Interior minister Thomas de Maizière’s newspaper column on Leitkultur seen by some as implicit attack on Muslim immigrants

An ear for Bach and Goethe, a willingness to shake hands, and pride in Europe, are just three of the distinguishing characteristics that the German interior minister has included in a catalogue of guidelines about what it means to be German.

The minister, Thomas de Maizière, has reignited a debate about the need to foster a Leitkultur – a dominant culture – which first surfaced in the 1990s and looks set to be one of the leading issues in the campaign for Germany’s general election in September.

The term Leitkultur is being used in debate about immigrants having to incorporate a set of shared cultural values to ensure German society functions smoothly.

Resurrected as political discourse, the topic has become dominated by discussion about the long-term integration prospects of the hundreds of thousands of refugees that Germany has taken in during recent years.

De Maizière, a Christian Democrat politician, used a guest column in the tabloid Bild am Sonntag to pose the question “who are we and who do we want to be?” He referred to Leitkultur as a vital “yardstick for the coexistence” of Germans and immigrants.

In his lengthy essay he took a critical and sweeping view of what has contributed to shaping modern Germany, from its classical music and philosophy to its darkest chapter, the Nazi era.

“We are the heirs of our history with all its highs and lows. Our past shapes our present and our culture,” he wrote.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest German fans celebrating during a World Cup match in Dortmund in 2006. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

De Maizière’s intervention has drawn a mixed response that has underlined just how sensitive the issue of national pride or patriotic traditions remains. Many Germans still find it difficult to contemplate harbouring such feelings lest they appear to be celebrating or belittling the crimes of the Nazi era. Flag waving only became at all acceptable in 2006 when Germany hosted the football World Cup.

Critics have accused de Maizière, a close ally of Angela Merkel, leader of the CDU party, of delivering nothing more than a thinly disguised critique of Muslim immigrants. Germany is home to about four million Muslims.

Writing in Der Spiegel, Severin Weiland accused de Maizière of digging up an old political debate so as to steal political thunder from the populist extremists Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Weiland referred to the propositions as nothing less than a “catalogue of behavioural guidelines for Muslims” meant to appease AfD supporters. He wrote: “His ‘we don’t do burkas’ can only be understood one way. His catalogue doesn’t even make an effort to pretend to be an elegant subtext – even the most politically illiterate can get what he’s driving at.”

He argued that de Maizière’s propositions came “at a time when the Christian Democrats under [their leader] Angela Merkel have moved so far to the left they have enabled the AfD to grow”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shoppers in Saxony-Anhalt. Bargain hunting has been listed as a national trait. Photograph: Eckehard Schulz/AP

The ideas have also fed into a fierce debate over the issue of dual citizenship, which some CDU politicians would like to abandon following the recent Turkish constitutional referendum. Of the 660,000 Turkish citizens living in Germany who voted in the referendum, more than 400,000 voted for President Erdoğan’s reforms. This has led to to questions over how they could claim loyalty to both countries.

The guidelines have also sparked a passionate national debate about alternative views of what it means to be German.

It is “different things to different people”, according to Nina Pauer, writing a response to de Maizière in the weekly Die Zeit, in which she listed more tangible traits such as a national hatred of drafts, a love of crusty bread, coffee and cake, and an obsession with punctuality. “In short, in Germany, we want everyone to be like us, because we do everything best,” she wrote.

Others have listed a host of characteristics, from a penchant for socks and sandals, to bargain hunting, hypochondria, and the habit of Wildpinkeln – peeing in public.

Joining the debate, the philosopher Jürgen Habermas said that de Maizière’s proposals were unhelpful, and would sit uneasily alongside the German constitution. But he said civil society in Germany should expect immigrant citizens who had come to the country to “immerse themselves in the political culture, even if they cannot be legally forced to do so”. He added: “You cannot for example force a Muslim to shake de Maizière’s hand.”

The word Leitkultur was originally a farming term to describe dominant plant varieties within a habitat. It has long been a favourite word of Germany’s rightwing thinkers, but was first used as a political term by the Syrian Islam expert Bassam Tibi, from the University of Göttingen, central Germany. He said, 20 years ago, that Europe needed a Leitkultur to consolidate its common values, such as tolerance, separation of church and state, and human rights.

• This article was amended on 8 May 2017 to clarify the number of Turkish citizens in Germany who voted in the referendum on President Erdoğan’s constitutional reforms.

