Cultural foundations of European integration

Subprogram 2 (2003–2008)

The unification of Europe is characterized by far-reaching cultural similarities, but also by competing approaches to solving problems within the social and political systems of the member states. The individual projects shed light on some of the direct and indirect foundations of the unification process.

The joint closing symposium , "Cultural Foundations of European Unification" (PDF), took place in Heidelberg on May 5–6, 2008.

Supported by

The Legitimacy of a European Constitution in the Context of National Constitutional Traditions

Issues of horizontal and vertical separation of powers, using legislation and the fiscal constitution as examples

The aim of the project was to conduct an interdisciplinary study of how a European constitution can be structured and legitimized within the context of competing national constitutional traditions, and what substantive form a European constitution should take from the perspective of legitimacy. The starting point was the realization that, despite numerous efforts, the European constitutional debate has yielded few points of consensus, and that to date there has been a scarcity of interdisciplinary research findings on this topic. In this respect, the question of legitimacy had been left open in all previous revisions of the European treaties. The project addressed two central issues in the context of the drafting of a common constitution by the European Convention: the question of legislation and the question of the fiscal constitution. The aim was to address the fundamental aspect of the European Union’s legitimacy and to derive concrete proposals for the organization of the European Union’s legislative and fiscal frameworks.

Publications resulting from the project:

Petersson, Niels P., with Jochum,Georg; Schröder, Wolfgang M. ; andUllrich, Katrin (eds.) (2007): From Popular Sovereignty to Sovereignty of the Peoples: The Foundations of Legitimacy for a European Constitution. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.
Ullrich, Katrin/Petersson, Niels P. (2004): The Independence of the European Central Bank in a Historical and Economic Context.
Schröder, Wolfgang M. (2004): Mixed Legitimacy as a Solution: The Question of Legitimacy in European Politics and the Convention’s Draft European Constitutional Treaty.
Jochum, Georg/Ohletz, H. (2004): Foundations and Structures of a Legitimate Fiscal Constitution for the European Union.
Ullrich, Katrin/Heinemann , F. (2004). The Impact of EMU on Inflation Expectations.

Conferences, workshops, and seminars organized as part of the project:

Fellow students:

Prof. Dr. Georg Jochum
Prof. Dr. Niels P. Petersson
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang M. Schröder
Dr. Katrin Ullrich

Understanding the World in the Tension Between Symbolic and Universalized Rationality

The question of Europe’s cultural foundations is more relevant than ever, especially when one considers, for example, the debate surrounding the relationship between Turkey—a country with Islamic roots—and the European cultural sphere. However, the specific commonalities of this sphere did not originate in the Age of Enlightenment; rather, they are rooted at least as far back as the early High Middle Ages, during the formative phase of Europe, and were to be examined in this project under the concept of a uniquely European rationality. The project was based on the thesis that European thought, and consequently European culture, are characterized by an unprecedented discursivity, which is reflected today, for example, in institutional peculiarities (e.g., the separation and simultaneous intertwining of state and church in their various forms). The increasing fragmentation of individual spheres of reality is a development that has been observable since at least the 10th century and has since grown in intensity. This is accompanied by the growing challenge of providing individuals with a sense of orientation in the world. The project aimed to investigate whether the postulated development can be substantiated in a historical context based on the broadest and most representative set of sources possible. On this basis, the project also sought to examine its significance for the establishment of a common European identity as well as for a distinct European character.

Publication resulting from the project:

Rychterová, Pavlína; Seit,Stefan; Veit, Raphaela (eds.) (2008): Charisma – Functions and Symbolic Representations: Historical, Philosophical, Islamic Studies, Sociological, and Theological Perspectives. Contributions to Historical Cultural Studies, Vol. 2: Berlin.

Conference organized as part of the project:

Interdisciplinary Conference:"Charisma – Functions and Symbolic Representations" (PDF)(November 18–20, 2005, Heidelberg)

Fellow students:

Dr. Stefan Seit
Dr. Pavlína Rychterová
Dr. Raphaela Veit

Constructing the Past as a Political Space: Europe and the “Historical Imaginary”

Especially in times of political and social change, the construction of the past plays a central role. Whether as “myth,” narrated “history,” “historical scholarship,” or as “memory” sedimented in “places,” monuments, and images: the evocation of the past is one of the central cultural practices through which the existence of political entities, legitimacy, interests, and oppositions are conceptualized, defended, delegitimized, and—at times—made actual and present. The central theme of this project was European logics of memory within the political sphere and the associated concrete historical-systematic diversity extending into the present. The aim was not to formulate a new theory, but rather to provide an overview of European constructions of the past. To this end, a core group of relevant projects—most of which drew on other sources—examined the historical imaginary of Europe during representative transitional periods from antiquity to the present.

Publications resulting from the project:

Mahlke,Kirsten/Bezner, Frank (eds.) (2010): Between Knowledge and Politics: Archaeology and Genealogy of Early Modern Constructions of the Past. C. Winter, Heidelberg.
Bezner, Frank (2007): A Genealogy of the Past Between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period: The Case of Ferrara (c. 1300–1600).
Bezner, Frank (2007): History as Anti-History. Johann Scheckmann’s *Historia Excidii* and the Giant Bible of St. Maximin.

Conferences, workshops, and seminars organized as part of the project:

Workshop:“The Pastas an Imaginary Discourse?”(October 9–10, 2003, Tübingen)
Conference: “Beyond History and Memory: Premodern Construction”
“as a challenge for cultural studies” (February 2004, in cooperation with the Research Training Group at the University of Cologne)
Conference: “The Scope of Understanding: Nationalization and Europeanization of Intellectual Communication in the 20th Century” (February 18–19, 2005, Konstanz)
Conference:"Between Knowledge and Politics: Archaeology and Genealogy in Early Modern Constructions of the Past" (PDF)(April 5–7, 2006, Heidelberg)

Fellow students:

Assistant Professor Kirsten Mahlke, Ph.D.
Prof. Dr. Frank Bezner