Clashes of Emotions: Punk Music, Youth Subculture, and Authority in the GDR (1978-1983)

In: Social justice: a journal of crime, conflict and world order, Band 38, Heft 4, S. 53-70

Abstract

In Aug 11, 1983, officials from the Statsi Deparment XX, responsible for "combating political ideological diversion and underground political activity," documented a so-called Vorkommnisuberprufung. According to the file, quoted in detail in PreuB (2005) as well as in Furian and Becker (2000, 113-20), the reason for the arrest of a number of youths labeled "Punks" was a concert in the Erloserkirche in Berlin-Lichtenberg on June 24. This source raises numerous questions and allows for two important observations. First, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) government was nervous about Punks and even feared the escalation of the movement. Second, the document offers insights into the nature of the conflict between youth and state authority in the GDR. In summary, the case of a small group of particularly provocative young people shows the manner in which the state dealt with deviant youths in the GDR and how these policies changed in 1980. To obtain evidence justifying legal prosecution, the limits of the law were exceeded and the differences between deviance as norm breaking and delinquency as criminal activity were blotted out. Adapted from the source document.