DOCSLIB.ORG

Global Iconic Events

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Global Iconic Events Global Iconic Events: How News Stories Travel Through Time, Space and Media Julia Sonnevend Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Julia Sonnevend All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Global Iconic Events: How News Stories Travel Through Time, Space and Media Julia Sonnevend This dissertation examines how a news event may become a global social myth. In order to track this voyage from the particular to the universal, I developed a theoretical concept of “global iconic events.” I define global iconic events as news events that are covered extensively and remembered ritually by international media. I suggest five narrative aspects to consider in connection with them: (1) their narrative prerequisites; (2) their elevated and interpretative story; (3) their condensation into a simple phrase, a short narrative, and a recognizable visual scene; (4) their competing stories; and (5) their ability to travel across multiple media platforms and changing social and political contexts. I perform textual analysis on media representations from four distinct national contexts (West German, East German, Hungarian, and American) to examine two case studies. With the help of the central case study, the “fall of the Berlin Wall,” I exhibit the successful social construction of a global iconic event. The second case study, the 1956 Hungarian revolution, illuminates some factors, in particular local counter-narration, incoherent and contextual international representation, forgetting, and marginality of the event’s location, as instrumental in the failure of an event to become a global iconic event. While the East German border opening on November 9, 1989 was unintentional, confusing, and messy, its global message is not about “luck” or “accident” in history. Incarnated as a global iconic event, the fall of the Berlin Wall has come to communicate the momentary power that the otherwise hopelessly vulnerable individual can have. The event’s elevated and interpretative story, condensed into a simple phrase, a short narrative and a recognizable visual scene, provides global civil society with a contemporary social myth. Through recycling, reenactment, possession, memorialization and other embodiments, the event’s simple and universal story continues to travel successfully through time, space, and media, inspiring people in various parts of the world. In conclusion, I emphasize that when we examine the social construction of global iconic events, the stakes are high. I hope that this piece of academic writing will help us understand how powerful stories of events might shape the lives of those generations who come after us all over the world. Because in the end, after common currencies, military alliances, and international courts have failed, stories may well be all we have left to bring hope and unity. Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1. Theoretical Framework: From Media Events to Global Iconic Events ............ 8 PART I: Constructing Global Iconic Events: The Case of the Fall of the Berlin Wall Chapter 2. Narrative Prerequisites of the Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall................. 38 Chapter 3. “The Gates of the Wall Are Wide Open”: The Elevated and Interpretative West German Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall ........................................................... 72 Chapter 4. “Wall and Barbed Wire Do Not Divide Anymore”: Condensation into a Simple Phrase, a Short Narrative and a Recognizable Visual Scene................................ 96 Chapter 5. Passport, Visa, and Stamp: The East German Story of November 9, 1989.. 115 Chapter 6. The Berlin Twitter Wall: How the Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall Travels Through Time, Space, and Media................................................................................... 127 PART II: Deconstructing Global Iconic Events: The Case of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution Chapter 7. Narrative Prerequisites of the Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution ...... 165 Chapter 8. The “Hungarian Freedom Fighter” as Man of the Year: Condensation into a Simple Phrase, a Short Narrative and a Recognizable Visual Scene.............................. 171 Chapter 9. “We Greet You In the Name of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters”: The American Elevated and Interpretative Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution........... 177 Chapter 10. Why Did the Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution Not Travel Through Time, Space, and Media?................................................................................................ 196 Chapter 11. “Counterrevolutionaries”: The Hungarian Counter-narrative of the 1956 Revolution....................................................................................................................... 201 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 218 Research Design: My Travel Through Time, Space, and Media.................................... 229 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 241 i List of Figures Figure 1: One of the two remaining command posts in Berlin, located at Kieler Eck, surrounded by pink and white residential buildings. Figure 2: Brunnenstrasse and Bernauer Strasse corner in Berlin Mitte. Figure 3: Sculpture at Brunnenstrasse 142 Berlin by Michael Bauer, Florian Bauer and Edward Anders. Figure 4: “Kampfgruppen am Brandenburger Tor 1961.” Figure 5: “GDR border guards remove the body of Peter Fechter (1944 - 1962) after he was shot trying to cross the Berlin Wall to West Germany, 18th August 1962.” Figure 6: Window of Remembrance at the Berlin Wall Memorial. Figure 7: “Dismantling of the Iron Curtain in Hungary.” Figure 8: “East-German refugees show their passports to news reporters as they leave Prague on October 4, 1989.” Figure 9: “International Press Center at Mohrenstrasse, East Berlin, November 9, 1989.” Figure 10: “Robin Lautenbach with passers-by at Invalidenstrasse,” Tagesthemen, November 9, 1989 (NDR) Figure 11: “The SED Opens Borders to the West: Nobody Will Be Prevented from Departure,” front page of Die Welt, November 10, 1989. Figure 12a: “The German People Are the Happiest in the World,” front page of Die Welt, November 11, 1989 [left side]. Figure 12b: “The German People Are the Happiest in the World,” front page of Die Welt, November 11, 1989 [right side]. Figure 13: “The GDR Opens Its Borders to the Federal Republic,” front page of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 10, 1989. Figure 14: “Wall and Barbed Wire Do Not Divide Anymore,” front page of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 11, 1989. Figure 15: “The GDR Cracks the Wall,” front page of Süddeutsche Zeitung on November 11, 1989. Figure 16: “Done! The Wall Is Open,” front page of Bild, November 10, 1989. Figure 17: Front page image of Bild, November 11, 1989. ii Figure 18: Hanns Joachim Friedrichs in Tagesthemen (NDR), November 10, 1989. Figure 19: Volker Jelaffle in Heute (ZDF), November 10, 1989. Figure 20: “Crossing the border with a Trabi: Manuela and Klaus left everything behind – today it’s possible to return,” Bild, November 10, 1989. Figure 21: “Two members of the People’s Police motionlessly observe the happenings: West Berliner crowds greet the visitors from East Berlin creating a thick corridor and waving the German flag,” Bild, November 11, 1989. Figure 22: “The mule says to the Trabi: if you are a car, I am a horse,” Thomas Mauz, Bild, November 11, 1989, p. 8. Figure 23: “Sarah – The Open Wall Baby,” Bild, November 13, 1989, p. 3. Figure 24: “Long Lines in Front of Banks – Money Became Scarce,” Bild, November 13, 1989, p. 5. Figure 25a: “Reformer Modrow announces dialogue about the opening of the Brandenburg Gate,” front page of Berliner Morgenpost, November 14, 1989. Figure 25b: “Berlin Revives: The Entire City Awaits – When Does the Gate Open?” Berliner Morgenpost, November 14, 1989, p. 5. Figure 26: “Images That Move the United States: NBC Correspondent Garrick Utley Reports Directly from the Brandenburg Gate,” Die Welt, November 14, 1989, p. 3. Figure 27: “Brandenburg Gate – The Most Interesting Spot On Our Planet,” Bild, November 17, 1989, p. 3. Figure 28: “Berlin Waited for the Opening of the Brandenburg Gate,” front page of Berliner Morgenpost, November 15, 1989. Figure 29: “Brandenburg Gate – Opens Today? Berliners Waited Entire Night,” front page of Bild, November 15, 1989. Figure 30: “The Brandenburg Gate: Landmark of Berlin and Highly Symbolic Monument For Two Hundred Years of German History,” Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 16, 1989, p. 13. Figure 31: “Rejoicing on the day after. Willy Brandt next to Mayor Walter Momper, in front of the Brandenburg Gate,” Die Zeit, November 17, 1989, p. 6. Figure 32: “Berlin’s Nicest Gift. The Brandenburg Gate on the East Side Just Before 3PM Yesterday Afternoon: Thousands Awaited the Moment of Opening,” Berliner Morgenpost, December 23, 1989, p. 3. Figure 33: “The Brandenburg Gate is Open. Entire Berlin Celebrates. Kohl: We Want Peace, We Want Freedom. Modrow Also Commemorates the Victims of the Wall,” front page of Die Welt, December 23, 1989. iii Figure 34: “Kennedy with Brandt in Berlin,” front page of Berliner Morgenpost, November 29, 1989. Figure 35: Frankfurter
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Wallmaps.Pdf
    S Prenzlauer Allee U Volta Straße U Eberswalder Straße 1 S Greifswalder Straße U Bernauer Straße U Schwartzkopff Straße U Senefelderplatz S Nordbanhof Zinnowitzer U Straße U Rosenthaler Plaz U Rosa-Luxembury-Platz Berlin HBF DB Oranienburger U U Weinmeister Straße Tor S Oranienburger S Hauptbahnhof Straße S Alexander Platz Hackescher Markt U 2 S Alexander Plaz Friedrich Straße S U Schilling Straße U Friedrich Straße U Weberwiese U Kloster Straße S Unter den Linden Strausberger Platz U U Jannowitzbrucke U Franzosische Straße Frankfurter U Jannowitzbrucke S Tor 3 4 U Hausvogtei Platz U Markisches Museum Mohren Straße U U Spittelmarkt U Stadtmitte U Heirch-Heine-Straße S Ostbahnhof Potsdamer Platz S U Potsdamer Platz 5 S U Koch Straße Warschauer Straße Anhalter Bahnhof U SS Moritzplatz U Warschauer Mendelssohn- U Straße Bartholdy-Park U Kottbusser Schlesisches Tor U U Mockernbrucke U Gorlitzer U Prinzen Straße Tor U Gleisdreieck U Hallesches Tor Bahnhof U Mehringdamm 400 METRES Berlin wall - - - U Schonlein Straße Download five Eyewitnesses describe Stasi file and discover Maps and video podtours Guardian Berlin Wall what it was like to wake the plans had been films from iTunes to up to a divided city, with made for her life. Many 1. Bernauer Strasse Construction and escapes take with you to the the wall slicing through put their lives at risk city to use as audio- their lives, cutting them trying to oppose the 2. Brandenburg gate visual guides on your off from family and regime. Plus Guardian Life on both sides of the iPod or mp3 player. friends.
    [Show full text]
  • Archbishop Says Berlin Wall Was a Good Friday in German History
    Archbishop says Berlin Wall was a Good Friday in German history BERLIN (CNS) — Catholics and Protestants gathered Aug. 13 to remember the day in 1961 when their city was divided, becoming a symbol of the Cold War. Catholic Archbishop Heiner Koch joined his Protestant counterpart, Bishop Christian Stäblein, for an ecumenical prayer service in the Chapel of Reconciliation, on the spot where part of the wall was built. Today, a few wall remnants still remain in a remembrance garden. Archbishop Koch reminded those gathered in the small chapel that without Good Friday, there would not have been a Resurrection on Easter. “Today we remember one of the Good Fridays in the history of Berlin and Germany. We have gathered at one of the many Golgotha mounds in our city and our country, directly at a monument that for many of us was a symbol of bondage and confinement, and which reminds us today of the preciousness of freedom,” he said. Archbishop Koch remembered how, as a young boy, he was on vacation with his parents in Italy when the wall went up. He recalled the anger and powerlessness of his parents and other adults as they watched, in disbelief, the images on television. It was his mother’s birthday, but no one was celebrating. Early on that Sunday morning in 1961, the Soviet sector border was sealed off when more than 10,000 East German security forces started to tear up the pavement in Berlin; they erected barricades and barbed wire fences. A few days later, the concrete slabs that would become the wall started to go up.
    [Show full text]
  • The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961-1989 by Hans-Hermann Hertle/Maria Nooke August 2011
    Special CWIHP Research Report The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961-1989 By Hans-Hermann Hertle/Maria Nooke August 2011 Forty-four years after the Berlin Wall was built and 15 years after the East German archives were opened, reliable data on the number of people killed at the Wall were still lacking. Depending on the sources, purpose, and date of the studies, the figures varied between 78 (Central Registry of State Judicial Administrations in Salzgitter), 86 (Berlin Public Prosecution Service), 92 (Berlin Police President), 122 (Central Investigation Office for Government and Unification Criminality), and more than 200 deaths (Working Group 13 August). The names of many of the victims, their biographies and the circumstances in which they died were widely unknown.1 This special CWIHP report summarizes the findings of a research project by the Center for Research on Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Memorial Site and Documentation Center which sought to establish the number and identities of the individuals who died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 and to document their lives and deaths through historical and biographical research.2 Definition In order to provide reliable figures, the project had to begin by developing clear criteria and a definition of what individuals are to be considered victims at the Berlin Wall. We regard the “provable causal and spatial connection of a death with an attempted escape or a direct or indirect cause or lack of action by the ‘border organs’ in the border territory” as the critical factor. In simpler terms: the criteria are either an attempted escape or a temporal and spatial link between the death and the border regime.
    [Show full text]
  • THE CYPRUS GREEN LINE – BRIDGING the GAP by Zachariasantoniades the Cyprus Buffer Zone Divides the Old City of Nicosia Into North and South • Abstract
    Ch llenges for a new future THE CYPRUS GREEN LINE – BRIDGING GAP By Zacharias Antoniades The Cyprus buffer zone divides the old city of Nicosia into North and South • Abstract ............................... 06 • Introduction: Brief story of Nicosia ............................... 08 • "Borders are the scars of history". ............................... 14 • Lessons from Berlin ............................... 20 • Is a border purely a point of division, or can it also become one of contact between two ............................... 26 different cultures? Contents • “Third-spaces create space for envisioning ............................... 32 changes in divided cities” • The appropriate program for the appropriate ............................... 36 building. • Conclusion ............................... 42 • Bibliography ............................... 45 • Websites ............................... 47 3 4 Abstract Since 1974, Cyprus, the country that I call home has been divided in two parts, separating the two major ethnicities of the island (Greeks and Turks). In between these north and south parts lies the well-known Cyprus Buffer zone that to this day expresses the realities of the armed conflict that took place there four decades ago. This buffer zone rep- resents the lack of communication and mistrust that exists between the two ‘rival’ sides. As a Cypriot designer I felt the need to come up with an appropri- ate project that will bring people closer together, giving them the chance to communicate, debate, exchange knowledge and views and generally understand the needs of each side leading to a better and smoother social and cultural blend thus making it easier for the people to digest any future plans of total reunification. In order to get inspiration and a better understanding of how to deal with such situations I examined borders and their evolvement at differ- ent scales and contexts, but also looking at various peace-promoting projects in conflict zones.
    [Show full text]
  • Walls and Fences: a Journey Through History and Economics
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Vernon, Victoria; Zimmermann, Klaus F. Working Paper Walls and Fences: A Journey Through History and Economics GLO Discussion Paper, No. 330 Provided in Cooperation with: Global Labor Organization (GLO) Suggested Citation: Vernon, Victoria; Zimmermann, Klaus F. (2019) : Walls and Fences: A Journey Through History and Economics, GLO Discussion Paper, No. 330, Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/193640 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Walls and Fences: A Journey Through History and Economics* Victoria Vernon State University of New York and GLO; [email protected] Klaus F. Zimmermann UNU-MERIT, CEPR and GLO; [email protected] March 2019 Abstract Throughout history, border walls and fences have been built for defense, to claim land, to signal power, and to control migration.
    [Show full text]
  • Ard-Leitlinien-2018-2019-102.Pdf
    BERICHT 2017/18 UND LEITLINIEN 2019/20 FÜR DAS ERSTE Das Erste Bericht 2017/2018 Leitlinien 2019/2020 1 BERICHT 2017/18 UND LEITLINIEN 2019/20 FÜR DAS ERSTE Bericht der ARD über die Erfüllung ihres Auftrags, über die Qualität und Quantität ihrer Angebote und Programme sowie über die geplanten Schwerpunkte (§ 11e Rundfunkstaatsvertrag) inhalt Das Erste – ein Programm der Verlässlichkeit, Integration und Innovation Einführung von Volker Herres, Programmdirektor Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen . Seite 3 Das Erste bewegt – Leitbild für das Programm . Seite 6 Allgemeine Qualitätskriterien . Seite 8 1 . Information . Seite 9 2 . Kultur . Seite 29 3 .Bildung, Wissen und Beratung . Seite 46 4 . Unterhaltung . Seite 55 5 .Kinder und Familie . Seite 68 6 .Teilhabe und Teilnahme – öffentlich-rechtlicher Mehrwert für alle .. Seite 76 7 . Digitale Perspektiven . Seite 87 2 BERICHT 2017/18 UND LEITLINIEN 2019/20 FÜR DAS ERSTE das erste – ein programm der verlässlichkeit, integration und innovation Einführung von Volker Herres, Programmdirektor Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Es ist nicht zu übersehen: Selten war die Gesellschaft in Deutschland so gespalten, die Stimmung so aufgeheizt, die Sprache so entfesselt . Ein Verlust von Zugehörigkeitsgefühl, ein fehlender Konsens über das, was uns als Gemeinschaft ausmacht und definiert, ist aller Orten zu spüren . Damit einher gehen Unzufriedenheit, Misstrauen, Anfeindungen und ein Vertrauensdefizit gerade auch in die Institutionen, die über viele Jahrzehnte für den inneren Zusammenhalt gesorgt haben . Die ARD und ihr Flagg- schiffprogramm Das Erste bleiben von dieser Stimmung nicht unberührt, auch wenn wir in allen Umfragen bei der großen Mehr- heit der Bevölkerung unverändert Vertrauen genießen . Der verfassungsmäßige Auftrag einer unabhängigen, öffentlich-rechtli- chen Grundversorgung wird gleichwohl zunehmend in Frage gestellt .
    [Show full text]
  • Title of Thesis: ABSTRACT CLASSIFYING BIAS
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis Directed By: Dr. David Zajic, Ph.D. Our project extends previous algorithmic approaches to finding bias in large text corpora. We used multilingual topic modeling to examine language-specific bias in the English, Spanish, and Russian versions of Wikipedia. In particular, we placed Spanish articles discussing the Cold War on a Russian-English viewpoint spectrum based on similarity in topic distribution. We then crowdsourced human annotations of Spanish Wikipedia articles for comparison to the topic model. Our hypothesis was that human annotators and topic modeling algorithms would provide correlated results for bias. However, that was not the case. Our annotators indicated that humans were more perceptive of sentiment in article text than topic distribution, which suggests that our classifier provides a different perspective on a text’s bias. CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Gemstone Honors Program, University of Maryland, 2018 Advisory Committee: Dr. David Zajic, Chair Dr. Brian Butler Dr. Marine Carpuat Dr. Melanie Kill Dr. Philip Resnik Mr. Ed Summers © Copyright by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang 2018 Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our mentor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Hansjürgen Rosenbauer, Geb
    Rundfunkhistorisches Gespräch mit Hansjürgen Rosen- bauer Prof. Dr. Hansjürgen Rosenbauer, geb. 10.12.1941, studierte Germanistik, Politik und So- ziologie in Frankfurt/M. und New York. 1968 wurde er mit dem Thema „Brecht und der Behaviorismus“ an der New York University promoviert. Er arbeitete als freier Autor für verschiedene Zeitungen und den Hörfunk, bevor er 1969 beim Hessischen Rundfunk (hr) als Fernsehredakteur („Titel, Thesen, Temperamente“) eingestellt wurde. Er war ARD-Kor- respondent in Prag, Redakteur und Kommentator im ARD-Studio Bonn sowie Moderator (und teilweise auch Erfinder) mehrerer Sendereihen (z.B. „Je später der Abend“, „Welts- piegel“, „Kulturweltspiegel“, „Weltspiegel für Kinder“, „Ich trage einen großen Namen“, „Rosenbauer im Gespräch“). Im WDR leitete er zunächst die Auslandsredaktion und dann den Programmbereich Kultur, Wissenschaft und Bildung. Seit der Gründung des Ostdeutschen Rundfunks Brandenburg (ORB) im Jahr 1991 bis zu dessen Fusion mit dem Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) 2003 war er Intendant des ORB in Potsdam. Von 1990 bis 2006 war er Professor an der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM) im Fachbereich Film/Fernsehen und lehrt derzeit an der Universität der Künste in Berlin. Er wirkte im Filmbeirat des Goethe-Instituts sowie vier Jahre lang als Präsident der INPUT (International Public Television Conference). Seit 2003 ist Rosenbauer Mitglied des Medienrats der Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (mabb), seit 2014 dessen Vorsitzender. Margarete Keilacker führte mit ihm am 12. Mai 2016 das folgende Zeitzeugengespräch. Was möchten Sie denn in diesem Gespräch unbedingt festgehalten haben? Es gibt ein grundsätzliche Unterbewertung von Kultur im Medium Fernsehen und in der Gesellschaft. Kultur wird als Kunst verstanden, zunehmend als Event, als Unterhaltung.
    [Show full text]
  • After the Berlin Wall Hope M
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-04931-4 — After the Berlin Wall Hope M. Harrison Frontmatter More Information AFTER THE BERLIN WALL The history and meaning of the Berlin Wall remain controversial, even three decades after its fall. Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources and interviews, this book profiles key memory activists who have fought to commemorate the history of the Berlin Wall and examines their role in the creation of a new German national narrative. With victims, perpetrators, and heroes, the Berlin Wall has joined the Holocaust as an essential part of German collective memory. Key Wall anniversaries have become signposts marking German views of the past, its relevance to the present, and the complicated project of defining German national iden- tity. Considering multiple German approaches to remembering the Wall via memorials, trials, public ceremonies, films, and music, this revelatory work also traces how global memory of the Wall has impacted German memory policy. It depicts the power and fragility of state-backed memory projects, and the potential of such projects to reconcile or divide. hope m. harrison is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University. The recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, the Wilson Center, and the American Academy in Berlin, she is the author of Driving the Soviets up the Wall (2003), which was awarded the 2004 Marshall Shulman Book Prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, and was also published to wide acclaim in German translation. She has served on the National Security Council staff, currently serves on the board of three institutions in Berlin connected to the Cold War and the Berlin Wall, and has appeared on CNN, the History Channel, the BBC, and Deutschlandradio.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Context of Eu Accession in Hungary
    European Programme November 2002 THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EU ACCESSION IN HUNGARY Agnes Batory Introduction For the second time since the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty – seen by many as a watershed in the history of European integration – the European Union (EU) is set to expand. Unlike in 1995, when the group joining the Union consisted of wealthy, established liberal democracies, ten of the current applicants are post-communist countries which recently completed, or are still in various stages of completing, democratic transitions and large-scale economic reconstruction. It is envisaged that the candidates furthest ahead will become members in time for their citizens to participate in the next elections to the European Parliament due in June 2004. The challenge the absorption of the central and east European countries represents for the Union has triggered a need for internal institutional reform and new thinking among the policy-makers of the existing member states. However, despite the imminence of the ‘changeover’ to a considerably larger and more heterogeneous Union, the domestic profiles of the accession countries have remained relatively little known from the west European perspective. In particular, the implications of enlargement in terms of the attitudes and preferences of the new (or soon to be) players are still, to a great extent, unclear. How will they view their rights and obligations as EU members? How committed will they be to the implementation of the acquis communautaire? In what way will they fill formal rules with practical content? BRIEFING PAPER 2 THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EU ACCESSION IN HUNGARY Naturally, the answers to these questions can only government under the premiership of Miklós Németh be tentative at this stage.
    [Show full text]
  • Machtwechsel in Ost-Berlin. Der Sturz Walter Ulbrichts 1971
    JOCHEN STELKENS MACHTWECHSEL IN OST-BERLIN Der Sturz Walter Ulbrichts 1971 „Nach reiflicher Überlegung habe ich mich entschlossen, das Zentralkomitee auf seiner heutigen Tagung zu bitten, mich von der Funktion des Ersten Sekretärs des Zentralko­ mitees der SED zu entbinden. Die Jahre fordern ihr Recht und gestatten es mir nicht län­ ger, eine solche anstrengende Tätigkeit wie die des Ersten Sekretärs des Zentralkomitees auszuüben. Ich erachte daher die Zeit für gekommen, diese Funktion in jüngere Hände zu geben, und schlage vor, Genossen Erich Honecker zum Ersten Sekretär des Zentral­ komitees zu wählen."1 Eher nüchtern und scheinbar auch gefaßt verabschiedete sich Walter Ulbricht am 3. Mai 1971 auf der 16. ZK-Tagung der SED von der großen Weltpo­ litik, und man hätte auf den ersten Blick vermuten können, daß es sich - hauptsächlich wegen seines fortgeschrittenen Alters - um einen reibungslosen Übergang zu seinem Nachfolger Erich Honecker handelte. Hermann Axen, schon damals und noch bis 1989 Mitglied des Politbüros sowie Sekretär des ZK für internationale Verbindungen, nährte nach dem Fall der Mauer solche Mutmaßungen2: „Die Ablösung war kein Coup, kein Komplott. Es war nicht gemanagt. Hätten wir das nicht getan, wäre Walter Ulbricht frü­ her gestorben; wir haben sein Leben verlängert. Leicht ist ihm die Korrektur, die der VIII. Parteitag vornahm, und die Tatsache, daß er nicht mehr Erster Sekretär der Partei war, natürlich nicht gefallen. Schon auf dem 16. Plenum hatte er die Entscheidung ehrlich akzeptiert und Erich Honecker als seinen Nachfolger umarmt und beglückwünscht. Wir müssen Hochachtung vor Walter empfinden, der die Partei über alles stellte."3 Allerdings war schon ziemlich bald für DDR-Forscher im Westen klar, daß der Machtwechsel von Ulbricht zu seinem politischen Ziehsohn Honecker nicht so rei­ bungslos verlaufen war, wie ihn die SED nach außen darstellen wollte.
    [Show full text]
  • Explaining Irredentism: the Case of Hungary and Its Transborder Minorities in Romania and Slovakia
    Explaining irredentism: the case of Hungary and its transborder minorities in Romania and Slovakia by Julianna Christa Elisabeth Fuzesi A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Government London School of Economics and Political Science University of London 2006 1 UMI Number: U615886 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615886 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Signature Date ....... 2 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Abstract of Thesis Author (full names) ..Julianna Christa Elisabeth Fiizesi...................................................................... Title of thesis ..Explaining irredentism: the case of Hungary and its transborder minorities in Romania and Slovakia............................................................................................................................. ....................................................................................... Degree..PhD in Government............... This thesis seeks to explain irredentism by identifying the set of variables that determine its occurrence. To do so it provides the necessary definition and comparative analytical framework, both lacking so far, and thus establishes irredentism as a field of study in its own right. The thesis develops a multi-variate explanatory model that is generalisable yet succinct.
    [Show full text]