View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository RETHINKING THE GDR OPPOSITION: REFORM, RESISTANCE AND REVOLUTION IN THE OTHER GERMANY by ALEXANDER D. BROWN A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music University of Birmingham January 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The following thesis looks at the subject of communist-oriented opposition in the GDR. More specifically, it considers how this phenomenon has been reconstructed in the state-mandated memory landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany since unification in 1990. It does so by presenting three case studies of particular representative value. The first looks at the former member of the Politbüro Paul Merker and how his entanglement in questions surrounding antifascism and antisemitism in the 1950s has become a significant trope in narratives of national (de-)legitimisation since 1990. The second delves into the phenomenon of the dissident through the aperture of prominent singer-songwriter, Wolf Biermann, who was famously exiled in 1976. Often viewed as a proponent of ‘true’ communism who confronted the SED with uncomfortable truths, this study interrogates several aspects of the Biermann legend, thematising the role which ‘true’ or dissident communism plays in representations of the GDR. The final case study looks at the canonised opposition of the 1980s from peace groups to women’s rights organisations and how memory of the same tends to omit the contemporary left wing views of these groups in order to canonise them as part of a striving for liberal democracy and national unification. The dissertation concludes that communist-oriented opposition presents a rich seam with which the FRG’s public guardians of memory are able to communicate narratives significant to the FRG’s own national legitimation and identity. It argues that awareness of the ideological conditioning of representations of the past and the significance of this for contemporary political debates should be taken into account more than is frequently the case. Furthermore, it argues for contextualisation of the socialist past in order to avoid the potential pitfalls of simplistic anti-communist perceptions of state socialism within our present discourse. IN MEMORIAM Adam Oyston “It only had meaning as part of a whole, of which he was at all times conscious” Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to thank Joanne Sayner and Sara Jones. Joanne for first challenging my naive undergraduate preconceptions about the GDR and Sara for the Stasi and Sandmännchen which enabled me to pursue my interest in the former socialist state. My heartfelt thanks also to the both of them for the many hours of debates, feedback and sage advice and guidance over the past few years. I could not have wished for better Doktormütter. I am very grateful to the AHRC Midlands 3 Cities Trust for enabling this research with their generous funding. I would also like to thank the Institute for German Studies at the University of Birmingham which has been a constant source of help and support both before and during this research with honourable mention to Nick Martin, Bill Dodd, Ruth Whittle and Katharina Glöckel for mentoring and guiding me at various points over the years. All of the archivists at the Federal Archives, the BStU and Robert Havemann Gesellschaft were consistently professional and helpful but special thanks must go to Astrid Rose of the BStU for her understanding and hard work guiding me through the mountains of materials over the course of this research. I would also like to thank the Studienstiftung des Abgeordnetenhauses zu Berlin and the Humboldt University for enabling me to tie up loose ends. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of my family but above all my long suffering partner Livvy and my son Isaac. This work would not have been possible without their love, patience and generosity of spirit. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION AND THEORY....................................................................................... 1 Communist-oriented Opposition in the GDR: A Literature Review.......................... 2 Memory and/or Ideology Critique?: A Theoretical Framework ............................... 18 State-Mandated Memory............................................................................................ 43 Sources....................................................................................................................... 45 Structure of Thesis..................................................................................................... 49 1. PAUL MERKER – ‘EIN MOMENT KOMMUNISTISCHER UNGLEICHZEITIGKEIT’?..................................................................................................53 Introduction…………………………………........................................................... 53 Merker Before the Fall……………………….......................................................... 55 Excursus: Noel Field................................................................................................. 58 Merker: A German Rajk? The Show Trial Thesis.................................................... 64 Merker: A German Slansky? The Antisemitism Thesis............................................ 77 Excursus: Rudolf Slansky.......................................................................................... 77 ‘The German Slansky’ in State-mandated Memory................................................. 83 An Antisemitic Investigation? ................................................................................. 84 Merker and the Discourse of Antisemitism in State-mandated Representations… 98 Purging Cosmopolitanism? Merker’s Opposition in the ‘Jewish Question’……… 113 Paul Merker and the ‘Wiedergutmachungsfrage’…………….…………………… 126 i Conclusion: Antisemitism and Antifascism – The Faultlines of National Legitimation……………………………………………………………………….. 136 2. WOLF BIERMANN – A DRAGONSLAYER? THE GDR AND ITS DISSIDENTS .. 144 Introduction............................................................................................................... 144 Biermann: Stages of an Exile................................................................................... 146 Early life................................................................................................................... 147 From West to East: The First Emigration................................................................ 148 Biermann and ‘die bedeutsamste Rede des Kommunismus’…………………….. 151 Lyrikabend: The Birth of a Legend?........................................................................ 156 From Jugendkommunique to the ‘Kahlschlag Plenum’…………………………… 167 Die Ausbürgerung: Beginning of the End?.............................................................. 184 Totales Verbot: The ‘Dragonslayer’ in the Wilderness?.......................................... 185 ‘Von langer Hand geplant und gut vorbereitet’?..................................................... 194 The Protest(s)…………………………………………………………………….. 203 From ‘True’ Communist to Celebrity Drachentöter………………………..……. 215 Conclusion: A State-mandated ‘Drachentöter’………………………..…………. 225 3. ‘VORBOTEN DER FRIEDLICHEN REVOLUTION’?: ‘THE’ OPPOSITION OF THE LATE GDR IN STATE-MANDATED MEMORY………………………………………. 229 Introduction………………………………………………………………………... 229 ‘The’ GDR Opposition since 1990: Constructing Opposition in State-mandated Memory……………………………………………………………………….…… 231 Bürgerrechte, Umwelt, Frieden, Frauen: The Concerns of the Opposition in State- mandated Representations………………………………………………………… 235 ii Frauengruppen………………………………………………………………….…. 238 Frieden…………………………………………………………………………….. 242 Berliner Appell………………………………………………………...………….. 242 Bürgerrechtsbewegung…………………………………………………………….. 245 Umwelt…………………………………………………………………………….. 249 SED Reformers……………………………………………………...…………….. 252 The SED-SPD Paper: ‘Der Streit der Ideologien und die gemeinsame Sicherheit’ and the Opposition…………………………...………………………………………… 254 Das Projekt ‘Moderner Sozialismus’ in State-mandated Memory………………. 269 Conclusion: A GDR Opposition for the FRG…………………………………..... 282 CONCLUSION: REPRESENTING (ANTI-)COMMUNISM: STATE-MANDATED MEMORY AND IDEOLOGY…………………………………………………………… 285 PRIMARY SOURCES …………………………………………………………………..... 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 303 iii Rethinking the GDR Opposition: Reform, Resistance and Revolution in the Other Germany Introduction and Theory The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was the other German state between 1949-1989. Its advocates claimed it to be the better Germany and to be in the process of building an ever- improving socialism on German soil. For