When workers rumbled: The Wismut upheaval of August 1951 in East Germany∗

According to Friedrich Engels, communists would “take an axe to the root of crime.” Criminality was, in this and similar views, “alien” to the very essence of prevailing social conditions in communist societies and ought to have disappeared as a phenomenon as soon as socialism was established. Yet, despite the ruling Socialist Unity Party's (SED) claim to have created “really existing socialism” in East Germany, crime existed and persisted. Official statistics showed that over one hundred thousand incidents of “everyday” criminal offenses, such as theft, were recorded annually. The SED regarded public relations work concerning criminality as essential to its prevention. This article examines the narrative of crime that appeared in the pages of the East German magazine Neue Berliner Illustrierte, which, following SED instructions, attempted to shape public perceptions by informing readers that crime rates were decreasing and that no serious crimes were taking place. Moreover, the articles made it clear that the only way to eliminate the causes of crime were for citizens to live according to the socialist tenets set forth by the party. As this suggests, the regime used the media and its treatment of crime and criminality in an attempt to win greater legitimacy and coopt citizens for the socialist project.

Section: Discourse Of Everyday Criminalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Crime Has No Chance”: The Discourse of Everyday Criminality in the East German Press, 1961–1989

Millington

2017

“Pioneers of a New Germany”: Returning POWs from the Soviet Union and the Making of East German Citizens, 1945–1950

Biess

1999

In early December 1945, the Communist Party functionary Karl Lewke sent an alarming report to the leadership of the German Communist Party (KPD). It was entitled “One million anti-Bolshevists are approaching. The democratic reconstruction of Germany is threatened by greatest dangers!” The report referred to the thousands of returning German POWs from the Soviet Union who daily entered the Soviet zone of occupation through Frankfurt an der Oder. Lewke's description of the mentality and the attitudes of these returning POWs was not very comforting for his party superiors in Berlin.

East Germany's Red Woodstock: The 1973 Festival between the “Carnivalesque” and the Everyday

White

2018

Scholars often depict the 1973 World Festival of Youth and Students-or, more colloquially, the Red Woodstock-as a momentary "departure" or "break" from everyday life, when the German Democratic Republic (GDR) briefly opened its borders to the youth of the world. Similarly, they suggest that, when the festival's nine days of festivities came to an end, the "pathos of revolution" disappeared just as quickly as it had come about, resulting in a return to the restraints of everyday life behind the "Iron Curtain." By contrast, this article reconsiders the festival's significance by adopting an analytical framework from postsocialist theorists. In doing so, it reconceptualizes the Red Woodstock as a moment of globalized influences and youth engagement that not only reflected shifting societal norms, but also the East German state's commitment to international socialist solidarity. Soviet theorist Mikhail Bakhtin's work on the "upside-down" nature of the carnival, as well as on society's "grotesque body," is useful in this regard, as it sets in sharp relief the extent to which one of the East German state's greatest challenges resulted from its own embrace of international socialism. This was the case as young people from the GDR and beyond transformed the East German capital through a subtle appropriation, transformation, and even subversion of the state-generated discourse on international solidarity, in ways that had a lasting effect during the late socialist period.Die Weltfestspiele der Jugend und Studenten des Jahres 1973auch das rote Woodstock genannt -, anlässlich derer die DDR kurzzeitig ihre Grenzen für Jugendliche aus aller Welt öffnete, wurden von Forschern oft als vorübergehende "Abweichung" oder kurzer "Bruch" mit dem alltäglichen Leben in der DDR dargestellt. In diesem Sinne unterstellen besagte Forscher, dass das "Pathos von Revolution" nach den neun Tagen andauernden Festivitäten genauso schnell verschwand, wie es gekommen war, und in eine Rückkehr der alltäglichen Zwänge jenseits des "Eisernen Vorhangs" mündete. Im Gegensatz dazu überdenkt dieser Aufsatz die Bedeutung des Festivals mit Hilfe eines postsozialistischen Interpretationsrahmen. Dabei wird das rote Woodstock als Moment globalisierter Einflüsse und jugendlichen Engagements umgedacht, der nicht nur im Wechsel begriffene gesellschaftliche Normen, sondern auch den Einsatz des ostdeutschen Staates für internationale sozialistische Solidarität reflektierte. Besonders nützlich sind hierbei die Arbeiten des sowjetischen Theoretikers I would like to thank my PhD adviser, Andrew Zimmerman, as well as Jonathan Zatlin, Timothy Brown, Katrin Schultheiss, and Hugh Agnew, who have commented on various iterations of the dissertation chapter upon which this article builds. I am indebted to Geoff Eley for suggesting that I research the Red Woodstock festival for my dissertation. I also appreciate the comments provided by