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Claus Herold (1929-2003) stammte aus Halle (Saale) und blieb der Stadt ein Leben lang intensiv verbunden. Nach dem Studium der katholischen Theologie entschied er sich trotz Repressionen in die DDR zurückzukehren, weil er als Seelsorger für die Menschen der Stadt tätig werden wollte. Er nahm dafür persönliche Einschränkungen in Kauf. Der Dialog zwischen der Kirche und dem sozialistischen Staat, aber auch zwischen den Konfessionen und mit den Menschen blieb ihm immer wichtig. Er gehörte 1970 zu den Gründungsmitgliedern des "Aktionskreises Halle", der sich in dieser Hinsicht engagierte und war auch 1989 aktiv an der Koordination und Moderation des demokratischen Aufbruchs in Halle beteiligt. Sein Grab soll im Jahr 2023 zum Ehrengrab der Stadt Halle (Saale) bestimmt werden. Claus Herold (1929-2003) came from Halle (Saale) and remained intensively connected to the city throughout his life. After studying Catholic theology, he decided to return to the GDR despite repression because he wanted to work as a pastor for the people of the city. He accepted personal restrictions for this. The dialogue between the church and the socialist state, but also between the denominations and with the people always remained important to him. In 1970, he was one of the founding members of the "Aktionskreis Halle" (Halle Action Group), which was active in this regard, and he was also actively involved in coordinating and moderating the democratic awakening in Halle in 1989. His grave is to be designated an honorary grave of the city of Halle (Saale) in 2023.

At first glance, the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) dissociation from the Warsaw Pact or Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) appears as a success story. Even though the stakes were high, the process remained peaceful and relations between Germany and the Soviet Union/Russia were not plunged into crisis immediately afterwards. This article argues, however, that this seemingly successfully managed dissociation sowed the seeds for later conflicts between Russia and the West, as the GDR’s withdrawal from the WTO and transition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) served as a blueprint for other WTO member states. Moreover, the dissociation led to internal political tensions within the Soviet Union. The internal conflict crystallised around ideational issues, among others the USSR’s status as a superpower. However, negotiations between the governments of Germany and the Soviet Union focused on material issues. The Soviet government was offered money to cover the more technical aspects of the dissociation process but, by and large, the ideational dimension was addressed only in the form of vague promises of a “common European security structure,” which ultimately never came to be established. This led to disappointments and accusations that persisted and were, for example, repeatedly used as a justification for Putin’s attacks on Ukraine., Historical Social Research Vol. 47, No. 2 (2022): Forum: Drifting Apart: The Dissociation of States from International Cooperation and its Consequences. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1

The article analyzes the reaction of the West German government to the events of November 9, 1989 in the capital of the GDR. On November 28, Federal Chancellor G. Kohl proposed a conceptual approach to the unification of the two German states, primarily in the economic sphere. Two months later, T. Sarrazin, an employee of the Federal Ministry of Finance, developed on his own initiative a project of the Economic, Monetary and Social Union (EMC), the contract of which was signed in mid-May against the objections of the Bundesbank in mid-May 1990 and comes into force in early July. EMC caused the extremely high transformational costs of the process of rapid entry of the GDR into Germany – in fact economic and political takeover, not unification. The author explores the consequences of economic transformation, the activities of the Privatization authorities and the results of the fundamental restructuring of the East German economy 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Funded by: Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media

This is the online appendix with original quotes to the article "Security, Society, and the State: Vaccination Campaigns in 19th and 20th Century Germany". Vaccinations are a dream of planning public health. They promise the eradication of epidemics and pandemics, the decline of infant mortality, and the control of collective health conditions. Vaccination is therefore never just about the health and disease of the individual. Vaccination campaigns always aim to optimize the society as well. The article traces this history of vaccination in the 19th and 20th centuries from the Ger-man Empire and the Weimar Republic to the Nazi era to the Federal Republic and the GDR. The history of vaccination is one of fears and hopes. In the fight against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio, against tuberculosis, measles, or influenza, Germans negotiated images of man and models of society, ideas of security and the future. This article therefore focuses on disputes between politicians and entrepreneurs, doctors and scientists, journalists, and parents. From the 19th century to the present day, they argue about the opportunities and risks of the immunized society., Historical Social Research Vol. 46, No. 4 (2021): Forum: Vaccination and Society: A History from Smallpox to COVID-19 in Germany. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1, Historical Social Research , Transition (Online Supplement)

Vaccinations are a dream of planning public health. They promise the eradication of epidemics and pandemics, the decline of infant mortality, and the control of collective health conditions. Vaccination is therefore never just about the health and disease of the individual. Vaccination campaigns always aim to optimize the society as well. The article traces this history of vaccination in the 19th and 20th centuries from the German Empire and the Weimar Republic to the Nazi era to the Federal Republic and the GDR. The history of vaccination is one of fears and hopes. In the fight against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio, against tuberculosis, measles, or influenza, Germans negotiated images of man and models of society, ideas of security and the future. This article therefore focuses on disputes between politicians and entrepreneurs, doctors and scientists, journalists, and parents. From the 19th century to the present day, they argue about the opportunities and risks of the immunized society., Historical Social Research Vol. 46, No. 4 (2021): Forum: Vaccination and Society: A History from Smallpox to COVID-19 in Germany. Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1

Following the Warsaw Pact’s military reaction against the Prague Spring, quarrels between the leaderships of the SFRY and GDR soared too. Divergences between Yugoslav and East German socialism were once again emphasised. This resulted in a six-year pause concerning visits by both states’ leaders to the respective other state. The analysis of political and economic contacts between the SFRY and GDR in the period 1968-1974 nevertheless reveals that in this time interval, multiple remarkable forms of economic affiliations were set-up by Yugoslav and East German partners. In a period of complex political relations, Yugoslav and East German actors aimed for mutually beneficial economic cooperation and an alleged alternative to capitalist globalisation. &nbsp, Po vojaškem odzivu Varšavskega pakta na praško pomlad so se razvneli tudi spori med vodstvoma SFRJ in NDR. Razhajanja med jugoslovanskim in vzhodnonemškim socializmom so znova postala opaznejša. To je povzročilo šestletno prekinitev medsebojnih obiskov voditeljev obeh držav. Analiza političnih in gospodarskih stikov med SFRJ in NDR v obdobju 1968–1974 kljub temu razkriva, da so v tem času jugoslovanski in vzhodnonemški partnerji vzpostavili številne presenetljive oblike gospodarskih povezav. V obdobju kompleksnih političnih odnosov so si jugoslovanski in vzhodnonemški akterji prizadevali za medsebojno koristno gospodarsko sodelovanje in domnevno alternativo kapitalistični globalizaciji.

This dissertation examines how two postwar Jewish writers from the former German Democratic Republic, Jurek Becker, a child survivor of the Holocaust, and Barbara Honigmann, a descendent of returned Jewish communist emigres and a second-generation writer, depicted and challenged a culture of silence, “Schweigen,” concerning Holocaust memory and Jewish identity in postwar Germanophone societies. This study emphasizes the unique East German context that influenced both authors. “Schweigen” is defined as a societal phenomenon of binary emotional trauma. Facing the inevitable "Schuldfrage" (Jaspers, 1946), many postwar Germans found it arduous to come to terms with the inhumanity of the Third Reich, while many Jewish victims suffered from the shame of survival. In the GDR, “Schweigen” was compounded by the state’s propagation of antifascism and a prescriptive cultural heritage, Kulturerbe, encompassing the abdication of guilt from the fascist past, the minimization of Jewish victimhood, and misappropriation of Holocaust memory. Becker and Honigmann, whose parents were victimized by the Third Reich, grew up in the GDR, a communist state. Foremost, their family backgrounds, generational attitudes, and perceptions of East German socialism shaped their contrasting writings concerning the cultural silencing of Holocaust memory and complexity of Jewish identity. Literary trauma theory, memory studies, and gender studies bring these (dis)continuities into focus. Five chapters are devoted to the authors’ development in the GDR and their literary responses to “Schweigen” within the limitations of East German cultural heritage. Both oeuvres are therapeutic undertakings impacted by experienced and inherited Holocaust-trauma. The analyses of Becker's life and his novels, Jakob der Lügner, Der Boxer, and Bronsteins Kinder, reveal his adoption of the humanist tradition of socialism that stands against the dangers of fascism, while dissenting from the GDR’s official cultural doctrine. In life and writing, Honigmann forsakes East German Kulturerbe by recreating her own German Jewish identity and cultural heritage. Her autofictive works reject communism and the generational assimilation of her family in favor of Jewish spirituality, feminist assertions, and multiculturalism. The comparison of both authors and their Holocaust-relevant writings likewise endeavors to counter the dual waning of Holocaust memory and East German national memory.

This article explores the case of Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau (DWH)—a furniture and interior manufacturer founded in 1898—through state socialism after 1945 and reprivatization in the 1990s. Our analysis suggests that the firm's survival through multiple systemic disruptions was partly due to the preservation of a unique identity despite heavy institutional pressures for conformity. DWH adopted a “mixed conformity” strategy that attempted to pitch multiple concerns (cultural-aesthetic, ideological, economic) of political authorities against one another to buffer sociopolitical pressures, thus ultimately conforming to some (identity-consistent) demands, while violating other (identity-threatening) ones. This allowed DWH to successfully navigate tensions between sociopolitical expectations and the need to preserve a collective sense of distinctiveness and continuity over time.

This article uses the concept of ‘scale’ to analyse the relative importance of local, national and global places, events, and explanatory frameworks in everyday lives in late communism. It uses a case study of lesbians and gay men living in East Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s, and asks how these groups negotiated the restrictions of life under state socialism. It argues that both individuals and groups used scale in two ways: as an imaginative tool for making sense of the world, and as a political strategy for dealing with the state. In both cases, ‘scaling’, or choosing the scale at which one located oneself and one’s actions, was a means of disrupting and even contesting the rigid hierarchies of state socialist rule.

This article focuses as a case study on Victor Klemperer&rsquo, s diaristic representation of German-Jewish identity and culture after 1945 in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR. The contribution shows how Klemperer&rsquo, s professional and social situation remained very uncomfortable even in East Germany. For the diarist, the communist code &lsquo, antifascist/fascist&rsquo, just like the code &lsquo, German/un-German&rsquo, before it, was tantamount to concealing Jewish origin. His post-Holocaust journals provide an immediate insider&rsquo, s view of Jewish life in Germany after the Holocaust from the perspective of a victim of active persecution. Against this backdrop, the contribution examines how the author&rsquo, s original German nationalism gradually makes way, caught between contradictory impulses of assimilation and decreed Jewish identity, for a much more complex understanding of his own cultural identity. Klemperer&rsquo, s diaries highlight a number of tensions that ultimately reflect on the disjunction between living and writing: The divide between a single and changing self lies at the heart of his diaries after 1945, which depict an astute, complex psychogram of the assimilated German-Jewish bourgeoisie that survived the Holocaust and tried to continue living in communist Germany.

Elektronisches Publizieren und online verfügbare Quellenbestände haben die Geschichtswissenschaft verändert. Gesunkene Zugangshürden und einfache Suchmöglichkeiten beschleunigen den Blick in Quellen sowie Literatur und verbreitern die empirische Basis. Programme zum Bibliographieren, Recherchieren und Exzerpieren ersetzen den Zettelkasten, strukturieren unser Wissen neu und vereinfachen den Blick über geographische und disziplinäre Grenzen hinaus. In der Geschichtswissenschaft viel weniger bekannt sind dagegen Möglichkeiten zur Untersuchung großer Textkorpora mittels computerlinguistischer Methoden. Solche Forschungen versuchen qualitative und quantitative Analyseschritte miteinander zu verbinden. Dieser Sprung von der »digitalisierten« zu einer »digitalen« Geschichtswissenschaft, die algorithmische Analyseverfahren methodisch innovativ nutzt und reflektiert, ist längst noch nicht vollzogen.

For more than half a century, discourses on the Nazi past have powerfully shaped German social and cultural policy. Specifically, an institutional determination not to forget has expressed a “duty of remembrance” through commemorative activities and educational curricula. But as the horrors of the Third Reich retreat ever further from living memory, what do new generations of Germans actually think about this past? Combining observation, interviews, and archival research, this book provides a rich survey of the perspectives and experiences of German adolescents from diverse backgrounds, revealing the extent to which social, economic, and cultural factors have conditioned how they view representations of Germany’s complex history.

The restitution of residential property represented a major conflict in the German unification process, which was also marked by a long history. Notions of property and forms of land registration from the 19th century as well as practices from the GDR played a role in the decision-making process after 1990; they shaped experiences and evaluations of the ›restitution before compensation‹ principle that was introduced in 1990. The underlying property law was modified in the 1990s and increasingly took GDR practices into account. Nevertheless, narratives of loss dominate the public accounts, mainly due to the long period of uncertainty until a decision was finally taken. The municipality of Kleinmachnow was chosen as a case study for the first part of the article. Located at the border to what was formerly West Berlin, it featured prominently in the media in the 1990s. However, its significance for East Germany remained unclear. The second part therefore examines the typical features of this case by using and problematising special sources of transformation history. Since 1990, the social sciences have produced a large amount of qualitative and quantitative data, which is now also available as sources to historians. Before a secondary analysis can be undertaken, they must be classified in terms of the history of knowledge: The social sciences not only observed the transformation process, but also shaped it. An integrative procedure is proposed here in order to combine quantitative and qualitative results for the historical sciences and thus to achieve a better understanding of the complex history of transformation. * * * Die Restitution von Wohneigentum stellte ein großes Konfliktfeld im deutschen Einigungsprozess dar, das zugleich durch eine lange Vorgeschichte geprägt war. Eigentumsideen und -notationsformen aus dem 19. Jahrhundert sowie Praktiken aus der DDR spielten nach 1990 in die Entscheidungen der Ämter zur Regelung offener Vermögensfragen hinein; sie prägten Erfahrungen und Bewertungen des 1990 eingeführten Prinzips »Rückgabe vor Entschädigung«. Das zugrundeliegende Vermögensgesetz wurde in den 1990er-Jahren modifiziert und berücksichtigte vermehrt DDR-Praktiken. Trotzdem dominieren in den öffentlichen Darstellungen Verlust­erzählungen, vor allem aufgrund der langen Zeit der Unsicherheit bis zur endgültigen Entscheidung. Das für den ersten Teil des Aufsatzes gewählte Beispiel Kleinmachnow, das unmittelbar an das frühere West-Berlin angrenzte, stand in den 1990er-Jahren besonders im Medieninteresse. Unklar blieb aber, welche Aussagekraft es für Ostdeutschland hat. Im zweiten Teil wird deshalb nach dem Typischen dieses Falles gefragt. Zugleich wird dafür auf die besonderen Quellen der Transformationsgeschichte eingegangen: Die Sozialwissenschaften produzierten seit 1990 eine Vielzahl qualitativer und quantitativer Daten, die nun auch der Geschichtswissenschaft als Quellen zur Verfügung stehen. Vor einer Sekundäranalyse müssen sie aber wissensgeschichtlich eingeordnet werden: Die Sozialwissenschaften beobachteten den Transformationsprozess nicht nur, sondern gestalteten ihn mit. Vorgeschlagen wird hier ein integratives Verfahren, um quantitative und qualitative Ergebnisse für die Geschichtswissenschaft zu verbinden und somit zu einem besseren Verständnis der komplexen Transformationsgeschichte zu gelangen.

Die Ausgangsfrage der – hier notwendig kursorischen – Analyse des persönlichen Sachbesitzes einer Schenkerin für die Sammlung eines Museums war diejenige nach dem Quellencharakter der Dingsammlung und ihrer sozialen Dimension. Der erhebliche Umfang der Schenkung könnte, so die Hypothese, ein von den Dingen ausgehendes Bild von einem Leben in der DDR ermöglichen. In der Tat zeigen sich mehrere lebensweltliche Dimensionen, die als Sedimente nunmehr im Museumsdepot zu finden und damit der Forschung zugänglich sind: soziale Praktiken und soziale Beziehungen, Informationen zur Arbeitswelt und zur Einstellung gegenüber der DDR, dazu Fragen eines kommunikativen Gedächtnisses in Dingensembles und biographische Hinweise, die auf die historischen Kontexte eines Lebensverlaufs Bezug nehmen. Die Überlieferungsstruktur ist nach den Aufbewahrungsorten organisiert, reicht aber deutlich über eine Lebensspanne hinaus. Damit wird erkennbar, dass der historisch-analytischen Ordnung eine lebensweltliche voranging, die schließlich zur Übergabe an eine öffentliche Institution führte.

This article analyses Stefan Wolter's memoir of his service as a Bausoldat in the Nationale Volksarmee: Hinterm Horizont allein — Der ‘Prinz’ von Prora (2005). I suggest the term ‘archival narrative’ to describe its narrative made up of juxtapositions of different sources and to draw attention to archival forces of selection, preservation and omission which the text displays. Wolter scrutinizes his documents of military service and highlights their inadequacy as evidence of his same-sex relationship, drawing attention to traces of his anxieties about revealing once closeted desires. The text therefore invites a reading through the archive theories of Jacques Derrida and José Esteban Muñoz, as well as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's concept of the closet. Wolter offers a uniquely candid account of same-sex desire in the East German military. He shows the effects of a closet defined by concealment, tacit knowledge and the threat of exposure on the documentation and archivization of queer experiences. Above all, he suggests ways of preserving evidence of same-sex desire without neglecting experiences of closeting and suppression. Postprint

Die Fernsehreihe »Wettlauf mit der Zeit« stellte von 1986 bis 1989 in über 80 Folgen den Zuschauern die Entwicklung und Anwendung sogenannter Schlüsseltechnologien vor und zeigte deren vorgeblich positive Wirkung sowohl auf die Volkswirtschaft der DDR wie auch auf die gesamte sozialistische Gesellschaft. Die Darstellung erfolgte dabei stets aus produktionsbezogener Sicht, nur selten rückte die Konsumentenperspektive in den Fokus. Schlüsseltechnologien wurden definiert als Techniken, »die auf längere Sicht die Produktivkraftentwicklung in der gegenwärtigen Etappe der wissenschaftlich-technischen Revolution wesentlich bestimmen«. Den Zuschauern der Reihe wurden als solche präsentiert: die Mikroelektronik, die Informatik, CAD/CAM-Systeme, verschiedene Automatisierungstechniken, Formen neuer bzw. verbesserter Energieverwendung und -verwertung, der Einsatz von Biotechnik und die so bezeichnete »sozialistische Umweltgestaltung«. Worin aber bestand nun der »Wettlauf mit der Zeit«?

Die Geschichte des Faches der Neuropathologie und der Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie in der DDR ist bis heute weitgehend unerforscht. Die geringe Größe des Faches und im Vergleich sehr kleine Fachgesellschaft haben mit dazu geführt, das bis heute keine wissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung stattgefunden hat. Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich zum ersten Mal mit der Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie der DDR und hat ihr Wirken und das neuropathologische Arbeiten in der DDR erforscht. Dafür wurden Interviews mit den noch lebenden beteiligten Neuropathologen der DDR geführt und Einsicht in die noch vorhandenen Unterlagen des Generalsekretariates der medizinisch- wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften des Ministeriums für Gesundheitswesen der DDR und diverse Fachpublikationen und Publikationsorgane genommen. So lässt sich die Geschichte der Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie der DDR von ihrer Gründung 1967 bis zu ihrem Auflösen nach dem Fall der Mauer 1991 nachvollziehen und beschreiben. Die wissenschaftliche Entwicklung des Faches der Neuropathologie ist ebenfalls in der Dissertation dargestellt. Auch die im Vergleich große Einflussnahme des Staates der DDR auf die Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie und die in der DDR lebenden Neuropathologen lässt sich gut an der in der Dissertation beschriebenen Entwicklung der Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie darstellen., The history of neuropathology in the GDR and the society of neuropathology in the GDR has not been studied systematically until now. The smallness of the society and the field of neuropathology may have led to a lack of scientific revision. In this doctoral thesis, I present the results of my scientific analysis, focussing on the history of the society of neuropathology in the GDR. This is, to our knowledge the first systematic and scientific work in this field. Interviews with the still-living key figures in charge of neuropathological clinical diagnostics and research were performed, complemented by an extensive research using accessible archival files of the ministry of health of the GDR as well as relevant publications from that time. Based on this assembled information, it was possible to reconstruct the history of the society of neuropathology in the GDR from the beginning in 1967 until the end, two years after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1991. The scientific development of the field of neuropathology in the GDR is also highlighted in this manuscript. The development of the society as described herein also features the intense external interference by governmental agencies of the GDR on the medical work and scientific possibilities.

peer-reviewed Following the ideological co-option of German folk music by the Nazi regime during the Third Reich (1933-1945), the genre’s performative practice was highly marginalized. Revivalists in both German post-war states initially recast German folk music in a recourse to the soundscape and song themes of Irish vernacular music, before reconnecting with a 19th century oppositional German folk song repertoire. In the GDR, songs of the 1848 Revolution were curated as the state’s ‘democratic’ cultural heritage and could not be readily censored. This allowed artists to perform historical folk songs to metaphorically critique circumstances existing in East Germany. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted among former GDR folk musicians, this paper explores their encounters in relation to established post-war German folk music discourses on the relationship between artists and state authorities. Concrete analysis of a 19th century emigration song uncovers how folk musicians could subversively pass comment on state-imposed travel restrictions to the West.

Design aus der DDR ist heute scheinbar nur ein kunsthistorisches Randgebiet. Doch im Kontext der Dauerausstellung zum »Alltag in der DDR«, die die Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland nun seit November 2013 am früheren Ort der Sammlung Industrielle Gestaltung in der Berliner Kulturbrauerei zeigt, ist es in den letzten Jahren zu einem kontroversen öffentlichen Thema geworden. Der Konflikt bezieht sich unmittelbar auf diese Sammlung, eine der ältesten zum Design in Deutschland - und mit etwa 160.000 Objekten wohl die umfassendste und vielseitigste zur Produktgestaltung in der DDR, jedoch seit 2005 weder öffentlich sichtbar noch beworben. Aufgrund ihrer wechselhaften Geschichte nach der Wiedervereinigung wurden die Bestände bisher nur überblicksweise erschlossen. Obwohl Forscher sie auf Anfrage einsehen können, wäre eine systematische Katalogisierung, inhaltliche Bewertung und damit bessere Zugänglichkeit nötig.

International audience; Post-Communist Europe has not chosen to imitate the Truth and Justice or Truth and Reconciliation Commissions set up on several other continents. The notion of reconciliation with the Communist regime is not of much interest to certain political parties, many of which are rooted in the protest against the compromises that were part of the negotiated revolutions. The model admired by post-Communist countrieswas the one conceived by the Germans. Almost all the countries founded specific institutions – institutes – for managing memory, with archives located in these institutes. Some have archives that date from before World War II to 1990; they handle both totalitarianisms. What is feared is that through the game of partisan appointments, these institutes will become little more than instruments in less than honest hands for use in political contests. This is especially likely given that the Polish Institute of National Memory (IPN) employees perform several functions:classification, prosecution, and evaluating individual applicants to certain administrative positions. The specialized literature usually explains the trials and tribulations of Poland’s IPN in terms of the personalities of its different directors and the period in which each occupied that post. In this paper, we have verified thishypothesis.

This article engages in a spatial analysis of the link between protest and voting during the Wende, East Germany’s revolution of 1989. Are the same places that protested more also the places that decided the revolution’s fate by supporting CDU’s ticket of quick reunification? The revolution is approached through the conceptual metaphor of Thermidor, a conservative backlash to the revolution’s initial radical impulse. Spatial methods are used to investigate the local-level relationships between protest and voting. The article finds a weak link between protest and voting, which suggests that something akin to Thermidor occurred in East Germany. While certain towns initiated the revolution with their protests, other localities stepped in at a later stage and finished the revolution by voting for reunification, the revolution’s main outcome. The article pays special attention to the divide between East Germany’s north (Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) and south (Saxony and Thuringia).

In modern history, when reality is subject to rapid and radical change, the role of personality – whether a statesman or a politician – can be very significant in the process of making such changes and in achieving specific results. This is true of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who in 1989-90, as described in this article, by his actions and policies led the Germans to unity after forty years of Germany’s split.

Nomen est omen: State names for divided Germany The Cold War brought a competition of political systems between East and West. This battle was also waged on a discursive level. In this article the ”German question” is investigated from a linguistic perspective by analysing the names used for both German states in political documents, and in press, informational and educational materials. By using di erent names such as the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR), East Germany, the Zone, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/BRD), West Germany and the Bonn Republic, the states were able to position themselves and simultaneously call into question the legitimacy of the ”other” Germany. The names chosen were deliberate speech acts and part of the antagonism that characterized German-German relations until uni cation in 1990. A diachronic study of how the state names were used in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic therefore illustrates the relations between the states. The uses of German state names by other nations were also perceived as political statements. Neutral Sweden was caught in the middle of a German- German power struggle. Although the Federal Republic of Germany was certainly the more important partner, with a stronger in uence during the period as a whole, the GDR nevertheless served as a role model in several areas. The article sheds light on Sweden’s view of divided Germany dur- ing the Cold War by examining how both German states were portrayed linguistically in Swedish public discourse between 1949 and 1989. The analysis shows that the German-German context involved regular wars of words, where the use of a name could prompt both domestic and foreign policy con icts. The names of East or West Germany had political signi cance and were also explicitly agreed on in di erent contexts. The Swedish materials show a more pragmatic approach. Names were increas- ingly chosen to suit the context of communication and consideration of the German-German name preferences seemingly played a subordinate role. However, the study demonstrates that name practices changed in accordance with the political debates caused by the German question. The attempt to portray the two German states as equal regardless of context, which started in the late 1960s, is remarkable. The use of state names in the respective public discourse of the states re ects the balance of power and interaction of the Cold War. The study illustrates clear di erences in how the two German states were portrayed linguistically in the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR and in Sweden. But in spite of di erences, the same image was evoked – West Germany was portrayed as the ”real”, prototypical Germany, whereas the GDR assumed more of a divergent status.

Resumen La asistencia militar cubana en Angola y Etiopía es muy conocida en el ámbito internacional. Sin embargo, la historia de la asistencia civil aún no ha sido escrita en toda su magnitud. Esta contribución esboza una comparación entre el "internacionalismo" cubano y el sector de la "solidaridad" o "ayuda socialista" de la República Democrática Alemana (RDA). ¿Qué significaron y cuáles fueron las terminologías y prácticas correspondientes de los alemanes? ¿Qué tipos de internacionalismo y solidaridad de práctica pueden identificarse? ¿Cómo fueron las relaciones entre cubanos y alemanes con sus contrapartes etíopes y angolanos y con el pueblo de esos países y qué se transfirió en ese encuentro triangular? La contribución se basa en material de los archivos cubanos y alemanes, así como en entrevistas. Resumo A assistência militar cubana em Angola e na Etiópia é muito conhecida no âmbito internacional. No entanto, a história da assistência civil ainda não foi escrita em toda a sua magnitude. Esta contribuição esboça uma comparação entre o "internacionalismo" cubano e o setor da "solidariedade" ou "ajuda socialista" da República Democrática Alemã (RDA). O que significaram e quais foram as terminologias e práticas correspondentes dos alemães? Que tipos de internacionalismo e solidariedade de prática podem ser identificados? Como foram as relações entre cubanos e alemães com suas contrapartes etíopes e angolanas e com o povo desses países e o que se transferiu nesse encontro triangular? A contribuição se baseia em material de arquivos cubanos e alemães, assim como em entrevistas. Abstract Cuban military assistance in Angola and Ethiopia is reasonably well known internationally. However, Cuban civil assistance has not yet been researched in its full dimension. This article compares Cuban 'internationalism' and the 'solidarity' or 'socialist aid' sector of the GDR. What did they mean and what were the corresponding German terminologies and practices? What kinds of internationalism and solidarity practices can be identified? What were relations like between Cubans and Germans and their Ethiopian and Angolan counterparts and with the people from those countries? Finally, what was transferred in that triangular encounter? This article is based on Cuban and German archives, as well as interviews.

The decision to institute Area Studies in German universities in 1917, was born out of a perceived need to widen the intellectual horizon of the public and academia alike. At Greifswald University this ambitious reform programme saw the foundation of a Nordic Institute, charged with interdisciplinary studies of contemporary Northern Europe. Its interdisciplinarity and implicit role in public diplomacy made the Nordic Institute, and the institutions that succeeded it, an anomaly within the university, until the institute was fundamentally reformed in the early 1990s. The study explores the institutional development of the institute under five different political regimes – Kaiserreich, Weimar Republic, Third Reich, GDR and FRG. It does so through the lens of scholars as utility-seeking actors, manoeuvring between the confines of an academic environment and the possibilities afforded by the institute’s political task. It becomes apparent that the top-down institution of interdisciplinary scholarship produced a number of conflicts between the disciplinarily organized career path on theone hand, and scholars’ investment in broader regional research on the other. Personal conflicts in a confined and competitive environment, and a persistent shortage of funding provided further incentives for scholars to overcome perceived limitations of the academic sphere by offering their cooperation to the political field. Individual attempts to capitalize on a reciprocal exchange of resources with the political field remained a feature under all political regimes, but the opportunity to do so successfully depended on the receptiveness of the political field. Cooperation, where it was established, also proved to be difficult, with the interests of political and academic actors often diverging, and the political side’s interest becoming dominant. The study examines the underlying motivations of scholars to seek assistance from outside the academic field, but also the problems connected with that approach, and demonstrates the specific problems faced by Area Studies in a German context.

Over the course of its turbulent history, the German nation has defined itself time and again in terms of a constructed Other. The Other--depicted variously as a political, ideological, or racial opposition to the existence of the imagined German Self--has served as a common enemy against which the nation can unite, essentially a vehicle for promoting national spirit. Discussing the historically exclusive nature of German nationalism, Christian Joppke observes, "the German concept of nation thus became more like a weapon than a unifying symbol, the property of some but not of others." (1) Implicit in this is the perception of an enemy within, a construct of nation in which Self and Other are two sides of the same coin. Thomas Mann famously asserted in 1945 that one could not speak of two separate Germanys, an evil one represented by Hitler and a good one that encompassed Kultur. (2) Yet as the Cold War progressed, identity-formation processes were dependent on narratives of separate Germanies: Germany as oppressed and oppressor, as perpetrator and jury, and, most obviously as East and West. The political scientist John Keane notes that "crises are times during which the living do battle for the hearts, minds and souls of the dead," an observation that is pertinent here. (3) Uniting the various postwar definitions of nation, as intimated by Thomas Mann, was the shared cultural heritage, which inevitably emerged as a focal point in the ideological combat of the Cold War. Amid the abject poverty in Berlin in 1946, an incredulous cultural correspondent from Time magazine revealingly acclaimed the city as "the current theatrical and musical capital of Europe," noting that "theaters with their roofs blown off and their walls caved in are housing productions ... that would shame a good deal of the stuff shown on Broadway." (4) Birthdays and anniversaries of Germany's dead musical luminaries were seized upon as nation-building and propaganda opportunities; in both East and West numerous "commemorative years" (Gedenkjahre) and other smaller festivals were organized to honor, and exploit, the pantheon of Germany's cultural heroes. The 200th anniversary of Bach's death in 1950 gave rise to a year-long series of festivities; a Beethoven-Gedenkjahr to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the composer's death followed in 1952, and commemorative celebrations for Schubert, Schumann, Mozart, and Handel followed in quick succession. (5) The Canon in a Divided Nation The commitment to the canon by the Soviet and American occupying forces played in their favor by confronting widely held perceptions of both as culturally challenged nations. (6) It also tapped deep into the German psyche; culture, and in particular music, was intrinsic to the German sense of self and national identity. Robert Schumann, for example, observed in 1839: "as Italy has its Naples, France its Revolution, England its Navy, etc., so the Germans have their Beethoven symphonies." (7) The response to this conviction was strikingly different in East and West Germany. The Americans were adamant that the Third Reich had been no chance occurrence but a product of an innate German chauvinism that was manifest in their attitude toward their musical heritage. A reoccurrence of war was inevitable unless these basic flaws in the German character were addressed. (8) Consequently, in the immediate aftermath of the war, the focus in West Germany was on the denationalization of the canon. Radio programs and concerts interspersing German music with compositions from the Allied nations, accompanied by the promotion of non-German performers, aimed to reduce the German certainty about their musical supremacy. David Monod describes American attempts to "attack Nazi sentiments in the music sector by showing the Germans that Americans could sing Wagner better than they." (9) Similarly, Bach and Beethoven were no longer discussed in terms of their German heritage but depicted as products of an international humanism, one to which Germany had no greater claim than any other nation. …

Wann und wie wandelten sich in der DDR-Gesellschaft langfristig politische Einstellungen und Wertorientierungen, wie sie dann 1989 in der Herbstrevolution sichtbar wurden? Anknüpfend an Konrad H. Jarauschs These von der »Umkehr« als fundamentalem Demokratisierungsprozess im geteilten Nachkriegsdeutschland untersucht der Beitrag die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Stellvertreterbefragungen, die das westdeutsche Meinungsforschungsunternehmen Infratest im Auftrag der Bundesregierung von 1968 bis 1989 durchgeführt hat. Befragt wurden westdeutsche Besucher der DDR über die Ansichten eines von ihnen definierten Gesprächspartners im ostdeutschen Staat, den sie besucht und mit dem sie ausführlich gesprochen hatten. Dieser Serie zufolge stand eine breite und wachsende »schweigende Mehrheit« der DDR-Einwohner dem System distanziert gegenüber, war aber weder im westlichen noch im östlichen Sinne besonders ideologisch präformiert. Sie maß die DDR vor allem an ihren praktischen Leistungen im Hinblick auf Lebensstandard und Perspektiven. Das Interesse an Politik sank ab Mitte der 1970er-Jahre, stieg dann aber wieder an und orientierte sich zunehmend an westlichen Politikformen., When and how did long-term political attitudes and value orientations in East German society change, ultimately resulting in the autumn revolution of 1989? Picking up on Konrad H. Jarausch’s argument that divided post-war Germany was subject to a fundamental process of democratisation, the article investigates the potential and limitations of the proxy surveys conducted by the West German polling institute Infratest for the Federal government from 1968 to 1989. For these surveys, Infratest interviewed West German visitors to the GDR about the opinions of one of their friends or relatives in East Germany whom they had visited and with whom they had spoken at length. According to this survey series, a broad and growing silent majority of East Germans had a distanced attitude towards the communist system, albeit without any particular ideological predisposition in either the Western or the Eastern mode. This majority based their judgements of the GDR above all on practical achievements in terms of living standards and life perspectives. The population’s interest in politics declined from the mid-seventies onwards, but rose again in later years and was increasingly oriented towards Western-style politics.

The last parliament of the GDR, the 10. Volkskammer, existed only from March to October 1990 and was undoubtedly different from those in other eastern European communist countries. This had to do with its special situation as the parliament of one half of a former united nation. After the victory of the conservatives in the election of March 1990 it was clear that the majority of voters wanted unification with West Germany according to Art. 23 of the German Constitution and as quickly as possible. This meant reunification by accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic. It was the Volkskammer’s main task to organize this process. Given that the 400 newly elected MPs were completely unexperienced following the model of the German Bundestag was probably the only way to be able to tackle the problems they were faced with. But this meant too that there was little room and no time to develop own solutions to their problems. Critics saw the massive support by West German political parties and institutions as a form of colonization. And a lot of MPs too were highly critical of their work. A feeling of lack of influence and powerlessness was widespread. But, as the example of the reintroduction of the five Länder shows, both sides could pull in the same direction too.This article tries to answer the question whether this parliament was only an assiduous student of its West German master or despite the circumstances able to develop its own culture and its own pace.

The claim to successfully have eliminated racism and xenophobia in socialist Germany was crucial for the GDR’s demarcation against the Federal Republic and for GDR’s political self-conception. According to the state party SED, both the GDR’s government and its people met with all members of the working class, regardless their ethnicity or culture, in the spirit of Völkerfreundschaft – the peoples’ friendship. In the early 1960s, suffering from a lack of work power, the GDR began to recruit foreign workers, and continued to do so up until German reunification. When workers arrived from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the propositions of antiracism and peoples’ friendship were tested in practice. Following a discourse-analytical approach this study analyzes how the ideal of Völkerfreundschaft was dealt with and how it was exploited and altered both by citizens communicating with the state and within party-loyal circles. It examines when, why and by whom ethnicity was downplayed in favor of common class affiliation, and under which circumstances it regained importance. While latest research on foreigners in the GDR has focused on diagnosing the discrepancy between ideological claims and reality this study goes beyond such an approach and analyzes how this discrepancy was dealt with – both by state authorities, the state-owned factories and ordinary people – in everyday life. This study is a contribution to migration research, as well as to everyday-life-history and history of mentality in the GDR.

The claim to successfully have eliminated racism and xenophobia in socialist Germany was crucial for the GDR’s demarcation against the Federal Republic and for GDR’s political self-conception. According to the state party SED, both the GDR’s government and its people met with all members of the working class, regardless their ethnicity or culture, in the spirit of Völkerfreundschaft – the peoples’ friendship. In the early 1960s, suffering from a lack of work power, the GDR began to recruit foreign workers, and continued to do so up until German reunification. When workers arrived from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the propositions of antiracism and peoples’ friendship were tested in practice. Following a discourse-analytical approach this study analyzes how the ideal of Völkerfreundschaft was dealt with and how it was exploited and altered both by citizens communicating with the state and within party-loyal circles. It examines when, why and by whom ethnicity was downplayed in favor of common class affiliation, and under which circumstances it regained importance. While latest research on foreigners in the GDR has focused on diagnosing the discrepancy between ideological claims and reality this study goes beyond such an approach and analyzes how this discrepancy was dealt with – both by state authorities, the state-owned factories and ordinary people – in everyday life. This study is a contribution to migration research, as well as to everyday-life-history and history of mentality in the GDR.