Summary

In their podcast discussion, Markus Lanz and Richard David Precht examine the phenomenon of "homeland" as a psychological and political anchor point in times of global mobility. Both analyze how tourism transforms Alpine regions, erodes local identities, and has repoliticized the sense of homeland as a counter-movement to globalization – particularly in eastern Germany after 1989. The central finding: homeland is not a static concept, but a constantly reinterpreted internal frame of reference that provides people with structure and belonging.

Persons

Topics

  • Loss of homeland through commercialization & overtourism
  • Identity, language, cultural continuity
  • Homeland as a political term (right-wing appropriation)
  • East German transformation experience after 1989
  • Memory & remembrance as homeland construction

Clarus Lead

Globalization and overtourism fragment traditional homeland concepts. Lanz observes in South Tyrol and the Alps how real estate prices, restaurant closures, and cultural alienation estrange residents – while simultaneously prosperity exploded. This ambivalence ("this damn prosperity") reflects a global trend: places lose their habitability for locals. Precht adds Solingen's counterpoint – desolation instead of overflow. Both identify homeland as a cognitive illusion: it constantly changes with our memory and our age, yet remains psychologically indispensable. The finding is politically explosive: the right has instrumentalized this emotional anchor, while the left has recklessly abandoned it.

Detailed Summary

The Loss of Homeland Through Prosperity

Lanz describes a paradox: the Alpine regions, once destitute (Swabian children were sent away as slave laborers), became wealthy through tourism. Yet this wealth destroys what anchors residents' sense of homeland – affordable prices, social proximity, cultural independence. In Cortina d'Ampezzo, for instance, shops are closed because rents have become unprofitable. Half a pound of butter costs there what it does in Hamburg's most expensive boutiques. Precht contrasts this with Solingen: there, the lack of tourism leads to desolation, not over-commercialization. Both extremes destroy homeland – through overflow or emptiness.

Homeland as Mental Construction

A neuropsychological core theme: memories are not images but constantly revised files. Every time we recall a memory, we store a new version – a memory of a memory. Therefore, homeland is by definition an "illusion" (Bernhard Schlink), because the childhood homeland no longer exists. People age, places change, our own body remains the same. Precht reports on letters he wrote as a child – they show him a version of himself that he no longer is, but also has not completely forgotten. This "partially identical" being with one's own past shapes the sense of homeland: melancholic, nostalgic, unreachable.

Homeland as a Political Arena

Since the 1980s, "homeland" as a political concept has been marginalized – the Federal Republic benefited from globalization and Europeanization. But since around 2010, right-wing parties have reclaimed the term to channel losses from globalization. Lanz criticizes the left for abandoning this terrain without a fight: whoever speaks of "homeland" today is immediately stigmatized as identitarian or Nazi. This is fatal, because homeland is not a right-wing monopoly – it is a universal need for structure and belonging. In the east, this is particularly virulent: after 1989, people lost not only a state, but an entire lived world (neighborhoods, civic spirit, their own biographies), without the West providing anything adequate in replacement.

Homeland and Language as Identity Protection

A dramatic example: when Mussolini Italianized South Tyrol, children were silenced on schoolyards – Italian was henceforth mandatory. This linguistic destruction was an existential attack on homeland and identity. Young South Tyroleans today reclaim their language and traditions without hating Italians. This shows: homeland and open society are not mutually exclusive. In parallel: migrants (such as the mentioned Güner Balci, integration officer) experience loss of homeland doubly – they must adapt to new places while familiar spaces (Neukölln) become alienated through cultural upheaval.

Core Messages

  • Prosperity is ambivalent: Economic advancement can mean cultural dissolution. Homeland requires habitability, not luxury.

  • Homeland is not a static object, but a constantly reinterpreted internal reference system that changes with age, memory, and place.

  • Language and cultural continuity are core pillars of identity – their destruction is an existential intervention.

  • The concept of homeland was abandoned by the left and colonized by the right – a political and moral defeat.

  • East German transformation experience since 1989 creates special vulnerability on the topic of homeland, as entire biographies were declared worthless.

  • Home ≠ Homeland: Home is personal (where one is loved), homeland is collective (where it matters whether I exist).

Critical Questions

  1. Data basis: Lanz cites specific figures (500,000 inhabitants of South Tyrol, 30 million overnight stays, 93 million overnight stays in Italian ski resorts). Are these current (2026) and measured on a comparable basis? How do they distinguish between day-trippers and overnight tourists?

  2. Causality – price explosion: Lanz argues tourism drives real estate prices. But: how much is demographic change, centralization, global capital vs. pure tourism? Are there Alpine regions that have tourism but stable prices?

  3. Conflict of interest – nostalgia bias: Both speakers idealize pasts (Precht: "loving melancholy" on Solingen; Lanz: peasant romanticism). How much is historically accurate vs. narrativized? Was life in the Alps in 1960 really "authentic" or just less mediatized?

  4. Implementability – homeland politics: If homeland has been captured by the right, how does the left reclaim the term without falling into kitsch or provincialism? More concretely: how can cities like Solingen combat desolation AND relieve overtourism destinations?

  5. Alternative hypotheses – language & identity: Lanz values linguistic theft as identity-destroying. Yet: are there successful multilingual-bicultural regions (e.g., Catalonia, Switzerland) that show multi-identity is possible?

  6. Memory – science: Precht cites a neuroscientist on memory models (Word document). Is this constructivism model scientifically consensual or disputed? Are there stable memory cores or is everything reconstructed?

  7. East Germany – temporality: The comparison with 1945 expellees is drawn. But: 1989 was not physical flight. Are psychological continuity losses really equivalent? Or does the discussion underestimate material and social factors (unemployment, deindustrialization)?

  8. Excursus Migrants – obligation of gratitude: Lanz suggests migrants owe "deep gratitude" toward the host nation. Is this empirical or a normative expectation that puts migrants under pressure?

Further News

None (mono-topic format)

Source Directory

Primary Source: Lanz & Precht: "Homeland – An Anchor in the Diffuse Present" – ZDF Podcast, Episode 234 (March 2026) Original URL: https://cdn.julephosting.de/podcasts/1355-lanz-precht/234972-234-heimat-ein-anker-in-der-diffusen-gegenwart.mp3

Mentioned Secondary Sources (referenced in podcast):

  • Bernhard Schlink: Homeland as Illusion (Statement: "Homeland remains an illusion because the homeland of childhood no longer exists")
  • Harald Welzer: Book on homeland (Quote: "Homeland is where it matters whether I exist")
  • Jean Améry: Beyond Guilt and Atonement (historical testimony, 1943 Belgium)
  • Güner Balci: [Title not mentioned, integration officer Neukölln] (on loss of homeland in Neukölln 1980s)
  • Christiane Hoffmann: Stage play [Title not named, Hamburg Thalia Theater] (on flight & expulsion)

Verification Status: ✓ 01.03.2026

This text was created with the support of an AI model. Editorial responsibility: clarus.news | Fact-check: 01.03.2026