The Longue Durée of 1989/90. Regime Change and Everyday Life in East Germany

Project leader: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Kerstin Brückweh
Postdoc: Anja Schröter
PhD students: Kathrin Zöller, Clemens Villinger

Funded by the Leibniz Association as part of the Leibniz Competition, 2016-2019

1989/90 is often considered a key caesura of the twentieth century. By looking at the long-term developments surrounding this historic event from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the new millennium, this project analyses the social changes that paved the way for and shaped all three stages: the late phase of the GDR, the peaceful revolution, and the transformation that followed. Dynamics and tensions of the East German lifeworld throughout the period of regime change will be examined in four case studies focused on housing, local political culture, education and consumption practices. All four studies combine archival sources with oral history and the secondary analysis of social science data. The results will be placed in the context of other late or post-communist countries as well as the context of other societies in transformation.

Forschung

Projekte

Photo: Clara Bahlsen

Home Sweet Home: Property Between Expropriation, Appropriation and New Modes of Organisation in the Long History of 1989

Kerstin Brückweh
Completed  Research project

Funded by the Leibniz Association as part of the Leibniz Competition, 2016-2019

This project posed the question as to which practices developed regarding home ownership in East Germany and how the principal of ‘restitution over compensation’, negotiated as part of the political process of reunification, affected the everyday lives of residents.

Political Culture in East Germany. Local Democratisation and Participation before, during and after 1989/90

Anja Schröter (until July 2019)
Completed Research project

This project focused on the creation of small, restricted public spheres and their significance for the development of dialogue- and consensus-orientated forms of civil participation and politics in East Germany.

Anja Schröter was a research associate at the ZZF Potsdam until July 2019

 

Entrance of the 56. polytechnic secondary school in Berlin-Marzahn, Parsteiner Ring 24, Type „Berlin 81 GT“, February 1984. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1984-0227-026 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1984-0227-026, Berlin, Marzahn, Polytechnische Oberschule 56, Eingang, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The East German School as a Site of Lifeworlds in Upheaval

Kathrin Zöller
Completed PhD project

The project enquired as to how institutional reorganisation and socio-political upheavals were experienced and processed by actors within schools between 1978 and 2000.

Line infront of a butcher's shop, East Berlin 1988. Photo: Laurent Tchedry Warteschlange vor einer Fleischerei, CC BY-SA 3.0

From unjust plan to just market? Consumption, Everyday Life and Social Inequality in the Long History of the ‘Wende’

Clemens Villinger
Completed PhD project

The project analysed the modification of consumption practices via three different case studies of a village, a smaller town and a city. The study combined archival sources with oral history and the secondary analysis of social science data such as data from the socio-economic panel and ethnological research projects.

Posters in the campaign office of Alliance 90 for the People's Chamber elections on 18 March 1990, 28.2.1990. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0228-021 / Uhlemann, Thomas / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0228-021, Berlin, Volkskammerwahl, Wahlkampfbüro, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Edition Bündnis 90 (1989 – 1993)

Christoph Becker-Schaum

Associated Edition project

The reunification expanded the West German party system with two new formations, which brought their contrary validity claims from the GDR past into the new Federal Republic: the alliance of oppositional citizens’ movements and the SED successor party PDS. The projected edition is dedicated to the citizens’ movement Alliance 90, which merged with the West German Greens in 1993 to form Alliance 90/The Greens. The intention is, to put together the relevant documents on the history of Alliance 90, which concern their self-image, their social localization and their political strategy.

 

Hostile or friendly takeover?
The merging of ‘Bündnis 90’ and the Green Party

Florian Schikowski

Associated PhD Project

This PhD project investigates the process of the merging of Bündnis 90 [Alliance 90] and the Green Party in a long-term perspective from 1989 to 1998, when Bündnis 90/Die Grünen joined the first red-green federal government in Germany.

 

References: The Pädagogische Hochschule Potsdam 1961, photo: Eva Brüggmann, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-83155-0006, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The Transformation of the East German Humanities in the 1980s/90s: Potsdam in Comparative Perspective

Lara Büchel

Associated PhD project

The dissertation project examines the transformation of the humanities after the peaceful revolution of 1989/90 in East Germany, focusing on Potsdam as a university city.

The Longue Durée of 1989/90. Regime Change and Everyday Life in East Germany

Project leader: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Kerstin Brückweh
Postdoc: Anja Schröter
PhD students: Kathrin Zöller, Clemens Villinger

Funded by the Leibniz Association as part of the Leibniz Competition, 2016-2019

1989/90 is often considered a key caesura of the twentieth century. By looking at the long-term developments surrounding this historic event from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the new millennium, this project analyses the social changes that paved the way for and shaped all three stages: the late phase of the GDR, the peaceful revolution, and the transformation that followed. Dynamics and tensions of the East German lifeworld throughout the period of regime change will be examined in four case studies focused on housing, local political culture, education and consumption practices. All four studies combine archival sources with oral history and the secondary analysis of social science data. The results will be placed in the context of other late or post-communist countries as well as the context of other societies in transformation.

Forschung

Projekte

Photo: Clara Bahlsen

Home Sweet Home: Property Between Expropriation, Appropriation and New Modes of Organisation in the Long History of 1989

Kerstin Brückweh
Completed  Research project

Funded by the Leibniz Association as part of the Leibniz Competition, 2016-2019

This project posed the question as to which practices developed regarding home ownership in East Germany and how the principal of ‘restitution over compensation’, negotiated as part of the political process of reunification, affected the everyday lives of residents.

Political Culture in East Germany. Local Democratisation and Participation before, during and after 1989/90

Anja Schröter (until July 2019)
Completed Research project

This project focused on the creation of small, restricted public spheres and their significance for the development of dialogue- and consensus-orientated forms of civil participation and politics in East Germany.

Anja Schröter was a research associate at the ZZF Potsdam until July 2019

 

Entrance of the 56. polytechnic secondary school in Berlin-Marzahn, Parsteiner Ring 24, Type „Berlin 81 GT“, February 1984. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1984-0227-026 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1984-0227-026, Berlin, Marzahn, Polytechnische Oberschule 56, Eingang, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The East German School as a Site of Lifeworlds in Upheaval

Kathrin Zöller
Completed PhD project

The project enquired as to how institutional reorganisation and socio-political upheavals were experienced and processed by actors within schools between 1978 and 2000.

Line infront of a butcher's shop, East Berlin 1988. Photo: Laurent Tchedry Warteschlange vor einer Fleischerei, CC BY-SA 3.0

From unjust plan to just market? Consumption, Everyday Life and Social Inequality in the Long History of the ‘Wende’

Clemens Villinger
Completed PhD project

The project analysed the modification of consumption practices via three different case studies of a village, a smaller town and a city. The study combined archival sources with oral history and the secondary analysis of social science data such as data from the socio-economic panel and ethnological research projects.

Posters in the campaign office of Alliance 90 for the People's Chamber elections on 18 March 1990, 28.2.1990. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0228-021 / Uhlemann, Thomas / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0228-021, Berlin, Volkskammerwahl, Wahlkampfbüro, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Edition Bündnis 90 (1989 – 1993)

Christoph Becker-Schaum

Associated Edition project

The reunification expanded the West German party system with two new formations, which brought their contrary validity claims from the GDR past into the new Federal Republic: the alliance of oppositional citizens’ movements and the SED successor party PDS. The projected edition is dedicated to the citizens’ movement Alliance 90, which merged with the West German Greens in 1993 to form Alliance 90/The Greens. The intention is, to put together the relevant documents on the history of Alliance 90, which concern their self-image, their social localization and their political strategy.

 

Hostile or friendly takeover?
The merging of ‘Bündnis 90’ and the Green Party

Florian Schikowski

Associated PhD Project

This PhD project investigates the process of the merging of Bündnis 90 [Alliance 90] and the Green Party in a long-term perspective from 1989 to 1998, when Bündnis 90/Die Grünen joined the first red-green federal government in Germany.

 

References: The Pädagogische Hochschule Potsdam 1961, photo: Eva Brüggmann, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-83155-0006, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The Transformation of the East German Humanities in the 1980s/90s: Potsdam in Comparative Perspective

Lara Büchel

Associated PhD project

The dissertation project examines the transformation of the humanities after the peaceful revolution of 1989/90 in East Germany, focusing on Potsdam as a university city.