Thesis advisor: Devin O. Pendas / This dissertation examines the relationship between Black America and East Germany from 1949 to 1989, exploring the ways in which two unlikely partners used international solidarity to achieve goals of domestic importance. Despite the growing number of works addressing the black experience in and with Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, West Germany, and contemporary Germany, few studies have devoted attention to the black experience in and with East Germany. In this work, the outline of this transatlantic relationship is defined, detailing who was involved in the friendship, why they were involved, and what they hoped to gain from this alliance. This dissertation argues that the GDR's ruling party utilized the relationship as a means of authenticating claims of East German anti-racism, a component of the Party's efforts to acquire legitimacy and diplomatic recognition from the international community in the wake of World War II, the Holocaust, and the division of Germany. African American radical leftists saw in East Germany a means of support and solidarity in the struggle for rights at home, as well as a society that was allegedly racism-free, upon which they could model their own attempts to eradicate racism in the US. Utilizing a transnational framework and analyzing government documents, newspapers, correspondence, photographs, and autobiographies, this work probes the ways in which two groups, pushed to the margins, sought to navigate the geopolitics of an ideologically-charged world. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Hommage zwischen den Generationen - Sebastian Liebold über ein Chemnitzer Frauenleben

This thesis examines relations between Wales and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War period of 1949 to 1990. Previous studies have investigated who in Britain interacted with the GDR and their motivations for doing so. The appeal of particular groups and demographics to the GDR authorities - in pursuit of foreign policy objectives - are also well documented. This study is driven by two research questions: i) the identity and motivations of Welsh individuals or organisations approaching and engaging with the GDR and considering to what extent their ‘Welsh identity’ influenced their positioning vis-à-vis the GDR and the Cold War; ii) the extent of Welsh acceptance of any overtures made by a socialist state, including the likely resonance of the GDR’s self-promotion as an anti-fascist, egalitarian state, which sought to protect and develop the rights of its own Sorbian minority culture. The research approach adopted for the thesis has considered how multiple projections of ‘Welshness’ influenced the expression of, and thus the GDR’s perception and understanding of Welsh identity. The findings from this research suggest that the most intriguing and recurrent interactions between Wales and the GDR occurred as a result of concerns for the status of the Welsh language during the Cold War period, encouraged by the GDR’s domestic policy for its own Sorbian minority. This study thus contributes a further category of Welsh-speakers to those identified in the existing scholarship as having interacted with the GDR. Notwithstanding Welsh-Sorbian interactions, this research also determines that other facets of Welsh life sought to engage with the GDR, including representatives of the friendship movement, the Welsh proletariat and left-leaning politicians who believed that establishing relations with the GDR would facilitate détente and peaceful co-existence. Existing assumptions in the field are further strengthened by this thesis’ findings, including the GDR’s methods and approaches for cultivating relationships with the West. Varying projections of Welsh identity prompted different (and often confused and inappropriate) responses from the GDR authorities. By evaluating a range of Welsh-GDR interactions throughout the Cold War period, the findings of this research contribute an alternative Welsh narrative to the field of British-GDR relations.

In his essay, “Musik und Musikverständnis” (1927), Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) wrote that "the evaluation of a piece of music calls for the understanding of the elements of harmony, polyphony, and form," and that one who is not privy to this understanding will "be in the same situation as one who hears a speech in Chinese, without an understanding of Chinese.” Eisler maintained that music could be rendered intelligible through “a gradual rebuilding of musical culture.” This new musical culture, which he believed could only occur after the proletariat seized societal power from the bourgeoisie, would promote musical education and encourage the composition of intelligible music. Although Eisler had composed music for the proletariat throughout his career, the creation of the German Democratic Republic facilitated his participation in educating the proletariat in aspects of traditionally bourgeois culture. One key example of this was his composition Das Vorbild [The Example] (1952). This thesis presents the first detailed analysis of Das Vorbild and demonstrates it as representative of Eisler’s musical and societal aspirations—particularly concerning education. Analysis of the working manuscripts for Das Vorbild in conjunction with Eisler’s writings reveals a piece that embodies the utopist aspirations of this Marxist composer. In light of this analysis, I contend that Das Vorbild is representative of Eisler’s work toward a new musical culture within a socialist society.

This volume (in two parts) lists the main holdings concerning Africa in the archives of what used to be the German Democratic Republic. For the period up to 1943 it covers the German Foreign Office and Colonial Office, as well as various other colonial institutions. One section is devoted to the German Democratic Republic, including mass organisations as well as ministries. Finally the relevant contents of the government archives in Dresden and Leipzig, the archives of the University of Leipzig and the Baptist Mission records in Neuruppin are listed. The major holdings have also been indexed. / Dieser Band listet in zwei Teilen die Hauptsitze bezüglich Afrika in den Archiven der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik auf. Für den Zeitraum bis 1943 behandelt er das deutsche Außenministerium und das Kolonialministerium, sowie viele andere koloniale Institutionen. Ein Teil widmet sich der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, sowohl Massenorganisationen als auch Ministerien eingeschlossen. Schließlich werden die wichtigen Inhalte der Regierungsarchive in Dresden und Leipzig, die Archive der Universität Leipzig und die Aufzeichnungen der baptistischen Mission in Neuruppin aufgelistet. Die Hauptsitze sind auch indexgebunden.

A civil Uprising on 17 June 1953 in the German Democratic Republic created a dilemma for a number of writers there. On one hand, they were deeply committed to the principles of socialism, upon which their state was based and which they saw as being put in grave danger by events such as those they experienced on 17 June. On the other hand, they were fiercely critical of the practice of socialism as pursued by the governing party, whose Stalinist methods of governance they believed to be in large part responsible for the civil unrest. My thesis explores the nature of this dilemma in the case of four writers, Bertolt Brecht, Heiner Müller, Stefan Heym and Erich Loest, and their efforts to resolve it within a repressive state, whose regime vigorously suppressed all signs of criticism or dissent. These writers created major works of fiction, a cycle of poems, a drama and two novels, in which the Uprising of 17 June is the central theme. In addition, each has provided a substantial body of non-fictional texts, largely journalistic and autobiographical, in which the Uprising is extensively contextualised. In bringing together and interrelating the fictional and non-fictional work of each author into my analysis, I have been able to demonstrate that all four held and publicly expressed views that set them in opposition to the regime in the GDR.

A unificação Alemã, ocorrida ao longo dos anos 1980, culminou na derrubada do muro de Berlim em 1989, foi o resultado do processo de ruptura e desagregação advindo da derrota do Eixo na Segunda Guerra Mundial (19391945), associado à fragmentação gerada da partilha do território alemão entre os aliados (particularmente entre Estados Unidos e União soviética, e dos movimentos geopolíticos da Guerra Fria). O colapso da Guerra Fria unificou a Alemanha dividida, e esta é resultado da Guerra Fria. Esta dissertação busca captar e perceber um momento de reconstituição do território alemão em um contexto em que este é não apenas estrategicamente relevante para o desenvolvimento do Capitalismo em sua fase de expansão globalista, mas também para o posicionamento estratégico dos diferentes territórios na miríade da União Europeia. A Alemanha se unificou, em 1990, assim, não apenas pelo interesse dos alemães, mas pelo interesse dos Europeus e do próprio Capital. Este é um estudo sobre os aspectos históricoeconômicos das características, condições e impactos do processo de reintegração territorial da Alemanha, ocorrida ao longo dos últimos decênios do século XXI. / The process of German unification during the 1980s, culminating in the overthrow of the Berlin wall in 1989, was the result of the dialectical process of rupture and disintegration arising from the defeat of the Axis in World War II (19391945), associated with the fragmentation generated by the sharing of German territory between the allies (particularly between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the geopolitical territory, and the geopolitical movements of the Cold War). The collapse of the Cold War unified Germany divided territory, and this is a result of the Cold War. This dissertation seeks to capture and perceive a moment of reconstitution of German territory in a context in which it is not only strategically relevant for the development of Capitalism in its phase of globalist expansion but also for the strategic positioning of the different territories in the myriad of the European Union. Germany was unified in 1990, thus, not only by the interest of the Germans, but by the interest of the Eupeans and of the Capital itself. This is a study on the historicaleconomic aspects of the characteristics, conditions and impacts of this process of territorial reintegration of Germany, which occurred during the last decades of the 21st century.

A unificação Alemã, ocorrida ao longo dos anos 1980, culminou na derrubada do muro de Berlim em 1989, foi o resultado do processo de ruptura e desagregação advindo da derrota do Eixo na Segunda Guerra Mundial (19391945), associado à fragmentação gerada da partilha do território alemão entre os aliados (particularmente entre Estados Unidos e União soviética, e dos movimentos geopolíticos da Guerra Fria). O colapso da Guerra Fria unificou a Alemanha dividida, e esta é resultado da Guerra Fria. Esta dissertação busca captar e perceber um momento de reconstituição do território alemão em um contexto em que este é não apenas estrategicamente relevante para o desenvolvimento do Capitalismo em sua fase de expansão globalista, mas também para o posicionamento estratégico dos diferentes territórios na miríade da União Europeia. A Alemanha se unificou, em 1990, assim, não apenas pelo interesse dos alemães, mas pelo interesse dos Europeus e do próprio Capital. Este é um estudo sobre os aspectos históricoeconômicos das características, condições e impactos do processo de reintegração territorial da Alemanha, ocorrida ao longo dos últimos decênios do século XXI. / The process of German unification during the 1980s, culminating in the overthrow of the Berlin wall in 1989, was the result of the dialectical process of rupture and disintegration arising from the defeat of the Axis in World War II (19391945), associated with the fragmentation generated by the sharing of German territory between the allies (particularly between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the geopolitical territory, and the geopolitical movements of the Cold War). The collapse of the Cold War unified Germany divided territory, and this is a result of the Cold War. This dissertation seeks to capture and perceive a moment of reconstitution of German territory in a context in which it is not only strategically relevant for the development of Capitalism in its phase of globalist expansion but also for the strategic positioning of the different territories in the myriad of the European Union. Germany was unified in 1990, thus, not only by the interest of the Germans, but by the interest of the Eupeans and of the Capital itself. This is a study on the historicaleconomic aspects of the characteristics, conditions and impacts of this process of territorial reintegration of Germany, which occurred during the last decades of the 21st century.

Title: Comparison of the Czechoslovak and German prison systems following World War II Author: Klára Pinerová Department: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Economic and Social History Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jiří Štaif, CSc. After World War II, countries that fell into the Soviet sphere of influence experienced major social, political and economic changes in a process which is in literature usually referred to as "Sovietization". This dissertation analyzes this process in the particular case of prison systems in Czechoslovakia and the Societ Occupation Zone which later became the German Democratic Republic. Its main focus lies on the way the Soviet model was applied in both countries, what kinds of similarities or differences can be traced in its development and what were the factors and reasons causing them. The main argument of the dissertation is that Sovietization, even though it produced similar results, was carried out in different ways in the individual countries, depending not only on previous development, but also on the geopolitical position and specific features of the country as well as on the will of the local communist establishment to adopt the Soviet model. It should be also noted that the Soviet model was not uniformly defined, but subject to konstant...

To the Economic and Political Development of the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s (Pavel Szobi) Abstract The thesis deals with the economic development of the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s. It characterizes the basic elements of real socialism and implementation of the main SED strategy for the studied period - the so called Unity of Economic and Social Policy. It evaluates single aspects and the impact on the political stability of the regime. The thesis determines effects of energetic policy, external debt and lack of foreign currency on the national economy. The author does not consider the economic failures, but the dictatorship itself to be the main reason for the regime decay. Restriction of human and civil rights, together with comparing the standard of living with the Federal Republic of Germany led to the rise of social policy expenses and an extensive subvention of the so called consumer socialism. These courses of action enabled to stabilize the GDR temporarily; however, it also made the main defects of central planning more visible. Not only a modern consumer society failed to form, but even supplying population with random goods remained an issue which is well documented in the thesis on the example of the so called coffee crisis. The author comes to the conclusion that these...