什么是“Reich”?——从魏玛初期的国名之争看德国人的帝国观念

What is ’Reich’?——On the German Ideas of Empire from the Controversy around the Name of the Weimar Republic

魏玛共和国初期,国名问题曾是国民议会的讨论焦点之一。有关是否使用“Reich”一词的政治辩论,表现出一千年内德国人对不同帝国观念的接受、组合与实践的历史。它不仅仅反映了魏玛初期政治文化的问题,实际上更是德意志政治文化中带有明显延续性的体现。在这一意义上,关于帝国观念的梳理,理应成为诠释魏玛兴亡的一个重要视角。

The problem of the name of the new Germany was a focus of the debate in the national assembly in the beginning of the Weimar Republic. Whether or not to use the term "Reich" manifested how German adopted, accommodated and practiced the different concepts for their empire over the last millennium. This could not only reflect the problematic political culture of Weimar Germany, but also help us to find out some certain continuity in the German political culture, which could be considered as one of important perspectives on why the Weimar democracy failed.