The GDR Tomorrow: Rethinking the East German Legacy: 13 (Studies in Modern German and Austrian Literature)

A unique experiment at the frontlines of the Cold War, the German Democratic Republic collapsed more than thirty years ago. But it did not simply vanish. Far from being a footnote in history, the state and its legacies continue to inform identities, politics, and culture today. Studies of surveillance and government control, individual agency and equal opportunity, informal networks, strategic alliances, and strategies subverting limitations on freedom of expression prompt us to rethink our conceptualizations of the GDR.

Introducing the work of a new generation of researchers, this collection applies such approaches to a wide range of examples from film, theatre, music, literature, radio, and law. The chapters explore and transgress temporal, national, and disciplinary boundaries. From these investigations emerges a pervasive pattern of informal, border-transcending spheres, subversive identity discourses, and effective agency. Drawing variously on concepts such as Eigen-Sinn, informal society, and alternative public spheres, the papers presented here highlight the relevance of GDR Studies looking forwards. More than a volume about just the past, The GDR Tomorrow holds implications for the future.

Elizabeth Emery is a fourth-year PhD student at the University of Bristol. Her thesis explores articulations of nostalgia within popular music from the former GDR after reunification with a specific focus on the approaches of the bands Silly, Karat, and Rammstein and their reception histories.

Matthew Hines is a Teaching Associate in the German Section at the University of Cambridge. He studied Modern Languages in Oxford, Munich, and Birmingham. He is currently preparing a monograph based on his doctoral research into early GDR literature entitled Writing a New Society: Aufbau in GDR Literature 1949–1962.

Evelyn Preuss teaches at the University of Oklahoma. She is currently finishing her PhD on the politics of East German film aesthetics at Yale University. In addition, she is working on a project examining different globalizing tendencies, their relationship to the local, and their political potential. She has published on film, media aesthetics, architecture, history, and policy.