Former GDR Historians in the Reunified Germany: An Alternative Historical Culture and its Attempts to Come to Terms with the GDR Past

Abstract

This article investigates the remarkably productive alternative historical culture which emerged in East Germany after 1990 and its links to the official historical culture dominated by West Germans. This alternative historical culture in the East is supported very largely by historians of the former GDR who lost their jobs following the evaluations and restructuring of the GDR's system of higher education in the wake of reunification. It finds expression in a multitude of historical associations, some of which are briefly mentioned. The historians, who have been active here, have been drawing up a balance sheet of their own for the historical sciences in the GDR. The article explores the way in which they engage with their own past as historians in the GDR and with the past of the state and the party with which they, for the most part, identified. Finally, the article analyses the diverse ways in which this alternative historical culture has assessed the revolution of 1989 and the subsequent reunification process. It concludes by asking about the prospects for this alternative historical culture in the medium to long term. Copyright © 2003 SAGE Publications.

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