Luxury in Germany: Sick Cars and Healthy Bodies

Abstract

The car is one of the few luxury items that historically is widely accepted in Germany, the land of “discreet consumption.” This contribution draws on social science research, includes writings on popular culture, and presents examples from people and their cars in the media that give evidence of how luxury is increasingly emotionally charged, enriched, and negotiated. Cars were status symbols in Germany as a divided nation, with people in West Germany driving a Mercedes and people in the East driving a Trabant. Today, German rappers praise their “sick” cars, and paradox 'Bio-Germans' shield their luxury body in an expensive SUV. These examples illustrate luxury consumption that aesthetically and narratively links identities to cultural heritage. The media discourse reflects the symbolic and also the increasingly affective nature of luxury, while healthy “luxury” bodies remain in a competition for limited resources in a social context.