Appreciating Germany’s Achievements in the Mirror of Its Dark Past: The Way South Koreans View Germany

Germany's position in the world has been growing since the national reunification in 1990 and, more recently, with the successful crisis-management during the global financial crisis and its leading role in Europe's response to the economic crisis in Southern Europe. However, a strong Germany has been a matter of concern for neighbor countries, such that it is crucial that Germany's rise will develop in such a way as to be recognizable and respectable for the rest of the world.

This presentation will tell about how Germany's contemporary history, social models, and changing role in Europe are interpreted in South Korean politics, public spheres, and intellectual discourses. In Korea, Germany's party democracy, social market economy, national division and reunification, and the efforts for dealing with the past were the important themes in public discussions. Currently, Germany's growth regime, welfare model, and its growing role in Europe are popular topics.

This presentation will show the results of discourse analysis of political speeches, intellectuals’ writings, and daily newspapers in Korea since the 2000s. The argument will be that 1) the interpretations about Germany in Korea varied greatly depending on the political and ideological positions of the interpreters; 2) nevertheless, the contrast between the Nazi-past and the post-war history was common to many of the discourses addressing the German case; and 3) Germany's success was, overall, viewed very positively, based on the normative appraisal of the basic values pursued by German society and of Germany's long efforts to build a Good Germany.