Abstract EN:

Germany just celebrated its new-found national unity and in quebec, many people aspire to "national normality": the quebec-germans embody in a particularly vivid way the questions linked to the raison d'etre of nation-states, in a context of generalized cultural pluralism. This thesis, which includes numerous questionnaires and interviews, aims to trace the cultural development and the quest for identity of the german-quebecers. German culture in quebec, poised between a community strongly anchored in its "germanness" and the promise symbolized by canadian society, does not seem to be able to develop in the direction of a specific culture, capable of surviving in the north-american context. Besides, the emergence of a strong german-canadian identity is hampered by the weight of german history. By studying the various strategies established in order to "deal with" the past, it is obvious that a dialogue on history has hardly emerged. The fact remains that by superposing canadian identity on the layers of german identity, the german-canadians manage to create a stable sense of identity, at a time when multiculturalism has come to be officially enshrined in the canadian constitution, when the profile of the german-canadians is being raised. With regard to the specific aspects of the consciousness of german-quebecers, they depend on a system of interpretation - inspired by german history - that quebec-germans apply to quebec nationalism. Whether we are dealing with immigrants who arrived in the 1950s expecting an english-speaking america, and who were caught up in the turmoil of a quebec undergoing a social and linguistic revolution, or whether we're dealing with their children, who identify more often with french-speaking quebec, each group offers an invaluable insight into the workings of various types of nationalism - whether german, canadian or quebecois.