<p>This paper concerns East German journalists and the changes they have undergone, from working in the totalitarian regime of GDR to enter a western liberal media system. The purpose is to study how professional identity is created in a controlled and authoritarian media system, and how this identity and the journalistic values changes in a transition phase. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with six former East German journalists, who all has worked as journalists after the wall broke down, we are exploring how their journalistic values and the conception of their profession has changed during this tumultuous time. We selected journalists with experience of working in both East Germany and united Germany to be able to see these changes. The result shows that the journalists from GDR used an inner opposition, both to survive the dictatorship and to adapt to the new reality. This means that their level of professionalization, despite the fact that they lived under oppression, was relatively high. In between these two systems a journalistic vacuum occurred which show that a different, more democratic, way of organizing the press is possible. In this vacuum the values of the journalists could be expressed in a way that wasn’t possible in GDR, nor in united Germany.</p>

This study analyzes East German representations of Hungary in cultural texts to investigate the emergence of a German socialist identity in the 1950s and 1960s. I further contend that post-1945 self- and collective identity in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was complex and formulated by official, intellectual, and mass perceptions. By examining East German iconography of Hungary it becomes clear that socialist identity in the early years of the dictatorship relied on traditional expressions of society as well as ideology. Hungary provided East Germans with a practical model for socialist friendship. Though the GDR was a state that ostensibly celebrated multiculturalism, East German texts presented the People’s Republic of Hungary almost as another Germany with a shared heritage and culture. They articulated this palatable image of Hungary through the lens of ideology (Marxist-Leninist internationalism) and through traditional cultural definitions. This study concludes that East Germans used a composite of socialist ideas and folk customs to draw parallels with Hungary and create a distinct character that was both German and socialist.

This paper concerns East German journalists and the changes they have undergone, from working in the totalitarian regime of GDR to enter a western liberal media system. The purpose is to study how professional identity is created in a controlled and authoritarian media system, and how this identity and the journalistic values changes in a transition phase. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with six former East German journalists, who all has worked as journalists after the wall broke down, we are exploring how their journalistic values and the conception of their profession has changed during this tumultuous time. We selected journalists with experience of working in both East Germany and united Germany to be able to see these changes. The result shows that the journalists from GDR used an inner opposition, both to survive the dictatorship and to adapt to the new reality. This means that their level of professionalization, despite the fact that they lived under oppression, was relatively high. In between these two systems a journalistic vacuum occurred which show that a different, more democratic, way of organizing the press is possible. In this vacuum the values of the journalists could be expressed in a way that wasn’t possible in GDR, nor in united Germany.

This paper looks at the struggles faced by German policymakers in the years following reunification. East Germany struggled with an immediate transformation from a planned economy to a social market economy, while West Germany sent billions of Deutsche Marks to its eastern states. Because of the unequal nature of these two countries, policymakers had to decide on what they would place more emphasis: social benefits for the East or economic protection for the West. The West German state-level, Federal Government and the East German governments struggled in finding multilaterally beneficial policies. This paper looks at the four key issues of reunification: currency conversion, transfer payments, re-privatization, and unemployment. In following the German Basic Law, the policies pursued in terms of these issues tended to place more emphasis on eastern social benefits.

This thesis considers the social, economic and ideological climate in the German Democratic Republic in the last decade of its existence (the 1980s) when excessive labor demands lead the country to import tens of thousands of “contract workers” from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Focusing primarily on theoretical contradictions in GDR socialism, and their impact on the day to day lives Vietnamese workers, I will argue that ideologically freighted pronouncements of “socialist fraternity” with Vietnam functioned to obscure the true, economic reasons for labor importation.

This study analyzes East German representations of Hungary in cultural texts to investigate the emergence of a German socialist identity in the 1950s and 1960s. I further contend that post-1945 self- and collective identity in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was complex and formulated by official, intellectual, and mass perceptions. By examining East German iconography of Hungary it becomes clear that socialist identity in the early years of the dictatorship relied on traditional expressions of society as well as ideology. Hungary provided East Germans with a practical model for socialist friendship. Though the GDR was a state that ostensibly celebrated multiculturalism, East German texts presented the People’s Republic of Hungary almost as another Germany with a shared heritage and culture. They articulated this palatable image of Hungary through the lens of ideology (Marxist-Leninist internationalism) and through traditional cultural definitions. This study concludes that East Germans used a composite of socialist ideas and folk customs to draw parallels with Hungary and create a distinct character that was both German and socialist.

Die Einleitung zum vorliegenden Band zeigt anhand von Beispielen, dass die Wahrnehmung Deutschlands seit 1990 und die realen Entwicklungen auseinander driften. Die Einheit hat einen umfassenden Wandel ausgelöst oder in seiner Richtung beeinflusst. Trotzdem dominiert eine auf Kontinuitäten abhebende Sichtweise, kombiniert mit einem \"Separatblick\" auf Ostdeutschland. Es ist daher Anliegen des Buches, die Prozesse des Wandels trotz Annäherung aufzuzeigen und zu erklären sowie zu prüfen, ob es Ostdeutschland als relevante Raumgröße noch gibt. Der Beitrag resümiert zentrale Erkenntnisse des Bandes und fordert schließlich eine neue Deutschlandforschung, die regionalen Prozessen mehr Beachtung schenkt und die Entwicklung der Bundesrepublik als unabgeschlossen konzeptualisiert.

Der Beitrag untersucht anhand der Verfassungen, inwieweit die Institutionenpolitik in Ostdeutschland mit der Einführung der Institutionen abgeschlossen war. Er zeigt, dass die Verfassungen häufig geändert wurden, gibt einen Überblick über die ähnlichen Materien und Gründe dieser Änderungen sowie über die Verfassungsdynamik jenseits des Verfassungstextes. Der Beitrag argumentiert, dass die Verfassungspolitik und Verfassungsauslegung in den neuen Ländern Integrationsdefizite der Bundesebene kompensieren kann und sondiert die Mechanismen dieses Ausgleichs. Da die Einbettung in den bundesdeutschen Föderalismus ihre Risiken abmildert, könnten die Freiräume für integrationsförderliche politisch-institutionelle Experimente stärker genutzt werden.

Also published as author's dissertation--Hannover, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-402).

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 1998. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 112 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 106-112).