Download or read book Opposition in the GDR under Honecker 1971 85 written by Roger Woods and published by Springer. This book was released on 1986-06-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The GDR RLE German Politics written by David Childs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely praised in its first edition, the second edition of The GDR was updated to cover events through the spring of 1988, examining in particular the impact of new leadership in both Bonn and Moscow and of the changing world economy on the prospects of the GDR.
Download or read book A History of Modern Germany written by Martin Kitchen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A HISTORY OF MODERN GERMANY A History of Modern Germany provides a comprehensive account of the social, political, and economic history of Germany from 1800 to the present. Written in an engaging and accessible narrative style, this popular textbook offers an expansive view of the nation’s complex and fragmented past, tracing the development of the German national consciousness through Napoleonic rule, the unification of Germany, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, post-war division, the collapse of Communism, reunification, and the first two decades of the 21st century. Throughout the text, the authors discuss the tensions prompted by structural changes within Germany, long-term shifts in demographics, social and economic reforms, and more. Now in its third edition, A History of Modern Germany offers richer coverage of German cultural history, the German Democratic Republic, modernization, class, religion, and gender. Updated chapters explore continuity in imperial projects from Bismarck to Hitler, memory and commemoration since 1945, the distinct but intertwined histories of the two Germanys between 1949 and 1989, and the experience of diversity after the Second World into the post-unification era. A History of Modern Germany: 1800 to the Present, Third Edition is an excellent textbook for undergraduate students taking courses in modern German history or modern European history as well as general readers with an interest in the subject.
Download or read book Germany s New Right as Culture and Politics written by R. Woods and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-01-10 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length study in English of the New Right in Germany and it breaks new ground by considering the New Right as a political and a cultural movement. The book examines the often contradictory motives that feed into New Right political pronouncements and explores the cultural thinking that feeds into extreme political commitment.
Download or read book Turning Prayers into Protests written by David Doellinger and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turning Prayers into Protests is a comparative study of religious-based oppositional activity in Slovakia and East Germany prior to 1989. Religion was a central arena for culture, thought, and social organization in the societies that became communist after the Second World War. It was thus a primary concern for communist regimes. The author examines the various and divergent grass-roots activism of the secret Catholic Church in Slovakia and the Lutheran Church in East Germany that confronted state socialist rule and contributed to its eventual dismantling. He compares the two cases in terms of the political power, influence and affect that these Churches had in regard to state repression or cooptation, vividly demonstrating that religion could provide a space for independence beyond state control as well as a foundation for resistance.
Download or read book The Secret Police and the Revolution written by Edward Peterson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-11-30 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The opening of the secret files of the East German Ministry of State Security after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 enabled this study. Most interesting are the reports from the thousands of spies at the local level, the analysis at the local and district levels, and the integration of nationwide reports in Berlin. These reports are surprisingly honest in describing the problems that would bring about the collapse of the Communist regime. They reveal advance knowledge among the Stasi operatives of the economic and political difficulties that plagued the state information that reached leaders who were powerless to change the system. The spy handlers conceded by September 1989 that in order to save socialism, they must change the GDR leadership. The coming of the Revolution of 1989 can be perceived in local spy reports as early as 1987. At the national level, reports highlight the negative effect of dependence on the Soviet Union, the role played by Mikhail Gorbachev, the collapse of the economy, the disastrous foreign debts, the refusal of Erich Honecker to reform, and the inability of his Politburo to remove him. At the local level, warnings point to the lack of incentive to produce, the ineptitude of central planning, the inability to acquire production resources, and the massive impact of West German television. Also instrumental were the brave citizens who kept pushing to leave, while others remained determined to stay and democratize the system, as well as the Protestant pastors who provided space for small groups that would eventually swell into hundreds of thousands.
Download or read book Failure of American and Soviet Cultural Imperialism in German Universities 1945 1990 written by Natalia Tsvetkova and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Failure of American and Soviet Cultural Imperialism in German Universities, 1945-1990 Natalia Tsvetkova describes the American and Soviet policies in German universities during the Cold War. In both parts of divided Germany the conservative professorate resisted both the American and Soviet policies of reforms in universities. Whether these policies can be considered cases of cultural imperialism will be discussed in this book. As well as how and why both American and Soviet policies of the transformation of German universities eventually failed.
Download or read book Beyond Stalinism written by Ronald J. Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1992. The present collection of essays brings together the concepts of change and development, by using the concept of evolution to explore various forms of change in the communist and 'post-communist' world. The author's experience of living in the provinces of the Soviet Union later persuaded them of the inappropriateness of at least a rigid application of the concept of totalitarianism. This title will also satiate the further interest of the interaction between 'capitalism' (or liberal democracy) and 'communism', particularly the impact of capitalism's technical innovations on some of communism's basic principles of rule.
Download or read book The Poet s Role written by Ruth J. Owen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-18 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of contemporary German poetry represents the first attempt to examine comprehensively and at some length the lyric response to the unification period. It sets out to investigate, by means of close textual analysis, whether the German ‘Wende’ was also a turning-point for poetry, exploring how GDR poets responded both to the revolutionary events of 1989 and subsequently to the new, united Germany. An introductory chapter considers what is distinct about poetry as a genre, especially under censorship or amid historic change, as well as outlining the post-unification ‘Literaturstreit’. The following chapter offers a survey of the poet’s role in the GDR from 1949 until 1989. Two central chapters then gather the poetry of the ‘Wende’ and unification as a corpus of work and characterize it, through the elucidation of recurring themes, motifs and techniques. The volume strikes a balance between giving a general overview of poetry written in 1989-1996 and focusing on individual poets whose work is particularly compelling. After identifying broad trends across a wide range of individual poems, collections and anthologies, single chapters therefore examine in greater depth the work of Volker Braun and Durs Grünbein. The concluding chapter addresses the issue of a separate GDR literature. Finally, an extensive, structured bibliography is provided, covering the poetry, literary criticism and cultural history of the period.
Download or read book After the Berlin Wall written by Christopher Hilton and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 7 May 1945, Grand Admiral Donitz, named in Hitler's will as head of state, authorised the unconditional surrender of all German forces to the Allies on the following day. World War II in Europe was at an end. But many of the German people would continue to endure hardships, as both the country and the capital were to be divided between France, the UK and the USA in the west and the USSR in the east. East and West Germany, and East and West Berlin, would remain divided until 1989. By October 1990, however, the two countries were reunited, and the Berlin Reichstag was once again the seat of government. Here, politicians would put East and West back together again, marrying a totalitarian, atheist, communist system with a democratic, Christian, capitalist one. How did this marriage affect the everyday life of ordinary Germans? How did combining two telephone systems, two postal services, hospitals, farm land, property, industry, railways and roads work? How were women's rights, welfare, pensions, trades unions, arts, rents and housing affected? There had been no warning of this marriage and no preparation for it - and no country had ever tried putting two completely opposite systems together before. This is the story of what happened, in the words of the people it happened to - the people's story of an incredible unification.
Download or read book Openness and Foreign Policy Reform in Communist States written by Gerald Segal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-06-28 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at the way in which foreign policy has changed in communist states. It considers especially the relationship between domestic reform and foreign policy reform at times when formerly closed societies are becoming more open to the outside world. It focuses on three European and three Asian states, analysing their different paths to reform and looking in depth at the question of why some communist regimes collapse and why those in Asia have proved more durable than those in Europe.
Download or read book Nonconformity Dissent Opposition and Resistance in Germany 1933 1990 written by Sabrina P. Ramet and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This book brings fresh light to previously marginalized subject in German history. It is an original approach, up-to-date written without scholarly jargon, easily accessible to students, both at undergraduate and graduate. It is highly focused departing from the usual “histories” of a single country arguing for the “two German states”, and the three political systems.”- Prof. Dr. László Kürti, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Miskolc, Hungary This book contrasts three very different incarnations of Germany – the totalitarian Third Reich, the communist German Democratic Republic, and the democratic Federal Republic of Germany up to 1990 – in terms of their experiences with and responses to nonconformity, dissent, opposition, and resistance and the role played by those factors in each case. Although even innocent nonconformity came with a price in all three systems and in the post-war occupation zones, the price was the highest in Nazi Germany. . It is worth stressing that what qualifies as nonconformity and dissent depends on the social and political context and, thus, changes over time. Like those in active dissent, opposition, or resistance, nonconformists are rebels (whether they are conscious of it or not), and have repeatedly played a role in pushing for change, whether through reform of legislation, transformation of the public’s attitudes, or even regime change.
Download or read book The Last Revolutionaries written by Catherine Epstein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Last Revolutionaries" tells a story of unwavering political devotion: it follows the lives of German communists across the tumultuous twentieth century. Before 1945, German communists were political outcasts in the Weimar Republic and courageous resisters in Nazi Germany; they also suffered Stalin's Great Purges and struggled through emigration in countries hostile to communism. After World War II, they became leaders of East Germany, where they ran a dictatorial regime until they were swept out of power by the people's revolution of 1989. In a compelling collective biography, Catherine Epstein conveys the hopes, fears, dreams, and disappointments of a generation that lived their political commitment. Focusing on eight individuals, "The Last Revolutionaries" shows how political ideology drove people's lives. Some of these communists, including the East German leaders Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, enjoyed great personal success. But others, including the purge victims Franz Dahlem and Karl Schirdewan, experienced devastating losses. And, as the book demonstrates, female and Jewish communists faced their own sets of difficulties in the movement to which they had given their all. Drawing on previously inaccessible sources as well as extensive personal interviews, Epstein offers an unparalleled portrait of the most enduring and influential generation of Central European communists. In the service of their party, these communists experienced solidarity and betrayal, power and persecution, sacrifice and reward, triumph and defeat. At once sordid and poignant, theirs is the story of European communism--from the heroic excitement of its youth, to the bureaucratic authoritarianism of its middle age, to the sorry debacle of its death.
Download or read book The Stasi written by David Childs and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Stasi were among the most successful security and intelligence services in the Cold War. Behind the Berlin Wall, colleagues, friends, husbands and wives, informed on each other. Stasi chief, General Mielke, prided himself on this situation. Under Marcus Wolf, Stasi agents were spectacularly successful in gaining entry into the West German Establishment and NATO. Some remain undiscovered. Now, for the first time in English, two British experts reveal how the Stasi operated. Based on a wealth of sources, including interviews with former Stasi officers and their victims, the book tells a fascinating yet frightening story of unbridled power, misguided idealism, treachery, widespread opportunism and lonely courage.
Download or read book Voices in Times of Change written by David Rock and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2000-09-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume offers an overview of the role of writers, intellectuals, citizens, and the churches both before, but particularly after, 1989 in the GDR and the new Germany. Friedrich Schorlemmer provides the focal point, giving the book its coherence. Issues related to his role in the GDR church and citizens movement are examined, as well as his support for GDR writers both before and after unification, and his own writings on east and west German literature. After general surveys on intellectuals, civil rights groups, opposition movements, and churches in the transformation of east Germany the volume focuses on Friedrich Schorlemmer himself: a chapter on the significance of the role that he played is followed by interviews with him and an original essay by him, giving his personal view of the role of intellectuals, citizens, and writers in east Germany. The volume is rounded off by a chapter on the reactions of lesser known writers, and, finally, on the responses of prominent GDR writers to unification and on the changing role of writers in society. Combining literary and cultural with social and political analysis, this volume provides a lively and multifaceted picture of the new Germany.
Download or read book The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the GDR written by J. Grix and published by Springer. This book was released on 2000-11-24 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role of the masses in the collapse of the East German regime and state in 1989 in the northern district of Schwerin. It shows the extent to which citizens of the GDR dictatorship were instrumental in their state's demise. The 'bottom-up' approach employed, in contrast to the study of power wielding elites and 'opposition', explores the shift in mood and behaviour of citizens which brought about the internal collapse of the state.
Download or read book The Road to Disillusion From Critical Marxism to Post communism in Eastern Europe written by Raymond C. Taras and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of reform movements in postwar Eastern Europe is ultimately ironic, inasmuch as the reformers' successes and defeats alike served to discredit and demoralize the regimes they sought to redeem. The essays in this volume examine the historic and present-day role of the internal critics who, whatever their intentions, used Marxism as critique to demolish Marxism as ideocracy, but did not succeed in replacing it. Included here are essays by James P. Scanlan on the USSR, Ferenc Feher on Hungary, Leslie Holmes on the German Democratic Republic, Raymond Taras on Poland, James Satterwhite on Czechoslovakia, Vladimir Tismaneanu on Romania, Mark Baskin on Bulgaria, and Oskar Gruenwald on Yugoslavia. In concert, the contributors provide a comprehensive intellectual history and a veritable Who's Who of revisionist Marxism in Eastern Europe.
