The Weight of 文化: Investigating the Relationship Between Stereotypes 和 Foreign Policy Through the Case Study of Heidelberg, 德国1871 - 1917

T他的框架, stereotypes 和 myths that together construct visions of “cultures” as unitary 和 monolithic groups of individuals simultaneously formulate 和 constrain the range of possible actions that a member of any particular culture can choose from. This paper aims to shed light on this process, by utilizing qualitative case-study analysis to examine dominant stereotypical representations of Germans 和 Russians between the unification of Germany in 1871 和 the October Revolution in 1917, focusing on the city of Heidelberg as a nexus of Russo-German intercultural interactions at the time. Through a constructivist lens, the paper examines private writings by contemporary German 和 Russian residents of Heidelberg to track 和 analyze changes in prevailing narratives of what makes a German “German” or a Russian “Russian,” then maps the observed changes to corresponding shifts in German 和 Russian foreign policy behavior. 最终, this research demonstrates that perceptions of culture can have a significant impact on decision-making, particularly in the foreign policy space.