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Remembering East German Childhood in Post-Wende Life Narratives" (2013)
Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2013 Remembering East German Childhood In Post- Wende Life Narratives Juliana Mamou Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the German Literature Commons Recommended Citation Mamou, Juliana, "Remembering East German Childhood In Post-Wende Life Narratives" (2013). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 735. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. REMEMBERING EAST GERMAN CHILDHOOD IN POST-WENDE LIFE NARRATIVES by JULIANA MAMOU DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2013 MAJOR: MODERN LANGUAGES (German Studies) Approved by: _____________________________________ Advisor Date _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY JULIANA MAMOU 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my great appreciation to the members of my Dissertation Committee, Professor Donald Haase, Professor Lisabeth Hock, and Professor Anca Vlasopolos, for their constructive input, their patience, and support. I am particularly grateful for the assistance -
Driven Into Suicide by the Communist Regime of the German Democratic
Central European History 0 (2019), 1–23. © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association, 2019 doi:10.1017/S0008938919000165 1 2 3 Driven into Suicide by the Communist Regime of the 4 German Democratic Republic? On the Persistence 5 6 of a Distorted Perspective 7 8 Q1 Udo Grashoff 9 10 ABSTRACT. The assumption that the Communist dictatorship in the German Democratic Republic 11 (GDR) drove many people to suicide has persisted for decades, and it is still evident in academic 12 and public discourse. Yet, high suicide rates in eastern Germany, which can be traced back to the 13 nineteenth century, cannot be a result of a particular political system. Be it monarchy, 14 democracy, fascism, or socialism, the frequency of suicide there did not change significantly. In 15 fact, the share of politically motivated suicides in the GDR amounts to only 1–2 per cent of the 16 total. Political, economic, or socio-cultural factors did not have a significant impact on suicide 17 rates. An analysis of two subsets of GDR society that were more likely to be affected by 18 repression—prisoners and army recruits—further corroborates this: there is no evidence of a 19 higher suicide rate in either case. Complimentary to a quantitative approach “from above,” a qualitative analysis “from below” not only underlines the limited importance of repression, but 20 also points to a regional pattern of behavior linked to cultural influences and to the role of 21 religion—specifically, to Protestantism. Several factors nevertheless fostered the persistence of 22 an overly politicized interpretation of suicide in the GDR: the bereaved in the East, the media in 23 the West, and a few victims of suicide themselves blamed the regime and downplayed important 24 individual and pathological aspects. -
Youth and the State in the German Democratic Republic
“Who Has the Youth, Has the Future”: Youth and the State in the German Democratic Republic By Jeff Robson University of Calgary The 1949 foundation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from Soviet-occupied territory in East Germany ushered in a new era. Under the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), the East German state began a concerted effort to instil its brand of German socialism into the hearts and minds of citizens previously under National Socialist domination. The most targeted demographic of the East German population was its youth, as the older German generations were considered lost to the taint of Nazism. In contrast, the youth of the country presented an ideal opportunity to create the model socialist citizen.1 In its ambition to inculcate younger generations with pro-Soviet, German socialist values, the state became an omnipresent force in the education and socialization of the nation’s children. The state accomplished this through incorporating strict control and Party ideology into both the country’s public education system and the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ), the foremost youth movement in the GDR. Against a backdrop of mounting Cold War tensions, the ideological mobilization of youth in the German Democratic Republic created conditions to raise the ideal socialist citizen, in order to secure the health and survival of the state. The policies and actions of the Freie Deutsche Jugend youth movement and the East German education system were designed to engender the individual youth with class-consciousness, present socialism as a youthful ideology with no alternative, and mobilize the state’s youth in the preservation and defence of East German socialism against the capitalist West. -
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”. -
Television and the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic
0/-*/&4637&: *ODPMMBCPSBUJPOXJUI6OHMVFJU XFIBWFTFUVQBTVSWFZ POMZUFORVFTUJPOT UP MFBSONPSFBCPVUIPXPQFOBDDFTTFCPPLTBSFEJTDPWFSFEBOEVTFE 8FSFBMMZWBMVFZPVSQBSUJDJQBUJPOQMFBTFUBLFQBSU $-*$,)&3& "OFMFDUSPOJDWFSTJPOPGUIJTCPPLJTGSFFMZBWBJMBCMF UIBOLTUP UIFTVQQPSUPGMJCSBSJFTXPSLJOHXJUI,OPXMFEHF6OMBUDIFE ,6JTBDPMMBCPSBUJWFJOJUJBUJWFEFTJHOFEUPNBLFIJHIRVBMJUZ CPPLT0QFO"DDFTTGPSUIFQVCMJDHPPE Revised Pages Envisioning Socialism Revised Pages Revised Pages Envisioning Socialism Television and the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic Heather L. Gumbert The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Revised Pages Copyright © by Heather L. Gumbert 2014 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (be- yond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid- free paper 2017 2016 2015 2014 5 4 3 2 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978– 0- 472– 11919– 6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978– 0- 472– 12002– 4 (e- book) Revised Pages For my parents Revised Pages Revised Pages Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Cold War Signals: Television Technology in the GDR 14 2 Inventing Television Programming in the GDR 36 3 The Revolution Wasn’t Televised: Political Discipline Confronts Live Television in 1956 60 4 Mediating the Berlin Wall: Television in August 1961 81 5 Coercion and Consent in Television Broadcasting: The Consequences of August 1961 105 6 Reaching Consensus on Television 135 Conclusion 158 Notes 165 Bibliography 217 Index 231 Revised Pages Revised Pages Acknowledgments This work is the product of more years than I would like to admit. -
German Youth 1900 – 1933 from Emancipation to Radicalization
German Youth 1900 – 1933 From Emancipation to Radicalization By Rijk Eric Mollema V00830119 A Graduating Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in the Honours Programme For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts In the Department Of History with a Minor in European Studies The University of Victoria April 4th, 2017 1 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………2 Abbreviations………………………………………………...……………………………3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..4 Section One: Emancipation………………………………………………………………..7 Section Two: Transformation……………………………………………………………15 Section Three: Politicization……………………………………………………………..19 Section Four: Polarization………………………………………………………………..26 Section Five: Radicalization……………………………………………………………..32 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….39 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..40 Tables……………………………………………………………………………………43 2 Abstract This thesis provides a survey of the German youth movement from 1900 to 1933. The purpose of the research is to identity how youth was conceptualized, organized, and consolidated within the Weimar Republic (1918 – 1933). I present the argument that the German youth movement evolved in five distinct phases: Emancipation (1900 – 1917), Transformation (1918 – 1919), Politicization (1920 – 1924), Polarization (1925 – 1928), and Radicalization (1929 – 1933). Furthermore, I argue that the youth movement was divided between bourgeois and working-class elements that significantly influenced the later organization of youth in Weimar. The division became increasingly -
Bulletin 10-Final Cover
COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT BULLETIN 10 61 “This Is Not A Politburo, But A Madhouse”1 The Post-Stalin Succession Struggle, Soviet Deutschlandpolitik and the SED: New Evidence from Russian, German, and Hungarian Archives Introduced and annotated by Christian F. Ostermann I. ince the opening of the former Communist bloc East German relations as Ulbricht seemed to have used the archives it has become evident that the crisis in East uprising to turn weakness into strength. On the height of S Germany in the spring and summer of 1953 was one the crisis in East Berlin, for reasons that are not yet of the key moments in the history of the Cold War. The entirely clear, the Soviet leadership committed itself to the East German Communist regime was much closer to the political survival of Ulbricht and his East German state. brink of collapse, the popular revolt much more wide- Unlike his fellow Stalinist leader, Hungary’s Matyas spread and prolonged, the resentment of SED leader Rakosi, who was quickly demoted when he embraced the Walter Ulbricht by the East German population much more New Course less enthusiastically than expected, Ulbricht, intense than many in the West had come to believe.2 The equally unenthusiastic and stubborn — and with one foot uprising also had profound, long-term effects on the over the brink —somehow managed to regain support in internal and international development of the GDR. By Moscow. The commitment to his survival would in due renouncing the industrial norm increase that had sparked course become costly for the Soviets who were faced with the demonstrations and riots, regime and labor had found Ulbricht’s ever increasing, ever more aggressive demands an uneasy, implicit compromise that production could rise for economic and political support. -
Integration of East German Resettlers Into the Cultures and Societies of the GDR
Integration of East German Resettlers into the Cultures and Societies of the GDR Doctoral Thesis of Aaron M.P. Jacobson Student Number 59047878 University College London Degree: Ph.D. in History 1 DECLARATION I, Aaron M.P. Jacobson, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 ABSTRACT A controversy exists in the historiography of ethnic German post-WWII refugees and expellees who lived in the German Democratic Republic. This question is namely: to what extent were these refugees and expellees from various countries with differing cultural, religious, social and economic backgrounds integrated into GDR society? Were they absorbed by the native cultures of the GDR? Was an amalgamation of both native and expellee cultures created? Or did the expellees keep themselves isolated and separate from GDR society? The historiography regarding this controversy most commonly uses Soviet and SED governmental records from 1945-53. The limitation of this approach by historians is that it has told the refugee and expellee narrative from government officials’ perspectives rather than those of the Resettlers themselves. In 1953 the SED regime stopped public record keeping concerning the Resettlers declaring their integration into GDR society as complete. After eight years in the GDR did the Resettlers feel that they were an integrated part of society? In an attempt to ascertain how Resettlers perceived their own pasts in the GDR and the level of integration that occurred, 230 refugees and expellees were interviewed throughout the former GDR between 2008-09. -
Comics at the Intersection of State Power and Childhood I
INTRODUCTION Comics at the Intersection of State Power and Childhood i In the immediate aftermath of World War II in Europe, concerns over the acceptability and supposed harmfulness of comics were bolstered by the eff ects of Americanization on youth and how these issues af- fected the nation state, European civilization, and culture (Kultur).1 In the United States, Dr. Fredric Wertham, a German-American psycholo- gist and one of the comic industry’s most vocal opponents, suggested that comics “indoctrinated children against the accepted rules of de- cency,” comparing these publications to propaganda under European dictatorships. Although his science was questionable and less than objective, Wertham was not entirely wrong in this instance as comics were used by those very same dictatorships, just as they were by gov- ernments and the Church in the West. Wertham’s thoughts on comics sided with the social theory and philosophy of the Frankfurt School, as- sociated with the Institute for Social Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt. “Mass culture,” the Frankfurt School contended, was used for the purposes of “homogeniz[ing] society with false class consciousness and capitalist aspirations.”2 In Wertham’s estimation, comics served this same function in Western society. Comics produced in North America, Europe, and even the Soviet Bloc during the 1950s, the latter being the subject of this book, were hotly contested sites of power between ed- ucators, parents, politicians, and their constructions of the state and of childhood and how those two interacted and related to one another. As spaces typically uncontrolled and unmonitored by adults, comics gave children a site in which to demonstrate their desires and make meaning of the spaces they created. -
The Third Reich in East German Film
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2013 The Third Reich in East German Film: Defa, Memory, and the Foundational Narrative of the German Democratic Republic Jaimie Kicklighter University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Part of the European History Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Kicklighter, Jaimie, "The Third Reich in East German Film: Defa, Memory, and the Foundational Narrative of the German Democratic Republic" (2013). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 1051. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1051 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE THIRD REICH IN EAST GERMAN FILM: DEFA, MEMORY, AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NARRATIVE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC A Thesis Presented by JAIMIE L. SQUARDO KICKLIGHTER Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2013 Department of History THE THIRD REICH IN EAST GERMAN FILM: DEFA, MEMORY, AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NARRATIVE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC A Thesis Presented by JAIMIE L. SQUARDO KICKLIGHTER Approved as to style and content by: _______________________________________ Jon Berndt Olsen, Chair _______________________________________ Skyler Arndt Briggs, Member ____________________________________ Marla Miller, Graduate Program Director, Department of History ABSTRACT THE THIRD REICH IN EAST GERMAN FILM: DEFA, MEMORY, AND THE FOUNDATIONAL NARRATIVE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC DEGREE DATE JAIMIE L. -
Exploiting and Securing the Open Border in Berlin: the Western Secret Services, the Stasi, and the Second Berlin Crisis, 1958–1961
COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT WORKING PAPER #58 Exploiting and Securing the Open Border in Berlin: the Western Secret Services, the Stasi, and the Second Berlin Crisis, 1958–1961 By Paul Maddrell, February 2009 THE COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT WORKING PAPER SERIES Christian F. Ostermann, Series Editor This paper is one of a series of Working Papers published by the Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Established in 1991 by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War as it emerges from previously inaccessible sources on “the other side” of the post-World War II superpower rivalry. The project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, and seeks to accelerate the process of integrating new sources, materials and perspectives from the former “Communist bloc” with the historiography of the Cold War which has been written over the past few decades largely by Western scholars reliant on Western archival sources. It also seeks to transcend barriers of language, geography, and regional specialization to create new links among scholars interested in Cold War history. Among the activities undertaken by the project to promote this aim are a periodic BULLETIN to disseminate new findings, views, and activities pertaining to Cold War history; a fellowship program for young historians from the former Communist bloc to conduct archival research and study Cold War history in the United States; international scholarly meetings, conferences, and seminars; and publications. -
An East German Childhood on 13 August 1961, the East German Government Began to Build a Wall
An East German Childhood On 13 August 1961, the East German government began to build a wall. Although the wall went right through the by Uli Hartung as told to Lucy Corry city of Berlin, it was fi nished in just two days. Suddenly an entire population was trapped. Over the next three decades, soldiers guarded the Berlin Wall so the East German people couldnʼt escape to the West. Still, thousands tried, and many were killed. When the wall was fi nally torn down in 1989, Uli Hartung was seventeen. She talks to Lucy Corry about growing up in East Germany. Eyes I was lucky. I had a nice childhood. For me, living in East Germany was normal. I didn’t know any different. It was much harder for my parents’ generation. They were teenagers when the wall was built. Suddenly, they were locked away from the rest of the world. Families were cut off from one another. People suffered. I grew up in a town called Eberswalde, 50 kilometres north-east of Berlin. I lived with my parents and older sister. My dad was a doctor, and my mum was a veterinary researcher. My parents never joined the ruling Socialist Unity Party, although the government tried to make them many times. My dad did a lot of home visits to elderly patients. We had an old Russian car that was always breaking down, and party members would try to bribe him. They’d say, “Well, Doctor Hartung, if you joined the party, we could get you a new car.” But he wouldn’t.