Homeland

Home forms „a dazzling, cultural phenomenon that conveys layers of meaning from many centuries“ (Kazal 2005, 61). The term has complex connotations due to its usage (cf. Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-104). It developed from the Old High German word heimuoti and stands as „country, part of the country or place in which one [was] born and grew up or feels at home through permanent residence“ (Duden online) for the relation between humans and a territorial area or the values and norms prevailing there (cf. Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106).

On the historical development of the term

Related to the historical context, for Kühne and Schönwald „Heimat, especially in retrospect of the 20th century, has by no means proven to be a harmless concept“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 104). In this regard, Lobensommer argues that the use of the term „between 1945 and the mid-seventies in entertainment literature was primarily in the sense of a nostalgic memory, an unattainable utopia that had dispensed with political connotations“ (Lobensommer 2010, 75-76). Here he refers to authors such as Siegfried Lenz and Günter Grass (cf. Lobensommer 2010, 75-76).

The definition of home, which until 1959 was very narrowly defined in terms of a local space and the views and traditions that prevailed there, was replaced by the circumscription of even several places or larger areas (cf. Lobensommer 2010, 75). This development of breaking away from a strongly delimiting concept of homeland continued steadily. According to Pazarkaya, in 1986, „home is […] [found] in oneself, resulting in an internalization of home, a subjectification that can constantly create new homes through the acquisition of friends, positive feelings“ (Lobensommer 2010, 79).

Home in a globalized world

In modern times, the concept of home experiences a renaissance in the context of the increasingly pronounced globalization and the accompanying „decentering of many people’s lifeworlds“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106) with regard to the desire for a „re-location“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106) in a familiar lifeworld. The term is often used as a synonym for a „regional identity“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106). This is reflected, among other things, in the social dimension in the form of family and circle of friends with an „unquestioningly accepted set of role, value and norm conceptions“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106), which in many cases also results in the dimension of exclusion and marginalization of other persons and/ or cultures.

Further aspects in this context are time („romanticizing recollection of one’s own past“) (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106) as well as the dimensions of place in the form of „landscape as natural and cultural landscape“ (Schreiber 2012, 3) and „decomplexization“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106).

Homeland and migration

Against the backdrop of migration, the concept of homeland forms the occasion for a controversial (homeland) debate, as many ’native‘ people fear a loss of culture and thus a loss of power of their corset of values (cf. Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106). They define the supposedly ‚right‘ culture and thus belonging to society by „the ‚right‘ dialect, the ‚right‘ ethnicity (documented by the localness of ancestors), heterosexuality, the ‚right‘ religion, and the practice of local and regional traditions (not the cognitive knowledge about them!)“ (Kühne/ Schönwald 2015, 101-106).

Literature

Dudenredaktion (n.d.): „Heimat“ on Duden online. https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Heimat [25.06.2018].

Kazal, Irene (2005), „Sozialistische Heimat DDR. Landscape, Nation and Class in the Homeland Debate of the 1950s. In: Kazal, I./ Voigt, A./ Weil, A./ Zutz, A. (eds.): Kulturen der Landschaft. Ideas of cultural landscape between tradition and modernization. Berlin, 59-80.

Kühne, Olaf/ Schönwald, Antje: Identität, Heimat sowie In- und Exklusion: Aspekte der sozialen Konstruktion von Eigenem und Fremdem als Herausforderung des Migrationszeitalters. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/111036/1/ab_013_08.pdf [25.6.2018].

Lobensommer, Andrea (2010): The search for home. Homeland conception attempts in prose texts between 1989 and 2001. Munich: Diss. masch.

Schreiber, Wilfried E. (2012): Heimat verorten: Heimat aus der Sicht eines Geographhen – In: Neue Didaktik 1, pp. 1-6. https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2015/10068/pdf/NeueDidaktik_1_2012_Schreiber_Heimat_verorten.pdf [25.06.2018].