Heimat

Heimat is a German word that has no simple English translation. It is often expressed with terms such as home or homeland, but these English counterparts fail to encapsulate centuries of German consciousness and the thousands of connections this quintessential aspect of German identity carries with it. ^[1]

[edit] The meaning of Heimat

Heimat is a specifically German concept to which people are bound by their birth, their childhood, their language and their earliest experiences. Heimat found strength in an increasingly alienating world as Germany's population made a massive exodus from rural areas into more urbanised communities around the country's major cities. Heimat was a reaction to the onset of modernity, loss of individuality and intimate community.

Heimat began as an integral aspect of German identity that was patriotic, without being nationalistic. Regional identity (along with regional dialect) is an important foundation for a person's Heimat.

The specific aspects of Heimat — love and attachment to homeland and the rejection of anything foreign — left the idea vulnerable to easy assimilation into the fascist "blood and soil" literature of the National Socialists.

[edit] Heimat in film media

Heimat is most readily seen in the Heimatfilme from the Heimat period c.1946-1965, in which filmmakers placed a profound emphasis on nature and the provincial homeliness of Germany. Forests, mountains, landscapes and rural areas portrayed Germany in a homely light with which the German people readily identified.

In 1984 Edgar Reitz released his film Heimat. This epic production provided an in-depth illustration of Heimat on a variety of levels, most poignantly highlighting the provincial sense of belonging and the conflict that exists between urban and rural life.

[edit] Sociology

Many see the post-war concept of Heimat as having emerged as a reaction to Germany's self-imposed position on the world stage, a symptom of the forced introversion following the world wars, and an attempt at individual distancing from responsibility for Nazi Germany's actions.

In the wake of World War II, Germans are still rarely seen demonstrating a specific pride in their 'Germanness'. With the emergence of a renewed sense of Heimat, Germans show pride in their regional origins as Berliners, Bavarians, Prussians or Swabians.

[edit] Support in international law

In international law the "right to one's homeland" (German: Recht auf die Heimat; French: droit au foyer; Spanish; derecho a la patria) is a concept that has been gaining acceptance as a fundamental human right and a precondition to the exercise of the right to self-determination. In 1931 at the Académie de Droit International in The Hague (Hague Academy of International Law), Robert Redslob spoke of the right to the homeland in connection with the right to self-determination in Le principe des nationalités ^[2]
Georges Scelle in Belgium, Felix Ermacora in Austria, Alfred de Zayas in the United States, and Christian Thomuschat and Dieter Blumenwitz in Germany are amongst those who have written extensively on the subject. The first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso of Ecuador affirmed this right, which is reflected in the 13-point Declaration appended to the Final Report on "Human Rights and Population Transfers" ^[3]

[edit] References