ABSTRACT
From a comparative perspective, the German case of nation-building diverges from both a 'Western model', in which nation-building was preceded by state building and accompanied by the emergence of a common civic culture and ideology, and an 'Eastern model' of very late or even blocked nation-building and the prevalence of cultural and ethnic nationalism 1 As is well known, the German path to national unity and the subsequent national identity is characterized by its heavy emphasis on the German Kulturnation which, after unification in 1871, resulted in the myth of an ethnic community of Germans, or Volksnation. At the same time, democratization processes from above (the introduction of the most liberal electoral law at the time) and below (the push of the working class for integration and recognition) resulted in the emergence of the legal-political equality of members in the framework of the ethnic concept of citizenship enshrined in the 1913 nationality code. Thus the main characteristics of the German case are:
the polycentric form in different regional political centers and ethnic cultures; the interconnection of these ethnic groups in a common high language and
culture; the imperial framework of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation; and the continuation of this polycentric form of ethno-genesis into modem nation-
building on the basis of the common culture and a federal structure.
