The GDR Remembered
Author: Nick Hodgin
Publisher: Camden House
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 312
ISBN-13: 1571134344
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCompeting representations of the former East German state in the German cultural memory.
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Remembering the German Democratic Republic
Author: D. Clarke
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011-11-08
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 9780230275508
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMemories of and attitudes to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany, within contemporary Germany are characterized by their variety and complexity, whilst the debate over how to remember the GDR tells us a lot about how Germans see themselves and their future. This volume provides a range of international perspectives.
Born in the GDR
Author: Hester Vaizey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 239
ISBN-13: 0198718748
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe real life stories of eight East Germans caught up in the dramatic transition from Communism to Capitalism by the fall of the Berlin Wall - and what they feel about life after the Wall.
Remembering Communism
Author: Maria N. Todorova
Publisher: Central European University Press
Published: 2014-10-01
Total Pages: 640
ISBN-13: 9633860326
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRemembering Communism examines the formation and transformation of the memory of communism in the post-communist period. The majority of the articles focus on memory practices in the post-Stalinist era in Bulgaria and Romania, with occasional references to the cases of Poland and the GDR. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, including history, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology, the volume examines the mechanisms and processes that influence, determine and mint the private and public memory of communism in the post-1989 era. The common denominator to all essays is the emphasis on the process of remembering in the present, and the modalities by means of which the present perspective shapes processes of remembering, including practices of commemoration and representation of the past. The volume deals with eight major thematic blocks revisiting specific practices in communism such as popular culture and everyday life, childhood, labor, the secret police, and the perception of “the system”.
Memorializing the GDR
Author: Anna Saunders
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2018-05-23
Total Pages: 382
ISBN-13: 1785336819
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince unification, eastern Germany has witnessed a rapidly changing memorial landscape, as the fate of former socialist monuments has been hotly debated and new commemorative projects have met with fierce controversy. Memorializing the GDR provides the first in-depth study of this contested arena of public memory, investigating the individuals and groups devoted to the creation or destruction of memorials as well as their broader aesthetic, political, and historical contexts. Emphasizing the interrelationship of built environment, memory and identity, it brings to light the conflicting memories of recent German history, as well as the nuances of national and regional constructions of identity.
Screening the East
Author: Nick Hodgin
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2011-05-01
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 0857451294
DOWNLOAD EBOOKScreening the East considers German filmmakers’ responses to unification. In particular, it traces the representation of the East German community in films made since 1989 and considers whether these narratives challenge or reinforce the notion of a separate East German identity. The book identifies and analyses a large number of films, from internationally successful box-office hits, to lesser-known productions, many of which are discussed here for the first time. Providing an insight into the films’ historical and political context, it considers related issues such as stereotyping, racism, regional particularism and the Germans’ confrontation with the past.
Remembering East Germany
Author: Richard A. Zipser
Publisher: Bookbaby
Published: 2021-12-29
Total Pages: 380
ISBN-13: 9781667807485
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRemembering East Germany is a memoir focused on experiences Richard A. Zipser had while travelling and doing research in communist East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. The memoir is based primarily on a 396-page file the East German secret police--the Stasi--compiled on him with the help of at least ten informants over a twelve-year period. The reports in the file provide a kind of factual foundation for the memoir, as do reports about Zipser found in the Stasi-files of other persons, various printed materials, letters he wrote and received, and some memories as well. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, Zipser was able to obtain a copy of his Stasi-file, a process that took seven years from beginning to end. His memoir provides unique insights into a society and literary scene that no other Westerner was able to experience so intensely. It reflects, on several levels, how he experienced communist East Germany and how it in turn experienced him. This fascinating book transports its readers back in time to the chilling Cold War days of yesteryear.
After the Berlin Wall
Author: Hope M. Harrison
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-09-26
Total Pages: 483
ISBN-13: 1107049318
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA revelatory history of the commemoration of the Berlin Wall and its significance in defining contemporary German national identity.
Twenty Years on
Author: Renate Rechtien
Publisher: Camden House
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 1571135030
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNew essays on the evolution of cultural memory of the former German Democratic Republic since 1989-90 and its importance for Germany's continuing unification process. Twenty years on from the dramatic events that led to the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the GDR, the subjective dimension of German unification is still far from complete. The nature of the East German state remains a matter of cultural as well as political debate. This volume of new research focuses on competing memories of the GDR and the ways they have evolved in the mass media, literature, and film since 1989-90. Taking as its point ofdeparture the impact of iconic visual images of the fall of the Wall on our understanding of the historical GDR, the volume first considers the decade of cultural conflict that followed unification and then the emergence of a morecomplex and diverse "textual memory" of the GDR since the Berlin Republic was established in 1999. It highlights competing generational perspectives on the GDR era and the unexpected "afterlife" of the GDR in recent publications.The volume as a whole shows the vitality of eastern German culture two decades after the demise of the GDR and the centrality of these memory debates to the success of Germany's unification process. Contributors: Daniel Argelès, Stephen Brockmann, Arne De Winde, Wolfgang Emmerich, Andrea Geier, Hilde Hoffmann, Astrid Köhler, Karen Leeder, Andrew Plowman, Gillian Pye, Benjamin Robinson, Catherine Smale, Rosemary Stott, Dennis Tate, Frederik VanDam, Nadezda Zemaníková. Renate Rechtien is Lecturer in German Studies, and Dennis Tate is Emeritus Professor of German Studies, both at the University of Bath, UK.
Becoming East German
Author: Mary Fulbrook
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2013-09-01
Total Pages: 313
ISBN-13: 0857459759
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFor roughly the first decade after the demise of the GDR, professional and popular interpretations of East German history concentrated primarily on forms of power and repression, as well as on dissent and resistance to communist rule. Socio-cultural approaches have increasingly shown that a single-minded emphasis on repression and coercion fails to address a number of important historical issues, including those related to the subjective experiences of those who lived under communist regimes. With that in mind, the essays in this volume explore significant physical and psychological aspects of life in the GDR, such as health and diet, leisure and dining, memories of the Nazi past, as well as identity, sports, and experiences of everyday humiliation. Situating the GDR within a broader historical context, they open up new ways of interpreting life behind the Iron Curtain – while providing a devastating critique of misleading mainstream scholarship, which continues to portray the GDR in the restrictive terms of totalitarian theory.
