THE QUESTION OF CONTEMPORARY German national identity is uniquely vexed. The legacy of National Socialism, the ongoing effects of reunification, the challenges of multiculturalism and of globalization — all of these combine to create a fascinating case study: “Germanness” is a shifting construct that is fraught with difficulties. It is a matter that has been hotly and widely debated within Germany over the past decades. The discursive construction and contestation of Germanness have logically formed the subject of numerous discussions in German literary and cultural studies, which examine, among other topics, memory and history, East and West Germanness, Turkish-German culture, Jewish identities, and gender and nation. This chapter aims to contribute to such investigations through a reading of Sibylle Berg’s 2007 novel Die Fahrt (The journey), in particular by building on work concerning globalization and Germanness.

Debates about national identity have complex histories and contexts, nowhere more so than in the Berlin Republic. Because of the especial difficulty of the German case, and the self-reflexivity manifested in the numerous political and popular discussions of German national identity in recent decades, Germany has been described by Stephen Brockmann as “postnational,” that is, as a nation in which the very concept of nation is open to question. Owing to its horrific history, Brockmann argues, Germany is well positioned to attempt the creation of an unconventional national identity, one that involves as much self-questioning as it does self-affirmation. Berg’s questing, questioning novel is German in Brockmann’s postnational sense. At the same time, however, Brockmann’s deployment of the term “Germany” must be carefully scrutinized, for it performs a homogenizing gesture. Which Germany is in fact well positioned to be questioning and creative? Arguably, it is only a small minority of Germans that is so positioned and/or minded. A quizzical stance is perhaps the preserve of a privileged few. And fantasies of fixity and security undeniably persist in the German context, with Heimat in particular serving a consolatory function.

Heimat — “home(land)” or “home region” — is a floating signifier in German culture that connotes “shelteredness and harmony.” It is an intrinsically conservative construct involving idealized notions of family and nature, in which these are strongly marked with conventional assumptions about gender. It is an idea of continuing relevance in the Berlin Republic, as Peter Blickle asserts and as Berg’s novel critically implies.