»Weltanschauung« is an iridescent composite term that has made various careers – in intellectual discourses as well as in everyday language, in philosophy as well as in politics. Moreover, the word has become a specifically German-language and initially also specifically German legal term, which was and is used in the context of religious freedom. The fundamental right of individual »orientation towards meaning« (»Sinnorientierung«), formulated with the help of the worldview concept, puts religious and non-religious background beliefs in the same perspective. (...) In this perspective, which can be interpreted in terms of cultural philosophy, the ideological neutrality (»weltanschauliche Neutralität«) of the democratic constitutional state and tolerance as a civic virtue also become issues. (shrink)