The main aim of the thesis is to compare (by diachronic historical comparison) the basic aspects of political, economic and social development of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), between the years 1958 and 1963 with the overlap to the year 1968. The milestone between the two periods is the building of the Berlin wall in 1961. In this context, the thesis examines to what extent the inner development in the GDR after 1961 can be seen as (non)continual. In other words, the questions asked are, whether we can see the change of the political regime and socio-economic realities in the development of the country after 1961 as a natural continuation of the previous development, even while changing its means and reformulating its goals, but retaining its original character and focus, or if we need to approach the change of the political regime as a diversion from the previous development and as such to approach it as a qualitatively different regime.

Im Frühjahr 1956 bildete sich in Leipzig auf private Initiative hin eine Gruppe junger Fotografen und Fotografinnen unter dem kämpferischen Namen „action fotografie“. Fast alle waren Studierende oder Absolventen der Leipziger Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Fotografie. Nur zwei Ausstellungen veranstaltete die Gruppe 1956 und 1957 in Leipzig, doch bis heute ist sie in der Literatur und Fotografiegeschichte der DDR präsent. Eine Retrospektive der Bildenden Künste in Leipzig vom Beginn der deutschen Teilung bis in die Gegenwart, die für Oktober 2009 als Ausstellungsprojekt im Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig geplant war, bot die Gelegenheit, sich nach gut fünfzig Jahren mit der Gruppe auseinander zu setzen, nach ihren Zielen zu fragen und Gründe für die kurze Existenz zu suchen. Bei der Recherche im Staatsarchiv und in privaten Künstlernachlässen sowie in zahlreichen Gesprächen mit den Beteiligten ergab sich das komplexe Bild einer sehr heterogenen Fotografengruppe, die engagierte Ziele hatte, sie jedoch nicht auf Dauer frei artikulieren oder künstlerisch umsetzen konnte.

Magister Chirurgiae Dentium (MChD) / The psychological, social, and cultural aspects of facial and dental attractiveness is an integral part of health care. Lay persons perceptions of facial and dental attractiveness are influenced by many factors including age, gender, geographic location (nationally or international), ethnic status, employment status, cultural differences and social class will effect the social impact of the anomalies. In addition, the public response to dental anomalies will vary according to experience of good health or ill health of the individual, relatives and friends. The perception of malocclusion is often seen differently between orthodontists, patients and lay public. The differing perceptions of patients and dental practitioners may influence the delivery of orthodontic care. It has been reported that 70% of orthodontic treatment is dentist induced and that orthodontic treatment may be undertaken without the patient or parents perceiving a problem with the teeth. (DHSS, Schanscheiff Report, 1986). The thresholds of entry and exit for orthodontic care may be different as perceived by orthodontists and lay persons. Orthodontists may pursue full alignment and perfect occlusion whereas lay persons may accept varying degrees of deviation from normal. This current study has assessed and recorded the differences in opinions of professional orthodontists and lay persons on dento-facial aesthetics, orthodontic treatment need and orthodontic treatment outcome. The study was carried out at the Orthodontic Department, University of Wales, College of Medicine, School of Dentistry. The opinions of 56 lay persons (dental technicians, dental nurses and lay persons not involved in the clinical process) and 97 orthodontists was collected by recording judgements using various patient records as stimuli. For each set of records examined, each member of the panel indicated their opinion using Likert scales. Judgements were made by assessments of 68 study casts in respect of:- * the need for orthodontic treatment on dental health grounds. the need for orthodontic treatment on dental aesthetic grounds. deviation from normal occlusion. the decision whether to treat. ** * In addition, judgements were made on a sample of 50 pairs of outline facial profiles before and after treatment in respect of: * * deviation from normal facial aesthetics comparison of aesthetics pre-treatment and post-treatment. Furthermore, assessments on 50 pairs of pre-treatment and post-treatment study casts in respect of: * * degree of improvement as a result of treatment. acceptability of result. Orthodontists subjective judgements are more reliable than lay persons in their assessments of dental aesthetics, dental health and deviation from normal. The level of agreement for the decision to recommend treatment is similar between orthodontists and lay groups ie. lay persons are as reliable as orthodontists in the decision to recommend treatment. Orthodontists tend to recommend 10 - 12 % more treatment than lay persons. The orthodontist group were more reliable than the lay group in assessing degree of improvement and assessment of outcome. Orthodontists reject approximately 25% of cases deemed acceptable by the lay group. Dental aesthetics appeared to be the most important feature in the assessment of treatment outcome by both orthodontists and lay groups.

From 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) endured the hardships of existing as a religious organization under a Communist regime. An evaluation of the LDS Church within the category of general and minority religions, which serves as a microcosmic evaluation of religion in the GDR, constitutes one part of this study. The uniqueness of the LDS Church and its experience - especially its American ties, ironically earlier a liability and later an asset - make it a candidate for a more independent evaluation, and the second part of this study. The social aspect of religion in the GDR, as it related to those of faith - including the lives of LDS members, constitutes the final aspect of this study. The Leipzig branch of the LDS Church, upon which most of this reserach is based, serves as an example of religious conformity, while proving itself socially, politically, and culturally unique. By placing the LDS Church in the context of religion in general, as well as examinng the atypical experience of the Leipzig branch, a greater understanding can be had of the religious, political and social life within the former German Democratic Republic.

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Placing coffee at the centre of its analysis, this dissertation reveals the intersections between consumption, culture, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR)’s involvement in the developing world. State planners took steps to promote coffee as a good consumed not only for its value as a stimulant but also for enjoyment. Enjoying a warm cup of coffee represented East Germans’ participation in socialist society, and in a global coffee culture. Moreover, by adopting and weaving the older ideals and traditions associated with coffee into its messages of a bright socialist future based on modernity, progress and culture, the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) used coffee as part of its long-term goals of reforming society along socialist lines. When a major frost destroyed two thirds of Brazil’s coffee trees in July 1975, causing world prices to quadruple by 1977, GDR planners faced a genuine ‘Coffee Crisis’ that challenged the state’s political well-being. The regime replaced the most affordable brand ‘Kosta’ with ‘Kaffee-Mix,’ a blend of 51 per cent coffee and 49 per cent surrogate. Vehement public rejection of the replacement necessitated the hasty conclusion of new trade deals to solve the supply problem, deals which brought the GDR into contact with the developing world in ways it had not anticipated. This project considers four case studies – the GDR’s coffee deals with Angola, Ethiopia, Laos and Vietnam, and I argue that these coffee deals reveal as much about the GDR’s engagements with the global south as they do about its own self-image as a modern state in a divided, yet globalizing world. The GDR consciously approached these relationships as an industrially developed nation needing to ‘guide’ these newly independent states toward (a socialist) modernisation. Furthermore, these trade agreements reveal the balance between pragmatism and ideology which characterized the GDR’s pursuit of coffee; ideology often informed state representatives and framed the negotiations, but pragmatic concerns generally found primacy throughout the process. The GDR invested heavily in these developing countries’ coffee industries, sending technical equipment, along with agricultural and technical experts to help these countries meet East Germans’ import needs. In Angola and Ethiopia, the GDR provided weapons for coffee, while contracts with Laos and Vietnam led to lengthy development projects to ‘modernize’ each country’s coffee industry. This investment in turn helped change the balance of the world coffee trade; the most striking example of this process was the explosion of the Vietnamese coffee industry through the 1980s, which ultimately made Vietnam the world’s second largest producer of coffee next to Brazil. The need for coffee in the GDR, then, sparked a specific expansion of its involvement in the Global South, a process that complicates scholars’ positioning of the GDR within international relations. The example of coffee and the trade agreements it spurred suggests the need to move beyond questions about the degree to which the GDR could overcome its diplomatic isolation, or the extent of East German autonomy from the Soviets, toward questions about the nature of East Germany’s own foreign policy agenda, how it saw itself in the world, and how it contributed to the processes of globalization. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This investigation contributes to studies of post 1945-Europe and the Cold War by examining the culture, economics and politics surrounding the consumption of a single commodity in East Germany, coffee, from 1945-1989. Coffee was associated with many cultural virtues and traditions which became tied to the GDR’s official image of Socialism. When the regime’s ability to supply this good was jeopardized in 1975-77, the government sought out new sources of coffee in the developing, so-called ‘Third World.’ East Germany entered into long-term trade and development projects with countries like Angola, Ethiopia, Laos and Vietnam, to secure sufficient beans to supply its own population. These trade deals connected East Germany to a much broader, globalizing economy, and led to some lasting effects on the world coffee trade.

Günter Kochan (1930-2009) war einer der erfolgreichsten und bekanntesten Komponisten der DDR. Er hinterließ über 200 Werke, darunter zahlreiche bedeutende sinfonische Arbeiten, die jedoch nach der Wende größtenteils in Vergessenheit gerieten. Kochan galt als staatsnaher Komponist und wurde dementsprechend nach 1990 an den Rand gedrängt, seine Musik wurde nun vor allem nach ihrem politischen Inhalt hinterfragt und geriet aufgrund ausbleibender Aufführungen und Neuveröffentlichungen alsbald in Vergessenheit. Die Arbeit behandelt das Spannungsfeld zwischen auferlegten kulturpolitischen Regeln und individuellem künstlerischen Entfaltungsstreben vor dem Hintergrund der offiziellen Leitlinie des "sozialistischen Realismus" in der DDR. Sie beleuchtet dieses exemplarisch anhand der Biographie und des Schaffens von Günter Kochan. Nach einer allgemeinen Darstellung der DDR-Kulturpolitik von 1949-1990, einer Kurzbiographie und einem Überblick über Kochans Gesamtschaffen konzentriert sich die Arbeit auf die Analyse und den Vergleich der 2. und 6. Sinfonie (entstanden 1969 und 2006), die als Beispiele für Kochans musikalische Hauptdomäne herangezogen werden und an denen typische Merkmale seiner Musik im mittleren und im greiften Stil vergleichend herausgearbeitet werden. Die Arbeit baut auf mehreren Interviews mit Vertrauten Kochans auf und nutzt zudem bisher wenig bis gar nicht beachtete Quellen sowie bisher unveröffentlichte Werke Kochans. Sie ist die erste Gesamtdarstellung zu Leben und Werk des Komponisten und enthält zudem das erste vollständige, systematisch und chronologisch geordnete Werkverzeichnis der Kompositionen Günter Kochans sowie eine Übersicht der derzeit verfügbaren Tondokumente.

Berlin, de 1961 à 1989, est une ville divisée, partagée par un mur de béton séparant l'Est, capitale de la République démocratique allemande, de l'Ouest, îlot isolé de la République fédérale d'Allemagne. Front de la Guerre froide, les caméras s'en sont emparées. Filmer Berlin, ce n’était pas seulement montrer un territoire urbain précis et délimité, c'était porter à l’écran un espace régi par un contexte historique, social et politique extrêmement prégnant traduisant de fortes spécificités. Deux systèmes de représentation de l’espace urbain ont coexisté dès 1945 nourris d’éléments propres à chaque partie de la ville et de formes esthétiques spécifiques. À partir du 13 août 1961, date de la construction du Mur, la réalité de la division de la ville s'acte dans le béton. Le cinéma s'en est fait le témoin. Ces images, celles de Soi, celles de l’Autre peuvent être envisagées comme des produits de deux sociétés avec leurs symbolismes propres, leurs codes socioculturels et leurs histoires parallèles. Elles sont à ce titre révélatrices de la manière dont a été montré Berlin. Ces deux imageries participent à la construction d’une identité urbaine plurielle, tendant parfois à revêtir un caractère protéiforme dont il importe de questionner les aspects. C’est aux expressions filmées de cette altérité, de cet espace urbain singulier, que cette thèse d'études cinématographiques s'attache. Au carrefour de plusieurs observatoires disciplinaires et avec une démarche géo-centrée, elle propose un essai de topographie cinématographique. / From 1961 to 1989, Berlin is a divided city, split by a concrete wall separating the eastern part, capital city of the German Democratic Republic, from the western one, isolated island of the German Federal Republic. Frontline of the Cold War, the cameras captured it.Filming Berlin was not only depicting a precise and bound urban territory, it was bringing to the screen a space ruled by a very significant historical, social and political context conveying strong specificities. Two systems of representation of the urban space coexisted as soon as 1945, fueled by each side of town’s own elements and specific aesthetic forms. From August 13th 1961, the day the Wall was built, the reality of the division of the city is made concrete-solid. Cinema was made the witness of this reality. These pictures, of the Self, of the Other, can be considered as products of both societies, with their own symbolisms, their sociocultural codes and parallel histories. As such, they are indicative of the way Berlin has been shown.Both imageries take part in the construction of a plural urban identity, that sometimes tends towards a shape-shifting hallmark, whose aspects it seems important to question. This PhD in cinematic studies endeavours to describe, analyse and interpret the filmed expressions of this alterity, this singular urban space. At the crossroad of several disciplinary fields and in a geo-centered approach, it offers an essay on cinematic topography.

This thesis introduces chosen works of contemporary German literature, which connects the historical milestone "Wende". The analysed authors and works are Claudia Rusch - Aufbau Ost, Ingo Schulze - Simple Storys, Yadé Kara - Selam Berlin and Wladimir Kaminer - Russendisko. It is an interdisciplinary literary-historical thesis, which compares the literary fiction (use of single literary tools) with the historical reality and its adaptation in technical publications. The historical insight and the inclusion of chosen works to the contemporary developmental trends of literature represent the theoretical introduction of thesis. The actual analysis of two pairs of writers and their works (Rusch - Schulze and Kara - Kaminer) takes the authors origin into consideration, mentions shortly their biography and relation to the work. The structural analysis of works follows, with the focus on literary interpretation of social and political events of the year 1989. The goal of the thesis was to point out the historical context, which determines understanding of analysed literary works. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis explores how the Institut für Literatur ‘Johannes R. Becher’, an East German institution for the training of writers, negotiated tensions that arose from the conflicting demands between literary and political values. The Institute had the objective to foster emerging literary talents according to the socialist ideal of a working writer, but often found students and staff drawn towards more autonomous literary values that were incompatible with the views of the East German Socialist Unity Party. As a result, the Institute’s practices fluctuated between toeing the party line and pursuing literary ambitions. An overview of the existing scholarship shows that the Institute and its function have been highly politicised and hardly subjected to analyses that allow for a more nuanced appraisal of its practices. As a result, the study of the Institut has not been able to transcend the binary differentiation between assent and dissent and the Institute is either presented as a liberal haven or an orthodox academy with little artistic value. This thesis addresses this issue by applying Bourdieu’s’ theory of cultural production, more specifically his notion of field, capital and habitus, to the study of the Becher Institute. Three case studies that form the core of this dissertation investigate how cultural capital in its institutionalised, embodied, and objectified form was accumulated, converted and exchanged by the Institute, how it tried to reconcile the tensions between cultural policy and creative aspirations and how these tensions affected the Institute’s common habitus. The first case study will show how the Institute’s founding shaped the institutionalised capital it represented and question the importance that has been attributed to prominent political figures during the founding process. The second case study examines the role of the lecturer and the influence their embodied capital had on the Institute. Two lecturers, working writer Werner Bräunig and poet Georg Maurer, and their representation of the Institute’s multiple habitus will be the focus of the analysis. The third and final case study is dedicated to objectified cultural capital in the form of the Institute’s publications during the 1970s. The Institute’s orthodox publications have so far been overlooked by scholars in favour of its more controversial literary output, which gives a misleading impression of the Institute’s literary output that I aim to amend. By developing a sociological framework for the study of the Institute, this thesis is able to investigate the Institute and its practices as a social and literary space under the watchful eye of the Socialist Unity Party, without denying its pedagogical and cultural dimensions. The findings will reveal a deeply conflicted institution that struggled throughout its existence to resolve the tensions between literary ambitions and political restraints as well as the contradictions within the literary field itself.