Combining notions of a homeland with feelings of rootedness and a sense of belonging, the elusive and untranslatable German term Heimat (homeland, home) has been at the center of cultural engagements in the German-speaking world since the late eighteenth century. The concept was easily misappropriated by the Nazis for their Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology that wedded racial nationalism with the quest for Lebensraum (living space) and the ensuing expulsion, genocide, and resettlement of lands. How does the notion of Heimat continue to be exploited for a national cause, and how has it been disrupted? How does the idea of Heimat resonate in contemporary Germany as a country of immigration and refugees, vis-à-vis supremacist notions of a homogeneous white, patriarchal, Christian, and monolingual nation? Can we reclaim new visions of an inclusive Heimat? 

 
This seminar focuses mostly on contemporary texts to explore concepts of Heimat and its discontents on three levels: 1) Heimat as rootedness in a specific locale or landscape, such as the German forest or mountains, but also the diverse urban center of Berlin; 2) Heimat as an ethnic affiliation culminating in racial supremacy, but also the intersectional identity formations resulting from experiences of migration, discrimination, and exclusion; 3) Heimat as our threatened planet earth, a concept fostered by the environmental justice movement. For each of these overlapping units, we will foreground marginalized voices in order to combat the continued and systemic workings of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and homophobia with a framework that poses Germany as a diverse, equitable, and inclusive Heimat.