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Though the German Democratic Republic (GDR) collapsed in 1990, after 41 years of existence, the socialist state lives on – in schoolbooks, museums, novels, films and in the memories of those who witnessed the "workers' and peasants' state." With GDR memory being a highly embattled discourse in Germany more generally, we ask how the GDR is constructed in German film. This means more specifically, what stories are being told and what interpretations suggested within the broader GDR memory discourse? To answer these questions, we offer a comparative three-level-analysis of the feature films Balloon (2018) and Sealed Lips (2019). Looking at the film-immanent, the structural and the actor-centered level, we find that East German directors, producers or actors can bring different albeit divergent perspectives on the GDR in film whose construction is currently dominated by West German elites.

In the years of the 2008 world financial crisis and of the global protests of the Occupy-Movement, the German author Ingo Schulze writes a novel about the German reunification, in which he tells the story of the 'GDR-rogue' Peter Holtz fighting for a fairer society. In this novel Schulze challenges the question of the democratic quality of the political and economic world order arisen at the historical moment of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Why does Schulze decide to write just a picaresque novel about the German reunification during the financial crisis after 2007? What is the additional value of this literary elaboration of the historical turning point of 1989? Why does money play such a significant role in this novel? The contribution expounds that Schulze retrospectively and critically retraces in his picaresque novel the way from the 'anti-fascist rampart' of the GDR to the moneycentred financial world of Wall Street. The article illustrates at the same time Schulze's diagnosis according to which during the process of German reunification the West betrayed its own democratic values and against the background of the peaceful revolution in the GDR missed the historical chance to build a fairer future society. ; In the years of the 2008 world financial crisis and of the global protests of the Occupy-Movement, the German author Ingo Schulze writes a novel about the German reunification, in which he tells the story of the 'GDR-rogue' Peter Holtz fighting for a fairer society. In this novel Schulze challenges the question of the democratic quality of the political and economic world order arisen at the historical moment of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Why does Schulze decide to write just a picaresque novel about the German reunification during the financial crisis after 2007? What is the additional value of this literary elaboration of the historical turning point of 1989? Why does money play such a significant role in this novel? The contribution expounds that Schulze retrospectively and critically retraces in his picaresque novel the way from the 'anti-fascist rampart' of the GDR to the moneycentred financial world of Wall Street. The article illustrates at the same time Schulze's diagnosis according to which during the process of German reunification the West betrayed its own democratic values and against the background of the peaceful revolution in the GDR missed the historical chance to build a fairer future society.

This work analyzes the evolution of the German Democratic Republic during 1971-1985, with particular attention to the economic sphere, relations with the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany, and the impact that changes in the international economic system have they had on these plans. The basic question concerns the actual degree of subordination of the GDR to the USSR: absolute for traditional historiography, which denies the possibility of an East German foreign policy, relative to the light of archival documents, which show a framework of bilateral relations constantly affected by tensions. In addition to analyzing the relationships in an unequal alliance between center and periphery, the study of the decision-making mechanisms internal to the GDR and the effectiveness of a system in which politics dictated the priority in terms of economic choices are at the center of this volume.

This article deals with the short story written by the East German writer Stefan Heym The Queen against Defoe, from the notes of a one Josiah Creech (1969). Stefan Heym focuses on the arrest of the British journalist and writer Daniel Defoe following the publication of the satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or Proposal for the Establishment of the Church (1702). In the representation of the English monarchic absolutism Heym adumbrates the political and cultural situation which was current in the German Democratic Republic. In particular, Heym is interested in the connection between the freedom of speech and the action of censorship.

Il contributo prende in esame il racconto di Stefan Heym "Die Schmähschrift oder Königin gegen Defoe. Erzählt nach den Aufzeichnungen eines gewissen Josiah Creech" (1968). Muovendo dalla ricostruzione della ricezione, da parte di Heym, del pamphlet di Daniel Defoe "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposal for the Establishment of the Church" (1702), ci si propone di illustrare come il testo di Heym rielabori la vicenda biografica dell'intellettuale britannico per denunciare, in forma cifrata, i meccanismi censori dell'apparato politico della RDT, impegnato, attraverso la pervasiva presenza della Stasi, nell'individuazione dei presunti "dissidenti".

Works by Hermann Kant, Christoph Hein, Helga Königsdorf, and Helga Schubert are here examined, particularly in consideration of the ambivalent relationships between the devotion to the ideological reasons of socialism, and the critical representation of the restrictions that affected civil life in the GDR. In the aftermath of the German reunification, the reflection on the ongoing social and political transformations produces some paradigm shifts in these author's use of the language; such changes are intended to highlight the potentiality that these texts have in presenting the radicality of these transformations.

With the reunification of the two German states it was possible to observe directly and almost simultaneously the linguistic changes which resulted from the event. The process that had such a strong impact on the German language following the political upheaval of 1989/90 was absolutely unique and produced a transformation which was practically definitive, unilateral and selective. This German-German-Italian glossary of daily life is a collection of terms which, although by no means complete, shows many of the small differences in the language used in the two Germanies: the so-called lexemes which began in GDR and which have often found synonyms in West Germany.

L'articolo esamina il ruolo di Gabriele Mucchi (1899-2002) nel contesto delle relazioni culturali tra Italia e Repubblica democratica tedesca nel corso degli anni Cinquanta, quindi prima del reciproco riconoscimento giuridico e della stipula di accordi bilaterali tra i due Stati. Pittore realista e militante comunista, Mucchi fu una figura chiave nel dibattito artistico della DDR, all'interno del quale il "Realismo" italiano costituì un contributo determinante al processo di autodeterminazione di un'arte tedesca e socialista. L'artista fu oggetto di una crescente attenzione da parte delle istituzioni culturali della DDR, che nel 1956 lo invitarono a ricoprire la cattedra di pittura presso la Scuola d'arte di Berlino Est, città dove avrebbe continuato a risiedere, alternandosi con l'Italia, anche in seguito alla caduta del Muro. Sulla base di documenti d'archivio inediti e di uno spoglio della stampa, l'articolo mette in luce le premesse e gli esordi della sua poliedrica attività nella DDR in ambito formativo, critico ed espositivo, analizzando al tempo stesso il suo particolare status come esempio di cooperazione tra Europa occidentale e orientale, e quindi come caso studio della Guerra fredda culturale. ; The essay deals with the role played by Gabriele Mucchi (1899-2002) in the context of the cultural relations between Italy and the German Democratic Republic in the 1950s, thus before the two States established diplomatic ties and bilateral agreements. A realist painter and communist activist, Mucchi was a key figure in the artistic debate of the GDR, where Italian "Realismo" played a key-role within the process of self-determination of a German and socialist art. Following a growing interest towards his work, the GDR authorities invited him as guest professor to the Art Academy in East Berlin, where he took up residence and lived throughout his life, albeit alternating with Italy. On the basis of unpublished archive sources and press reviews, the article highlights the premises and the early stages of Mucchi's art writing, teaching and exhibiting activity in East Germany, shedding light on his status as an example of cross-border partnership across divided Europe and as a significant case study for the Cultural Cold War.

Mode directed by Klaus Ehrlich, produced by the state television of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and aired between 1975 and 1990. The study is focused on the specific features of mise-en-scène of the medium, a multifunctional container capable of holding simultaneously several messages on different levels. The purpose is to highlight the communicative power of the body in a visual representation. The body, together with the dress and the setting are the elements on which is based the composition of a fashion image committed to the propagandising of the values and principles of the Socialist State. At the same time, the same elements are the key to revealing a series of contradictions and complexities, which are intrinsic characteristics of the very peculiar political and social context of those years. ; Il contributo propone una lettura della serie di fashion film Mode diretti da Klaus Ehrlich, prodotti dalla televisione di stato della Repubblica Democratica Tedesca (RDT) e andati in onda tra il 1975 e il 1990. Lo studio si concentra sulle specificità di mise-en-scène del medium, contenitore multifunzionale capace di tenere insieme e in maniera simultanea più messaggi e su livelli differenti. Della narrazione visiva si vuole evidenziare il carattere comunicativo del corpo. Questo, insieme all'abito e allo spazio filmico sono gli elementi su cui si basa la costruzione di un'immagine di moda dedita alla propaganda dei valori e principi dello stato socialista. Allo stesso tempo, gli stessi elementi sono la chiave che consente di svelare una serie di contraddizioni e di complessità, caratteristiche intrinseche del particolarissimo contesto politico e sociale di quegli anni. I fashion film sono qui considerati come degli esperimenti di retorica politica fatta non con le parole, bensì con le immagini in movimento; uno spazio in cui coesistono ambiguità e contraddizioni; un contesto dove poter avvertire un senso di libertà seppur limitato.

Partendo dall'idea della nostalgia come emozione collettiva nella cultura contemporanea, questa tesi delinea la nozione di "spazio della nostalgia". In alcuni spazi la temporalità è protagonista: il passato, le emozioni e i valori ad esso correlati, sono ricreati spazialmente. Questa esperienza è strettamente legata alla posizione del soggetto che rende possibili questi scenari attraverso pratiche concrete. L'obiettivo di questa tesi è quello di tracciare i confini epistemologici e semiotici del concetto di "spazio della nostalgia", considerandolo come il paesaggio che permette di realizzare, attraverso una serie di pratiche, un mondo che non esiste più. La ricerca qui descritta adotta un approccio interdisciplinare tra Memory Studies e Semiotica della Cultura. In questo lavoro si propone la distinzione tra nostalgia "riparatrice" e nostalgia "riflessiva". A queste due forme si affianca una terza tipologia di nostalgia, legata al consumismo, che trasforma il passato in oggetto di consumo. Questa tendenza pervade il campo della moda e del turismo sotto forma di "nostalgia immaginata", vissuta dal consumatore che cerca il ricordo di un passato non vissuto. Queste premesse teoriche precedono un'analisi della dimensione semiotica e spaziale della nostalgia fascista in Italia e della nostalgia della RDT in Germania, attraverso due casi di studio: (i) Predappio, una piccola città vicino a Forlì (Italia), che ha dato i natali all'ex dittatore fascista Benito Mussolini; e (ii) il Museo della DDR di Berlino, un museo interattivo inaugurato nel 2006 che offre una versione edulcorata del passato traumatico sotto la Repubblica Democratica Tedesca. ; Starting from the idea of nostalgia as a collective emotion in contemporary culture, this dissertation maps out the notion of the "space of nostalgia". In some spaces, temporality is the protagonist: the past, and the emotions and the values related to it, are recreated spatially. This experience is closely linked to the position of the subject, which makes these scenarios possible through practical and concrete situations. The goal of this thesis is to trace the epistemological and semiotic boundaries of the concept of "space of nostalgia", as the landscape that enables a world that no longer exists to be realized, through a series of practices. The research described here adopts an interdisciplinary approach between Memory Studies and Semiotics of Culture. I question how nostalgia is an "on-going passion", and how it produces narratives and new memorial ecosystems. Within this context, Svetlana Boym's The Future of Nostalgia (2001) is fundamental. In this work she proposes to the distinction between "restorative" and "reflexive" nostalgia. Together with these two forms there is a third typology of nostalgia, connected to consumerism, which turns the past into an object of consumption. This trend pervades the field of fashion and tourism in the shape of an "imagined nostalgia", experienced by the consumer who seeks souvenir of a non-lived past. These theoretical premises precede an analysis of the semiotic and cultural/spatial dimensions of the fascist nostalgia in Italy and GDR nostalgia in Germany, via two case studies: (i) Predappio, a small town near Forlì (Italy), that is the birthplace of the former fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini; and (ii) the DDR Museum of Berlin, an interactive museum opened in 2006 which offers an edulcorated version of the traumatic past under the German Democratic Republic.