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The Significance of Humiliation in Representations of the German Democratic Republic

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The Significance of Humiliation in Representations of the German Democratic Republic Power, the Party and the People: the significance of humiliation in representations of the German Democratic Republic Phillip George Leask UCL PhD 1 I, Phillip George Leask, 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. Abstract This thesis reconsiders the nature of humiliation, defining it as an exercise of power, and argues that the SED consciously and as a matter of habit used humiliation to seek to shape people’s lives in the GDR. It seeks to understand the processes that led to this happening and the consequences of it. The thesis considers different theoretical approaches to humiliation and contrasts it with shame. It argues that humiliation is a demonstrative use of power with a recurring set of elements: stripping of status; arbitrariness or unpredictability on the part of the humiliator; exclusion or rejection of the victim; and a personal sense of injustice matched by the lack of any remedy for the injustice suffered. It suggests that the emotions flowing from an act of humiliation follow a predictable course and the consequences for the victim, and often for the society, are serious and long-lasting. This understanding of humiliation is applied to a close reading of literary fiction, films, letters, diaries and memoirs from the whole period of the GDR and beyond. These sources suggest that humiliation or the fear of humiliation was a constantly recurring feature of the relationship between the people and representatives of the SED and the State. The thesis considers the founding myths, the norms and values implied by them, and how and why the Party breached these by humiliating its perceived opponents. It looks at the Party’s hostility to Freudian as opposed to Marxist-Leninist ways of understanding human behaviour, analyses different forms of humiliation shown to take place in everyday life and discusses why the Party used humiliation against its own members. It concludes by considering the impact of humiliation on the attempts to develop the GDR as a ‘normal’ society and discusses some of the present-day implications of this understanding of humiliation. 2 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 6 Overview .......................................................................................................................... 6 Aims and contribution to scholarship ............................................................................... 7 Humiliation in context .................................................................................................... 17 Choosing examples ........................................................................................................ 20 Interpreting the examples ............................................................................................... 23 Structure ......................................................................................................................... 26 Terminology ................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 A theoretical approach to humiliation ............................................................ 30 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 30 The concept of humiliation ............................................................................................ 30 Humiliation as an exercise of power .............................................................................. 33 Respect and humiliation ................................................................................................. 35 Humiliation and violation of privacy ............................................................................. 36 Humiliation and the arbitrary breach of norms .............................................................. 37 Humiliation and the significance of exclusion ............................................................... 38 The necessary presence of a humiliator ......................................................................... 40 Infantilisation: a specific form of humiliation ................................................................ 41 Humiliation and unpredictability ................................................................................... 42 Transmitting the desire to humiliate ............................................................................... 43 Humiliation, injustice and the significance of resistance ............................................... 45 The consequences of humiliation ................................................................................... 46 Therapeutic responses to humiliation ............................................................................. 51 Chapter 3 Humiliation and the Founding Myths ............................................................ 55 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 55 The background to the myths ......................................................................................... 55 The myths and the commitment not to humiliate ........................................................... 57 The offer of redemption ................................................................................................. 64 The myth of the anti-fascist hero .................................................................................... 67 ‘In Fleisch und Blut’: the myth and reality of the Communist body ............................. 69 The problem for the myths arising from differing conceptions of justice...................... 73 3 Soviet friendship: an implausible myth? ........................................................................ 81 The fate of the myths ...................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 4 The Party’s fear of Freud: theoretical background......................................... 95 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 95 The unacknowledged dialogue with Freud .................................................................... 96 Freud and Freudianism in context .................................................................................. 97 The threat of spontaneity .............................................................................................. 107 Marx, Freud and alienation .......................................................................................... 111 The challenge of interiority .......................................................................................... 111 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 113 Chapter 5 The Party’s fear of Freud: examples from GDR representations ................. 115 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 115 Heroic love: an additional GDR myth .......................................................................... 115 The reality of sex and desire in the GDR ..................................................................... 127 Sex, satire and the Party: Die Legende von Paul und Paula ........................................ 132 Sex, satire and the Party: Hinze-Kunze-Roman ............................................................ 140 Desire, power and humiliation ..................................................................................... 143 Sex, power and the Party’s power ................................................................................ 146 Chapter 6 Humiliation in everyday life ........................................................................ 149 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 149 Humiliation in the early years: imposing social and economic change ....................... 151 Humiliation as an experience in everyday life ............................................................. 155 Humiliation as revenge ................................................................................................. 158 Humiliation by the State and ordinary people .............................................................. 160 Humiliation and shame in Der fremde Freund and Horns Ende ................................. 164 Humiliation and the environment ................................................................................. 176 Consequences of humiliation for ‘normalisation’ of the GDR .................................... 186 Chapter 7 Humiliation in the Party ............................................................................... 189 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 189 Arbitrariness and exclusion: elements of humiliation of Party members .................... 189 The importance of loyalty to the Party ......................................................................... 194 Humiliation: a test of loyalty for the ‘converted’ ........................................................
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