The claim to successfully have eliminated racism and xenophobia in socialist Germany was crucial for the GDR’s demarcation against the Federal Republic and for GDR’s political self-conception. According to the state party SED, both the GDR’s government and its people met with all members of the working class, regardless their ethnicity or culture, in the spirit of Völkerfreundschaft – the peoples’ friendship. In the early 1960s, suffering from a lack of work power, the GDR began to recruit foreign workers, and continued to do so up until German reunification. When workers arrived from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the propositions of antiracism and peoples’ friendship were tested in practice. Following a discourse-analytical approach this study analyzes how the ideal of Völkerfreundschaft was dealt with and how it was exploited and altered both by citizens communicating with the state and within party-loyal circles. It examines when, why and by whom ethnicity was downplayed in favor of common class affiliation, and under which circumstances it regained importance. While latest research on foreigners in the GDR has focused on diagnosing the discrepancy between ideological claims and reality this study goes beyond such an approach and analyzes how this discrepancy was dealt with – both by state authorities, the state-owned factories and ordinary people – in everyday life.   This study is a contribution to migration research, as well as to everyday-life-history and history of mentality in the GDR.

The claim to successfully have eliminated racism and xenophobia in socialist Germany was crucial for the GDR’s demarcation against the Federal Republic and for GDR’s political self-conception. According to the state party SED, both the GDR’s government and its people met with all members of the working class, regardless their ethnicity or culture, in the spirit of Völkerfreundschaft – the peoples’ friendship. In the early 1960s, suffering from a lack of work power, the GDR began to recruit foreign workers, and continued to do so up until German reunification. When workers arrived from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the propositions of antiracism and peoples’ friendship were tested in practice. Following a discourse-analytical approach this study analyzes how the ideal of Völkerfreundschaft was reproduced, exploited and altered both by citizens communicating with the state and within party-loyal circles. It examines when, why and by whom ethnicity was downplayed in favor of common class affiliation, and under which circumstances it regained importance. While latest research on foreigners in the GDR has focused on diagnosing the discrepancy between ideological claims and reality this study goes beyond such an approach and analyzes how this discrepancy was dealt with – both by state authorities, the state-owned factories and ordinary people – in everyday life.   This study is a contribution to migration research, as well as to everyday-life-history and history of mentality in the GDR.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise analyse les liens entre les premiers procès militaires alliés en Allemagne occupée et l’opinion publique allemande dans l’après-guerre immédiat. Notre mémoire de maîtrise, à travers la présentation de l’analyse du procès de Belsen, organisé par les forces d’occupation britanniques de septembre à novembre 1945, et du procès de Dachau, tenu par le gouvernement militaire américain entre novembre et décembre 1945, cherche à mettre en lumière l’importance que ces derniers revêtaient dans l’établissement de relations cordiales entre occupants et occupés. Ce mémoire démontre donc, par les exemples de Belsen et Dachau, que les procès se situaient à la croisée entre le besoin des Alliés d’établir des relations positives avec les Allemands et leurs programmes de dénazification et de rééducation. Nous remarquons ainsi que, des premières étapes dans l’organisation de ces tribunaux jusqu’à leur achèvement, les Alliés ont pris en considération les différentes réactions des Allemands face aux procédures judiciaires : d’abord, avec l’ancrage des accusations et des procédures judiciaires dans une législation internationale qui précédait le début de la guerre, puis avec l’autorisation d’une défense pour les accusés qui permettait aux Alliés de revendiquer une autorité morale sur leur zone d’occupation. Ce mémoire de maîtrise, en plus d’examiner les procès d’après-guerre et leurs objectifs, propose également une analyse de la couverture journalistique de ces tribunaux et des sondages d’opinion publique menés après les procédures judiciaires. Notre étude établit ainsi que la couverture journalistique des procès était, souvent, une des premières fois où les Allemands se trouvaient confrontés aux atrocités commises dans les camps de concentration nazis. Finalement, avec l’analyse des sondages d’opinion publique, nous argumentons que les procès, en tant qu’outil politique, ont eu un succès mitigé dans l’établissement de relations positives entre les forces d’occupation britanniques et américaines et les Allemands. / This masters’ thesis analyses the connections between the first allied military trials held in postwar Germany and German public opinion toward the British and American occupation forces. Focused on the Belsen trial, held in the British occupation zone from September to November 1945, and the Dachau trial, held by the American military government in the U.S. occupation zone between November and December 1945, this study seeks to highlight the importance both trials held for the British and the Americans in establishing positive relations with the Germans. Using Belsen and Dachau as case studies, it argues that, while they were essential to British and American denazification and re-education programs, they also had to be conducted in a manner that ensured the best possible relationship the German public and the occupation forces in both the American and British occupation zones. I demonstrate that, from the initial steps implemented to set up the trials through their conclusion, both powers took German concerns and reactions to the judiciary procedures into account: first by anchoring the charges and the trials themselves in international law preceding the Second World War; then by providing the right to a defense to the accused. Both factors, the Allies believed, allowed them to claim a moral authority over their occupation zone. The memoir’s examination of the trials and their purpose is complimented by an analysis of the press coverage of the trials and public opinion surveys taken after the trials. This study states that the press coverage was oftentimes one the first instances in which Germans were confronted to the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Finally, this study argues that, as a part of larger programs, the trials had a limited success as a tool to implement positive relations between the British and American occupation forces and the German population.

L'opera esamina l'intervento pubblico nella gestione del rapporto di lavoro sotto il profilo storico e giuridico nelle tre fasi d'instaurazione, gestione e cessazione del rapporto. Si valorizza anche il ruolo specifico dei tre poteri legislativo, esecutivo e giudiziario, con particolare riguardo all'analisi sistematica del diritto amministrativo del lavoro. L'opera intende porre in luce gli elementi logici, giuridici ed assiologici di questo ramo del diritto del lavoro, per ricondurne le fattispecie esaminate ad un sistema coerente e razionale e per suggerirne sia un metodo d'analisi de iure condito sia una prospettiva per una lettura ed una proposta de iure condendo. / This work analyses how public powers affects labour relationships both from the historical and the juridical points of view. The three main phases of labour relationships beginning, management and end are examined separately. The specific contributions by the three public powers legislative, administrative and judiciary especially by the public administration, are also dealt with. The goal is to illustrate the logical, juridical and ethical elements of this branch of the labour law, in order to build a rational system for both the analysis de iure condito and the debate de iure condendo.