Four years ago, before Sept. 11 and worldwide Islamic terrorism, Germany wrangled with a particularly pernicious topic known as the "Leitkultur" (leading culture) debate. Essentially, the debate focused on foreigners living in Germany and to what extent they can, and should, be made to adhere to German culture. The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and the resulting violence in Holland has brought the discussion back -- and has Germans wondering just how integrated their own society really is. On Sunday, more than 25,000 predominately Turkish Muslims demonstrated against Islamic terror in Cologne in a bid to prove that not all Muslims are extremists or tacitly support extremism. At the same time, the conservative Christian Social Union in Bavaria unanimously agreed that foreigners living in Germany "must fully accept" Germany's system of law and values "and our Leitkultur." The vote has no influence on current policy, but on Monday, newspapers buzzes with opinions and declarations.

"The attack on Islam-critical director Theo Van Gogh has abruptly forced us to admit that the pervasiveness of pizza, kebabs and caipirinhas says little about how multi-cultural a society is, writes the Financial Times Deutschland. "Germans are suddenly asking themselves if the three million Muslims living with them are a danger for the society, culture and daily life. That is hysteria." Still, the paper says, for too long, questions of integration have either been relegated to "disinterst, pseudo-tolerance and hope that the issue will simply solve itself." Something has to be done, it says, and "Germany has to lead" the integration process.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung agrees, and insists that the controversial word "Leitkultur" is pivotal. "Perhaps we really are at the beginning of a serious debate about how Muslim immigrants (and their children) are to be integrated, about the criteria by which the success of integration is to be measured and about whether integration is sufficient as a goal," the paper writes. "In this debate it will not be possible to omit the issue of Leitkultur and the obligations a self-confident society can demand from those who live in its midst."

The daily tabloid Bild takes a kinder, gentler stand, praising the courage of the Muslims who demonstrated on Sunday. "The Muslims who gathered in the streets of Cologne to demonstrate for peaceful cohabitation with us are a sign of hope.... They openly show a liking for their host country. The demonstration is a beginning, an open declaration stating: "We will not allow fundamentalists to stir up conflict between us." Neither will we." The Berliner Zeitung too, lauds Germany's Muslims, saying the demonstrators "could have spent Sunday afternoon at home, at the movies, with friends or at the swimming pool. They didn't have to go out in the cold waving (Turkish) flags to state publicly that regardless of what nationalities, religions or ideologies terrorists usurp and twist to their purposes, they (real Muslims) are peace-loving people who do not beat their wives or attack their neighbors."

The left-leaning Sueddeutsche Zeitung says the demonstration was pivotal because it shows that Turkish Muslims are ready to take part in the debate. "More than anything, the Cologne demonstration shows that the argument over integration and parallel societies ... is not a cultural battle. It is a political battle ... and it is as divisive an issue within the Muslim community as it is between the Muslims and the Christian-leaning society."

Finally, the financial daily Handelsblatt features a long piece by Guenter Piening, who is responsible for integration and migration issues in the Berlin Senate. According to Piening, "Good integration policy goes to work in many places: in residential districts, where active citizens of various nations create new friendships; in schools, where new forms of parenting are tried out; and in the government, where discussions about how best to reach minorities occur." Piening warns of the danger of looking for quick solutions and says "Integration politics needs to take a deep breath."

Speaking of breath, German papers are still catching theirs after a SPIEGEL report came out over the weekend claiming German army officials had tortured recruits. Eighteen Bundeswehr training officers -- including one supervisor -- from a base in Coesefeld in northwestern Germany are suspected of abusing 70 to 80 subordinates by subjecting them to electric shocks and simulated prisoner abuse. The public prosecutor in nearby Muenster confirmed the reports Monday.

"The German army rushed to clarify that these incidents are 'singular,'" writes the Berliner Zeitung. "That is definitely not true." Part of the problem, the paper argues, is the intimidation many soldiers feel to come forward with complaints about abuse. In this case, the alleged abuse occurred in June, just as the world focused on the torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. "It took a long time, when one thinks of the young abused men, before the abusers were called out for their actions. Still, when one thinks about other instances of this sort, the news came out very quickly." Hopefully, the paper says, the incident will bring abuse to the fore. "It won't help prevent future instances of abuse and mistreatment, but it might help future victims come forward quicker," it writes.