Issues Surrounding the Development of the Neo-Nazi Scene in East Berlin

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Brothers

The rise of neo-Nazism in the capital of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was not inspired by a desire to recreate Hitler's Reich, but by youthful rebellion against the political and social culture of the GDR's Communist regime. This is detailed in Fuehrer-Ex: Memoirs of a Former Neo-Naxi by Ingo Hasselbach with Tom Reiss (Random House, New York, 1996). This movement, however, eventually worked towards returning Germany to its former 'glory' under the Third Reich under the guidance of 'professional' Nazis.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942199790
Author(s):  
Udo Grashoff

This article discusses ambiguous tactics of German Communist resisters in the Third Reich. The official historiography of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) portrayed Communist resisters as unfaltering heroes. By contrast, revisionist studies published after 1990 presented Communists as traitors and renegades. This study transcends these approaches that revolve around legitimation or de-legitimation of the dictatorship, and examines the dubious manoeuvring of three German Communists who strategically collaborated with the Nazis, namely Theodor Bottländer, Friedrich Schlotterbeck and Wilhelm Knöchel. While Knöchel's attempts to outwit the Gestapo failed and could not prevent his execution, Schlotterbeck and Bottländer found ways to survive - largely without betraying their comrades. Even so, the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD), as well as its successor in the GDR, the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), reprimanded venturesome, inventive and obstinate Communists, excluded them from the party and brought them to court. The harsh reactions are indicative of the inability of Communist historiography to acknowledge ‘Eigen-Sinn’, and highlight a central shortcoming of the antifascist doctrine. Likewise, more recent revisionist approaches have failed to recognise various attempts of Communists to minimise harm and survive in the grey zone between betrayal and loyalty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-316
Author(s):  
Gesine Schröder

‘Middle music’ and the ‘middle music theory’ of the German Democratic Republic have received little interest, although their products survive until today. Kurt Schwaen is known for his compositions for folk instruments and for his famous children’s songs such as “Wenn Mutti früh zur Arbeit geht” [When mom goes to work early in the morning]. Schwaen was an author of music for the folk, namely for amateur singers, mostly children, or lay instrumentalists, who played in mandolin or accordion orchestras. Schwaen’s compositions may be considered as a variant of socialistic realism in music. They form a modern folk music by both respecting neomodal writing, derived from the 1920s, as well as by including international folk material and promising an authentic and unsuspicious tune which German folk music lacked since the Third Reich.


Author(s):  
Й. Шнелле

В данной статье рассматриваются отношения "Мусават", бывшей правящей партии Азербайджанской Республики и наиболее активной партии азербайджанских эмигрантов, с Третьим Рейхом в довоенный период. В 1933–1939 гг. Германия сыграла большую роль для партии «Мусават» в поисках союзников в борьбе против СССР. Мусаватисты некоторое время сотрудничали с Антикоминтерном в области антикоммунистической пропаганды и в 1939 г. были под покровительством Внешнеполитического управления НСДАП. Тем не менее положение «Мусават» в Германии оставалось неустойчивым вплоть до начала Второй мировой войны, надежды этой партии на эффективную поддержку со стороны Берлина не оправдались. The article examines relations between «Musavat», the former leading party of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the most active party of Azerbaijan immigrants, and the Third Reich during the pre-war period. In 1933–1939 Germany helped the party in search for anti-Soviet allies. Members of «Musavat» collaborated with the Anti-Comintern in Anti-Bolshevik Propaganda activities in 1939, they were under the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs protection. Never the less «Musavat» party haven’t gained a steady position till the beginning of the Second World War, it’s hopes for effective help and support from Berlin were not realized.


Author(s):  
Michael I. Shevell

Abstract: It is commonly thought that the horrific medical abuses occurring during the era of the Third Reich were limited to fringe physicians acting in extreme locales such as the concentration camps. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there was a widespread perversion of medical practice and science that extended to mainstream academic physicians. Scientific thought, specifically the theories of racial hygiene, and the political conditions of a totalitarian dictatorship, acted symbiotically to devalue the intrinsic worth to society of those individuals with mental and physical disabilities. This devaluation served to foster the medical abuses which occurred. Neurosciences in the Third Reich serves as a backdrop to highlight what was the slippery slope of medical practice during that era. Points on this slippery slope included the “dejudification” of medicine, unethical experimentation in university clinics, systematic attempts to sterilize and euthanasize targeted populations, the academic use of specimens obtained through such programs and the experimental atrocities within the camps.


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