Culture Troubles

"I don't have the ambition to have a new canon developed, nor do I want to amend the rights stipulated by our constitution," Lammert said. "But there can be no reasonable doubt that we need at least an understanding of the points that keep our society together and that are propelled by our constitution."

Lammert's recently published anthology -- entitled "Constitution, Patriotism, Leading Culture. What Holds Our Society Together" -- presents a wide range of opinions on the topic of Germany's defining cultural values.

"Leitkultur," or leading culture, is a peculiarly German term. Some see in it an overarching term for a democratic culture of openness and tolerance, while others take it to be no more than a sign of elitism and narrow-minded belief in the superiority of one culture over another.

"I grew up in this country with rights of freedom, civil rights and, when all is said and done, I am a constitutional patriot," said Seyran Ates, a lawyer who was born in Istanbul but has lived in Germany since the age of nine.

"That's what I am fighting for. And that's why I have no problem with the phrase 'leading culture.' I don't define it the way some people do as the culture, which is imposed upon me by the Germans, because I also contribute to this society."

Integration troubles

For Ates, like for many others, the crucial problem in this cultural debate is the question of Germany's failure to develop a binding integration concept for its immigrant citizens.

"The German state must rise up to the responsibility of finally starting with a reasonable and serious integration policy," Ates said.

According to Green party politician Claudia Roth, a democratic society must offer participatory mechanisms to all its citizens.

"Muslims need legitimate constitutional structures, which make them capable of acting in a democratic process," Roth said.

Some of the book's contributors, however, do not believe that the state can do everything.

"We have to be sober about the fact that the state's ability to act is limited," said cardinal Karl Lehmann, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference. "The state has to rely on value-creating contributions from many groups of citizens."

An unfortunate term

The very idea of German "Leitkultur" is problematic for some because of the country's fatal experience with National Socialism.

"Calling something 'German leading culture' has a bitter taste for our neighbors," said actor Mario Adorf.

German film director Wim Wenders described the concept of "Leitkultur" as "very unfortunate" and the whole debate as "belated." It would be much more urgent to deal with the question of European identity, because that is the question that will preoccupy the German society much more in the future, according to Wenders.

A necessary debate

Others, however, believe that a debate on what constitutes a defining culture is absolutely necessary in the spirit of an open and honest dialogue between different cultures, and despite horrifying phenomena such as honor killings and forced marriages which occur in some segments of Germany's immigrant communities.

"All that is part of a different culture, which one should be at least curious about," said Adolf Muschg, who teaches German literature at the University of Zurich.

"We should ask ourselves: 'Where does all that come from?' By doing that we serve again our cognitive faculty and our imagination, and we are then also ready to say: 'This is where we stop, this is where we're drawing the line," he said.

"I believe that a civilized society does not necessarily need a leading culture: It is already one," Muschg said.