Gastfreundschaft der Kulturen

What constitutes a host culture — and why is awareness of it the very precondition for successful integration? Johannes Heinrichs undertakes a sober inquiry, committed to thought rather than party politics, factional thinking, or hysteria.

As early as 1994 — years before Germany’s Leitkultur (guiding culture) debate — Heinrichs introduced the concept of a host primary culture. His central thesis: a multicultural society in the sense of complete parity among all cultures is neither realistic nor desirable. Only the distinction between host culture and guest culture makes a cultivated coexistence possible. Cultures brought by immigrants enjoy, as secondary cultures, a guest right within the primary culture — without the individuals themselves having to remain mere guests.

Crucially, an enlightened awareness of cultural identity has nothing in common with nationalism. On the contrary, it is the condition for integration to succeed. These rules, derived from reason, are — Heinrichs argues — disregarded by left-wing multiculturalist ideologues just as much as by right-wing nationalists, and ignored by the political centre.

This edition

The second, expanded edition (first published 2017 by ibidem) supplements the clear- and far-sighted original with:

• the essay Cultural Solidarity — the Unrecognised Core of the Migration Problem
• a critical open letter to Bassam Tibi, who coined the term Leitkultur
• a concluding summary, “Results and Additions”

A contribution to the de-escalation of a debate that is particularly difficult to conduct in Germany — and one that the migration question has rendered almost uncannily topical.

Reflexivity Press · Collected Works Vol. 38 · 220 pages · First published 1994, expanded edition 2017 (ibidem)

Bibliography

Year

2025

Series

Gesammelte Werke (Volume 38)

License

Copyright

Where to Buy

Price: 19.90 EUR/USD

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