ELet us remember: The city of Frankfurt failed to launch the renovation of the Paulskirche and a major exhibition in time for the 175th anniversary of the meeting of the National Assembly in the Paulskirche in May 2023. That’s why the then mayor Peter Feldmann took a step forward and suggested in 2019 that the structural renovation of the Paulskirche should be embedded in the idea of a new house of democracy, the contents of which had to be intensively discussed beforehand.
Feldmann’s calculations worked out – the political discussion about the proposal distracted from his failings. In this discussion, the then Roman coalition (CDU, SPD and Greens) decided on a four-pillar model in 2019 and 2021 (permanent exhibition, teaching constitutional and architectural history as well as political education work).
Feldmann had secured the support of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, Monika Grütters, and the Hessian state government – who can say no to a project with such media impact? Monika Grütters probably also saw the opportunity to once again use federal money to influence the work of local cultural institutions. The federal government, state and city set up a commission of experts in 2021. In April 2023, shortly before the anniversary of May 18, the commission presented its recommendations.
A country without historical pride
Feldmann’s idea of a House of Democracy came about in 2019 against the background of the Paulskirche anniversary and the existing deficits, starting with the current presentation of the Paulskirche building, which in no way does justice to its historical significance – there is not even a proper information board at the entrance.
But: A lot of water has flowed down the Main since 2019. It is now evident: our democracy is at risk – we must not only remember it, but above all protect it. Democracy has lost a lot of its value. People are now missing political answers to the increasing, increasingly complex problems of today. They are increasingly irritated and even disgusted by the way “politics” work. This promotes opportunistic thinking and authoritarian desires.
Democracy as a form of state organization is an abstract concept. Until 1989, people in the Federal Republic liked democracy because the GDR didn’t have it. Since reunification, substantive reasons have been required. That’s a big part of the problem, it seems to me. If you ask French or Swiss people why democracy is so important to them, you will find out that they love their democracy because they are proud of their country, where democracy applies.
We largely lack this historical pride in our own country and its form of government. That is why we are more susceptible than others to doubts about democracy. We are proud of the achievements of historical figures like Goethe and Beethoven, but not of the country that produced them and in which they worked – the Holocaust in Nazi Germany overshadows everything positive on the credit side of the balance sheet. Because our national feeling is not at peace with itself like in other countries, we were proud of Germany as an economic wonderland, as a men’s and women’s soccer world champion and as an export world champion, but, without wanting to trivialize or suppress the Nazi past, not of Germany in general as a nation.
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