The German Melting Pot: Multiculturality in Historical Perspective

The Germans of today are the descendants of Celts, Romans, Saxons, Franks, Alaman, Poles, Mazurians, Sorbs, Kashubians, Pomoranians, Obodrites, Polabians, Czechs, Frenchmen, Italians, Croats, Turks and many more. Numerous cultural divides, for instance the cleavage between Protestants and Catholics, have crossed Germany, and many do so today. Often in history the cultural divides have produced harsh conflicts, once even genocide, but in most cases the various groups have successfully cooperated, or at least peacefully coexisted side by side, in spite of their differences. Wolfgang Zank gives a graphic account of the German experiences on this field, good and bad ones, and analyzes the mechanisms which in different times have allowed for cooperation or, conversely, have produced conflicts. He builds his presentation upon a wide range of academic historical research and integrates it into an innovative framework of conflict sociology.