Citizenship As Political Membership: A Fundamental Strand of 20th and 21st Century European History

An individual’s affiliation to a politically constituted community is decisive for their opportunities in life and often vital to their survival. This talk will argue that the primary signifier of political affiliation in 20th century Europe is “citizenship.” The importance attached to citizenship is what distinguishes the 20th century significantly from previous historical periods and other forms of political affiliation (religious, political party, ethnic, nation-state, and social class). With the democratization of political regimens, the expansion of participatory rights, the development of social welfare rights, and states increasingly closing themselves off from one another, citizenship began to grow in importance for individuals. Even the present processes of transnationalization, Europeanization and globalization can bring on only gradual and non-essential changes to the preeminence of citizenship, because the delineating political membership and distinguishing it from non-membership remain the primary functions of the state, even as it is increasingly losing its nation-state character.

About the Speaker: DIETER GOSEWINKEL is a historian and legal scholar at the Free University of Berlin who specializes in the modern history of Europe, history of citizenship, civil society, constitutional law, and Europeanism. He earned his degrees in law and history in Freiburg/Breisgau and Geneva. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, and a Thomas Mann Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles (www.vatmh.org). He was previously a co-director of the Center for Global Constitutionalism at the WZB Berlin (2011-2021) and the curator of the exhibition “Citizenships: France, Poland, Germany since1789” at the German Historical Museum Berlin (2020-2023).

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