Mary Fulbrook - Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler

BECOMING EAST GERMAN

SPEKTRUM: Publications of the German Studies Association

Series editor: David M. Luebke, University of Oregon

Published under the auspices of the German Studies Association, Spektrum offers current perspectives on culture, society, and political life in the German-speaking lands of central EuropeAustria, Switzerland, and the Federal Republicfrom the late Middle Ages to the present day. Its titles and themes reflect the composition of the GSA and the work of its members within and across the disciplines to which they belongliterary criticism, history, cultural studies, political science, and anthropology.

Volume 1

The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered

Edited by Jason Philip Coy, Benjamin Marschke, and David Warren Sabean

Volume 2

Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s

Edited by Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire

Volume 3

Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany

Edited by David M. Luebke, Jared Poley, Daniel C. Ryan, and David Warren Sabean

Volume 4

Walls, Borders, Boundaries

Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe

Edited by Marc Silberman, Karen E. Till, and Janet Ward

Volume 5

After The History of Sexuality

German Genealogies with and Beyond Foucault

Edited by Scott Spector, Helmut Puff, and Dagmar Herzog

Volume 6

Becoming East German

Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler

Edited by Mary Fulbrook and Andrew I. Port

Volume 7

Beyond Alterity

German Encounters with Modern East Asia

Edited by Qinna Shen and Martin Rosenstock

Volume 8

Mixed Matches

Transgressive Unions in Germany from the Reformation to the Enlightenment

Edited by David Luebke and Mary Lindemann

Volume 9

Kinship, Community, and Self

Essays in Honor of David Warren Sabean

Edited by Jason Coy, Benjamin Marschke, Jared Poley, and Claudia Verhoeven

Volume 10

The Emperors Old Clothes

Constitutional History and the Symbolic Language of the Holy Roman Empire

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger

Translated by Thomas Dunlap

Volume 11

The Devils Riches

A Modern History of Greed

Jared Poley

Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler

Edited by

MARY FULBROOK and ANDREW I. PORT

Published in 2013 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2013, 2015 Mary Fulbrook and Andrew I. Port
First paperback edition published in 2015

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Becoming East German : socialist structures and sensibilities after Hitler / edited by Mary Fulbrook and Andrew I. Port.

pages cm. (Specktrum : publications of the German Studies Association ; Volume 6)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-85745-974-9 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-78533-027-8 (pbk) ISBN 978-0-85745-975-6 (ebook)

1. Germany (East)Social policy. 2. Germany (East)Social conditions. 3. Germany (East)Cultural policy. 4. SocialismGermany (East) History. 5. Medical policyGermany (East) 6. Public healthGermany (East) 7. Socialism and cultureGermany (East) I. Fulbrook, Mary, 1951- author, editor of compilation. II. Port, Andrew I., author, editor of compilation.

DD283.B427 2013

943.10874dc23

2013005575

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-85745-974-9 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78533-027-8 paperback
ISBN: 978-0-85745-975-6 ebook

CONTENTS

Andrew I. Port

Mary Fulbrook

Andreas Agocs

Joanne Sayner

Christiane Wienand

Jeannette Madarsz-Lebenhagen

Donna Harsch

Neula Kerr-Boyle

Paul Freedman

Andrew I. Port

David G. Tompkins

Phil Leask

Alan McDougall

Mary Fulbrook

PREFACE

The origins of this book go back to a lively discussion that took place between Andrew Port and Mary Fulbrook when they met for the first time in Germany in October 2009. It was there that the two editors realized that the Atlantic was, despite modern means of electronic communication, still posing a major problem for productive exchanges of ideas aboutand the development of innovative approaches tothe history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). They agreed on the need to foster greater dialogue among scholars trained in Europe and North America who work on the GDR, which ultimately led to the commissioning of the chapters in this volume. These chapters seek to move beyond the tired theoretical debates analyzed in the Introduction and instead develop more fruitful lines of interpretation in light of the new research that has emerged over the past two decades since the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall. While questions of power can never be absent from discussions of the GDR, there is a shift of focus here to questions of subjectivity and physicality in the historical process of becoming East German.

The editors would like to thank the two anonymous readers, as well as David Luebke, the editor of the Spektrum series, and David Barclay, the executive director of the German Studies Association, for their engagement with and support of this volume. We are also grateful to Marion Berghahn, Ann De-Vita, Elizabeth Berg, and the supportive staff at Berghahn Books.

ABBREVIATIONS