The Collapse of East German Communism

Book flyer
MS Word
International
MS Word

The Collapse of East German Communism The Year the Wall Came Down, 1989

(Click to Enlarge)

By David M. Keithly

ISBN: 0-275-94261-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-94261-8

DOI:

256 pages, figures

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 8/30/1992

List Price: $72.95 (UK Sterling Price: £41.95)

Availability:

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Reviews:

The Collapse of East German Communism is awell researched, well documented scholarly work. . . . As it is, it's an excellent single source overview of the history of the German Democratic Republic's forty-one year journey into the dustbin of history.
—The Friday Review of Defense Literature

Description: This book focuses on a key aspect of the "German question"--the problem of German national identity and communist ideology in their historical perspective since 1945 and their immediate clash in the downfall of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989. The book's theme might be summarized as German identity recovered. The book is unique in that it is in part an eyewitness account of one of Europe's most startling transformations. In the four decades of its existence, the GDR did not succeed in fostering a separate political or social identity, and thus an underlying difficulty of the state was never resolved. The overriding objective of the political socialization process in the GDR was to instill socialist political culture into the citizenry. This political culture had not only to be uniform with ideological imperatives and aspirations, but had to stand on its own because of the absence of a broader-based national culture. Given the newness of the state and its political institutions, and the continual challenge on the national question presented by the mere existence of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the East German Communist Party (SED) always faced an uphill task. This book should be of interest to students and scholars interested in Germany, in Europe, and in the fate of communism.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Backdrop to Revolution
The Nature of East German Communism
Legitimacy Deficit
The Debate on the Nation
Economic Difficulties in the GDR
The West German Connection
Upheaval and Revolution
Winds of Change
The Iron Curtain Corrodes and Shakes
Marx and God
The SED Alone
The Dam Bursts
People Without Fear
The Wall Opens
Dwindling Options
The Synthesis
Into the Dustbin
Bibliography

LC Card Number: 92-2686

LCC Class: DD289

Dewey Class: 320.9431


All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2009 ABC-CLIO 130 Cremona Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93117, 805-968-1911