Download or read book The Official Concept of the Nation in the Former GDR written by Joanna McKay and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1998, this volume joined the effort to understand the former German Democratic Republic, with the aim of reaching a better understanding of the psychologically painful process of German reunification following the collapse of East-German communism in 1989. While born illegitimate and artificial, the country determined the lives of millions of people, despite having now disappeared from the map. This study from Joanna McKay incorporates previously unavailable archive material and focuses on some of the most challenging, ever-present tasks for the GDR leaders. In particular, she examines how they approached explaining the division with West Germany without undermining the legitimacy of the GDR.
Download or read book Prussia in the Historical Culture of the German Democratic Republic written by Marcus Colla and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No example demonstrates the fluidity of the past within the German Democratic Republic more powerfully than the history of the Prussian state. Initially attacked in East German official histories as the historical engine of German militarism and reaction, Prussia underwent a remarkabletransformation in official and public memory from around the end of the 1970s. This was the so-called 'Prussia-Renaissance', in which, for the first time, the East German state began to recognise and even celebrate figures from Prussian history who had not served a 'progressive' agenda. But the'Prussia-Renaissance' was also a political and cultural phenomenon with a wide public resonance. The 'Prussia-Renaissance' may have been a relatively short-lived phenomenon, but it evidently opened a deep vein in the historical memory of the German Democratic Republic that defied reduction to 'highpolitics' alone. This book asks why.Using the case study of Prussia, Marcus Colla presents a multi-perspective approach to the way that a distinctive 'historical culture' was constructed in the German Democratic Republic. It not only evaluates the roles played by political figures, historians, and cultural elites, but also heritagepreservationists, exhibition curators, heimat museums, television producers, novelists and playwrights, and singers - the purveyors of what we might more generally term 'popular culture'. In essence, Colla poses four fundamental questions for our understanding of life, politics and culture incommunist East Germany: how was history there made? How was it understood? How was it contested? And how was it used?
Download or read book Soldered states nation building in Germany and Vietnam written by Claire Sutherland and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book examines the power of nationalism to solder nation-states back together rather than break them apart. In this innovative, cross-continental comparison of nation-building in Germany and Vietnam, the focus is on their shared experience of division, communism and regional integration, offering original insights into how governments go about maintaining nation-state legitimacy in the twenty-first century. Neither German nor Vietnamese governments have succeeded in effacing national division, for a host of historical, economic, psychological, sociological and even climatic reasons. Yet their efforts tell us a great deal about how national identity is negotiated today. The study offers a fresh perspective on nationalist ideology which will be of interest to specialists and students in comparative politics, European and Southeast Asian studies as well as nationalism studies. For the general reader, it provides a fascinating introduction to contemporary nation-building in a unique combination of cases across two continents.
Download or read book Nationalism in a Transnational Age written by Frank Jacob and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nationalism was declared to be dead too early. A postnational age was announced, and liberalism claimed to have been victorious by the end of the Cold War. At the same time postnational order was proclaimed in which transnational alliances like the European Union were supposed to become more important in international relations. But we witnessed the rise a strong nationalism during the early 21st century instead, and right wing parties are able to gain more and more votes in elections that are often characterized by nationalist agendas. This volume shows how nationalist dreams and fears alike determine politics in an age that was supposed to witness a rather peaceful coexistence by those who consider transnational ideas more valuable than national demands. It will deal with different case studies to show why and how nationalism made its way back to the common consciousness and which elements stimulated the re-establishment of the aggressive nation state. The volume will therefore look at the continuities of empire, actual and imagined, the role of "foreign-" and "otherness" for nationalist narratives, and try to explain how globalization stimulated the rise of 21st century nationalisms as well.
Download or read book Expanding Intellectual Property written by Hannes Siegrist and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book deals with the expansion and institutionalization of intellectual property norms in the twentieth century, with a European focus. Its thirteen chapters revolve around the transfer, adaptation and the ambivalence of legal transplants in the interface between national and international projects, trends and contexts. The first part discusses the institutionalization of copyright and patent law in the frame- work of the bigger political and economic projects of the twentieth century. The second and third parts of the collection review relevant processes in the communist regimes and the post-communist societies, respectively. The essays point at processes of enculturation, trans-nationalization and universalization of norms, as well as practices of incorporation and resistance. The contributors lay a particular emphasis on the role and activity of social actors in the establishment and validation of intellectual property norms and regimes, from the function of experts and creation of expert cultures to the compelling power of popular street protests.
Download or read book Germany Poland and Postmemorial Relations written by K. Kopp and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the period following the collapse of communism, the unification of Germany, and Poland's accession to the EU, this collection focuses on the interdependencies of German, Polish, and Jewish collective memories and their dialogic, transnational character, showing the collective nature of postmemory and the pressures that shape it.
Download or read book James Bond s Socialist Rivals written by TARIK CYRIL AMAR and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Bond's Socialist Rivals focuses on blockbuster television series in the former Soviet bloc of the Cold War to recover a world of spy fiction entertainment that was both hugely popular and of great and deliberate political importance for the Communist regimes.
Download or read book East German Distinctiveness in a Unified Germany written by Jonathan Grix and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2003-02-28 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the nature of the dramatic growth in a distinct sense of East German identity in the years since the events that led to formal unification in 1990. While it is problematic to see 'East Germanness' as a singular and homogenous identity, it can be perceived as a distinctive phenomenon and a level of identification that exists alongside local, regional and national identities. The essays in this volume hope to challenge the commonly held misconception that East German regional identity is a problem that needs to be overcome in the process of unification. Through analyses of the social, political and cultural behaviour of East Germans and their perception of their own place in German society, this volume makes a complex and nuanced contribution to discussions on German national identity and the unification process.
Download or read book Honecker s Children written by Anna Saunders and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the final decade of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), young citizens found themselves at the heart of a rigorous programme of socialist patriotic education, yet following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the emphasis of official state rhetoric, textbooks and youth activities changed beyond recognition. For the young generation growing up during this period, ‘normality’ was turned on its head, leaving a sense of insecurity and inner turmoil. Using a combination of archival research and interviews, together with educational materials and government reports, this book examines the relationship between young people and their two successive states in East(ern) Germany between 1979 and 2002. This unusual time-span straddles the 1989/1990 caesura which often delimits historical studies, and thus enables not only a detailed examination of GDR socialisation, but crucially also its influence in unified Germany. Anna Saunders explores the extent to which a young generation’s loyalties can be officially regulated in the face of cultural and historical traditions, changing material conditions and shifting social circumstances, and finds GDR socialisation to be influential to post-unification loyalties through its impact on the personal sphere, rather than through the official sphere of ideological propaganda. At a time of globalisation, this lucid study not only provides unique insight into the functioning of the GDR state and its longer-term impact, but also advances our broader understanding of the ways in which collective loyalties are formed. It will be of particular interest to those in the fields of German History and Politics, European Studies and Sociology.
Download or read book The Communist Quest for National Legitimacy in Europe 1918 1989 written by Martin Mevius and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are two popular myths concerning the relationship between communism and nationalism. The first is that nationalism and communism are wholly antagonistic and mutually exclusive. The second is the assertion that in communist Eastern Europe nationalism was oppressed before 1989, to emerge triumphant after the Berlin Wall came down. Reality was different. Certainly from 1945 onwards, communist parties presented themselves as heirs to national traditions and guardians of national interests. The communist states of Central and Eastern Europe constructed "socialist patriotism," a form of loyalty to their own state of workers and peasants. Up to 1989, communists in Eastern Europe sang the national anthem, and waved the national flag next to the red banner. The use of national images was not the exception, but the rule. From Cuba to Korea, all communist parties attempted to gain national legitimacy. This was not incidental or a deviation from Marxist orthodoxy, but ingrained in the theory and practice of the communist movement since its inception. The study of communist national legitimacy is an exciting new field. This book presents examples of communist attempts to co-opt nationalism from both sides of the iron curtain and lays bare the striking similarities between such diverse cases as the socialist patriotism of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the national line of the Portuguese communists, between Romanian communist nation building and the national ideology of the Spanish Communist Party. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.
Download or read book Nationalism Myth and the State in Russia and Serbia written by Veljko Vujačić and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in different modes of dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. Why did Russia's elites agree to the dissolution of the Soviet Union along the borders of Soviet republics, leaving twenty-five million Russians outside of Russia? Conversely, why did Serbia's elite succeed in mobilizing Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia for the nationalist cause? Combining a Weberian emphasis on interpretive understanding and counterfactual analysis with theories of nationalism, Veljko Vujačić highlights the role of historical legacies, national myths, collective memories, and literary narratives in shaping diametrically opposed attitudes toward the state in Russia and Serbia. The emphasis on the unintended consequences of communist nationality policy highlights how these attitudes interacted with institutional factors, favoring different outcomes in 1991. The book's postscript examines how this explanation holds up in the light of Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Download or read book The Politics of the New Germany written by Simon Green and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Politics of the New Germany continues to provide the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date textbook on contemporary German Politics. The text takes a new approach to understanding politics in the post-unification Federal Republic. Assuming only elementary knowledge, it focuses on a series of the most important debates and issues in Germany today with the aim of helping students understand both the workings of the country's key institutions and some of the most important policy challenges facing German politicians. For this second edition, the content has been comprehensively updated throughout, augmented by additional factboxes and data, and features new material on: Grand coalition Lisbon treaty Constitutional court Financial crisis Reform of social policy Afghanistan. Written in a straightforward style by three experts, each of the chapters draws on a rich variety of real-world examples. In doing so, it highlights both the challenges and opportunities facing policy-makers in such areas as foreign affairs, economic policy, immigration, identity politics and institutional reform. The book also takes a bird’s-eye view of the big debates that have defined German politics over time, regardless of which political parties happened to be in power. It pinpoints three key themes that have characterised German politics over the last sixty years; reconciliation, consensus and transformation. The book is a comprehensive, yet highly accessible, overview of politics in 21st Century Germany and should be essential reading for students of politics and international relations, as well as of European and German studies.
Download or read book Legacies of Stalingrad written by Christina Morina and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-19 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christina Morina's book examines the history of the Eastern Front war and its impact on German politics and society throughout the postwar period. She argues that the memory of the Eastern Front war was one of the most crucial and contested themes in each part of the divided Germany. Although the Holocaust gained the most prominent position in West German memory, official memory in East Germany centered on the war against the USSR. The book analyzes the ways in which these memories emerged in postwar German political culture during and after the Cold War, and how views of these events played a role in contemporary political debates. The analysis pays close attention to the biographies of the protagonists both during the war and after, drawing distinctions between the accepted, public memory of events and individual encounters with the war.
Download or read book Europe Nationalism Communism written by José M. Faraldo and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2008 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of articles on Polish history after 1945 begins with a study of the reconstruction of Polish towns after the World War II, presenting how ideological images of the nation transformed the physical form of urban landscapes. The book devotes also a long part to individual identities, exploring the most intimate level of representation of consciousness: autobiographies of Polish immigrants into former German territories. The last two articles explore the identitarian adaptation of Polish anticommunist emigrants in Spain and the possibilities of dispute about Europe at the beginning of Communist regimes in Poland and Central Europe. The book puts problems of private identities in the context of European discourses, showing how politics are a part of individual lives, too.
Download or read book Fall and Rise of the PDS In Eastern Germany written by D Hough and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2002-05-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Democratic Socialism party of East Germany, Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, was widely thought to have no future in a reunified Germany, says Hough (German studies, U. of Birmingham). He explores how it has become a stable institution in the political landscape by establishing itself as
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Germany written by Derek Lewis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 847 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Germanyprovides a comprehensive overview of most aspects of life and institutions in contemporary Germany. It also introduces the reader to the historical development of both East and West Germany between 1949 and 1990, and addresses the various issues arising from reunification. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Germany contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Germany.
Download or read book Eastern Europe Since 1970 written by Bulent Gokay and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the hardening grip of Soviet domination under Brezhnev to the collapse of communism and its aftermath, Bulent Gokay provides the essential introduction to Eastern Europe in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 spelt the end of reformist communism and the tightening of Soviet control throughout Eastern Europe. In spite of this, several countries within the Soviet Bloc managed to retain varying degrees of independence over the next two decades. Focusing on the struggle towards economic and social modernisation in the region and the competing influences of East and West in a dangerous Cold War. Bulent Gokay shows how individual circumstances and diverse national characteristics made a uniform application of the Soviet model impossible, and charts the growing resistance to domination and the momentous events which finally toppled Soviet power in the region.
