Concept “Postnational” in German intellectual culture of the second half of the 20th century

Abstract

This article aims to track back a history of the concept “postnational” in German intellectual culture of the second half of the 20th century. The concept has been widely used in international debates on globalization in the wake of the 21st century, where German intellectuals took up leading positions. Such a reference to German intellectual tradition is to be explained by a unique FRG postwar experience where this concept has been forged and used in various sociopolitical and sociocultural contexts, well before the end of the cold war. I will be undertaking a reconstruction of the basic historical contexts, which make this concept open for interpretations, based on the historical semantics and conceptual history methodology. Contextual reconstruction is crucial, due to the nature concepts which makes them dependable on the context and doesn’t let them be interpreted by their internal meaning. The variety of contexts is to be limited by the basic academic texts, where concept «postnational» plays a key role. This genealogy is aimed to indicate intellectual continuity and evolution of this concept up to its wide use in international academic debates on globalization and cosmopolitism. This would also help to better understand a wide range of meanings ascribed to it.