Associated PhD project

Soon after the Sandinista Revolution of 1979, solidarity movements in the FRG and GDR began to enthusiastically develop ‘their’ Nicaragua. By implementing aid projects in this central American country, they pursued political aims they could not have fulfilled at home. The activists sprang from rivalling political systems and had heterogeneous world views that ranged from Catholic social teaching to the critical Left, but they still worked towards the same goal: a Nicaragua beyond the blocs of the Cold War.

This project researched the political practices that transferred political ideas from both parts of Germany to Sandinista Nicaragua. It also focuses on the intercultural exchange between Sandinistas and the solidarity groups, as well as on the genesis of new political ideas and practices that emerged from the Nicaraguan experience. The doctoral thesis offers the first archive-based contemporary study on the German solidarity movements for Nicaragua. It is not only the first project to interdependently consider the movements in the FRG and GDR, but also to analyse the effect of their interactions with Sandinista Nicaragua on the German civil societies.