On the Way to Inclusive Identity? The German Perception of the Poles

This thesis focused on the inclusive identity debate of Liesbet Hooghe en Gary Marks and attempted to research whether a trend from an exclusive national identity towards an inclusive national identity could be indicated. Based on the assumption that a positive statement in the printed media could be the first step towards creating and/or obtaining a more inclusive identity. Therefore, printed media could contribute to stimulating a more inclusive idea of national identity, the central question of this research was to what extent German printed media has stimulated a positive change in the German perception of the Poles between 1989 and 2004? The thesis made use of critical discourse analysis in order to analyse articles of 'Der Spiegel' (German printed media).