Sądy społeczne w systemie wymiaru sprawiedliwości Niemieckiej Republiki Demokratycznej

Social courts in the German Democratic Republic, as constitutional judicial organs, guaranteed the direct participation of citizens in the exercise of state power. They played an important role in the judicial system and in fact became the courts of the lowest instance. They settled disputes in the field of labour and civil law and adjudicated in cases of violations of criminal law. In retrospect, they can be assessed as a special type of court typical of the socialist system, the decisions of which were primarily of educational and preventive importance.

Kompromitacja, słabość, tandeta? Kultura materialna NRD w filmie po 1990 roku na wybranych przykładach [Disgrace, Weakness, Rubbish? Material Culture of the GDR in Selected German Films After 1990]

Disgrace, Weakness, Rubbish? Material Culture of the GDR in Selected German Films After 1990The article focuses on the material culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as portrayed in selected German films made after 1990 and set in the GDR. The objects that are used in the films serve as a special kind of artefacts, symbolizing the reality of the GDR and defining it as imperfect, below expectations, and inefficient in meeting consumer demand. An important point of reference in the article is the context of post-communist nostalgia, which is a source of interesting symbolic redefinitions. Kompromitacja, słabość, tandeta? Kultura materialna NRD w filmie po 1990 roku na wybranych przykładachArtykuł dotyczy problematyki rzeczy codziennego użytku przedstawionych w wybranych filmach niemieckich realizowanych po 1990 roku a rozgrywających się w realiach Niemieckiej Republiki Demokratycznej. Przedmioty, które zostają użyte w filmach, występują w roli szczególnych artefaktów, symbolizujących rzeczywistość NRD i określających ją jako niedoskonałą, niespełniającą oczekiwań, konsumpcyjnie niewydolną. Istotnym punktem odniesienia w artykule jest kontekst nostalgii postkomunistycznej, która jest źródłem interesujących znaczeniowych przewartościowań.

Electoral Responsiveness in Closed Autocracies: Evidence from Petitions in the former German Democratic Republic

Contested elections are usually seen as precondition for constituent responsiveness. By contrast, I show that even uncontested elections can create incentives for autocratic regimes to address citizen demands. I propose that closed autocracies engage in cycles of responsiveness before uncontested elections to assure citizens of their competence and raise popular support. They do so to mitigate the short-term destabilizing effects of elections. Analyzing a unique dataset of petitions to the government of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), I calculate that response times to petitions were up to 31% shorter before the GDR’s uncontested elections. Moreover, I introduce the concept of “substantive responsiveness,” which focuses on the material consequences of responsiveness for petitioners, and show that petitions were 64% more likely to be successful. The paper advances our understanding of electoral mobilization in closed regimes and contributes to an emerging research agenda on responsiveness and accountability in autocracies.

‘Kapitalisten’ and ‘Prywaciarze’. A Comparison of Nationalisation Campaigns in the GDR and Poland

This paper compares nationalisation campaigns in the German Democratic Republic and socialist Poland, with particular focus on industry. It is based on secondary literature as well as material from both the German and Polish statistical offices. The main finding is a surprising lack of simultaneity in the nationalisation campaigns in the two countries, which possibly had a significant impact on the course of economic transformation in East Germany and in Poland.

Prawa podstawowe w systemie konstytucyjnym Niemieckiej Republiki Demokratycznej

The German Democratic Republic, as a state of real socialism, guaranteed its citizens, in addition to classical individual fundamental rights, also collective rights. Their use was made conditional, depending on the fulfilment of obligations specified in the Constitution. In the GDR, there were no independent bodies and mechanisms to protect the rights of citizens. Constitutional system of fundamental rights was primarily serving the good of the community and the development of a modern socialist state.

Cordial Cold War:Cultural Actors in India and the German Democratic Republic

Cordial Cold War examines cultural entanglements, in various forms, between two distant yet interconnected sites of the Cold War—India and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Focusing on theatre performances, film festivals, newsreels, travel literature, radio broadcasting, cartography and art as sites of engagement, the chapters spotlight actual spaces of interaction that emerged in spite of, and within, the ambits of Cold War constraints. The inter-disciplinary collection of contributions sheds light on the variegated nature of translocal cultural entanglements. By foregrounding the role of actors, their practices and the sites of their entanglement, the book exposes how creative energies were mobilized to forge zones of friendship, mutual interest and envisioned solidarities.

Book Reviews

Jan Baetens, Rebuilding Story Worlds: The Obscure Cities by Schuiten and Peeters (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020). 198 pp. ISBN: 978-1-97880-847-8 ($29.95)Philippe Delisle, La BD au prisme de l’Histoire: Hergé, Maurras, les Jésuites et quelques autres… (Paris: Karthala, 2019). 206 pp. ISBN: 978-2-8111-2608-7 (€18.00)Kim A. Munson, ed., Comic Art in Museums (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020). 386 + xii pp. ISBN 978-1-4968-2807-1 ($30)Paul Fisher Davies, Comics as Communication: A Functional Approach (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). 338 pp. ISBN: 978-3-030-29722-0 (eBook: €50.28)Sean Eedy, Four-Color Communism: Comics Books and Contested Power in the German Democratic Republic (New York: Berghahn Books, 2021). 218 pp. ISBN: 978-1-80073-000-7 ($120)