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Neither High Priests Nor Court Chroniclers

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Neither High Priests Nor Court Chroniclers Lothar Mertens. Lexikon der DDR-Historiker: Biographien und Bibliographien zu den Geschichtswissenschaftlern aus der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. München: K.G. Saur, 2006. EUR 180.00, cloth, ISBN 978-3-598-11673-5. Lothar Mertens. Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei?: Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2006. 179 S. EUR 22.90, paper, ISBN 978-3-89971-307-7. Reviewed by Matthew Stibbe Published on H-German (July, 2008) Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin politics in a communist dictatorship. And second, Wall, should we still be interested in the profes‐ the development of West German historiography sional historians who taught, published, and su‐ since 1945 (in particular, key events like the Fritz pervised research projects in the various universi‐ Fischer controversy of the 1960s) is only fully ties, party institutes, and academies established comprehensible when placed within a "German- by East Germany's erstwhile communist rulers? German" context. Certainly it is easy now to dismiss their work as For both of these reasons, scholars working mere propaganda on behalf of the ruling Socialist on post-1945 German historiography today owe a Unity Party (SED) or as a fawed enterprise that great debt of gratitude to Lothar Mertens. His 675- failed to meet the standards of scholarly objectivi‐ page reference work, Lexikon der DDR-Historiker, ty and independence achieved in the West. None‐ provides concise biographical information on the theless, for at least two reasons, GDR historiogra‐ more than 1,100 GDR historians who were ap‐ phy is still relevant today. First, the varied career pointed to chairs or other senior positions in the progression, choice of topic, and published output period before the end of 1989. Each entry con‐ of East German academics tell us a lot about the tains a brief overview of an individual's career, complex relationship between history writing and and details of his or her academic theses, publica‐ H-Net Reviews tions, honorary degrees, state prizes, autobio‐ the Soviet Union and a determination to root out graphical writings, Festschriften and where rele‐ "reactionary" elements. Indeed, by the late 1950s vant, the location of the Nachlaß. Mertens also only a handful of non-Marxist or "bourgeois" his‐ lists contributions to the main East German his‐ torians remained in East Germany. The rest either torical journal, the Zeitschrift für Geschichtswis‐ had fed, retired or--in two very tragic cases--com‐ senschaft (ZfG), and this provides a very useful mitted suicide (pp. 30-32). The shift from the earli‐ source for anyone carrying out a bibliographical er phase of "anti-fascist-democratic transforma‐ search on a particular author. tion" to the later task of "constructing the founda‐ Mertens's follow-up book, Priester der Klio tions of socialism" was now complete. oder Hofchronisten der Partei? (actually an ex‐ On a more general level, as Mertens rightly tended version of the introduction to the Lexikon) reminds us, "Die harsche Ablehnung sozialistisch‐ in turn contains an array of statistical data and er Geschichtstheorien in Westdeutschland führte accompanying analysis that help us to form a col‐ zu einem staats- und parteidoktrinären Deu‐ lective impression of GDR historians, their social tungsmonopol in der DDR, dessen Ab‐ backgrounds, institutes and associations, party hängigkeitsstrukturen und Verbindungslinien, membership, trips abroad, and so on. Thus we are nicht nur aufgrund fehlender räumlicher Mobil‐ provided, among other things, with lists of the di‐ ität ... und allgemein üblicher Hausberufungen, rectors and deputy directors of the various histor‐ an Inzucht erinnerte" (pp. 11-12). This process be‐ ical institutes housed within the GDR Academy of gan in the 1950s, and became even more visible in Sciences; of the editors-in-chief and members of the 1960s, when fewer and fewer contacts were the editorial board of the ZfG and other East Ger‐ possible with capitalist countries after the build‐ man journals; and of the Presidents and Vice- ing of the Berlin Wall. In 1969 the Sovietization of Presidents of the Deutsche Historiker- the East German historical profession was extend‐ Gesellschaft/Historiker-Gesellschaft der DDR, ed even further when the traditional Habilitation founded after the fnal break with the West Ger‐ was abolished in favor of the Russian-style B-Dis‐ man Verband der Historiker Deutschlands in sertation. Doctoral students or candidates for re‐ 1958. We also learn that as many as ffty-six East search assistantships, if they studied abroad, usu‐ German history professors had been members of ally did so in the USSR, with Moscow and the NSDAP, and are even supplied with the dates Leningrad the favored destinations. Even then, on which they joined. Fourteen of them were also the numbers were hardly impressive: only thirty- admitted into the ranks of the SED, a move that three participated in study exchanges to the Sovi‐ doubtless helped them to cover up their pasts. et Union in the subject area of history in the peri‐ On the other hand, twenty-one East German od after 1951, supplemented by two scholars who historians had attended an anti-fascist school went to China and one each to Czechoslovakia while in Soviet captivity during and after the Sec‐ and North Korea. ond World War. Some of the latter were clearly Within East Germany itself, most scholars re‐ conscripts from working-class backgrounds and mained at the same university or academy for would probably not otherwise have thought of their entire careers and transfers to other institu‐ pursuing an academic career. Others were stu‐ tions were comparatively rare. This system mili‐ dents or school teachers, and one was a former tated against cross-fertilization through the ap‐ priest. Together they formed the frst wave of a pointment of outsiders while encouraging a cli‐ new generation of ideologically motivated, Marx‐ mate of "in-breeding" and almost "feudal" rela‐ ist-Leninist scholars with strong attachments to tions of patronage and dependency among aca‐ 2 H-Net Reviews demics themselves (p. 90). Even so, more open academic independence before their political loy‐ views could be developed in some spaces, such as alties. the Academy of Sciences (AdW) in Berlin, where Within the AdW and the history departments certain research groups, such as those housed of the East German universities, political over‐ within the Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und sight was ensured through regular meetings of Archäologie or the Institut für Wirtschafts‐ communist cell organizations and the require‐ geschichte, were subject to less overt party inter‐ ment placed on some research groups to work in ference. The latter was founded and initially led tandem with the IML or the IfG. On top of this, by Jürgen Kuczynski, a self-styled "linientreuer SED leaders, including not only Walter Ulbricht Dissident" who had almost been expelled from the and Erich Honecker, but also Wilhelm Pieck, An‐ party in the late 1950s but went on to become one ton Ackermann, Alexander Abusch, and above all of the most highly decorated, internationally ac‐ Kurt Hager, kept a close watch on historians' claimed historians in the GDR.[1] Whether he and work and--in the case of Ulbricht--even laid down other critical Marxist intellectuals were really their own theses on key historical events, which able to move away from Stalinist modes of were then taken up enthusiastically by other ZK thought after 1956 remains an open question, but members. Contemporary history and especially certainly they did not see their function as histori‐ the history of the KPD and SED were the sub-disci‐ ans as being merely the "stilistische Verfeinerung plines most heavily subject to such direct political und permanente Reproduktion der bestehenden interference, although scholars working on the grundlegenden Dogmen der Parteiideologie" (p. First World War were given slightly more latitude 12). Kuczynski in particular saw no real contradic‐ than their counterparts working on the 1939-45 tion between socialist party allegiance and uni‐ conflict.[3] The most visible sign of the party's versal standards of scientific objectivity. Both ulti‐ control, however, lay in the fact that over ffty his‐ mately would serve the cause of progress, so long torical dissertations were determined to contain as the former was not crudely pursued at the ex‐ secret or politically inconvenient material at a pense of the latter. [2] level sufficient to warrant restricted public access, At the other extreme were the out-and-out ap‐ the last such categorization taking place as late as paratchiks, scholars who really did see the task of November 8,1989. historiography narrowly as the service of the par‐ One fnal contribution that Mertens makes is ty's current political interests. They were to be an overview of what happened to GDR historians found mostly (but not exclusively) in the Institut after 1989. Here the fgures are quite striking. für Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK (IML) and Only forty-two historians were still in their old other SED-directed centers of research, such as posts by the mid-1990s (mostly at the Humboldt the Institut für Gesellschaftswissenschaften (IfG) Universität in Berlin) and only twenty-two had or the Parteihochschule 'Karl Marx.' Almost one- been offered places within the Wissenschaftlerin‐ quarter of East German Ph.D. dissertations in the tegrations-Programm (WiP), a scheme set up to al‐ late 1950s and early 1960s were completed at one low a limited number of East German academics or other of these institutes. Many of the candi‐ continued employment on a temporary basis. For dates originally came from working-class or peas‐ the jobless majority, especially for those who still ant backgrounds and a fair number were ex‐ believed in some form of socialism, the only other pellees from eastern territories lost by Germany alternative was to take part in the formation of an in 1945.
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