Virtual walls? : political unification and cultural difference in contemporary Germany / edited by Franziska Lys and Michael Dreyer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lys, Franziska, 1955- editor.

Dreyer, Michael, 1959- editor.

Series:

Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture

Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization.

History.

Social aspects.

Germany--History--Unification, 1990.

Germany.

Germany--History--Unification, 1990--Social aspects.

Germany--Civilization--21st century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 201 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, New York : Camden House, 2017.

Summary:

On October 3, 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall fell, the German Democratic Republic was absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany, officially ceasing to exist. What was the GDR and how do we remember it? According to the dominant Western narrative, it was a country that brought neither unity nor justice nor freedom to its citizens. But if so, why does a virtual wall still seem to exist in Germany today between the erstwhile citizens of the GDR and FRG? The GDR very much remains in the public debate, and while political integration is well on its way, the cultural integration of the two former states has proven much more challenging. This volume analyzes the cultural transformation - or lack thereof - that has followed political unification. The contributions are interdisciplinary: essays on history and politics provide a framework and others on art, film, literature, museums, music, and education provide specific examples. These case studies allow us to assess the state of unification beyond statistics, opinion polls, and glib generalizations. The volume, then, is a reassessment of the journey Germans in East and West have taken during the past two-and-a-half decades. Even today, it is an open-ended, unfinished journey. But such journeys tend to be the most interesting.

Contents:

Introduction : United Politics

Divided Culture? / Franziska Lys and Michael Dreyer

Part I. What Remains : History and the Constitution. 1. Lost in Transition : Reflections on the Spectral History of the GDR / Charles S. Mater

2. Reconstituting the Federal Republic? Constitutional Law and Politics before and since 1989 / Andreas Niederberger

Part II. What and How Do We Remember? Literature, Film, and Exhibitions. 3. East German Literature and Reunification : Continuities and Discontinuities / Stephen Brockmann

4. The Afterlife of the GDR in Post-Wall German Cinema / Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien

5. Exhibiting 1989/2009 : Memory, Affect, and the Politics of History / Kerstin Barndt

Part III. A Changing Reception : Painting, Orchestras, and Theaters. 6. Reexamining the Staatskünstler Myth : Bernhard Heisig and the Post-Wall Reception of East German Painting / April A. Eisman

7. East German Orchestras and Theaters : The Transformation since the Wende / Daniel Ortuno-Stühring

Part IV. A Virtual Wall? Education and Society. 8. What Do German High School Students Think about the GDR? Memory Culture between Glorification and Evaluation / Andreas Eis

9. The Ongoing Significance of East Germany and the Wende Narrative in Public Discourse / Michael Dreyer

Epilogue : The Wende and the End of "the German Problem" / Peter Hayes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781571139801

157113980X

OCLC:

988300284