Cultural Foundations of European Integration

2. Subprogram (2003–2008)

European integration is shaped 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 integration process.

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

Sponsored by

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

Issues of Horizontal and Vertical Separation of Powers: The Case of Legislation and the Fiscal Constitution

The aim of the project was to conduct an interdisciplinary investigation into how a European constitution can be structured and legitimized within the context of conflicting national constitutional traditions, and what substantive form a European constitution should take from the perspective of legitimacy. The starting point was the recognition that, despite numerous efforts, the European constitutional debate has yielded few points of consensus, and that, to date, there have been hardly any 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 European Convention’s drafting of a common constitution: the question of legislation and the question of the financial framework. The aim was to address the fundamental issue of the European Union’s legitimacy and, based on this, to derive concrete proposals for organizing the legislative and financial framework of the European Union.

Publications resulting from the project:

Petersson, Niels P., with Jochum, Georg/Schröder, Wolfgang M./Ullrich, Katrin (eds.) (2007): From Popular Sovereignty to Inter-State Sovereignty—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 Policy and the Convention’s Draft European Constitutional Treaty.
Jochum, Georg/Ohletz, H. (2004): Foundations and Structures of a Legitimate Financial 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:

Faculty Members:

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

Understanding the World at the Intersection of 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 predominantly Islamic country—and the European cultural sphere. However, the specific commonalities of this cultural sphere do not originate in the Age of Enlightenment, but are rooted at least as far back as the early High Middle Ages—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 thus European culture—is characterized by an unprecedented discursivity, which is reflected today, for example, in institutional peculiarities (e.g., the separation and, at the same time, 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 intensified ever since. 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 could 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 way of life.

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)

Research Fellows:

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” embedded in “places,” monuments, and images: the re-envisioning of the past is one of the central cultural practices through which the existence of political entities, legitimacy, interests, and conflicts are conceptualized, defended, delegitimized, and—at times—made tangible and present for the first time. The central theme of this project was European logics of memory within the political sphere and the associated concrete historical and systematic diversity extending into the present. The goal 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 drawing from relevant projects—most of which relied on different 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 (ca. 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 Past as an Imaginary Discourse?” (Oct. 9–10, 2003, Tübingen)
Conference: “This Side of History and Memory. Premodern Construction
as a Challenge for Cultural Studies” (February 2004, in cooperation with the Graduate College 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 of Early Modern Constructions of the Past” (PDF) (April 5–7, 2006, Heidelberg)

Research Fellows:

PD Dr. Kirsten Mahlke
Prof. Dr. Frank Bezner