Orient-ations

This chapter explores the German academic tradition of research on the Orient. It is divided into three main parts which look at the emergence of Oriental Studies prior to the formation of Germany as a nation-state in 1870/71 and, then, the specificities of Orientalism in the German Empire; at continuities and discontinuities in the Weimar Republic and during the Nazi reign; and finally, a comparative perspective on the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as well as the united (and Europeanised) country since 1990. Two main trends are highlighted: on the one hand, a strong philological tradition, which injects into German-language knowledge production a lasting disposition of text-based encounters in which actual humans and the contemporary Middle East often tend to play a minor role – but in which shared civilisational roots and entanglements between the Orient and the West are strongly emphasised, while stark forms of Othering do exist as well; on the other hand, a gradual transformation towards a greater consideration of social sciences as well as interdisciplinarity, while a debate on epistemic decolonisation has also been set in motion.