The German Democratic Republic: The Rise and Fall of a Cold War State (German History in Focus) - Hardcover

Richardson-Little, Ned

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1350341525 ISBN 13: 9781350341524

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025

Synopsis

The German Democratic Republic has come to stand as a symbol of communist tyranny, a source of Cold War nostalgia and socialist kitsch, and a failed alternative to the worst excesses of 21st century capitalism.

In this book, Ned Richardson-Little delves into the central contradictions of the GDR state: This book illustrates the fault lines of GDR society, the worldviews and experiences of not only those who ruled the GDR, but also those who rebelled against the strictures of state socialism, and those in between who sought a normal life under dictatorship.

The German Democratic Republic is a succinct and comprehensive history of East Germany that traces its story from the country's origins as the Soviet Zone of Occupation after World War II through key events such as the 1953 Uprising, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Helsinki Accords, and the collapse of state socialism in 1989. Some of the themes explored include the memory of Nazism and national identity, everyday life under dictatorship, including consumerism, sexuality, and racism, the global politics of the GDR, the diversity of dissenting voices, and the competing visions for East Germany's democratic future.

About this title

About the Authors

Ned Richardson-Little is a Research Fellow in Department V: Globalizations in a Divided World at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF), in Germany. He is a historian of modern Germany, with a focus on the GDR, socialism, far-right extremism, and the history of international law and international crime. He is the author of The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany (2020), and co-editor of Socialism and International Law (2024).

Lisa Pine is Associate Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK. She is the author of Nazi Family Policy, 1933-1945 (1997), Hitler's “National Community”: Society and Culture in Nazi Germany (2007, 2017), Education in Nazi Germany (2010) and Debating Genocide (2018). She is the editor of Life and Times in Nazi Germany (2016), The Family in Modern Germany (2020) and Dictatorship and Daily Life in Twentieth-Century Europe (2022).

Peter C. Caldwell is Samuel G. McCann Professor of History at Rice University, USA. Professor Caldwell is a Humboldt Fellow, and has received grants from the DAAD and the Humboldt Foundation, as well as a residential fellowship at the Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, USA. He is the author of several books, including Dictatorship, State Planning, and Social Theory in the German Democratic Republic (2003), Love, Death, and Revolution in Central Europe (2009) and Democracy, Capitalism, and the Welfare State: Debating Social Order in Postwar West Germany, 1949-1989 (2019).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350341525
• ISBN 13: 9781350341524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296