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The East German Opposition: Social Movements and the Church in The THE EAST GERMAN OPPOSITION THE EAST GERMAN OPPOSITION: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE CHURCH IN THE GDR AND THE NEW BUNDE SLANDER By LAURIE CARMICHAEL, BA . A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University © Copyright by Laurie Cannichael, June 1997 MASTER OF ARTS (1997) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (Political Science) Hamilton, Ontario TIlLE: The East German Opposition AUTHOR: Laurie Meral Cannichael, BA (Mount Allison University) SUPERVISOR: Professor W.D. Coleman NUMBER OF PAGES: vi,157 ii McMASJlER UNiVERSITY LIBRARY ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on the roles played by the Protestant Church and several social and political movements in the communist GDR and throughout the East Gennan transition to democracy. Where many other studies give only cursory treatment to these social forces, this thesis argues that they played a valuable role in building the foundation on which a democratic civil society could develop. The thesis further argues that these church-based movements were similar in several important ways to New Social Movements in Western Europe. Moreover, the close, and at many times conflictual, relationship between the Protestant Churches and the social movements created under their umbrella, had an important influence on the ideology and structure of the variety ofNSMs which developed. The lack of serious consideration given movement (and round table) proposals to build an egalitarian, ecological, and democratic socialist state in the GDR is explained by a number offactors: the marginal character ofthe movements themselves, their own internal weaknesses and at times overly moralistic approach, the speed with which events unfolded in the fall of 1989, and the great lack oflegitimacy of the GDR itself, as a state that was never a nation. Finally, the thesis sheds new light on the reasons how and why this particular religious institution was able to play such a pivotal role in an atheistic state. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although projects like this may be self-directed on one level, anyone having gone through the process of writing a graduate thesis is surely aware of the amount of support - academic, moral, and no doubt financial - that is needed to see the project carried through to completion. This thesis would likely never have got off the ground without the encouragement and support of Professor: Bill Coleman. He was always willing to meet with me and offer helpful advice and direction whenever I needed it. I would also like to thank Professors William Chandler and Stefania Miller for reading the thesis and offering suggestions of their own. On a more personal level, certain friends and family deserve thanks for their patience and support. In particular, my parents, who despite their frequent questions as to how near I was to completion, inspired me in the first place by their example and by their faith in me. Special thanks also to Marlene for being a co-sufferer, and thus so understanding, and of course to Chris, for withstanding my complaints and offering to map out possible solutions over coffee. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................. ' .. '" ...... " .................................... 1 CHAPTERS: 1- THE THEORETICAL APPROACH. ........................................................................ 9 Social Movements and Democracy ........................................................ " .......... 13 New Social Movement Theory ............................................................... 16 New Social Movements in Socialism? .................................................. 19 Transitions to Democracy - East and West ....................................................... .31 Conclusions ............................................. " .......... " ........................................ .34 2- THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH AND THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL ACTMSM IN THE GDR, 1970-1988................................................. ...... .36 The Religious Roots of Social Activism and Opposition .................................... 3 7 The organisational structure of the Protestant Church in the GDR. ...... ..40 Protestant theology, church-state relations and the roots of social movements ............................................................................................ 45 The Growth ofNSMs in the GDR. .................................................................... 55 The Unofficial Peace Movement ............................................................ 57 The East German Environmental Movement... ....................................... 63 Summary ............................................................................................... 67 Assessments and Conclusions ............................................................................ 70 3- SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, THE CHURCH AND THE EAST GERMAN TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY.. ....... ...... ..... ........... " .... '., ..... " .................... " ...... 73 The East German Revolution ............................................................................ 76 How and Why it happened .. "' ............................................................... 77 Challenging the Old Regime: Citizens' Movements and the Church, June to December 1989 ................................................................................. 81 -The church's role in the revolutionary Fall... ............................. 82 -The development of the Biirgcrbewegungen. ..... ....................... 88 Between the GDR and the Unified Germany......................................... 95 Assessments From a NSM Perspective: Missed Opportunity or Inevitable Outcome? ........................................................................... 104 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 109 v 4- THE POST-UNIFICA nON PERIOD: COMING TO TERMS WITH CHANGE. ............................................................................................................. 112 The Church in the Post-Wende Period: Facing the Dual Challenge of De- politicization and Secularization ...................................................................... 115 An Inner-Church 'Wende' .................................................................. 116 A Church Able to Form a Community? .............................................. .120 The Disintegration, Institutionalization, and Specialization of the Former East German Social and Political Movements ... '" .................................................... 125 The Biindnis 90/Greens........................................................................ 133 Civil Society, Social Movements and Consolidating Democracy........... 136 CONCLUSION ................ " ................................. '" ......... " ......................................... 140 Why Civil Society "Matters"................. ....................................................... 119 Transitions to Democracy ............................................................................... 147 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 148 BlliLIOGRAPHY ............................... '" .............. ' ..................................................... 1SO vi INTRODUCTION This thesis looks at the role that social movements and the East Gennan Protestant Church were able to play under a repressive state-socialist regime, at the centre of a mass democratic movement, and in the first few years of post-communism in their "new" state. Analysis of history has dismissed the contribution of these forces too quickly. "Forgetting them," says Vladimir Tismaneanu, "abandoning the sense of solidarity that had emerged at that time, is to deny East Gennans the right to be proud of their short -lived but nevertheless noble and historically effective moments of revolt.'" Although these different groups only won a very small margin of support in the 1990 elections, they were able to contribute to a smoother democratic transition at the outset by providing the roots of a nascent civil society in that country. Unification with the FRG, a state with a strong civil society of its own, resulted in what many Easterners felt was a colonial situation, and one which left them with no history of their own. Even for that reason alone, a closer look at how East Gennan social movements and the church were able to rise to such visible symbols of democracy in the fall months of 1989, and then disappeared so quickly from public discourse, is worth pursuing. Many studies of the varieties of transition in Eastern and East Central Europe have 1 Taken from a debate published in Partisan Re>iew(Fall 1995), on the question, "How Can the New Gennany Defuse Its Neighbors' Fears?", p. 615. 1 2 been conducted over the past few years. Although social scientists differ on questions of what should come first, most agree that market reforms, political institution building and the creation of a democratically organized civil society are all necessary. By addressing the many difficulties encountered over the past few years as simply "problems of unification", research on the East German case has tended to fall short in coming to terms with that country's recent communist past2 Although few would propose that the Eastern Bundeslander are in danger of reverting to any regime other than a democratic one, questions of transition need to be posed if
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