and ideological legitimation, definitions of self and community that had formerly been considered authoritative come under more frequent and more extensive questioning. Responses to this condition of uncertainty and doubt about identity and affiliation are typically forthcoming from many different quarters: party politicians, leaders of social movements, public intellectuals, religious authorities. Such responses can also be quite varied as was the case, for example, in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Only months after the event and with major questions about the future of the two Germanies in the air, Jürgen Habermas surveyed the various possible sources of German identity that were on offer at that time—economic prestige (“DM nationalism”), cultural inheritance, linguistic unity, ethnic descent, historical fate, aesthetic experience, and constitutional patriotism—and found all but the last seriously wanting. In any given episode of crisis and questioning, most responses will ultimately have little or no effect; the eventual reestablishment of the routines of provision, order, and legitimation usually means that one or another set of definitions of self and community has won out and become authoritative for a critical mass of citizens.