Description
Book SynopsisThis book shows how 'national' identity was invented in the German Democratic Republic and how citizens engaged with it, exposing the reasons why individuals found it hard to identify with the GDR and explaining how an apparently stable society fell apart with such ease when the revolution came.
Trade ReviewReview of the hardback: 'East Germany's selective use of homeland culture in its reconstruction is illuminating.' Gareth Dale, The Times Higher Education Supplement
Review of the hardback: 'This remarkable study deepens our understanding of how power functioned in the SED state and proves the explanatory value not just of its formal mechanisms of power, but also its cultural history. Not least owing to its comprehensive temporal range - from 1945 to 1990 - this study will provide a fruitful foundation for further work. The book is, moreover, written in the most lively prose.' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Review of the hardback: 'Palmowski has brilliantly captured the complexities of the GDR, including the juxtaposition of the combination of dictatorship and control of language against social development and subversion of language. He has written a remarkable book indeed.' Peter C. Caldwell, H-Net Reviews
Table of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Socialism, Heimat, and the Construction of Identity: 2. Cultural renewal and national division, 1945–c.1958; 3. Trace of stones; Part II. Public and Private Transcripts: 4. Heimat and identity in the Honecker era; 5. Citizenship and participation in the local community - 'Join In!'; 6. Environmental destruction; Part III. Power, Practices and Meanings: 7. Social drama and the euphemization of power; 8. Cultural practices, Eigen-Sinn, and obfuscated meanings; Conclusion: from citizens to revolutionaries.
