Paradigms of political change--Luther, Frederick II, and Bismarck : the GDR on its way to German unity / Jan Herman Brinks ; translated by Gordon W. Smith ; preface by Georg G. Iggers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brinks, Jan Herman.

Series:

Marquette studies in philosophy ; #60.

Marquette studies in philosophy ; #60

Standardized Title:

DDR zwischen Einheit und Abgrenzung. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Luther, Martin, 1483-1546.

Luther, Martin.

Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786.

Frederick.

Bismarck, Otto, Fürst von, 1815-1898.

Bismarck, Otto.

Political culture--Germany (East).

Political culture.

Communism and culture--Germany (East).

Communism and culture.

Church and state--Germany (East).

Church and state.

Nationalism--Germany (East).

Nationalism.

Germany (East)--Historiography.

Germany (East).

Germany (East)--Cultural policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (355 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Milwaukee, Wisc. : Marquette University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Written before 1989, when he was stationed in East Berlin with Dutch television and utilised his stay there to write this book as a dissertation for the University of Groningen, it showed how GDR party and historians had sought to reinterpret German history to legitimize their socialist dictatorship and in the process had manipulated history. Although the focus of the book is on the ways in which GDR historians have interpreted and reinterpreted three key figures, Luther, Frederick II (!), and Bismarck, from the perspective of their place in German nation building, the translation offers in fact the only up to date history of historiography in the GDR in English. It is preceded only by Andreas Dorpalen's German History from a Marxist Perspective, written in the 1970s with very different questions in mind. Dorpalen in an excellent study surveys work in the GDR on all phases of German history from the Middle Ages to the recent past and critically assesses the contributions which these writings have made to scholarship beyond ideological lines. Brinks concentrates specifically on the question which the tension between a German national identity and a distinct GDR socialist identity played in GDR historical literature, the former viewing Germany in ethnic terms, the latter defining it in class terms.

Contents:

""Paradigms of Political Change Luther, Frederick II, and Bismarck The GDR on Its Way to German Unity Jan Herman Brinks""; ""© 2001 by Marquette University Press""; ""Contents""; ""Translator's Note""; ""Series Editor's Note""; ""Foreword""; ""Preface""; ""Introduction""; ""Part A Between unification and demarcation: the classical Marxist writers and early social democrats on German history with special reference to the Reformation, the Peasants' War and Prussia""; ""1.0 Foundations and Basic Questions of GDR historiography""

""9.0 Prussia, Frederick II and Bismarck: their portrayal between 1971 and 1987"" ""10.0 Final conclusions""; ""Postscript""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""; ""Short Biography J.H. Brinks""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-87462-979-9

0-585-44578-8

OCLC:

52297430