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WiSe 18/19: The GDR and Communist Parties in Europe 1949-1990

Arnd Bauerkämper

Comments

The Hauptseminar will have two sections. The first (major) part provides an overview of political, economic, social and cultural transformations in the GDR. Beyond comparison, mutual perceptions, relations and entanglements between the two German states will also receive attention. The second (smaller) section will concentrate on the transnational history of East Germany’s ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party (Staatssozialistische Einheitspartei, SED), which was integrated into a European-wide network of Communist parties, including the West German KPD and DKP, respectively. The leading functionaries of the SED interacted with their “comrades” in various European countries. Yet the obstacles to exchange – in particular different national traditions, specific contexts, power asymmetries and misunderstandings – have to be taken into account, as well. Altogether, the Hauptseminar aims to place the history of the GDR into its wider European context. This Hauptseminar aims to develop a variety of skills (both in writing and in class): 1. The mastery of arguments and concepts. 2. The ability to interpret and assess diverse texts. 3. The ability to express ideas and opinions. The Hauptseminar is based on the following questions: 1. What was the relationship between political rule and society in the GDR? 2. Can the GDR be conceived as a Soviet-style dictatorship and which role did specifically German traditions play? 3. What was the relationship between the East German Socialist Unity Party and the other Communist parties in Europe? 4. Why did the rulers of the GDR reject Eurocommunism in the 1970s and early 1980s? 5. To what extent was Communist rule in the GDR and in Eastern Europe doomed from the beginning? close

Suggested reading

Corey Ross, The East German Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of the GDR (London: Arnold 2002); Konrad H. Jarausch (ed.), Dictatorship as Experience. Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR (New York 1999); David Clarke / Ute Wölfel (eds.), Remembering the German Democratic Republic. Divided Memory in a United Germany (Houndmills 2011), Mary Fulbrook (ed.), Power and Society on the GDR, 1961-1979. The ‘Normalisation of Rule’?” (New York 2009); Mary Fulbrook / Andrew I. Port (eds.), Becoming East German. Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler (New York: Berghahn Books 2013); Hartmut Berghoff / Uta Andrea Balbier (eds.), The East German Economy, 1945-2010 (New York 2013); Frank Bösch (ed.), Geteilte Geschichte. Ost- und Westdeutschland 1970-2000 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2015); Hedwig Richter, Die DDR (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schönigh /UTB 2009); Ulrich Mählert (ed.), Die DDR als Chance. Neue Perspektiven auf ein altes Thema (Berlin: Metropol Verlag 2016); Frédéric Bozo et al. (eds.), Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe, 1945-1990 (New York 2012); Francesco Di Palma / Wolfgang Müller (eds.), Kommunismus in Europa. Europapolitik und -vorstellungen europäischer kommunistischer Parteien im Kalten Krieg (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schönigh 2016). close