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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- The East German dilemma -- Policy-making in the GDR -- The role of theorists in the GDR -- 2 The fight to preserve the unity of the German nation -- The divided nation -- The SED, the nation and the Berlin Wall -- Conclusion -- 3 The unity of the nation in doubt -- Challenges to Ulbricht's line -- The new socialist constitution -- The challenge of Brandt's Ostpolitik -- Conclusion -- 4 The 'socialist nation' in the GDR -- The invention of a 'socialist nation' in the GDR -- The consequences of the new Nationskonzept -- Conclusion -- 5 The 'socialist German nation' - from consolidation to crisis -- Nationality: German -- citizenship: GDR -- The SED: 'heir to everything progressive in the history of the German people' -- The return of the nation to the political agenda -- Conclusion -- 6 Conclusion -- The paradoxes of official nationalism in the GDR -- The four phases of the official line -- The nature of East German identity -- West German policy regarding the German nation -- The case of the GDR and nation-building theory -- Bibliography

Town twinning refers to the postwar phenomenon of administrative exchange between analogous municipalities. Cold War-related research has mostly interpreted it as an instrument to pursue European integration, or to solidify détente "from below". However, municipalities were more than just actors in diplomatic relations. Through twinning, they emphasized the political-ideological content of their own domestic policies. This is particularly visible in the case of Italian "red" towns, predominantly led by the Italian Communist Party, and their twins in the German Democratic Republic. This volume explores their connections between the 1960s and the 1970s. It focuses on socialist-specific transnational conceptions and imaginations of a future society which fueled the economic and social policies implemented by these local governments. Thanks to the recourse to shared references, symbols, and micropractices of sociability within the frame of twinning, even in times when relations between the respective communist parties at the national level were marred by contrasts and controversies, a common language persisted.

The aim of this paper is to compare family policies and fertility patterns in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the German Federal Republic (FRG). Among other aspects, both societies particularly differed in the integration of women into the labor market. By contrasting the fertility development in these two societies, this paper aims to illuminate how women's education and employment relates to fertility decisions in societal contexts that support (in the case of the GDR) and hamper (in the case of the FRG) the compatibility between work and family life. Data for this analysis comes from the German Fertility and Family Survey (of the year 1992). We provide descriptive statistics for all birth parities, but we limit the multivariate event history analysis to first births only

Die Frage, ob sich in der DDR-Gesellschaft funktionale Ausdifferenzierungsprozesse bereits vollzogen hatten, wird anhand der DDR-Eliten (Kader) in ausgewählten Beschäftigungssektoren untersucht. Untersuchungsfokus sind hierbei die sektorspezifischen Rekrutierungsweisen bzw. -muster, die im Datenmaterial anhand der beruflichen Mobilität (berufliche Aufstiege, Abstiege, Wechsel auf gleicher Hierarchiestufe) von Führungspersonal erkennbar sind. Dazu werden die Verfahren der Ereignisanalyse angewendet. In diesem Zusammenhang wirduntersucht, ob die berufliche Mobilität sich in relevanten Beschäftigungssektoren unterschied (deskriptive Verfahren) und darüber hinaus, von welchen Determinanten sie abhing (konfirmative Verfahren). Die Untersuchung kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass sich Karrierelogiken in verschiedenen DDR-Beschäftigungssektoren offensichtlich nicht einseitig an gezeigter politischer Loyalität (z.B. SED-Parteizugehörigkeit) orientierten, sondern auch an fach- bzw. berufsbezogenen Qualifikationen. Das gilt nicht so sehr für sehr machtnahe Bereiche, wie z.B. den Beschäftigungssektor Zentrale Staatsorgane/Regierung, weniger machtnahe Bereiche (Binnenhandel) konnten sich aber offenbar stärker politischen Homogenisierungsbestrebungen entziehen und auch stärker auf fachbezogene Qualifikationen bei der Rekrutierung von Führungspersonal achten. Insgesamt lässt sich damit schlussfolgern, dass gewisse Autonomiespielräume gegeben waren, die zwar noch nicht per se für funktionale Differenzierung stehen, aber sie wenigstens begünstigten. ; The theoretical starting point of the essay is the widely held theoretical view, which explains the breakdown of the GDR by a severe deficit of functional differentiation. However, the contribution is not content with this explanation. Instead it is discussed whether processes of functional differentiation could possibly resume also under the SED rule. Subsequently, by applying the approaches of the Event History Analysis to the 'Central Cadre Database of the Council of Ministers' (ZKDS) data it is examined, whether the ways of recruiting GDR executives (measured by data about professional career mobility) were different between the employment sectors government and domestic trade. Different ways of recruitment are here assessed as being indicators for sector specific scopes concerning autonomy and therefore for social differentiation processes altogether. Indeed, the results of the data analysis point at that direction: Although joining the SED party was career-promoting, great importance was equally attached to (intersectorally different) skills. These and other results of the data analysis lead to the assessment, that a clear differentiation can be portrayed on the level of the GDR executives. Therefore, the reasons for the breakdown of the system (also) have to be searched for somewhere else.

International audience ; According to S. Kott, there are two ways to understand working groups in Honecker's GDR: as a way of regimenting the citizens, or as a way for them to access a protected space in order to assert their social demands. Both visions however are biased, in the sense that they presuppose the existence if an autonomous social body crushed by an independent political power. Thus, Kott asks the question of the means by which political power may take roots in the "social nexus" through the work groups. First of all, she brings out how the work group movement was built up gradually in response to political objectives, and then highlights the limits of their capacity to mobilize. She finally stresses the importance of their role in the control and discipline of citizens.

Transitions from dictatorship to democracy often raise the perplexing question of whether a new government may punish actions which, although reprehensible, were considered legal under the old regime. In these instances, the desire for condign punishment of evil acts confronts the principle that forbids retroactive criminal prosecutions. After German unification, problems of this type arose in trials of East German border guards for the use of deadly force at the Berlin Wall, along with prosecutions of military and civilian officials higher in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) chain of command. In this article, the author discusses these prosecutions and analyzes the response of the German courts to the difficult problems of retroactivity that the cases raise. In its concluding section, the article suggests that these cases may evoke issues concerning the legitimacy of the GDR that were the subject of bitter debates during Germany's divided past.

Die DDR und die Bundesrepublik wetteiferten nicht allein um Medaillen, sondern kämpften auch einen ideologischen Kampf in der olympischen Arena. Die DDR behandelte deshalb Teile ihres erfolgreichen Leistungssportsystems wie ein Staatsgeheimnis, um eine Nachahmung der eigenen Innovationen durch den 'Klassenfeind' zu verhindern. Sporteinrichtungen und Sportschulen wurden vor der Öffentlichkeit verborgen, die Presse zensiert, der akademische Austausch behindert und das Doping-System von der Staatssicherheit überwacht. Mehrmals beschwerte sich die Sowjetunion über die Geheimniskrämerei des kleinen Bruders. Aber vor allem hatte sich das Sportsystem am Ende der DDR von der eigenen Bevölkerung entfremdet. ; The GDR and the FRG not only competed for medals but also fought a battle of ideologies in the Olympic arena. Therefore parts of the successful GDR sport system where thoroughly protected almost as a state secret, to prevent an imitation of its sport organization by the 'class enemy.' Sports complexes and schools were hidden from the public, the press was censored, the academic communication hindered, finally, the doping system was guarded by the Ministry of State Security. On several occasions the Soviet Union complained about the East German mystery-mongering. But at last, the sport system had in the first place become estranged from the public.

The decision by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe of placing restrictions on the right to an abortion will profoundly affect German women's right to choose. This decision is a culmination of efforts to errode the right to choose for West as well as East German women. In the former GDR, even though liberal abortion laws allowed women access to free abortions, for ideological reasons, the government devised policies that discouraged abortions as a means of birth control. This policy becomes particularly apparent in the early 1980s when the East German government, confronted with a declining birth rate, faced the dilemma of how to leave the existing liberal abortion law intact while discouraging women from aborting their fetuses. To accomplish this task officials persuaded writers to produce literary works that promoted a three-child family policy where abortion was relegated to an inappropriate option. The article analyzes several literary works written in the early 1980s within the context of this renewed effort to encourage women to produce more children at the expense of their personal choice, and concludes that, in spite of the liberal abortion rights in the former GDR, the conditions for exercising these rights proved to be far less favorable.

Der Verfasser legt Ergebnisse einer im Auftrag des Deutschen Bundestags erstellten Studie vor, die auf bislang unbekanntem Archivmaterial beruht. Die Studie zeigt, dass die Zentralverwaltung für Statistik völlig unter dem Befehl der SED stand und so in einem bislang kaum vorstellbaren Ausmaß zum Instrument der Propaganda werden konnte. Sogar an internationale Organisationen weitergeleitete Daten zum Handel der DDR mit dem kapitalistischen Ausland wurden von der politische Führung 'korrigiert' und sind daher nicht verlässlich. ; This is a report of the results of the author's more detailed study for the German Parliament, in which unknown documents of only recently opened archives where presented. They show that the CSO was fully under the command of the party and thus misused as an instrument of propaganda to an extend, that was hitherto hardly imaginable. It could be shown, that even data on the GDR foreign trade with capitalist countries, reported to international organisations were deliberately 'corrected' by the political leaders and therfore not trustworthy.