ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a particular understanding of Kultur in the sense of a cultural-social cohesion project which emerged in the German states at the end of the 19th century impacts on mainstream opinions concerning new cosmopolitanism. The Holocaust and other colonial crimes against humanity have to be regarded as decisive to an understanding of contemporary mainstream approaches to new cosmopolitanism and counter discourses on national identity and nationalism in Germany. Beck's frequent publications on cosmopolitanism are particularly relevant to a discourse of gender and cosmopolitanism in Europe through his close academic links with David Held and the London School of Economics (LSE) which provides space to circulate his approach to European cosmopolitanism internationally. Jürgen Habermas claims that the European civil society might transform itself into a Europe-wide political arena. According to Neil Walker, Habermas advocates the establishment of 'continental regimes' in particular the European Union, in line with a generally territorial perception of social solidarity.
