Germany's Repressed Identity Returns

Germany’s post‑war liberal settlement suppressed a rooted national culture ('Heimat') in favor of a rational, outward‑looking identity; that repression is now resurfacing as nostalgia‑driven politics concentrated in the former East and translating into large votes for far‑right parties and the breakdown of mainstream coalitions. The essay ties cultural aesthetics, historical memory and concrete regional electoral data into a single causal story. — If cultural repression can morph into mass political mobilization, debates about immigration, memory politics, and coalition stability in Europe must incorporate cultural‑identity dynamics, not just economic or institutional explanations.