Revolution and Nation - 1989/90 in Historical Perspective

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Revolution and Nation - 1989/90 in Historical Perspective A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Kocka, Jürgen Article Revolution and nation - 1989/90 in historical perspective The European studies journal Provided in Cooperation with: WZB Berlin Social Science Center Suggested Citation: Kocka, Jürgen (1993) : Revolution and nation - 1989/90 in historical perspective, The European studies journal, ISSN 0820-6244, University of Northern Iowa, Department of Modern Languages, Cedar Falls, Iowa, Vol. 10, Iss. 1/2, pp. 45-56 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/122768 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 WZB-Open Access Digitalisate WZB-Open Access digital copies Das nachfolgende Dokument wurde zum Zweck der kostenfreien Onlinebereitstellung digitalisiert am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH (WZB). Das WZB verfügt über die entsprechenden Nutzungsrechte. Sollten Sie sich durch die Onlineveröffentlichung des Dokuments wider Erwarten dennoch in Ihren Rechten verletzt sehen, kontaktieren Sie bitte das WZB postalisch oder per E-Mail: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH Bibliothek und wissenschaftliche Information Reichpietschufer 50 D-10785 Berlin E-Mail: [email protected] The following document was digitized at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) in order to make it publicly available online. The WZB has the corresponding rights of use. If, against all possibility, you consider your rights to be violated by the online publication of this document, please contact the WZB by sending a letter or an e-mail to: Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) Library and Scientific Information Reichpietschufer 50 D-10785 Berlin e-mail: [email protected] Digitalisierung und Bereitstellung dieser Publikation erfolgten im Rahmen des Retrodigitalisierungs- projektes OA 1000+. Weitere Informationen zum Projekt und eine Liste der ca. 1 500 digitalisierten Texte sind unter http://www.wzb.eu/de/bibliothek/serviceangebote/open-access/oa-1000 verfügbar. This text was digitizing and published online as part of the digitizing-project OA 1000+. More about the project as well as a list of all the digitized documents (ca. 1 500) can be found at http://www.wzb.eu/en/library/services/open-access/oa-1000. Revolution and Nation - 1989/90 in Historical Perspective1 Jürgen Kocka I Europe’s Unity The French Revolution of 1789 deepened the division of Europe. It led into two decades of European wars. For more than a century, the development of Central and Eastern Europe differed from the West European pattern, since most countries east of the River Rhine neither accepted nor imitated the socio-political model of the French Revolution, but reacted with a mixture of adjustment and rejection. A gradual estrangement between Western Europe and Central Europe began, and this was one root of the "German divergence from the West" which reached its climax in the 1930s and 1940s. The Russian Revolution of 1917 laid the ground for another, even deeper division of Europe. It triggered a long conflict between oppositional ideologies and systems, a conflict which fundamentalized the struggle between the two great powers after 1945 and which reached its climax in the Cold War. This East/West conflict divided Germany, polarized Europe and contributed to the levelling-off of the old line of tension which had separated Germany from the West. By contrast, the Central and East-European revolutions of 1989 have contributed to uniting the continent. They have started or accelerated the transition towards a general European pattern where it had been forestalled until then. This general European pattern consists of a market-based but government influenced economy; of a pluralist, but unequal society; and of a liberal-democratic government organized around parties and state-interest-group mediation. Certainly, in individual countries, transition towards this pattern is occurring with different speed in different forms, with different chances of success. On the way it may turn out that such a transition The European Studies Journal Vol. X, No. 1-2 /1993 ISSN 0820-6244 presupposes a degree of socio-economic maturity and certain cultural traditions which do not yet exist everywhere. Probably, differences between the West and the East of the continent, between the European core and the European periphery will become more visible again in the years to come. Old divides along national and cultural lines will reemerge. These will be sources of new problems, tensions and conflicts. There will be no "end of history" and no end of wars, even within Europe. Nevertheless, with respect to the basic economic order, with respect to constitutional principles, and with respect to official political philosophy, Europe today is less fragmented, less divided than it has been at any point in time within the last two centuries. Actually, this new European consensus is a Western consensus, shared by countries like the United States of America and Australia, while Russia and the other successor states of the Soviet Union approach it only halfheartedly and with very uncertain chances of success. 2 Particularities of the Revolution of 1989 Why should the changes of 1989/90 have had such a unifying effect on most of Europe? Certainly, the developments differed from country to countiy, but there were some similarities. There are three characteristics of the 1989 revolutions which can be put into historical perspective, and which may explain their unifying effect.I. I. On Ideas and Aims In contrast to 1789 and 1917, the revolutions of 1989 were not inspired by new, utopian ideas, nor did they give birth to new visions of alternative systems or alternative ways of life. Certainly, theories of a "third way" between Eastern state socialism and Western state-influenced capitalism were looked for, but could not be found. Certainly, intellectuals and some politicians advocated "socialism with a human face" again, but wherever such visions became more concrete they turned out to be mere variations of the social-democratic and ecological program which can be regarded to be part of the Western system. Certainly, there has been some talk about "Mitteleuropa” as distinguished from the East and the West, and this did have some influence in preparing the revolution, at least in Budapest and Prague. But by and large, these ideas remained vague and marginal. Certainly, the breakdown of the old régimes led to a new stress on direct-democratic, consensus-orientated, participatory forms of politics. One remembers 46 the "round tables," the mass demonstrations, citizens’ councils, ”Btirgerforert” and other expressions of grass root democracy, most clearly perhaps in East-Germany. There were utopian moments in Leipzig and Berlin in October 1989, small minorities saw themselves to a more perfect form of democracy, reaching beyond the parliamentary party democracy of the West. But these manifestations of direct democracy were a reaction to a short-lived vacuum of power in the early phase of transition, much weaker than comparable manifestations in history, especially the council movements, in 1917 or 1918/19. They were soon absorbed by representative, forms of democratic politics, without much resistance and eveiywhere. As a whole, the revolutions of 1989 were inspired and guided by democratic and liberal ideas which have become central in Western political thought since the 18th century: the norms of a civil society, human and civil rights, the principles of constitutional, democratic government; pluralism and the legitimacy of dissent; a separation of economic and political power; individual freedom and national autonomy, and in this context: the market. Principles of this kind - together with a desire for improved material standards of life- have inspired the opposition to the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship, the debates of the intellectuals in Warsaw, Budapest and Prague, but also -partly- the rhetoric of revolution in Leipzig and Berlin. These were principles which, to some extent, have become reality in the West, although not without exceptions and always at risk. This is why the revolutions of 1989 basically had the aim and the function of catching up with the West, or rather: with some essential elements of Western society which contains many other, less attractive elements as well. II. On Causation The momentum of change was partly generated within the societies between the river Elbe and the Soviet border.
Recommended publications
  • Copyrighted Material
    Index Note: page numbers of plates and maps are given in italics. 9/11, 291 Ahlen programme, 120 Abgrenzung, 174, 246 air force, in Third Reich, 74 Abitur, 193, 196 air raids Abyssinia, 75 on Britain, 82 academics on Germany, 85, 101 emigration, 64 alienation theory, 186–187, 204 post war issues, 128 Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund acculturation, 291 (ADGB), 43, 71 Ackermann, Anton Alliance for Germany, 274 (1905–73), 157 Allies, 26, 102, 103, 107, 108, 109, action theory, 231 149, 150, 173, 273–274, 309, 314 Adenauer, Konrad (1876–1967), 120, democratization of Germany, 228, 250, 283, 297, 309, 313 117–122 period of office, 138–139, 147–148, denazification and re-education, 149, 150, 151–157, 163, 163, 122–129, 190 164–165 division of Germany, 136–141 ADGB (Allgemeiner Deutscher economic transformation of Ger- Gewerkschaftsbund), 43, 71 many, 129, 131, 133–136, 154 Adorno, Theodor (1903–69), 33, 229 evacuation of Rhineland, 32 Afghanistan, 291 and political framework, 113–117 Soviet invasion, 181, 224 see also Britain; Soviet Union; agrarian bolshevism,COPYRIGHTED 54 United States MATERIAL of America (USA) agricultural protectionism, 47 Alsace, 232 agriculture, 60, 72, 128–129, 184 Alsace-Lorraine, 26, 92 collectivization, 132, 162 Aly, Götz (1947– ), 101 reorganization, 178 Andersch, Alfred (1914–80), 242 A History of Germany 1918–2014: The Divided Nation, Fourth Edition. Mary Fulbrook. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 0002216775.INDD 345 9/26/2014 1:32:40 PM 346 Index Anderson, Sascha
    [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]
  • Überseehafen Rostock: East Germany’S Window to the World Under Stasi Watch, 1961-1989
    Tomasz Blusiewicz Überseehafen Rostock: East Germany’s Window to the World under Stasi Watch, 1961-1989 Draft: Please do not cite Dear colleagues, Thank you for your interest in my dissertation chapter. Please see my dissertation outline to get a sense of how it is going to fit within the larger project, which also includes Poland and the Soviet Union, if you're curious. This is of course early work in progress. I apologize in advance for the chapter's messy character, sloppy editing, typos, errors, provisional footnotes, etc,. Still, I hope I've managed to reanimate my prose to an edible condition. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Tomasz I. Introduction Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, a Stasi Oberst in besonderen Einsatz , a colonel in special capacity, passed away on June 21, 2015. He was 83 years old. Schalck -- as he was usually called by his subordinates -- spent most of the last quarter-century in an insulated Bavarian mountain retreat, his career being all over three weeks after the fall of the Wall. But his death did not pass unnoticed. All major German evening TV news services marked his death, most with a few minutes of extended commentary. The most popular one, Tagesschau , painted a picture of his life in colors appropriately dark for one of the most influential and enigmatic figures of the Honecker regime. True, Mielke or Honecker usually had the last word, yet Schalck's aura of power appears unparalleled precisely because the strings he pulled remained almost always behind the scenes. "One never saw his face at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Conspiracy of Peace: the Cold War, the International Peace Movement, and the Soviet Peace Campaign, 1946-1956
    The London School of Economics and Political Science Conspiracy of Peace: The Cold War, the International Peace Movement, and the Soviet Peace Campaign, 1946-1956 Vladimir Dobrenko A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2015 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 90,957 words. Statement of conjoint work I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by John Clifton of www.proofreading247.co.uk/ I have followed the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, for referencing. 2 Abstract This thesis deals with the Soviet Union’s Peace Campaign during the first decade of the Cold War as it sought to establish the Iron Curtain. The thesis focuses on the primary institutions engaged in the Peace Campaign: the World Peace Council and the Soviet Peace Committee.
    [Show full text]
  • Texas Alsatian
    2017 Texas Alsatian Karen A. Roesch, Ph.D. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana, USA IUPUI ScholarWorks This is the author’s manuscript: This is a draft of a chapter that has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the forthcoming book Varieties of German Worldwide edited by Hans Boas, Anna Deumert, Mark L. Louden, & Péter Maitz (with Hyoun-A Joo, B. Richard Page, Lara Schwarz, & Nora Hellmold Vosburg) due for publication in 2016. https://scholarworks.iupui.edu Texas Alsatian, Medina County, Texas 1 Introduction: Historical background The Alsatian dialect was transported to Texas in the early 1800s, when entrepreneur Henri Castro recruited colonists from the French Alsace to comply with the Republic of Texas’ stipulations for populating one of his land grants located just west of San Antonio. Castro’s colonization efforts succeeded in bringing 2,134 German-speaking colonists from 1843 – 1847 (Jordan 2004: 45-7; Weaver 1985:109) to his land grants in Texas, which resulted in the establishment of four colonies: Castroville (1844); Quihi (1845); Vandenburg (1846); D’Hanis (1847). Castroville was the first and most successful settlement and serves as the focus of this chapter, as it constitutes the largest concentration of Alsatian speakers. This chapter provides both a descriptive account of the ancestral language, Alsatian, and more specifically as spoken today, as well as a discussion of sociolinguistic and linguistic processes (e.g., use, shift, variation, regularization, etc.) observed and documented since 2007. The casual observer might conclude that the colonists Castro brought to Texas were not German-speaking at all, but French.
    [Show full text]
  • Building an Unwanted Nation: the Anglo-American Partnership and Austrian Proponents of a Separate Nationhood, 1918-1934
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository BUILDING AN UNWANTED NATION: THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PARTNERSHIP AND AUSTRIAN PROPONENTS OF A SEPARATE NATIONHOOD, 1918-1934 Kevin Mason A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by: Advisor: Dr. Christopher Browning Reader: Dr. Konrad Jarausch Reader: Dr. Lloyd Kramer Reader: Dr. Michael Hunt Reader: Dr. Terence McIntosh ©2007 Kevin Mason ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Kevin Mason: Building an Unwanted Nation: The Anglo-American Partnership and Austrian Proponents of a Separate Nationhood, 1918-1934 (Under the direction of Dr. Christopher Browning) This project focuses on American and British economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties with Austria, and particularly with internal proponents of Austrian independence. Primarily through loans to build up the economy and diplomatic pressure, the United States and Great Britain helped to maintain an independent Austrian state and prevent an Anschluss or union with Germany from 1918 to 1934. In addition, this study examines the minority of Austrians who opposed an Anschluss . The three main groups of Austrians that supported independence were the Christian Social Party, monarchists, and some industries and industrialists. These Austrian nationalists cooperated with the Americans and British in sustaining an unwilling Austrian nation. Ultimately, the global depression weakened American and British capacity to practice dollar and pound diplomacy, and the popular appeal of Hitler combined with Nazi Germany’s aggression led to the realization of the Anschluss .
    [Show full text]
  • Schießbefehl and the Issues of Retroactivity Within the East German Border Guard Trials Keegan Mcmurry Western Oregon University, [email protected]
    Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) Department of History 2018 Schießbefehl and the Issues of Retroactivity Within the East German Border Guard Trials Keegan McMurry Western Oregon University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his Part of the Diplomatic History Commons, European History Commons, Legal Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation McMurry, Keegan, "Schießbefehl and the Issues of Retroactivity Within the East German Border Guard Trials" (2018). Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). 264. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/264 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Schießbefehl1 and the Issues of Retroactivity Within the East German Border Guard Trials Keegan J. McMurry History 499: Senior Seminar June 5, 2018 1 On February 5th, 1989, 20-year old Chris Gueffroy and his companion, Christian Gaudin, were running for their lives. Tired of the poor conditions in the German Democratic Republic and hoping to find better in West Germany, they intended to climb the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Berlin using a ladder. A newspaper account states that despite both verbal warnings and warning shots, both young men continued to try and climb the wall until the border guards opened fire directly at them. Mr. Gaudin survived the experience after being shot, however, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Representation of East Germany
    Popular Representation of East Germany: Whose History is It?i I am sitting with Jens Reich, who though much older now, is still recognizable as the face which became so well known to Western audiences in the autumn of 1989, as the bloodless revolution of East Germany unfolded on their television sets. Reich, a molecular biologist by training, was one of the thirty founding members of the group Neues Forum (“New Forum”) which helped to galvanize East German resistance in the revolutionary autumn, and became one of the most well-known voices of the citizen’s movement, especially in the West because unlike many other East Germans, he spoke English very well. It is two decades since we last met, and we are talking about the intervening years, the whirlwind of changes he has witnessed and in which he has been a key player. He is philosophical about how history – this history – is represented. Admidst the fanfare of anniversaries marking the distance of time since the iconic opening of the Berlin Wall, he struggles to recognize himself in what is being portrayed as this moment of political rupture. …as history settles… we see history about these things which we were in the midst of – when it’s the 20th anniversary, and soon it will be the 25th anniversary, what we see on television, what we read in books, I have always the feeling, what is being settled as history is not what happened! From one point of view it is highly – one always sees the same images, the same TV clips, even though there is obviously much more in the files and the TV archives - highly stereotypical.
    [Show full text]
  • Katalog FR En Web.Pdf
    » WE ARE THE PEOPLE! « EXHIBITION MAGAZINE PEACEFUL REVOLUTION 1989/90 Published as part of the theme year “20 Years since the Fall of the Wall” by Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH CONTENTS 7 | OPENING ADDRESS | KLAUS WOWEREIT 8 | OPENING ADDRESS | BERND NEUMANN 10 | 28 YEARS OF THE WALL 100 | TIMELINE 106 | HISTORY WITH A DOMINO EFFECT 108 | PHOTO CREDITS 110 | MASTHEAD 2 CONTENTS 14 | AWAKENING 38 | REVOLUTION 78 | UNITY 16 | AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP 40 | MORE AND MORE EAST GERMANS 80 | NO EXPERIMENTS 18 | THE PEACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL WANT OUT 84 | ON THE ROAD TO UNITY MOVEMENT IN THE GDR 44 | GRASSROOTS ORGANISATIONS 88 | GERMAN UNITY AND WORLD POLITICS 22 | it‘s not this countrY – 48 | REVOLTS ALONG THE RAILWAY LINE 90 | FREE WITHOUT BORDERS yOUTH CULTURES 50 | ANNIVERSARY PROTESTS 96 | THE COMPLETION OF UNITY 24 | SUBCULTURE 7 OCTOBER 1989 26 | THE OPPOSITION GOES PUBLIC 54 | EAST BErlin‘s gETHSEMANE CHURCH 30 | ARRESTS AND EXPULSIONS 56 | WE ARE THE PEOPLE! 34 | FIRST STEPS TO REVOLUTION 60 | THE SEd‘s nEW TACTIC 62 | THE CRUMBLING SYSTEM 66 | 4 NOVEMBER 1989 70 | 9 NOVEMBEr 1989 – THE FALL OF THE WALL 74 | THE BATTLE FOR POWER CONTENTS 3 4 IMPRESSIONS OF THE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION © SERGEJ HOROVITZ 5 6 IMPRESSIONS OF THE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION OPENING ADDRESS For Berlin, 2009 is a year of commemorations of the moving Central and Eastern European countries and Mikhail Gorbachev’s events of 20 years ago, when the Peaceful Revolution finally policy of glasnost and perestroika had laid the ground for change. toppled the Berlin Wall. The exhibition presented on Alexander- And across all the decades since the airlift 60 years ago, Berlin platz by the Robert Havemann Society is one of the highlights of was able to depend on the unprecedented solidarity of the Ameri cans, the theme year “20 Years since the Fall of the Wall”.
    [Show full text]
  • Border Restrictions Updated 6 April 2021
    Please note, although we endeavour to provide you with the most up to date information derived from various third parties an d sources, we cannot be held accountable for any inaccuracies or changes to this information. Inclusion of company information in this matrix does no t imply any business relationship between the supplier and WFP / Logistics Cluster, and is used solely as a determinant of services, and capacities. Logistics Cluster /WFP maintain complete impartiality and are not in a position to endorse, comment on any company's suitability as a reputable serv ice provider. If you have any updates to share, please email them to: [email protected] Border Restrictions Updated 6 April 2021 State / Territory Restrictions (Other Info) Restriction Period Source of Info URL / Remarks State of Emergency is extended until 18 April 2021. Color-coded system to guide response. Current level is Code Blue. All entry permits suspended until further notice. All travellers must provide negative COVID-19 test results within 72 hours before arrival and are subject to full quarantine of 14 days. Moreover, the American Samoa traveller is required to disclose if he/she had a positive result prior to testing negative. American Samoa Until 18 April 2021 Government, 19 March https://www.americansamoa.gov/ Cargo flights into the Territory to deliver or retrieve cargo or mail will be allowed, provided that each 2021 occupant of the plane must furnish proof to the Director of Health of a negative COVID-19 test results within 72 hours before arrival, and further provided tht no one will disembark withouth the prior written approval of the Governor.
    [Show full text]
  • John O. Koehler Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8d5nd4nw No online items Register of the John O. Koehler papers Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 2009 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Register of the John O. Koehler 2001C75 1 papers Title: John O. Koehler papers Date (inclusive): 1934-2008 Collection Number: 2001C75 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: In German and English Physical Description: 74 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 card file boxes(31.1 Linear Feet) Abstract: Correspondence, news dispatches and news stories, photocopies of East German secret police documents, photocopies of United States government documents, post-reunification German governmental reports, clippings, other printed matter, photographs, sound recordings, and video tapes, relating to political conditions in Germany, the East German secret police, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, and Soviet espionage within the Catholic Church. In part, used as research material for the books by J. O. Koehler, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police (Boulder, Colo., 1999), and Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's War against the Catholic Church (2009). Creator: Koehler, John O. Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2001 Preferred Citation [Identification of item], John O.
    [Show full text]
  • ANGLO-GERMAN CULTURAL RELATIONS Language & Literature
    ANGLO-GERMAN CULTURAL RELATIONS Language & literature, travel & tourism, c.1714–1914 The catalogue before you, published to mark my tenth anniversary as an independent bookseller, has been years in the making. Many people know me for selling Russian material, but in fact my interest in Germany About has always been stronger. German has always been my favoured foreign this language and I have enjoyed finding, researching, and writing about the catalogue books, manuscripts, music, and ephemera which make up this catalogue. It’s only when you specialize, and collect, in any depth that things start to get interesting, and that has certainly been the case here. You see connections, reactions, and developments; pieces of a historical jigsaw fall into place. The material here charts the cultural connections between the English- and German-speaking worlds in, roughly, the two hundred years between the Hanoverian Succession and the First World War. Through travel and translation, one culture discovers another; discovery then leads to influence. A German immigrant teaches music in London, the same year (1737) an Englishman in Göttingen compiles the first anthology of English literature for Germans. Later, in the 1760s, the first English translations of German literature are mirrored by the appearance of Wieland’s influential edition of Shakespeare. The catalogue documents two major eighteenth- century European literary events: Ossian and Werther, both linked by and to the young Goethe, whose own Faust so captured the English imagination in the nineteenth century. (The web of influence within literature itself is likewise tantalising: Werther reads Ossian, Frankenstein’s monster reads Werther.) The rise of the Gothic is also found here: Bürger’s Lenore in five English translations (1796–7), one of them Walter Scott’s first book, but the influence, surprisingly perhaps, was felt even earlier (and the other way round), in Sophia Lee’s The Recess, translated by Benedikte Naubert in 1786.
    [Show full text]