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Uniting the German nation: law, narrative, and historicity
Author(s) -
BORNEMAN JOHN
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1993.20.2.02a00050
Subject(s) - historicity (philosophy) , german , narrative , unification , elite , law , legitimacy , adjudication , political science , politics , sociology , appeal , history , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , computer science , programming language
This article analyzes the use of narrative form in law, specifically with reference to conflicts over unification of the German nation. Since the end of the Cold War, local actors have been repositioned in disputes over property, historiography, and penalties for the East German political elite. A just adjudication of these disputes is problematic given that the actors appeal to several different legal registers, each with its own principles of legitimacy derived from peculiar historical circumstances, which are not taken into consideration in the unification process. [ Germany, nation, narrative, law, historicity, classification ]