Lammert insisted that he had never spoken of a German Leitkultur.

Lammert now restated his demand for a re-opening of the Leitkultur debate.

The concept of Leitkultur figured prominently in the national debate about a test for immigrants to Germany.

The mass-circulation Bild today described Leitkultur as an "unspeakable word."

This idea of 'Leitkultur' today, in a post-national Europe, is completely crazy."

Why this discomfort with multiculturalism, this belief that assimilation, accepting the leitkultur, is the only way?

He defined it in terms of what are commonly called western values, and spoke of an European rather than a German 'Leitkultur'.

"Humanismus als Leitkultur.

Many political figures and commentators have been saying that immigrants should accept what the Germans call the leitkultur, the dominant culture, as their own, or they should leave.

The essential elements of the German culture were not specifically German, he said, and it would be better to speak of a European Leitkultur.

It became the Leitkultur of the Roman Empire to the point of marginalizing native Italic traditions.

Mr. Merz has been called that, as well as a fool and provocateur, since he first used the term Leitkultur in mid-October.

Coming 10 years after German reunification, Mr. Merz's "Leitkultur" statement quickly led to a soul-searching debate about the nation's identity.

Pautz, Hartwig: Die deutsche Leitkultur.

A leading conservative politician has ignited a political storm by saying that the millions of foreigners in Germany must adopt a German "Leitkultur," or guiding culture.

In its lyrics, Egotronic often communicates political messages, for example on the debates on Leitkultur or Jürgen Möllemann.

He added that Germany needs to be more international and more modern rather than succumb to the "half-baked ideas" of a German "Leitkultur" - or guiding culture.

Bassam Tibi first suggested a 'Leitkultur' in his 1998 book Europa ohne Identität ('Europe without identity').

The German language term Leitkultur is a politically controversial concept, first introduced in 1998 by the German-Arab sociologist Bassam Tibi.

The Leitkultur furor appeared to reach its awkward culmination this week when the weekly Der Spiegel asked Ms. Merkel to free-associate from the word "Germany."

The opposition Christian Democrats, for example, speak of Leitkultur, or guiding culture - a potpourri of Christian and Enlightenment values to which immigrants are being asked to conform.

Criticisms of parallel societies established by immigrant communities increasingly came to the fore in the German public discourse during the 1990s, giving rise to the concept of the Leitkultur ("lead culture").

In 2005, the new presiding chairman of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert (CDU), proposed a re-opening of the debate on a Leitkultur.

Mr. Stoiber and the conservatives have emphasized the concept of Leitkultur, or guiding culture, to try to ensure that immigrants and their children assimilate, learning the German language and customs.

The title is a pun on conservative politician Günther Beckstein's term "deutsche Leitkultur" ("German leading culture"), demanding that foreigners subject themselves to the supposed standards of German culture.