Reinterpreting the European Heritage since 1989: Culture as a Conflict of Interpretations

Abstract

The year 1989 marked a significant turning point in European history for many reasons.¹ Politically it marked the end of major ideological divides within Europe and opened the way for a new phase in the European project as a well as a new mode of self-reflection. It also marked the end of the so-called ‘short twentieth century’ and with it the narratives of Europe that dominated in this period. As is now only too apparent, the open horizon of the future that seemed to have been signalled by 1989 considerably faded by the early 1990s when the European past reasserted itself in the form of numerous nationalist conflicts. Prior to 1989 it was possible to speak of European unity only at the cost of excluding Central and Eastern Europe. The unity of Europe was the unity of the West and a unity that could with some plausibility be described as a political project underpinned by certain assumptions, such as liberal democracy, capitalism and Christianity. While 1989 opened up new opportunities for the project of European integration, leading to the enlargement process and the movement towards a quasiconstitutional structure, it has paradoxically led to greater uncertainty as to the identity of Europe and its values. It is not an exaggeration to speak of a crisis of European identity since about 1991.