Individual research projects

LDPD – Erfurt, Social Inequality in East Germany - The Süßmuth Glassworks -  Iran and the “West” - Eugenische Sterilisation

Forschung

Projekte

Playground in Halle/Saale. Foto: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0909-0014-002 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0909-0014-002, Halle, Halle-Süd, Wohnblocks, Spielplatz, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Social Inequality in East Germany 1980–2000
The Material Situations of Employee Households in Changing Times

 Christopher Banditt

Asociated PhD project

Within this PhD project, the socio–economic situations of East German employee households from 1980 until 2000—thus embedding the epochal break of 1989/90—will be researched. By focusing on material resources (household income, housing situation, saturation with technical consumer goods), the key determining factor for social inequality will be examined.

Logo of the Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (LDPD). Image: WorldlyVoice, LDPD logo transparent, CC BY-SA 4.0

Regional Party Activities and Room for Manoeuvre of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) in the District of Erfurt in the German Democratic Republic between the Construction and Fall of the Wall

 Marlene Heihsel

Associated PhD project

As a bloc party under the regime of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) in the GDR, the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD) only had a small scope for an independent political identity and programme. The party’s primary function (just as the other bloc parties and mass organisations), was to convey the social, economic and cultural aims of SED policy to the middle class as its main clientele and to integrate them into the dominant ideology of the SED. Despite this central function of transmission, the LDPD retained the reputation of being an economic party concerned with the interests of the middle class – although the party leadership had always followed the SED's course since the late 1950s.

The site of the former Glashütte Süßmuth. Photo: Axel Hindemith, Glasmuseum Immenhausen Glashütte Süssmuth, CC BY-SA 3.0

Trail of broken pieces. The Self-Management of the Süßmuth Glassworks Between the Grassroots Democratic Awakening around „1968“ and the Decline of the German Mouth Glass Industry

 Christiane Mende

Associated PhD project

In March 1970, the 250 employees of the Süßmuth glassworks in Immenhausen in northern Hesse took over their company and thus found a collective response to the threat of bankruptcy and the loss of their jobs. The project examines the background of the self-mangement of Süßmuth glassworks and the associated upheavals and changes, as well as the specific factors that made it difficult for democratic practice to become established in a West German industrial enterprise at the time.

Iran and the “West” – Ruptures and Continuities past 1979

 Daniel Walter

Research project

The project seeks to investigate Iran’s changing relationship with the “West” between the late 1970s and late 1990s. Informed by constructivist theories, it will look at the processes of dissociation and renegotiation during the overlap of logics informed by the Cold War and the globalization.

Sterilisationspolitik und -praxis in SBZ und DDR 1945-1990. Der juristische Umgang mit der NS-Vergangenheit, die eugenischen Traditionen und die Renaissance der Sozialhygiene

 Stefan Jehne

Asociated PhD project

Im Projekt wird erforscht, wie in SBZ und DDR mit der Frage der eugenischen Sterilisation umgegangen wurde.

Individual research projects

LDPD – Erfurt, Social Inequality in East Germany - The Süßmuth Glassworks -  Iran and the “West” - Eugenische Sterilisation

Forschung

Projekte

Playground in Halle/Saale. Foto: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0909-0014-002 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0909-0014-002, Halle, Halle-Süd, Wohnblocks, Spielplatz, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Social Inequality in East Germany 1980–2000
The Material Situations of Employee Households in Changing Times

 Christopher Banditt

Asociated PhD project

Within this PhD project, the socio–economic situations of East German employee households from 1980 until 2000—thus embedding the epochal break of 1989/90—will be researched. By focusing on material resources (household income, housing situation, saturation with technical consumer goods), the key determining factor for social inequality will be examined.

Logo of the Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (LDPD). Image: WorldlyVoice, LDPD logo transparent, CC BY-SA 4.0

Regional Party Activities and Room for Manoeuvre of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) in the District of Erfurt in the German Democratic Republic between the Construction and Fall of the Wall

 Marlene Heihsel

Associated PhD project

As a bloc party under the regime of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) in the GDR, the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD) only had a small scope for an independent political identity and programme. The party’s primary function (just as the other bloc parties and mass organisations), was to convey the social, economic and cultural aims of SED policy to the middle class as its main clientele and to integrate them into the dominant ideology of the SED. Despite this central function of transmission, the LDPD retained the reputation of being an economic party concerned with the interests of the middle class – although the party leadership had always followed the SED's course since the late 1950s.

The site of the former Glashütte Süßmuth. Photo: Axel Hindemith, Glasmuseum Immenhausen Glashütte Süssmuth, CC BY-SA 3.0

Trail of broken pieces. The Self-Management of the Süßmuth Glassworks Between the Grassroots Democratic Awakening around „1968“ and the Decline of the German Mouth Glass Industry

 Christiane Mende

Associated PhD project

In March 1970, the 250 employees of the Süßmuth glassworks in Immenhausen in northern Hesse took over their company and thus found a collective response to the threat of bankruptcy and the loss of their jobs. The project examines the background of the self-mangement of Süßmuth glassworks and the associated upheavals and changes, as well as the specific factors that made it difficult for democratic practice to become established in a West German industrial enterprise at the time.

Iran and the “West” – Ruptures and Continuities past 1979

 Daniel Walter

Research project

The project seeks to investigate Iran’s changing relationship with the “West” between the late 1970s and late 1990s. Informed by constructivist theories, it will look at the processes of dissociation and renegotiation during the overlap of logics informed by the Cold War and the globalization.

Sterilisationspolitik und -praxis in SBZ und DDR 1945-1990. Der juristische Umgang mit der NS-Vergangenheit, die eugenischen Traditionen und die Renaissance der Sozialhygiene

 Stefan Jehne

Asociated PhD project

Im Projekt wird erforscht, wie in SBZ und DDR mit der Frage der eugenischen Sterilisation umgegangen wurde.