UC San Diego

Attaining Mündigkeit, political maturity, implies finding one's voice. The attendant concept of citizenship gives the tradition of German political thought beginning with Luther its democratic imperative. I demonstrate the presence of this tradition in contemporary democratic theory through an analysis of Martin Luther, Samuel von Pufendorf, G.E. Lessing, Immanuel Kant, and G.W.F Hegel. The politics of interpreting and constructing the German language has shaped the language of modern politics