East German Identity: A Never-Ending Story?

Every society is marked by memory gaps. Taking Poland and (East) Germany as examples, we use a social constructivist-poststructuralist approach and conduct focus groups and qualitative interviews to investigate how the communist past is remembered in private everyday discourse and its differentiation from the hegemonic public memory discourse. Both countries exhibit striking parallels in their everyday and hegemonic memory practices, but they differ in how the memory gap is interpreted: in Poland along class lines, in Germany according to quasi-ethnic lines. Thus, the study shows that private–public memory gaps may determine the societal (re)production of group-specific identities in mnemonic conflicts.

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“…Their search for identity is rooted in the communist past of the German part-state (e.g. Kubiak, 2019).…”

Section: Relevance Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The perception and interpretation of conflicting mnemonic narratives: Post-communist remembrance in East Germany and Poland

Fiedler

Rawski

Świrek

et al. 2022

International Journal of Comparative Sociology

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“…The reasons behind the increasing electoral success of AfD in the East have to do with socio-economic, political and cultural differences that translate into a feeling of grievance for the lack of representation and the attribution of stereotypes linked to the Communist period (Meyen and Rüdiger 2014;Kubiak 2019;Weisskircher 2020). Some authors have considered that this East-West division is as important as the memories about the Holocaust (Müller 2007 quoted in Beattie 2007, 3).…”

Section: Afd In Germanymentioning

confidence: 99%

How the traumatic past influences the vote of the populist radical right parties in Germany, Poland, and Spain

Martín

Paradés

Zagórski

2022

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

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“…For example, when asked, East Germans often responded that they feel like “second-class” citizens ( Pollack, 2004 ). Likewise, perceptions have been articulated in recent years of feeling like “the others” ( Foroutan and Hensel, 2020 ), strangers, or even explicitly like “immigrants” in Germany ( Kubiak, 2019 ). At the same time, there is a growing recognition that immigrant groups, while facing similar challenges and hurdles, are increasingly experiencing success and advancement ( Kalter et al, 2018 ; Foroutan et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Background State Of Research and Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race for Second Place? Explaining East-West Differences in Anti-Muslim Sentiment in Germany

Kalter

Foroutan

2021

Front. Sociol.

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It has been shown that anti-Muslim sentiment is more pronounced in East Germany than in West Germany. In this paper, we discuss existing explanations and add to them. We argue that some East Germans see themselves as a disadvantaged group in competition with other minorities, such as Muslims, for social recognition by West Germans; they are in what we call a “race for second place”. Based on social identity theory, we expect that this might be particularly true for those who explicitly self-identify as East Germans. The theoretical discussion carves out the role of “perceived non-recognition” and “outgroup mobility threat” as important concepts within the conflicts of belonging. We use unique data from the survey “Postmigrant Societies: East-Migrant Analogies” for a comprehensive empirical analysis. We find that factors related to pre-existing arguments – such as socioeconomic and demographic variables, personality traits, or contact – can capture much of the group differences in anti-Muslim sentiment, but that they do not fully apply to those who were born and still live in the East and who explicitly self-identify as East Germans. For this subgroup, perceived non-recognition adds to the empirical models and outgroup mobility threat has a stronger effect.

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East German Identity: A Never-Ending Story?

Cited by 6 publications

References 18 publications

The perception and interpretation of conflicting mnemonic narratives: Post-communist remembrance in East Germany and Poland

The perception and interpretation of conflicting mnemonic narratives: Post-communist remembrance in East Germany and Poland

How the traumatic past influences the vote of the populist radical right parties in Germany, Poland, and Spain

Race for Second Place? Explaining East-West Differences in Anti-Muslim Sentiment in Germany

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