Donors in a Dictatorship: Giving, Civil Society, and Democratic Action in Communist East Germany

Abstract

This history of charitable collections in the East German dictatorship (the Protestant organized Bread for the World and the student-led Initiative: Hope for Nicaragua) analyzes the relationship between philanthropy, civil society, and democratic action. These collections, widely unknown outside of the former German Democratic Republic, indicate that independent associations could form to organize philanthropic collections for international causes in this dictatorship. These groups provided the basis for actions outside of state control by engaging East Germans in support of human rights and individual need internationally. As such, my work shows that philanthropy can both exist within a dictatorship and encourage democratic action.Résumé Cette histoire des collectes de bienfaisance sous la dictature de la RDA (l'organisation protestante Pain pour le Monde et l'initiative conduite par des étudiants : Espoir pour le Nicaragua) analyse la relation entre la philanthropie, la société civile et l'action démocratique. Ces collectes, largement inconnues à l'extérieur de l'ancienne République démocratique allemande, indiquent que des associations indépendantes pourraient se former pour organiser des collectes destinées à des causes philanthropiques internationales dans cette dictature. Ces groupes ont servi de base pour des actions en dehors du contrôle de l'É tat, en engageant les Allemands de l'Est en faveur des droits de l'homme et des besoins de l'individu à l'échelle internationale. En tant que tel, mon travail montre que la philanthropie peut à la fois exister au sein d'une dictature et encourager l'action démocratique.

Funny Money: Philanthropic Giving and the Money Illusion

“…Initially limited to collections at Advent, East Germans gave money throughout the year, and on a number of occasions, special collections were called in the summer to aid catastrophe victims. People also granted money to the program through their wills, an option exercised by East Germans without children in the GDR (Witkowski, 2015b).…”

In Search of Civil Society: Disentangling Associational Practices and Civil Society Conceptions in Germany

“…36-46). On the other side, scholars often consider philanthropy and the networks of trust it creates as a basis of public participation even under authoritarian regimes (McCarthy, 2003;Witkowski, 2015). These studies imbue associations and philanthropy with normative features, rather than considering associational and philanthropic practices as specific components of the broader civil society project.…”