ABSTRACT
A good starting point for a discussion of German national culture is a classical observation of differences between German and American behavior as it relates to liberalism. Individualism and freedom have in fact played a major role in German national culture and in the history of ideas. This chapter outlines the historical and intellectual foundations of German national culture along three lines—the assumed competence and benevolence of authorities, the assumed organicist character of polities and the state, and the assumption of individualism as being a matter of internal spiritual self-development. Based on the three central issues emerging from G. W. F. Hegel, German national culture can be outlined in terms of three issues: authority; collective identity and organicism; and Bildung as the German idea of individualism. An account of the significance of societal organicism and collective identity in Germany must begin with the theologian and sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies and extend to Ernst Troeltsch's statements during World War I.
