Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Contradiction Of The Welfare Dictatorship: The Stasi’S Role In Preserving And Undermining East German Human Rights, Mallory Wooldridge

Honors College Theses

Constructed four years after WWII in a kind of pendulum swing response to the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was an experiment in socialism. Under the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED) no East German was to go hungry, unemployment would be eradicated, housing guaranteed, women treated as equals, and human rights interwoven into the fabric of this socialist society. However, SED socialism in practice did not conform to this original vision and would eventually represent the disillusionment with the socialist project as a whole.

This project seeks to understand human rights in the …

The Thematic Changes In Defa Cinema, David Hillman

Honors Theses

This presentation examines the evolving themes in the films produced by the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) film monopoly Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) from its founding in 1946 through German Reunification in 1990. It analyzes ten films that span a variety of genres, including the ‘rubble films’ (Trümmerfilme), fairy tale films (Märchenfilme), and the GDR-American westerns (Indianerfilme). They are also reflective of the different periods of GDR politics in which they were made, such as the brief GDR ‘New Wave’, the banned films of the mid-1960’s, and the push for films addressing contemporary society (Gegenwartsfilme …

Survival Strategies: Historic Preservation, Jewish Community, And The German Democratic Republic, Emily Ann Cohen

Honors Projects

Following the Second World War, as German Communists worked to establish a new socialist East German state, Jews who survived persecution and imprisonment by the Nazis worked to reestablish a Jewish community at the same time. Though many scholars dismiss the relationship between Jews and the Socialist Unity Party, the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic, as one characterized only by neglect and occasional political exploitation, it was much more nuanced, shaped in large part by the Cold War. Both the party and the Jewish community relied on the other to accomplish their goals, namely, survival in a new …

“Ewig ‘Schön’”: Politics And Poetics In The Work And Correspondence Of Sarah Kirsch And Helga Novak, Sophia J. Logan

Senior Projects Fall 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

The Socialist Devout: Religious Orders And The Making Of An East German Catholic Community, Kathryn Julian

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores the central role of Roman Catholic orders in the creation of a resilient and stable Catholic community in post-1945 East German society. The persistence of these highly visible religious figures as well as their work in charities, retirement homes, schools, and hospitals not only threatened the socialist state’s mission to create a secularized society, but also bolstered and unified the dispersed East German Catholic population. Though the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ostensibly embraced scientific atheism, religious orders remained important in the postwar era, particularly in their performance of social functions. Catholic institutes upheld the integrity of their …

"Sell Or Slaughter": The Economic And Social Policies Of German Reunification, Saraid L. Donnelly

CMC Senior Theses

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 …

Defining Socialism Through The Familiar: East German Representation Of Hungary In The 1950s And 1960s, Kathryn Campbell Julian

Masters Theses

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 …

Gemeindegeschichte Als Vergleichende Geschichte: The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In East Germany, Bruce W. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

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 …