Soldiers, Citizens, and the State: East German Army Officers in Post-Unification Germany

2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-287
Author(s):  
Andrew Bickford
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The State ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
The West ◽  
German Government ◽  
German State ◽  
German Army ◽  
Army Officers ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War

Despite official narratives of a relatively smooth transition, of the merging of “those things which belong together,” German unification and the formation of a new German state has been an uneven project filled with friction and animosity. While the West German government celebrated the “victory” of unification, and stated that all East Germans wanted unification, one group of East Germans did not look forward to the dissolution of the GDR: members of the East German military, the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army, or NVA). Disbanded immediately upon unification, the overwhelming majority of NVA officers were left unemployed overnight, stripped of their status as officers and portrayed by the West Germans as the “losers” of the Cold War. For these men, unification was not a joyous, desired event; rather, it represented the end of their careers, security, status, and the state they had sworn to defend. As such, the “fall” into democracy for these men was from the start fraught with uncertainty, disappointment, anomie, and a profound sense of loss.

The German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND): Evolution and Current Policy Issues

2010 ◽  
pp. 789-805
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Krieger
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Operational Control ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
The West ◽  
German Government ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Intelligence Agencies ◽  
The Cold War

This article discusses German's foreign intelligence services through the context of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). Unlike other intelligence services of other nations, Germany has no separate military intelligence. The BND serves as Germany's sole foreign and military espionage agency. It also does not have an acknowledged capacity of covert operations compared to the intelligence agencies of other nations. The BND was established in 1956 as part of the West German rearmament within the NATO framework; however, by the time of its establishment the Bonn government had already abandoned its previous efforts to build a military intelligence organization from scratch and with people of its own. Because of this, the BND was under American operational control during the Cold War and German intelligence professionals have served as mercenaries for the Americans over a period of ten years, giving Americans an unique intelligence asset inside the West German government. In this article, the discussions include the evolution of the BND and the current issues faced by the German intelligence services.

scholarly journals Fundusz Pomocy Niezależnej Literaturze i Nauce Polskiej – reakcja polskiej emigracji na stan wojenny

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Jacky Challot
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The State ◽  
The West ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Czeslaw Milosz ◽  
Western Intellectual ◽  
Polish Culture ◽  
The Cold War

Fund for the Continuity of Polish Independent Litterature and Humanities – the Reaction of Polish Emigration to the Martial Law This article presents the activity of the Fund for the Continuity of Polish Independent Litterature and Humanities, one of the reactions of the Polish intellectual emigration to the state of war triggered in Poland on December 13, 1981. Created in the Parisian circles of the magazine Kultura, the Fund brings together great personalities, such as: Józef Czapski, Jerzy Giedroyc, Konstanty Jeleński, Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, Czesław Miłosz. The nature of these activities and the renown of its animators places it in a more global and older strategy, initiated during the Cold War and aimed at the “de-Sovietization” of the minds in Western intellectual circles. This work is carried out on the basis of unpublished archives, retracing the two main axes of the activity of the Fund: editorial action and allocation of grants for representatives of the independent Polish culture. The Fund invested about five million French francs between 1982 and 1990 to co-finance the edition of 56 books and to award numerous grants for Polish creators for stays in the West. Its activity, spread over the decades 80 and 90, can be seen as a final touch in a broader strategy that contributed to the collapse of European communism.

An Enduring Enchantment: The Fairy Tale in the DDR, from the Brothers Grimm to 'the Singing Ringing Tree'

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (16) ◽  
pp. 62-102
Author(s):  
John Callow
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
The State ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
East Berlin ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Creative Partnership

The Marchen/Fairy Tale films produced by the state DEFA studio in East Berlin have proved to be among the DDR's most enduring cultural achievements. This article examines at the ways in which the works of the Brothers Grimm were brought within an explicitly socialist pedagogy and how official Marxism attempt to comprehend and refashion folk and fairy tales. It is argued that this was most surely accomplished through the creative partnership of Anne Geelhaar, an East German writer, and Francesco Stefani, a West German director. Their creation, in 1957, of the apparently timeless but in reality entirely new tale of 'The Singing Ringing Tree' – despite an element of official opposition – has enjoyed enduring popular success and, through its inclusion within the BBC's 'Tales from Europe' managed to circumvent and transcend the suspicions and stereotypes fostered by the Cold War.

The Demonization of Islam in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

2021 ◽  
pp. 176-192
Author(s):  
Ayhan Küngerü
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
The State ◽  
New Order ◽  
The West ◽  
Hollywood Cinema ◽  
International Environment ◽  
The Cold War

With the end of the Cold War, paradigms of the Cold War could not explain the emerging international environment. Therefore, Western authorities put forward various theories in order to elicit new order. One of those is Samuel Huntington's “clash of civilization” thesis. In his work, Huntington stated that with the end of the Cold War, basic element of the clashes was no longer ideological, instead economic and cultural. In this context, clashes would occur between civilization and religion would be the main source of clashes between civilizations. He allotted the large part of his work to the differences between the Western and Islam civilization. American Sniper were addressed and analysed according to four dogmas of Orientalism in Edward Said's book Orientalism. Accordingly, existence of the state of conflict between Western and Islam civilization mentioned in Huntington's work have been observed. It has been seen that civilization of Islam built as the adversary of the West have been deemed as other and created as enemy.

Can You Spare 5 Minutes? Cold War Women’s Radio on RIAS Berlin

Resonance ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-297
Author(s):  
Joan L. Clinefelter
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Radio Station ◽  
German State ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
East German ◽  
Domestic Lives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Female Audience ◽  
The U.S

Throughout the 1950s, the American propaganda radio station RIAS Berlin transformed women’s radio into an anti-communist medium designed to enlist German housewives into the Cold War. Based in West Berlin, RIAS—Radio in the American Sector—broadcast a full array of shows deep inside East Germany as part of the U.S. psychological war against communism. One of its key target audiences was German homemakers. Drawing upon scripts held in the German Radio Archives in Potsdam, Germany, this article analyzes the program Can You Spare 5 Minutes? (Haben Sie 5 Minuten Zeit?). It explores how RIAS inscribed the international contest between democracy and communism onto the domestic lives of women. The show built a sense of solidarity by treating typical “female” topics such as cosmetics, childcare, and recipes. In this way it forged a bond between its listeners that provided an opening for political messaging. Programs contrasted access to food, marriage rights, and educational policy in the rival Germanies to demonstrate the benefits of democracy and the need to resist the East German state. Women’s radio on RIAS, far from offering mere fluff, provided its female audience a political education.

Women Agents in the East German State Security

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Thomas Wegener Friis ◽  
Helmut Müller-Enbergs
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
German State ◽  
State Security ◽  
Controlling Images ◽  
Intelligence Studies ◽  
East German ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
The Cold War

In the communist camp during the Cold War, exercising power was a male domain. The Ministry of State Security (MfS) of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was no exception. Within the organization, women were employed but they rarely made a career. In the bottom of the State Security hierarchy were the agents. This article examines who were the women agents in the rank of the MfS. Based on statistical materials, it gives an overview of women’s role and the character of their covert work. Inspired by Andrea Petö’s introduction of the concept of controlling images to intelligence studies, particular focus is devoted to the question whether the MfS agents complied to the stereotypes of women in intelligence work.

scholarly journals Industrial Espionage and Productivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 1055-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albrecht Glitz ◽  
Erik Meyersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
The West ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Industrial Espionage ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Flow Of Information

In this paper, we investigate the economic returns to industrial espionage. We show that the flow of information provided by East German informants in the West over the period 1970–1989 led to a significant narrowing of sectoral TFP gaps between West and East Germany. These economic returns were primarily driven by relatively few high-quality pieces of information and particularly large in sectors closer to the West German technological frontier. Our findings suggest that the East-to-West German TFP ratio would have been 13.3 percent lower at the end of the Cold War had East Germany not engaged in industrial espionage in the West. (JEL L16, N44, O33, O38, O47, P24)

Islam and the West: Coexistence or Clash?

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 363-374
Author(s):  
Noor Mohammad Osmani ◽  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
The West ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
The Cold War

Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) claimed that there would be seven eight civilizations ruling over the world in the coming centuries, thus resulting a possible clash among them. The West faces the greatest challenge from the Islamic civilization, as he claimed. Beginning from the Cold-War, the Western civilization became dominant in reality over other cultures creating an invisible division between the West and the rest. The main purpose of this research is to examine the perceived clash between the Western and Islamic Civilization and the criteria that lead a civilization to precede others. The research would conduct a comprehensive review of available literatures from both Islamic and Western perspectives, analyze historical facts and data and provide a critical evaluation. This paper argues that there is no such a strong reason that should lead to any clash between the West and Islam; rather, there are many good reasons that may lead to a peaceful coexistence and cultural tolerance among civilizations

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