• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

COMMEMORATING COMMUNIST EAST GERMANY IN THE BERLIN REPUBLIC: MODES OF REMEMBRANCE IN LITERATURE, FILM, AND MEMORIAL SITES by Katrin Mascha BA equivalent, University of Augsburg 2007 MA, University of Pittsburgh 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Katrin Mascha It was defended on April 8, 2014 and approved by John Lyon, Associate Professor, Department of German Sabine von Dirke, Associate Professor, Department of German Clark Muenzer, Associate Professor, Department of German Marcia Landy, Professor, Department of English Dissertation Advisor: Randall Halle, Professor, Department of German ii Copyright © by Katrin Mascha 2014 iii COMMEMORATING COMMUNIST EAST GERMANY IN THE BERLIN REPUBLIC: MODES OF REMEMBRANCE IN LITERATURE, FILM, AND MEMORIAL SITES Katrin Mascha, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 This dissertation studies how the Berlin Republic commemorates Communist East Germany and investigates how this engagement is translated into cultural memory. I understand cultural memory as dynamic, multifaceted, and as a widely contestational interplay of past and present in socio-cultural contexts. The making of cultural memory involves various participants and allows us to examine the nexus between individual remembering and culturally mediated memory. Culturally mediated memory appears as a process of the representation and manifestation of the past in the present. By studying the mediality of ‘present pasts,’ we gain an understanding of how the past is remembered and how it is mediated via cultural objects in the present. My dissertation analyzes two texts by East German writer Christa Wolf, the novella Was bleibt (1990) and the novel Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud (2010), Andreas Kleinert’s film Wege in die Nacht (1999) and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das Leben der Anderen (2006), and two memorial sites, the former State Security prison Berlin- Hohenschönhausen and the largest GDR prison for women Hoheneck. The objects reveal that the ‘present past’ is not the alignment of a society with a certain narrative of historical time. The various modes that translate memory into cultural form constitute society and bring individuals iv into communication as society. They show how society continually establishes itself as it redefines its relationship to the remembered past. The objects capture remembrance as an act of reinvestigating Vergangenheitsbeziehungen, relationships to the past. Instead of recalling the past in order to turn the page on a troubled history and thus strive for Vergangenheitsbewältigung, the objects make apparent how past experiences are continually renegotiated, transformed, and utilized in order to respond to present needs. This project understands remembering as a development. It describes remembering and acts of memorialization as Vergesellschaftung, sociality. Memory appears as the moment of sociality when remembering instantiates and results in a mutual relationship between individuals and social groups, in which remembering is performed. We see how society arises and experiences itself in its remembering and how remembering as experience in itself offers society an experience of itself. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... IX 1.0 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 1.1 THE DISCIPLINE OF MEMORY STUDIES ..................................................................6 1.2 HISTORY REVISITED IN POST-COMMUNIST GERMANY ...................................12 1.3 THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL STATE .......................................................................13 1.4 MEMORY STUDIES AND THE GDR PAST IN CULTURAL OBJECTS ..................20 1.5 CHAPTER OVERVIEW .................................................................................................23 2.0 THE GDR PAST IN LITERATURE: WRITING (ABOUT) HISTORY AS MNEMONIC (SELF) EXPLORATION ........................................................................33 2.1 1989-1993: THE PERIOD OF SOCIETAL AND CULTURAL REORIENTATION - WAS BLEIBT AND THE LITERATURSTREIT ............................................................39 2.2 WAS BLEIBT AS HISTORICAL DOCUMENT AND ANTICIPATORY TEXT .........52 2.3 WORKING THROUGH A FORGOTTEN PAST AS WILLFUL ACT OF SELF- DESTRUCTION AND ICH-WERDUNG: WOLF’S STADT DER ENGEL ODER THE OVERCOAT OF DR. FREUD .........................................................................................68 2.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................85 3.0 THE GDR PAST IN FILM: HISTORY AS MNEMONIC EXPERIMENT ..............89 vi 3.1 1990-1999: ANDREAS KLEINERT’S WEGE IN DIE NACHT AND THE FIRST DECADE OF FILMIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GDR PAST ...............................95 3.2 THE MID-2000S: REEVALUATING THE STASI-PAST – FLORIAN HENCKEL VON DONNERSMARCK’S DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN .......................................112 3.3 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................137 4.0 THE GDR PAST IN MEMORIAL SITES: HISTORY AS MNEMONIC DEBATE140 4.1 THE MEMORIAL SITE BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN: FROM CENTRAL REMAND FACILITY TO A SITE OF MEMORY, MOURNING, AND CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................................................143 4.1.1 First Phase: Vague Endorsements of the Idea “Gedenkstätte Berlin- Hohenschönhausen” by Federal and Local Officials .............................................. 146 4.1.2 Second Phase: Parallel Public Initiatives ................................................................ 150 4.1.3 Third Phase: Towards a Final Concept – Official and Public Cooperation ............ 154 4.1.4 Fourth Phase: Commemoration Institutionalization – Disputed Conclusiveness versus Authenticity ................................................................................................. 156 4.2 A LINGERING COMMEMORATIVE UNDERTAKING: THE FORMER GDR PRISON FOR WOMEN SCHLOSS HOHENECK ........................................................162 4.2.1 Phase 1: Bureaucratic Blindness and Hoheneck’s Use as Prison (1989-2001) ...... 165 4.2.2 Phase 2: Privatization and Commercialization (2001-2004) .................................. 169 4.2.3 Phase 3: Stagnation (2005-2010) ............................................................................ 181 4.2.4 Phase 4: Reinvigorated Critical Engagement (2010-2011)..................................... 182 4.2.5 Phase 5: Hoheneck’s Remembrance Institutionalized (2012) ................................ 189 4.3 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................193 vii 5.0 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................196 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................215 FILMOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................229 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have come into being without the help of many people. I am deeply grateful for the German Department at the University of Pittsburgh. All of its members have been incredibly important for my professional and personal development. Where do I begin to thank my dissertation advisor, Prof. Randall Halle? His enthusiasm in my work and the time and energy he has devoted to me and my project has touched my deeply. I am proud to say that over the years in which we have worked together, he has enriched my life so much, not only as a mentor, but also as a friend. I would like to extend my thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Sabine von Dirke, Prof. Marcia Landy, Dr. John Lyon, and Dr. Clark Muenzer. Their doors have always been open. I benefited greatly from their guidance, advice, and our thought-provoking conversations. I very much appreciate their interest not only in my academic work, but also in my personal well-being. I would like to thank Dr. Elisabeth Wylie-Ernst, whose knowledge and competency contributed so much to my professionalization as a teacher. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Klaus-Dieter Post, who continues to inspire me. He has become a mentor and friend, and I am grateful to have him in my life. I would also like to thank the Department’s administrators, Elisabeth Phillips and Alana Dunn for always having an answer (and a smile) at the right time. Thank you also to my wonderful colleagues and friends. Having them right by me side was indispensable for my success. Thanks to Martina Wells for offering her home and wonderful food. Thank you to ix Ljudmila Bilkić for making my daughters smile (and sleep) and for all those laughs. Thank you to my dearest friend Yvonne Franke, who has a very special place in my heart. I thank my friends in Germany, Julia Kreissl, Dr. Veronika Umrath, and Anja Heil, who never lost touch, despite the great distance between us. I cherish their moral support.

Load more

  243

Copy Link