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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Christian Petzold's 2012 film Barbara, a film about a disgraced East German doctor who has been demoted to work in a provincial hospital, borders and boundaries abound. While moral, ethical, and personal boundaries are frequently crossed in the film, the German-German border remains somewhat of a mystery. It is a border that cannot be spoken of, rendering not only the characters mute, but also any visual representation impossible. Using the understated realism of the Berlin School of filmmaking, this paper argues, the film visualizes instead an ambivalent approach to the German notion of 'Heimat': rather than being the homely, safe haven it is usually depicted as, Barbara's country of birth becomes 'unheimlich' – uncanny, a place of invasion, surveillance and confinement. And yet, in the end, Barbara chooses to stay there, giving up her place in an escape plan to a pregnant teen patient instead. The film thus throws up more questions than it answers, most crucially about the human capacity to live within even the most personal constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the German Democratic Republic's longstanding aesthetic and political discourse on social utopianism, this article will discuss Alfred Wellm's novel Morisco (1987) and Halle-Neustadt as a key to understanding the relationship between the socialist new town and the East German cultural imaginary. Through Wellm's novel, the article will argue that the construction of modernist new towns provoked a cultural response engaging with the rift between built reality and the utopian imagination/ambition of the classless, socialist city in different literary and visual media. Evoking Tommaso Campanella's utopian City of the Sun (1602), the novel critically positions Neustadt within a cyclical Marxist eschatology, simultaneously expressing frustration with and hope for the progress of the socialist project. It therefore also represents the post-Stalin aesthetic shift from grand socialist realist narratives to subjective everyday perspectives, and the revived interest of authors in utopian themes in the 1980s against the backdrop of the Socialist Unity Party's (SED) claim that socialism had already been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Magnus Hirschfeld died in 1935, he left many concepts and research ideas behind. They were used and interpreted by various scholars: Race hygienists, friends of naturism, constitutional biology and an influential endocrinologist. These unplanned continuities have yet to find a place in the historiography of sexualities yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the journal 'Raumforschung und Raumordnung' (RuR), the topic of spatial planning in the GDR played but a subordinate role. Nevertheless, it is possible to deduce basic statements on the reception of GDR territorial planning. This paper examines articles in the journal with the aim of identifying tendencies in discussion of spatial planning in the GDR. It is essential to also take a look at the development of spatial planning in the GDR itself in order to trace the relationship between the image in the journal and the real frame of reference in the GDR. The analysis oscillates between chronological consideration of epistemologically promising articles in RuR and distinctive findings in GDR planning research. The focus of the analysis is on key publications that also contribute to interpretation of the spatial turn. The tendencies found also reflected socio-political connotations of federal policy towards the GDR. These began with rather distanced reporting on the 'Soviet zone' and critical observations on individual aspects of spatial planning there. This was followed by increasingly objective reports and critiques that sketched a differentiated picture of spatial planning in the GDR. Finally, the papers comprised professional discussion about the GDR on equal terms, combining critical reflection with consideration of problems in the FRG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia y Politica: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales is the property of Departamento De Historia del Pensamiento y de los Moviemientos Sociales y Politicos (Madrid) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Secuencia: Revista de Historia y Ciencias Sociales is the property of Instituto de Investigaciones - Dr. Jose M. Luis Mora and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivum is the property of Universidad de Oviedo, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the idea of ESPAGNE’S cultural transfer and GREENBLATT’S cultural mobility, the article aims to assess the exchange in the theatre between BERTOLT BRECHT and KONRAD SWINARSKI as well as its contribution to the transformation of both cultures. For BRECHT, Swinarski was not only a student in his master’s class and an assistant director but also a cultural mediator, thanks to whom BRECHT was able to deepen his knowledge of Polish culture and politics. The article suggests that the cultural transfer did not take place only in the official sphere of assistant directing at the Berliner Ensemble, where Swinarski worked from 1955 to 1957, but was already accomplished in the private unofficial sphere and continued even after BRECHT’S death in 1956. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Current standards in clinical genetics recognize the need to establish the validity of gene-disease relationships as a first step in the interpretation of sequence variants. We describe our experience incorporating the ClinGen Gene-Disease Clinical Validity framework in our interpretation and reporting workflow for a clinical genome sequencing (cGS) test for individuals with rare and undiagnosed genetic diseases. This “reactive” gene curation is completed upon identification of candidate variants during active case analysis and within the test turn-around time by focusing on the most impactful evidence and taking advantage of the broad applicability of the framework to cover a wide range of disease areas. We demonstrate that reactive gene curation can be successfully implemented in support of cGS in a clinical laboratory environment, enabling robust clinical decision making and allowing all variants to be fully and appropriately considered and their clinical significance confidently interpreted.

In Ali Samadi Ahadi’s feature film Salami Aleikum (2009), the director negotiates transnational conflict through humor and stereotypes. Ahadi exaggerates and simultaneously negates the stereotypes of men and women, East and West Germans as well as Muslims, Iranians, Poles etc. in Germany. Through their grown children, an Iranian family from the West German city Cologne meets an East German family that lives in a smalltown village where stereotypes of Muslims rage. The inter-ethnic couple at the center of the movie forges an exceptional bond that overcomes lies and disappointments in order to succeed as a possible diverse role model for the current and future Germany. I argue that the movie uses humor and satire to engage with the ethnic, religious and cultural integration of Muslims into Germany to offer the audience a way to engage with the serious topic of a peaceful integration of Muslims that has been challenged in public debates for years. My article also investigates the underlying theme of a search for a safe “Heimat” within German borders in which the parents and children of both non-Western German families feel at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will argue that the popularization of the amateur genre 'family film' in guides, manuals and a leisure film festival became a paternalistic strategy to regulate individual moviemakers in state socialism. It reveals the benefits of historical research on guiding literature and guidelines at an amateur festival in East Germany. Analyzing promoted norms diachronically points to a changing understanding of leisure in socialism. Additionally, it reveals a complex media history that is not reduced to top-down orders. On the contrary, guides display constant negotiations between state regulation and individualism. Thus, this paper questions a perspective on private media production in the GDR that is often politicized by categories such as propaganda or subversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the fictionalized character of the Soviet spy Richard Stahlmann, who was attributed with "Asian eyes" by Peter Weiss, in volume 3 of The Aesthetics of Resistance. In a passage that describes Stahlmann's visit to Angkor Wat, the character's identity crisis is precipitated by his self-Orientalizing gaze, leading him to doubt his commitment to communism. The article relates this to Weiss's own biographical experience as a left-wing intellectual who belatedly discovered that his father was Jewish and had kept this fact a secret to evade the Nazis. However, antisemitism continued in the antifascist, anticapitalist context of both East and West Germany, as shown in The Aesthetics: Jews were portrayed as duplicitous and accused of treason, as "spies." Weiss himself experienced leftist antisemitism and took this narrative detour to Southeast Asia to address this problem through the fictive figure of Stahlmann. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German Democratic Republic (GDR) pedagogy is still a topic that is as fascinating as it is controversial – in particular, when it comes to school and teaching. This article is dedicated to a source that has so far remained internationally unnoticed, the Pedagogical Readings as a written recording of experiences and providing innovative proposals implemented by GDR pedagogues. A total of about 9500 have been preserved to date in the Library for Education History Research, a source unique in the history of education that has hardly been appreciated until now. The article describes the contours of the corpus itself, and reports on research undertaken so far. Using the part of the corpus that refers to the pedagogical work with cognitively impaired pupils, it shows, through examples, that a closer analysis of this highly original source material has the potential to give new impulses to social narratives concerning GDR pedagogy as well as to the related academic discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ayer: Revista de Historia Contemporánea is the property of Asociacion de Historia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on a case study of the filmmaker Horst Klein, the article shows how a new view on biographical information can enrich and most of all improve historical studies of film and television and lead to a better understanding of work in the film and television industry.

This article examines the figure of Thomas Müntzer in Marxist historiography, as well as the “utopianisation” of Müntzer in Ernst Bloch’s 1921 study on Thomas Müntzer as Theologian of the Revolution. I review some of the differences in Martin Luther and Müntzer in their competing views for the future after the break from Rome, and the theological thrust of Müntzer’s vision. This is then connected with elements from Bloch’s Müntzer, chiefly focussing on spirit and history.

The most widespread version of the history of Latin American literature maintains that the Boom, in the 1960s, was the moment of its irruption onto the international stage. According to this idea, it was not until the 1970s that Suhrkamp publishing house became the main promoter of Latin American literature in the German-speaking world. In response to these claims, this article argues that the anti-fascist exiles who returned mainly to the GDR were decisive mediators who, as early as the 1940s, took on the task of making Latin American literature known in the Germanspeaking world and, by extension, in the international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with questions of the sociopolitical involvement of classical music performance spaces. During the last twenty years of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig provided opportunities for its users to emancipate themselves from Socialist Unity Party oppression. Through its architecture, music, and visual art, the Gewandhaus symbolized an agonistic space that aided in disrupting its sociopolitical surroundings, because it made visible what real-existing socialism was lacking: unity, openness, transparency, and internationality. Examining how the Gewandhaus interacted with its sociopolitical surroundings sheds light on its ability to engage with public discourse within the restricted society of the GDR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC) was founded in Bonn in 1950 and saw itself as the all-German representation of neurosurgeons. The development of neurosurgery in divided Germany was different in each case as part of a system and was not unaffected by the confrontation between the two blocs (cold war), which also had a negative impact on the field of science. Thus, early on, restrictions on intra-German travel from the East made normal relations difficult. But travel restrictions also came from the West, where an Allied Travel Office in West Berlin decided whether an East German could enter a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country. Nevertheless, it was possible that Georg Merrem from Leipzig took over the second chairmanship of the board of the DGNC of the election period from 1960 to 1962 and eight individual memberships of German Democratic Republic (GDR) neurosurgeons were still tolerated by the state side. The construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 meant that these connections also collapsed. Merrem, at that time the only full professor of neurosurgery in the GDR, founded the "Association of Neurosurgeons in the GDR" in 1962 in agreement with the state authorities. With the foundation of a GDR neurosurgeons' society, the demarcation from the DGNC desired by the state was visibly accomplished. There were no official relations between the two neurosurgical societies. During the period of its existence until 1990, the entire work of the East German society was under the guidance and control of state institutions, which in turn derived their work from the guidelines of the party and the decisions of the council of ministers. Using the example of the congress activities of the first 5 years after the Wall was built, we show this dependence on state institutions. It extends from congress planning to reporting. With available figures of participating speakers from West Germany and other countries, it is demonstrated for the individual congresses in Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Erfurt that the German–German connection was continued despite all adverse circumstances. The presence of West German colleagues, who were not deterred from attending the congress even by the construction of the Berlin Wall, can be seen as a visible expression of an unbroken togetherness. However, already in 1967, the party and the council of ministers passed the resolution "On the organization of work in the field of science and culture of the GDR to West Germany as well as West Berlin." This regulated membership, the associated travel, and the conditions for publications in West German journals. Among other things, this directive prohibited membership in scientific societies, including the DGNC, based in West Germany. The organization of its own congresses took on a special significance because a congress visit from East to West was regulated by the state and thus only possible in isolated cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine is the property of Societe d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Psychosozial is the property of Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

East Germany has been a member of UN HABITAT/UNCHS (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements) since the 1970s and used the organisation both as a political platform for global discussions on housing as well as to strengthen its business prospects in developing countries. From 1984, the East German delegation to HABITAT was led by Bauakademie (East Germany’s institute for architectural science). In the late 1980s, the Academy organised a seminar series under the roof of HABITAT, targeted at urban planning and architecture professionals from the Global South. Around twenty of them visited Berlin, Dessau and other cities in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and were acquainted with what was presented as achievements of the East German housing industry and policy. This article explores the rationale of the Academy as an organiser and juxtaposes its perspective with the participant’s view. Some of them openly countered the idea that East German housing and city planning practices were easily transferable to other world regions, thus challenging not only the seminar concept but also the Academy’s economic ambitions in the Global South and the underlying perceptions of progress and transferability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political repression beneath the threshold of criminal prosecution is a phenomenon of past and present, predominantly authoritarian, regimes. This so-called quiet repression includes measures such as the limitation of freedom of speech, surveillance of (perceived) political opponents, or the spreading of rumors to socially isolate targets. Such experiences of chronic stress show significant psychological and physiological health consequences in affected individuals. However, societal awareness of quiet repression measures remains limited, hindering victims' access to support and complicating healthcare interventions. In the current paper, we present the design of a study conducted with individuals who endured quiet repression measures in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), a socialist state closely aligned with the former Soviet Union. We discuss the challenges encountered over the course of the study, and present the solutions found. Although every study population has their unique challenges and needs, we wish to inform future sensitive research within the realm of quiet political repression. Given the limited understanding of the phenomenon, there is a pressing need for further investigation aiming to improve acceptance and care for past and future victims., Competing Interests: No conflict., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The paper gives an insight into the change of urban planning paradigms in the late GDR. In 1982, the "Principles for the Socialist Development of Urban Development and Architecture in the German Democratic Republic" formed a long-awaited update of the "Sixteen Principles of Urban Design" dated 1950. Taking the developments in the city of Halle (Saale) as a case study, the inner-city renewal areas are explored. It is argued that the urban design and the architecture of the projects of the 1980-s can best be explained with the two concepts of context and continuity. Thus, the new structures are linked to the past but constructed and designed with contemporary means.

The article examines Ingo Schulze's novel Die rechtschaffenen Mörder (2020) in the light of the considerations on estrangement expressed by the author in his speech for the Brecht Prize in 2013. This paper highlights how the novel is about two types of 'estrangements': the first, along Brecht's lines, is at the service of committed literature, capable of representing an "alternative project" for society; the second, on the other hand, is functional to the author's self-reflective moment and characteristic of the postmodern novel. The analysis of the novel argues that 'estrangement', from being a tool of political and social commitment aimed at demystifying power relations, ultimately becomes a merely formal device that preserves the status quo in the market of artistic forms produced by the "mass-democratic postmodernity" (Kondylis) in which Schulze operates, thus counteracting Brecht's and perhaps even Schulze's own initial aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the interaction between photons and matter is crucial for exploring essential questions in nuclear physics. The Giant Dipole Resonance (GDR) is the prevailing mechanism in photo-absorption cross-sections up to 30 MeV. Depending on whether the nucleus is spherical or deformed, the curve of the photo-absorption cross-section versus photon energy is characterized by one or several Lorentzian peaks. Theoretical calculations of photo-absorption cross-sections are largely centered on deducing GDR parameters. These parameters are used in theoretical reaction codes that aim to simulate photon-induced nuclear reactions accurately. In this study, the GDR parameters for the spherical isotopes 115In, 144Sm, 148Sm, 150Sm, and for the deformed isotopes 154Sm, 153Eu, and 160Gd were calculated by optimizing to the experimental data. The calculated GDR parameters were inputted into the TALYS 1.8 code to compute the photo-neutron cross sections, which were then compared with experimental results from the literature. It has been observed that the calculations performed with the obtained GDR parameters are consistent with the experimental data. • Optimizations of GDR parameters for 115In, 144,148,150,154Sm, 153Eu and 160Gd isotopes • TALYS 1.8 code was used for the calculations. • Alpha Optical model potentials and level density models were used in calculations. • Calculation of new GDR parameters by optimizing to the experimental data. • A visual analysis by graphing the outcomes were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articel argues that an interdisciplinary phenomenological approach based on the understanding of nostalgic historical experience by Frank Ankersmit can be helpful in the critical analysis of emotionally and aesthetically charged cinematic phenomena like ostalgie. On the example of the film KUNDSCHAFTER DES FRIEDENS / OLD AGENT MEN (Robert Thalheim, 2017) the essay discusses how the analysis of the specificity of ostalgie film can contribute further to a more complex understanding of German films about the GDR past.

Analyzing East German home movies presents a challenge for researchers, since 8 mm and Super 8 reels reveal a harmonious image of life under dictatorship. This article proposes a combination of film analysis, the analysis of written sources, and film interviews as a methodological approach to studying films in the absence of contextual information. This approach is especially effective as a way of distancing oneself from preconceptions about vernacular filmmaking under socialism.

Copyright of Film Quarterly / Kwartalnik Filmowy is the property of Kwartalnik Filmowy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on a library collection containing around 9,000 titles of Pädagogische Lesungen [Pedagogical Lectures] (PL), compiled and centrally awarded in the GDR from 1961 to 1989. This contribution gives an initial overview of the current state of research and a comprehensive description of the material diversity of the collection. Besides the historical specificity and heterogeneous composition of the unique material, the article also examines the function and use of the lectures within the centrally organised system of teacher training in the GDR. From an educational and contemporary educational perspective, the scientific utilisation of this multilayered source material is highly lucrative, since it can provide information on the (re)production, mediation and transformation of subject-specific content and school-specific knowledge. Professional debates reflected in those lectures provide valuable inspiration for research into the history and practice of subject teaching in the GDR, as well as for the professionalisation of teachers. In addition to questions concerning the relationship between theory and practice or terminology, the collection can also be used to trace the availability and emergence of new media and materials, which were reflected in the methodological-didactic design of subject teaching and also in the preparation of the PL themselves. Thus, the expansive material offers diverse approaches to research for a wide range of disciplines such as linguistics and cultural sciences, historical and political sciences, and information and media sciences as well as subject didactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversations with contemporary witnesses are considered to have a strong didactic potential for early historical learning. Empirical studies show that primary school children gain their knowledge of contemporary history primarily from family conversations and that they can be assumed to have conversations with contemporary witnesses. However, empirical studies have not yet taken a closer look at how exactly these conversations take place. The research presented here focuses on contemporary witness conversations between primary school children and people from the GDR and examines what the contemporary witnesses want to share with the children and how these intergen­erational communication situations are specifically structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As early as August 1980, the GDR authorities were monitoring their communist allies in Poland to see if there were any plans to suppress the ongoing strikes and later to pacify the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarność”. Reports on this topic were provided by the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), military intelligence and the embassy in Warsaw, among others. Initially, such information was coming in only sporadically. With time – and especially since September 1981 – more regularly and more in-depth. Specific undertakings were reported: prepared lists of arrests, plans for a military takeover of the mass media and the dissolution of all political parties. Still, these signals were underestimated by the East German analysts. They ignored General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s growing readiness to confront the opposition and preferred to trust these voices in the Polish United Workers’ Party that expressed doubts about the ability of the First Secretary to use force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina - España - Portugal is the property of Vervuert Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As a result of the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, approximately 2000 Chileans found asylum in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The acceptance of the refugees was important in both foreign and domestic policy terms, as it was intended to explicitly symbolise the GDR’s solidarity with the socialist fi ghters. Of the approximately 70 Chilean artists who emigrated, some were able to continue their artistic work through state aid, despite strict state control. During their exile in the GDR, they also produced literary texts that addressed their exile experiences, including dealing with feelings of loss, grief, and loneliness, but also with intercultural encounters with GDR society and their perceptions of the “other” German culture. For example, Omar Saavedra Santis published the novel Blonder Tango (1982), while Roberto Ampuero Espinoza published the collection of stories Ein Känguruh in Bernau (1984). So far these texts have mostly been analysed from a political-ideological point of view. This article, however, analyses the texts from a postcolonial perspective and, thus, asks how the characters’ experience white-European thinking on superiority, procedures of “othering”, and processes of cultural hybridisation during their exile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the geo-political and strategic dynamics of co-operation in the fi eld of education between the People’s Republic of Mozambique and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It focuses specifi cally on the Friendship and Co-operation Agreement of February 1979, which led to the creation of the Friendship School in Staßfurt. In this context, the paper discusses to what extent President Samora Machel’s vision of creating a Marxist-Leninist socialist society and establishing a one-party-state under FRELIMO’s (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) rule included the formation of elite “New Men” through international education in the GDR. Part of Machel’s socialist project included adopting the political ideological model of the GDR and paying Mozambique’s enormous debt to the GDR. In the context of the Cold War, the GDR was highly interested in economic co-operation with Mozambique, which included the supply of raw materials and manpower, and enjoyed the international appreciation. Yet, as a result of internal and external factors, which led to politicalideo logical transformation in Mozambique, and Machel’s death, the socialist project lost its signifi cance. As there was no plan for the reintegration of the Mozambique graduates from the GDR, most of them were drafted directly into the army and later ended up frustrated and unemployment. Machel’s vision fi nally collapsed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]