Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the shifting identities and state loyalties of young people in East(ern) Germany during a unique period straddling the last decade of the GDR and the first decade of united Germany. It provides insight into the functioning of the GDR state, the process of German unification and the formation of national and regional identities. -- .
Table of ContentsList of tables and graphs
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations and terms
Introduction: Honecker’s Germany: a world of the past? 1
Eastern identity in the wake of the GDR 4
Frameworks: defining the GDR in the 1980s 9
Growing up under Honecker 14
Researching young behaviours 20
1. The parameters of patriotism 31
Nation and state 32
Germany: problematic patriotisms 36
The GDR’s patriotic programme 41
Conclusion 57
2. Young people of the 1980s: a generation of loyal patriots? 66
The foundations of identity: historical consciousness 67
‘Peace must be armed!’: protecting the fatherland 76
‘Educating hatred’: young people and the ‘imperialist’ West 88
Proletarian internationalism: the politics of solidarity 101
Rooted in the present? Pride in the achievements of the GDR 112
Conclusion 127
3. October 1989 - October 1990: The rise and fall of a GDR identity 151
Reform and renewal: education and youth work during the Wende 155
Hope of a reformed socialism: 9 October - 9 November 1989 160
From socialism to scepticism: 9 November 1989 - 18 March 1990 164
The GDR becomes history: 18 March - 3 October 1990 176
Conclusion 181
4. Civic loyalties in the wake of unification 189
Societal change and education in the absence of the blue shirt 191
The double burden of overcoming the past: historical consciousness in united Germany 195
Military loyalties in the absence of the enemy 214
International allegiances in a new world order 224
United yet divided? Social, economic and political trends since the Wende 234
Conclusion 254
5. Conclusion: Death of the GDR: rebirth of an eastern identity? 278
Tables 297
Graphs 299
Bibliography 297
