[KEY SAMIZDAT PERIODICAL OF THE GDR OPPOSITION] Kontext: Beiträge aus Kirche & Gesellschaft, Kultur [Context: articles from church & society, culture], nos. 4, 6, and 7 (of 7 issues printed before the fall of the Berlin Wall), as well as 3 (of 4) special issues: Torsten Heyme. Gespräche mit Jugendlichen [Conversations with youth]; Ehrhart Neubert. Gesellschaftliche Kommunikation im sozialen Wandel [Social communication in social transformation]; Vaclav Havel: Gemeinsame Sonderausgabe [Vaclav Havel: Joint special edition].

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Berlin: Evangelische Bekenntnisgemeinde (Protestant confessional church), November 1988 ? October 1989. Quartos and octavos (30 × 21 and 20.6 × 14.8 cm). Original staple-stitched hectographed leaves, of which one issue with a cover illustration by Bärbel Bohley; [2], 2, 69, [1]; [2], 97 [recte: 96]; [8], 3?101 [recte 117], [1]; as well as [2], 59 [recte 61], [1]; [5], 50, [1]; and [5], 37 pp. Very good. Six of a total of eleven publications by the oppositional GDR samizdat series "Kontext" appeared before the fall of the Berlin Wall, edited by Torsten Metelka and Benn Roolf under the protection of the Protestant Church. Both got to know each other as so-called construction soldiers. Serving with a spade instead of a weapon was the only way to avoid military service in the GDR and at the same time the certain decision to no longer be allowed to study and pursue a higher career. During his lifetime, Metelka in particular was considered to be well-read and well-educated, so the search for an intellectual niche was an obvious choice. After he left school, plans matured for an independent magazine in which texts that were rejected by publishing houses for political reasons would be published. The magazine "Kontext" became one of the defining samizdat periodicals of the GDR opposition. Above all, the protection provided by the church enabled it to distribute the issues on a larger scale than was possible for other underground journals. Advisory support was provided to the two editors by, among others, the poet Elke Erb, the theologian and civil rights activist Wolfgang Ullmann, the director and civil rights activist Konrad Weiß and the opposition activist Ulrike Poppe. In the decisive months of 1989 and 1990, this circle was one of the outstanding protagonists of the so-called "Peaceful Revolution". The "Kontext" series, in turn, was one of the periodicals that helped to initiate and critically accompany this process.Vogel, Samisdat in der DDR, PS 059/04, 05, 07, PS 049, PS087, PS 112.As of June 2024, OCLC does not list any copies in North America. Seller Inventory # 54049

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Title: [KEY SAMIZDAT PERIODICAL OF THE GDR ...
Binding: Soft cover