Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-521-86651-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 326 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 655 g

Why did the German Democratic Republic last for so long - longer, in fact, than the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich combined? This book looks at various political, social, and economic conflicts at the grass roots of the GDR in an attempt to answer this question and account for regime stability. A local study, it examines opposition and discontent in Saalfeld, an important industrial and agricultural district. Based on previously inaccessible primary sources as well as on interviews with local residents, the book offers a novel explanation for the durability of the regime by looking at how authorities tried to achieve harmony and consensus through negotiation and compromise. At the same time, it shows how official policies created deep-seated social cleavages that promoted stability by hindering East Germans from presenting a united front to authorities when mounting opposition or pressing for change. All of this provides an indirect answer to perhaps the major question of the postwar period: Why did the Cold War last as long as it did?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Port, Andrew I.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. Upheaval (1945-1953): 1. Creating a 'new order'; 2. The GDR's 'first strike'; 3. The revolution manqué of June 1953; Part II. The Calm after the Storm (1953-1971): 4. The limits of repression; 5. Exit, voice, and apathy; 6. Power in the people's factories; 7. Achieving harmony on the shop floor; 8. Divide and rule?; 9. 'I comes before we' in the countryside; 10. 'Whatever happened to the classless society?'

Über Autor(innen)

Port, Andrew I.
Andrew I. Port is an assistant professor of history at Wayne State University in Detroit. He earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University and a B.A. in history from Yale University. He has published articles in Social History and the Frankfürter Allgemeine Zeitung. Professor Port is a research associate at the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and he was a visiting scholar at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (Center for Contemporary Historical Research) in Potsdam, Germany.