Social history of the GDR

This project aims at grasping the history of the BND after 1968, based on sources that have gone hitherto unnoticed or become only recently available. 

The project examines how a GDR-specific beauty culture developed and how distinction was possible in a society whose goal was to overcome class differences.

The project examines how the PDS transformed itself both at the federal and state level with regard to personnel, organization and program since the fall of 1989 and how it developed in the 1990s.

The German Democratic Republic's Ministry of State Security (MfS) operated in over 25 countries of what was then often described as the ‘Third World’. This study will present three case studies, hereby comparing Stasi activities in different countries and at different times. Zanzibar (1960s), Mozambique (1970s) and Nicaragua (1980s). The analysis will pinpoint which goals were pursued by the state security apparatus.

After almost complete destruction during the Second World War, the city of Pforzheim became, as a result of the subsequent economic upsurge, a focal point for many newcomers. In a local study, it will be considered how the integration process was implemented by administration and society over the years, using the example of refugees from East Germany. 

The project aims, with the help of serial report sources, to reconstruct the informal formation of and shift in opinions and attitudes among the East German population.

The objective of this project is a compact portrayal of the social history of the SED dictatorship that combines the findings of the political history of the regime with analyses of the social structures and ranges of experience in East German society.