This book explores the much contested concept of Germanness from a contemporary sociolinguistic perspective, tracing continuities and discontinuities in the development of Germany as a speech community from the formal division in the aftermath of the Second World War to the uncomfortable and problematic unity of the present day.

• 1: Introduction


• Part I


• 2: Germany and the Questione della Lingua


• 3: Building and Unbuilding the GDR


• Part II


• 4: Conflicting Patterns in the Use and Evaluation of Language


• 5: The Discursive Construction of Difference


• 6: Interpretations of east-west encounters


• 7: Conclusion

Patrick Stevenson studied at the Universities of Oxford, Sussex and Reading. He is currently Reader in German and Head of German Studies at the University of Southampton. He has published widely on many aspects of German sociolinguistics.