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The events of 1989 and German unification were seismic historical moments. Although 1989 appeared to signify a healing of the war-torn history of the twentieth century, unification posed the question of German cultural identity afresh. Politicians, historians, writers, filmmakers, architects, and the wider public engaged in "memory contests" over such questions as the legitimacy of alternative biographies, West German hegemony, and the normalization of German history. This dynamic, contested, and still ongoing transformation of German cultural identity is the topic of this volume of new essays by scholars from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Ireland. It explores German cultural identity by way of a range of disciplines including history, film studies, architectural history, literary criticism, memory studies, and anthropology, avoiding a homogenized interpretation. Charting the complex and often contradictory processes of cultural identity formation, the volume reveals the varied responses that continue to accompany the project of unification.

Group identity --- Collective memory --- Literature and society --- German literature --- History --- History and criticism. --- Germany --- Germany (East) --- Cultural policy. --- Collective identity --- Community identity --- Cultural identity --- Social identity --- Identity (Psychology) --- Social psychology --- 1989. --- German cultural identity. --- German unification. --- West German hegemony. --- alternative biographies. --- culture and politics. --- memory contests. --- normalization of German history.