Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T07:19:06.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Belonging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2023

Ute Frevert
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin
Get access

Summary

The German word Geborgenheit – that deep and infinitely warm sense of safety and security, comfort and trust, loving protection and being taken care of that constitutes the feeling of belonging – is one of the most powerful emotions, albeit one difficult to translate into other languages. Geborgenheit is primarily formed in private spaces, especially within the family, but some also find it in language, literature or nature. Others simply associate it with Heimat, home, another emotionally laden concept, which seems to be a primarily private matter. This chapter though explores the political dimension of Geborgenheit and Heimat. It becomes an issue whenever a threat appears, especially in wartime, when soldiers go into the field under the banner of their endangered homeland and seek to protect the place and social context to which they felt they belong. Beyond the narrow horizon of each individual, that is, the region, family and cultural environment in which they had grown up, the feeling can also be projected to and from the fatherland or the nation. This chapter also explores the question of how being absent from home feels and translates into political action, namely by millions of refugees, expellees and migrants.

Keywords

Type
Chapter
Information
The Power of Emotions
A History of Germany from 1900 to the Present
, pp. 37 - 58
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Belonging
  • Ute Frevert, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin
  • Book: The Power of Emotions
  • Online publication: 14 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009376792.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Belonging
  • Ute Frevert, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin
  • Book: The Power of Emotions
  • Online publication: 14 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009376792.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Belonging
  • Ute Frevert, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin
  • Book: The Power of Emotions
  • Online publication: 14 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009376792.003
Available formats
×