Peace Movements and the Demilitarization of German Political Culture, 1970s–1980s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Nehring
Keyword(s):  
Peace Movement ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Peace Movements ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Peace Activism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Divided Germany

This chapter examines the relationship between peace movement activism and demilitarization in both East and West Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. It focuses on the history of peace activism in the two parts of the divided Germany: the liberal-democratic West German Federal Republic (FRG) and the socialist dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Such an approach reveals not only the common themes they addressed and the transfers of ideas across the Iron Curtain, but also the ways in which governments addressed them as mirror images in the Cold War for ideas. While the peace movements in the West could appear in the contemporary political-cultural mainstream as the results of communist infiltration, the GDR government regarded the independent peace movement in the East as the result of the infiltration of the GDR by dangerous bourgeois-capitalist pacifists.

From London to Leipzig and Back: A Transnational Approach to the Endzeit  (R)Evolution (1976–92)

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Marlene Schrijnders
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
East German ◽  
German City ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship

Twenty-five years ago, just as the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the suitably-titled West German goth fanzine Glasnost announced that a festival called Wave-Gotik-Treffen was to be held in the East German city of Leipzig. Today, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen is the biggest such festival in the world. Initially, however, its significance lay in allowing East and West German goths to meet and dance together, revealing differences in their respective experiences and understanding of the dark subculture. This article will examine two inter-related questions. First, what was the relationship between ‘goth’, as a music and aesthetic, across the frontier of the cold war? Second, to what extent were the goth subcultures of East and West Germany informed by and understood in relation to the original goth subculture emergent within the UK? The article will feed into the debate on the politics of youth culture, but also on the ways by which subcultural meanings and identities are transmitted and redefined across national borders.

scholarly journals German-Polish scienti c cooperations in divided Germany – Janusz Korczak associations in East and West Germany since the 1970s

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Anne Oommen-Halbach ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
East Berlin ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West ◽  
Faculties Of Education ◽  
Divided Germany

The Polish-Jewish paediatrician, pedagogue and writer Janusz Korczak (1878/79–1942) has not been honoured in Germany until many years after his death in Treblinka in 1942. The German division led to the development of two separate German academic associations since the end of the 1970s, which aimed – under different political circumstances – to popularise and disseminate the memory of Korczak and his works. Both associations estab- lished personal and academic contacts and cooperations with the Polish Korczak Committee, whose history can be traced back to 1946, when contemporary witnesses of Korczak founded the Committee to honour Korczak’s memory. This paper aims to reconstruct the early scientific cooperations of both German Korczak associations with Polish scientists and the Polish Korczak Committee. While in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) major research stimuli emanated at the faculties of education at Gießen and Wuppertal, in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) a first publicly perceived research focus crystallised at the only existing, state-controlled publishing house for schoolbooks (Volk und Wissen – Volkseigener Verlag) in East- Berlin. In the early 1980s, the work of the young associations was focused on biographical and bibliographical studies. Here it becomes obvious, that Korczak studies in East and West were substantially inspired and advanced by the then still living contemporary eyewitnesses of Korczak and their personal contacts to individual members of the existing Korczak associations. The history of the international Korczak bibliography is a characteristic example, that shows, how closely contemporary witnessing is linked to scientific research on Korczak.

A Reflection on Crucial Periods in 50 Years of Social Psychology (in Germany)

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Katja Corcoran ◽  
Michael Häfner ◽  
Mathias Kauff ◽  
Stefan Stürmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Early Development ◽  
West Germany ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West

Abstract. In this article, we reflect on 50 years of the journal Social Psychology. We interviewed colleagues who have witnessed the history of the journal. Based on these interviews, we identified three crucial periods in Social Psychology’s history, that are (a) the early development and further professionalization of the journal, (b) the reunification of East and West Germany, and (c) the internationalization of the journal and its transformation from the Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie to Social Psychology. We end our reflection with a discussion of changes that occurred during these periods and their implication for the future of our field.

German Angst

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biess
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Peace Movements ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fear And Anxiety ◽  
Relationship Of

German Angst analyzes the relationship of fear and democracy in postwar West Germany. While fear has historically been associated with authoritarian regimes, the book highlights the role of fear and anxiety in a democratizing society: these emotions undermined democracy and stabilized it at the same time. By taking seriously postwar Germans’ uncertainties about the future, the book challenges dominant linear and teleological narratives of postwar West German “success.” It highlights the prospective function of memories of war and defeat, of National Socialism and the Holocaust. Fears and anxieties derived from memories of a catastrophic past that postwar Germans projected into the future. Based on case studies from the 1940s to the present, the book provides a new interpretive synthesis of the Federal Republic. It tells the history of the Federal Republic as a series of recurring crises, in which specific fears and anxieties emerged, served a variety of political functions, and then again abated. Drawing on recent interdisciplinary insights of emotion studies, the book transcends the dichotomy of “reason” and “emotion.” Fear and anxiety were not exclusively irrational and dysfunctional but served important roles in postwar democracy. These emotions sensitized postwar Germans to the dangers of an authoritarian transformation, and they also served as the emotional engine of the environmental and peace movements. The book also provides an original analysis of the emotional basis of right-wing populism in Germany today, and it explores the possibilities of a democratic politics of emotion.

A Shared History of Successes and Excesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-75
Author(s):  
Damien Van Puyvelde
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Shared History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Large Period ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides an in-depth account of the relationship between the U.S. intelligence apparatus and its private outriders, from the earliest days of the Republic to the end of the Cold War. Covering such a large period sheds light on the deep roots, the broad evolution, and the multiple opportunities and risks accompanying intelligence outsourcing. In the United States, the legitimacy of the federal government has always been entwined with the private sector and this is related to the values underpinning American political culture. As a result, the private intelligence industry continued to thrive, deepen and diversify its involvement in national security affairs when the federal government established itself more firmly in this realm. The institutionalization of intelligence in the twentieth century was accompanied by the diversification and formalisation of the ties between the intelligence community and its contractors. Contractors and their government sponsors share the responsibility for some of the greatest achievements and controversies in U.S. intelligence history, from the success of the U2 spy plane to the excesses of Project MKUltra. The history of U.S. intelligence is characterized by successive movements of expansion and regulation through which outsourcing and accountability have become increasingly intertwined.

A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE CONSUMER

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 709-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHERYL KROEN
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
International Negotiation ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between the consumer and the citizen from the eighteenth century to the present in Europe and the United States. Part I highlights the political narrative underlying the opposition between courtly consumption (absolutism) and the inconspicuous consumption of the middling sorts, and explores early formulations of the relationship between consumption and democracy. Part II looks at the first half of the nineteenth century, defined by the opposition between consumers (coded feminine, and as ‘despised’) and citizens (coded masculine, and as ‘restrained’). Part III goes from the 1860s to the 1930s. American historians have emphasized the positive political agency of consumers in this period, and their contribution to the notion of social citizenship. This article emphasizes the less democratic aspects of consumer politics, and the contributions of anti-liberal movements on the extreme left and right to a stronger tradition of social citizenship in Europe. Part IV takes Lizabeth Cohen's claim that a ‘Consumers' Republic' was forged in the US in the post-war period, and casts the Marshall Plan and the Cold War as the context that gave rise to an international negotiation over the relationship between consumption and democracy that continues to the present.

scholarly journals Istota totalitaryzmu. Wokół teorii Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego i Carla Friedricha

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-199
Author(s):  
Adam Wielomski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
West Germany ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Famous Book ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War

The aim of this text is a contemporary estimation of the thesis formed in a famous book by Zbigniew Brzeziński and Carl Friedrich, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956). This is a classic text of Western political science about totalitarianism, simultaneously scientific and political. Scientific, because it presents the idea of three types of political regimes in the 20th century: totalitarian, authoritarian, and liberal-democratic. Political, because the term “totalitarianism” was very useful in the time of the Cold War. This term presents the old (Nazi Germany) and new (Stalinist Russia) totalitarian states as equal political enemies of the USA, equal in their hostility to political and individual freedom, i.e. America’s creed. By using this term, the Americans can create a horrible picture of Russian communism as totalitarian, the same as Hitler’s regime, while presenting old enemies (West Germany, Italy, and Japan) as good friends of both the USA and freedom, because in this moment these states are democratic and liberal. The new term ended the old line of the delimitation between fascist or pro fascist and antifascist states and legitimates the new alliance between the USA and Franco’s Spain. The author analyses the definition of totalitarianism by Brzeziński and Friedrich as well as the political and ideological accusations made against this book by leftist critics.

Central America-US Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan D. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Democratic Capitalism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

Since gaining independence in 1823, the states comprising Central America have had a front seat to the rise of the United States as a global superpower. Indeed, more so than anywhere else, the United States has sought to use its power to shape Central America into a system that heeds US interests and abides by principles of liberal democratic capitalism. Relations have been characterized by US power wielded freely by officials and non-state actors alike to override the aspirations of Central American actors in favor of US political and economic objectives: from the days of US filibusterers invading Nicaragua in search of territory; to the occupations of the Dollar Diplomacy era, designed to maintain financial and economic stability; to the covert interventions of the Cold War era. For their part, the Central American states have, at various times, sought to challenge the brunt of US hegemony, most effectively when coordinating their foreign policies to balance against US power. These efforts—even when not rejected by the United States—have generally been short-lived, hampered by economic dependency and political rivalries. The result is a history of US-Central American relations that wavers between confrontation and cooperation, but is remarkable for the consistency of its main element: US dominance.

The History of the Covenants

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Hertig Randall
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Acid Test ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Domestic Level

Translating the UDHR into a binding treaty ‘with teeth’ was an acid test for the international community. This chapter places the genesis of the ICESCR and the ICCPR in its political context. It highlights the interlocking challenges of the Cold War and of decolonization and also underscores disagreement among allied nations as well as attempts to ‘export’ the domestic conception of human rights. Three issues central to completing the International Bill of Human Rights are analysed: (1) identification of the rights to be included; (2) States’ obligations to give effect to human rights on the domestic level; and (3) international supervision mechanisms. These issues are closely related to the decision to divide human rights into two Covenants. In tracing the major controversies and decisions reached, light is also cast on the relationship and characteristics of civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights, as understood at the time.

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