The Workhouse Dresden-Leuben After 1945: A Microstudy of Local Continuities in Postwar East Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-144
Author(s):  
Markus Wahl
Keyword(s):  
East Germany ◽  
State Level ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Social Deviance ◽  
German State ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
East German ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact

By using the workhouse of Dresden as a microstudy, this article explores local continuities in postwar East Germany. It argues that this example not only illustrates the persistence of mentalities towards ‘sexual and social deviance’, not least as a legacy of the Third Reich, but also questions the assumption of a strictly centralized state and 1945 as a caesura. In a first step, the article shows the continuity of personnel at the state level, who decided that the workhouse as an institution should have a future in the new East German state after 1945, before revealing that local authorities were also unable to dissociate themselves with the views towards this institution of the past. In the end, the article enters this institution with help of archival sources, architectural plans, and photographs, exploring the impact of this state and local continuity on the everyday lives of inmates in this workhouse in Dresden. In doing so, it contributes to the historiography of East Germany by revealing the agency of different individuals, even if confined to a ‘total institution’.

scholarly journals “… and he flew out of the window on a wooden spoon”

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Gaby Thomson-Wohlgemuth
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
The Third ◽  
East German ◽  
The Third Reich

Abstract Translation may be viewed in part as a transfer of cultural elements from one text to another and, under certain circumstances, this may occur between texts written in the same language. This is indeed the situation researchers find when analysing the early East German versions of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales and comparing them with their (same language) originals. East Germany was a country with a mission to overcome capitalist thinking and to create a new kind of society. Motivated by this, the establishment permitted only certain kinds of texts to reach their audiences. One of the genres vehemently debated in the early days was fairy tales and particularly so the Grimms’ tales due to their high standing in the Third Reich. This article explores the first ‘translations’ of the Grimms’ fairy tales in East Germany, investigating elements that were regarded as ideologically valuable and hence emphasized in the texts and those that were deemed harmful to a socialist education and hence modified.

East German Higher Education Policies and Student Resistance, 1945–1948

1995 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Connelly
Keyword(s):  
East Germany ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
The Political ◽  
Student Resistance ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Higher Education Policies ◽  
East German ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Disproportionate Number ◽  
Socialist Unity

Those who opposed Communist rule in East Germany often did so because Communism in practice strongly reminded them of the fascism they had experienced in the Third Reich. The new East German regime was also one that attempted total control of people's lives; therefore it became natural to describe it as totalitär. Most sensitive to the similarities between the old and new regimes were university students. They displayed stronger direct opposition to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the years from 1946–1949 than any other social group. This is reflected in the political battles that were fought in universities during these years, leading to SED election failures in the elections of the postwar years: 1946/47 and late 1947. The latter were the last freely contested elections in East Germany until 1989. It is also reflected in the disproportionate number of students arrested by Soviet and East German authorities in the early postwar years.

Local Civil Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Mann ◽  
David Dallimore ◽  
Howard Davis ◽  
Graham Day ◽  
Maria Eichsteller
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Field Investigations ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Focus Questions

Epdf and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Drawing on place-based field investigations and new empirical analysis, this original book investigates civil society at local level. The concept of civil society is contested and multifaceted, and this text offers assessment and clarification of debates concerning the intertwining of civil society, the state and local community relations. Analysing two Welsh villages, the authors examine the importance of identity, connection with place and the impact of social and spatial boundaries on the everyday production of civil society. Bringing into focus questions of biography and temporality, the book provides an innovative account of continuities and changes within local civil society during social and economic transformation.

The Prelude to Nationwide Surveillance in East Germany: Stasi Operations and Threat Perceptions, 1945–1953

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
East Germany ◽  
German State ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
State Security ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
East German ◽  
Nationwide Surveillance ◽  
Vast Network ◽  
Socialist Unity

Many observers have been puzzled by the extent of the uprising that swept through East Germany in June 1953, given the legendary efficiency of the East German state security (Stasi) forces and their vast network of informants. Some scholars have even attempted to explain the Stasi's inability to foresee and prevent the uprising by arguing that the Stasi conspired with the demonstrators. The opening of the archives of the former German Democratic Republic has shed valuable light on this issue. Based on extensive research in the archives of the Stasi and of the former Socialist Unity Party of East Germany, as well as materials from the West German archives, this article shows that the Stasi did not fail its party superiors in being unable to foresee the uprising of June 1953. There was, in fact, no way that the organization could have foreseen the rebellion. Prior to 1953 the Stasi was not outfitted with a massive surveillance apparatus, nor was it mandated for broad internal surveillance. Rather, it primarily targeted well-known opposition groups at home and anti-Communist organizations based in West Berlin. The criticism directed against the Stasi after the uprising was attributable mainly to Walter Ulbricht's embattled leadership position and his need for a scapegoat.

Architecture and the Memory of Nazism in Postwar Munich

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 140-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavriel D. Roseneld
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
To Come ◽  
Nazi Past ◽  
The Impact

Few issues have possessed the centrality or sparked as much controversyin the postwar history of the Federal Republic of Germany(FRG) as the struggle to come to terms with the nation’s Nazi past.This struggle, commonly known by the disputed term Vergangenheitsbewältigung,has cast a long shadow upon nearly all dimensions ofGerman political, social, economic, and cultural life and has preventedthe nation from attaining a normalized state of existence inthe postwar period. Recent scholarly analyses of German memoryhave helped to broaden our understanding of how “successful” theGermans have been in mastering their Nazi past and have shed lighton the impact of the Nazi legacy on postwar German politics andculture. Even so, important gaps remain in our understanding ofhow the memory of the Third Reich has shaped the postwar life ofthe Federal Republic.

Sodium menu labelling: priorities for research and policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Eleanore Alexander ◽  
Lainie Rutkow ◽  
Kimberly A Gudzune ◽  
Joanna E Cohen ◽  
Emma E McGinty
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Legal Databases ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Research And Policy

Abstract Objective: To understand the different Na menu labelling approaches that have been considered by state and local policymakers in the USA and to summarise the evidence on the relationship between Na menu labelling and Na content of menu items offered by restaurants or purchased by consumers. Design: Proposed and enacted Na menu labelling laws at the state and local levels were reviewed using legal databases and an online search, and a narrative review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted on the relationship between Na menu labelling and Na content of menu items offered by restaurants or purchased by consumers. Setting: Local and state jurisdictions in the USA Participants: Not applicable. Results: Between 2000 and 2020, thirty-eight laws – eleven at the local level and twenty-seven at the state level – were proposed to require Na labelling of restaurant menu items. By 2020, eight laws were enacted requiring chain restaurants to label the Na content of menu items. Five studies were identified that evaluated the impact of Na menu labelling on Na content of menu items offered by restaurants or purchased by consumers in the USA. The studies had mixed results: two studies showed a statistically significant association between Na menu labelling and reduced Na content of menu items; three showed no effects. Conclusion: Data suggest that Na menu labelling may reduce Na in restaurant menu items, but further rigorous research evaluating Na menu labelling effects on Na content of menu items, as well as on the Na content in menu items purchased by consumers, is needed.

Once Misjudged and Banned: Promoting the Musical Heritage in the GDR and Discourse Surrounding the 1959 Felix Mendelssohn Festwoche

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-352
Author(s):  
BETH SNYDER
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
East Germany ◽  
German State ◽  
East German ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Felix Mendelssohn ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Value ◽  
Musical Heritage ◽  
Working Out

AbstractIn February 1959 East Germany fêted the legacy of Felix Mendelssohn with a week-long celebration. Like earlier festivals honouring composers such as Handel, these festivities provided a site for working out in practical terms abstract theories of the ethico-political value of the Germanic cultural heritage to a socialist German state. Yet, discourse surrounding the Festwoche indicates a unique approach to such negotiations. Debates surrounding the festival are analysed, including publications in journals and newspapers as well as speeches, in order to demonstrate that the circumstances surrounding the Mendelssohn festivities fomented remarkably diverse responses to issues pertaining to the value of the musical heritage and to Mendelssohn's place within that heritage. Further, the problems Mendelssohn's life and work presented led one of the most important musicologists in the GDR – Georg Knepler – to embrace a radically Marxian (rather than Marxist–Leninist) account of the significance of the composer's music to East German audiences.

Ägyptologen im Dritten Reich: Biographische Notizen anhand der sogenannten „Steindorff-Liste“

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 120-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schneider
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
John Wilson ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Second World

Abstract The history of Egyptology in the Third Reich has never been the subject of academic analysis. This article gives a detailed overview of the biographies of Egyptologists in National Socialist Germany and their later careers after the Second World War. It scrutinizes their attitude towards the ideology of the Third Reich and their involvement in the political and intellectual Gleichschaltung of German Higher Education, as well as the impact National Socialism had on the discourse within the discipline. A letter written in 1946 by Georg Steindorff, one of the emigrated German Egyptologists, to John Wilson, Professor at the Oriental Institute Chicago, which incriminated former colleagues and exonerated others, is first published here and used as a framework for the debate.

Teaching in Vain

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
German State ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich

This chapter traces Carl Schmitt’s attempt, in his 1932 book The Concept of the Political, to quell the near civil war circumstances of the late Weimar Republic and to reinvigorate the sovereignty of the German state through a reappropriation of Thomas Hobbes’s political philosophy. The chapter then examines Schmitt’s reconsideration of the Hobbesian state, and his own recent reformulation of it, in light of the rise of the “Third Reich,” with particular reference to Schmitt’s 1938 book The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes.

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