After the Wall
History
- English-language links
- German links
- Newspaper articles
- German articles
- GDR history Secondary Literature
English-language links
http://www.berlin.de/mauer/index.en.html
City of Berlin official site about the history of the Wall.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/interactive/2009/oct/23/berlin-wall-history-guide
Interactive map of the Berlin Wall with downloadable videos and map to take your own tour. Documentary videos contain historical information and eyewitness accounts.
http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/dos/dos/mau/enindex.htm
Experiences of the Wende from East and West Germans and articles about events of 1989/90.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/home.cfm
Project site German History in Documents and Images run by the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.
Relevant content
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/section.cfm?section_id=15
Two Germanies 1961-1989
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/section.cfm?section_id=16
One Germany in Europe 1989-2009
revolution89.de/?PID=static,Index_en
Website run by the Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft containing information on the events, people and sites of 1989/90.
http://ddr-geschichte-vermitteln.de/index.php
Collection of links to materials for teaching the GDR. Mostly online articles.
http://www.bpb.de/files/X9WN7C.pdf
'War die DDR ein Unrechtsstaat?' Article about evaluating the perception of the level of justice, political system and quality of life in the GDR by its citizens as compared to West German citizens.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/DKEMYS,0,0,20_Jahre_StasiAufarbeitung.html
Article about opening the Stasi files and the consequences up to the present day.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/EP27JC,0,0,Wir_leben_in_friedlicher_Koexistenz.html
Interview with a sociologist about relations between former East and West Germans 20 years on.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/FXJA2R,0,0,Lange_Wege_der_Deutschen_Einheit.html
Extensive dossier about political developments since reunification.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/INEDB7,0,Prager_Fr%FChling.html
Dossier on the Prague Spring with historical articles and written and video interviews, including an interview with Christa Wolf.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/JIRGFC,0,Kontraste_Auf_den_Spuren_einer_Diktatur_.html
Using West German magazine articles to trace GDR history 1987-2001.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/KGBNU7,0,Deutsche_Teilung_Deutsche_Einheit.html
Extensive dossier on the GDR with articles, videos, interviews, photos, graphs and a quiz.
Teaching materials, links, film and book suggestions and a collection of texts and videos about GDR history (and 9 November 1938).
http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/12/078/1207820.pdf
First report of the Enquete commission on dealing with the consequences of the SED-dictatorship in the GDR as a political task, on behalf of the Bundestag, 31.05.94
http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/13/110/1311000.pdf
Final report of the Enquete commission on dealing with the consequences of the SED-dictatorship in the GDR as a political task, on behalf of the Bundestag, 10.06.98)
http://www.stiftung-aufarbeitung.de/downloads/pdf/sabrow-bericht.pdf
Sabrow-Bericht, 15.05.2006, recommendations of acommission of experts on founding an association for coming to terms with the GDR-past, named after the chairman Sabrow
http://www.zeitgeschichte-online.de/site/40208619/default.aspx
Articles and other materials about many different aspects of German history, including some GDR themes.
Weblinks, books, films, documentaries, information on museums and historical sites, teaching materials and eyewitness accounts of the GDR and Wende.
http://www.zeitzeugenportal8990.de/index.php?id=internet
This page contains links to lots of websites about the events of 1989-90.
Extensive collection of images, sound recordings and text documents for 163 days of the Wende, from 7 October 1989 to 18 March 1990.
http://www.spiegel.de/flash/flash-19493.html
An interactive map to show the history of the revolution in 1989-1990.
http://www.spiegel.de/thema/ddr/
Themed page with links to articles about the GDR.
http://www.spiegel.de/thema/wiedervereinigung/
Themed page about reunification with links to articles and video footage.
http://www.zeit.de/2006/08/I__1953__26_dn_17juni
Historical account of protest on 17 June 1953.
http://www.zeit.de/2006/27/gedenkst-ttenreportage
Discussion of GDR sites of memory through interviews with victims and those in charge: Marienborn, Museum in der Runden Ecke- Leipzig, Bautzen.
http://www.zeit.de/2009/20/Buergerrechtler-1989
Interview with four Bürgerrechtler about the revolution and its results.
http://www.zeit.de/2009/39/Leipzig-Berlin-Heldenstadt
Debate over whether Berlin or Leipzig was the real hero of the peaceful revolution and cause of the end of the GDR.
http://www.zeit.de/2009/40/Spaete-Flucht-89
Experiences of people who fled from the GDR shortly before unification.
http://www.zeit.de/2009/46/DDR-46
Reflection by famous East Germans on life in the GDR towards its end.
http://www.zeit.de/2009/46/L-SM-Fuehrer
About Christian Führer, priest of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig.
http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2009-11/demonstration-ddr-alex
An East German journalist’s account of the protest in East Berlin on 4/11/1989.
http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/31/ddr-opposition-wende
Discussion of how those who fled the GDR are viewed in contrast with those who protested, with reflection from East Germans.
GDR History Secondary Literature
Printable PDF-version of the bibliography
This is in no way an exhaustive list of secondary literature on GDR history. The emphasis is primarily on English language texts and on broad overviews or standard works.
Allinson, Mark, Politics and Popular Opinion in East Germany 1945-68 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)
Barker, Peter (ed.), The Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany: Modern Post-Communism or Nostalgic Populism?, German Monitor 42 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998)
Barker, Peter (ed.), The GDR and its History: Rückblick und Revision: Die DDR im Spiegel der Enquete-Kommissionen, German Monitor 49 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000)
Barker, Peter, Marc-Dietrich Ohse and Dennis Tate, Views from Abroad: Die DDR aus britischer Perspektive (Bielefeld: Bertelsmann, 2007)
Bauerkämper, Arnd, Die Sozialgeschichte der DDR (Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005)
Beattie, Andrew H., Playing Politics with History: The Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany (New York: Berghahn, 2008)
Betts, Paul, Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic (Oxford: OUP, 2010)
Buchstab, Günter (ed.), Geschichte der DDR und deutsche Einheit, Studien zu Politik und Wissenschaft (Schwalbach: Wochenschau, 1999)
Childs, David, The fall of the GDR: Germany's road to unity (Longman, 2001)
Connelly, John, ‘East German Higher Education Policies and Student Resistance, 1945-1948’, Central European History, 28 (1995) 3, 259-298
Cooke, Paul, Jonathan Grix (eds), East German: Continuity and Change, German Monitor 46 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000)
Dale, Gareth, Popular Protest in East Germany, 1945-1989 (Routledge, 2005)
Dennis, Mike, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990 (2000)
Dennis, Mike, The Stasi: Myth and Reality (Pearson, 2003)
Fenemore, Mark, Sex, Thugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Teenage Rebels in Cold-War East Germany (Berghahn, 2007)
Fulbrook, Mary, Anatomy of a Dictatorship (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)
Fulbrook, Mary, Interpretations of the Two Germanies, 1945-1990, 2nd edn (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000)
Fulbrook, Mary, The people's state: East German society from Hitler to Honecker (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005)
Grix, Jonathan and Paul Cooke (eds), East German Distinctiveness in a Unified Germany (Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press, 2002)
Herminghouse, Patricia, ‘Confronting the “Blank Spots of History”: GDR Culture and the Legacy of “Stalinism”’, German Studies Review, 14 (1991) 2, 345-365
Jarausch, Konrad H. (ed.), After Unity: Reconfiguring German Identities (Providence, Oxford: Berghahn, 1997)
Jarausch, Konrad H. (ed.), Dictatorship as Experience (New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 1999)
Judt, Matthias (ed.), DDR-Geschichte in Dokumenten. Beschlüsse, Berichte, interne Materialien und Alltagszeugnisse (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1998)
Kaelble, Hartmut, Jürgen Kocka and Hartmut Zwahr (eds), Sozialgeschichte der DDR (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994)
Kelly, Elaine and Amy Wlodarski, Outside the Lines: New Perspectives on GDR Art Culture, German Monitor 74 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2011)
Kowalczuk, Ilko-Sascha and Stefan Wolle, Roter Stern über Deutschland (Berlin: Christoph Links, 2001)
Last, George, After the Socialist ‘Spring’: Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR (Berghahn, 2009)
Lindenberger, Thomas (ed.), Herrschaft und Eigen-Sinn in der Diktatur: Studien zur Gesellschaftsgeschichte der DDR (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau, 1999)
Madarasz, Jeannette, Conflict and Compromise in East Germany, 1971-1989: A Precarious Stability (New York: Palgrave, 2003)
Mählert, Ulrich, Kleine Geschichte der DDR (C.H. Beck, 1999)
Mählert, Ulrich and Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan, Blaue Hemden - Rote Fahnen: Die Geschichte der Freien Deutschen Jugend, (Opladen: Edition Deutschland Archiv / Leske + Budrich, 1996)
Major, Patrick, Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power (Oxford: OUP, 2009)
Major, Patrick; Osmond, Jonathan (eds.), The Workers' and Peasants' State: Communism and Society in East Germany und Ulbricht 1945-71 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002)
McAdams, A. James, Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
McFalls, Laurence H. and Lothar Probst (eds), After the GDR: New Perspectives on the Old GDR and the Young Lander, German Monitor 54 (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2001)
Meuschel, Sigrid, Legitimation und Parteiherrschaft in der DDR (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992)
Mitter, Armin and Stefan Wolle, Untergang auf Raten: Unbekannte Kapitel der DDR-Geschichte (Munich: Bertelsmann, 1993)
Neubert, Erhard, Geschichte der Opposition in der DDR 1949-1989 (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1997)
Nothnagle, Alan L., Building the East German Myth: Historical Mythology and Youth Propaganda in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1989 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999)
Oldenburg, Fred S., and Michel Vale, ‘The October Revolution in the GDR: System, History, and Causes’, Eastern European Economics, 29 (1990) 1, 55-77
Palmowski, Jan, Inventing a Socialist Nation: Heimat and the Politics of Everyday Life in the GDR, 1945-1990 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Pence, Katherine and Paul Betts (eds), Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2007)
Pond, Elizabeth, ‘A Wall Destroyed: The Dynamics of German Unification in the GDR’, International Security, 15 (1990) 2, 35-66
Port, Andrew I., Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic (Cambridge: CUP, 2008)
Pritchard, Gareth, The making of the GDR, 1945-53: from Antifascism to Stalinism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000)
Ross, Corey, The East German Dictatorship (London: Arnold, 2002)
Sabrow, Martin, Erinnerungsorte der DDR (Beck, 2009)
Saunders, Anna, Honecker’s Children: Youth and Patriotism in East(ern) Germany (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007)
Schroeder, Klaus, Der SED-Staat. Partei, Staat und Gesellschaft 1945-1990 (Carl Hanser, 1998)
Schroeder, Klaus, Kompaktwissen für Schülerinnen und Schüler. Die DDR: Geschichte und Strukturen (Reklam, 2011)
von Richthofen, Esther, Bringing Culture to the Masses: Control, Compromise and Participation in the GDR (Berghahn, 2009)
Wolle, Stefan, Untergang auf Raten: unbekannte Kapitel der DDR Geschichte (1993)
Wolle, Stefan, Die heile Welt der Diktatur: Alltag und Herrschaft in der DDR 1971-1989 (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1998)
Wolle, Stefan, Aufbruch nach Utopia: Alltag und Herrschaft in der DDR 1961-1971 (Ch. Links, 2011)
Wolle, Stefan, DDR: Eine kurze Geschichte (Fischer, 2011)
The journal Deutschland Archiv also contains a large variety of articles on GDR history in German.