No. I.-II.
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Articles
Martin Sabrow
The Historiography of the GDR as a Research Problem
Dierk Hoffmann
Regulation of the Labour Market in the Soviet Occupied Zone and, later, the GDR, 1945-61
Friederike Sattler
From a War Economy to a Planned Economy:
The Role of Traditional Institutions in the Building of the Economic System in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, 1945-52
Peter Skyba
Youth Policy in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, 1945-61
Jutta Braun
‘The Circuitous Road to Socialism’:
The Central Control Commission as a Special Organ of the SED Régime
Roger Engelmann
The Functional Transformation of the State Security Forces
Arnd Bauerkämper and Jürgen Danyel
The Cadres Make All the Decisions:
The management Style and Self-Image of the East-German Elites
Stefan Wolle
‘I Am What I Am, Thanks to It’:
The SED in Everyday Life in the GDR
Michael Richter
The Special Nature of the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR as Part of the Great Changes in Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe
Reviews
Rainer Karlsch
New Research on the History of the SED State:
A Review Essay on Work Concerning the Technology and Economy of the GDR
Bernd Schäfer
SED Policy on the Church
Sources and Institutions
Sabine Roß
‘The Central Cadre Database’ of the Council of Ministers of the GDR
Hermann Weber and Ulrich Mählert
The Current State of Sources on the History of the GDR
Jens Gieseke
The Stasi Files as a Source for the Study of Contemporary History
Bernd Schäfer
The Church Archives
Dierk Hoffmann
Regional Archives
Bibliography
Silke Schumann
A Select Bibliography on the History of the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR
German historiography of the GDR is in many respects in a better situation than the historiography of other formerly Communist countries in Eastern Europe. It can certainly boast more convincing and more comprehensive results. German historiography is, in fact, almost unique situated. This is largely because, as an academic discipline concerned with research on the ‘SED state’, it is well-defined and has existed since well before the Changes of 1989; it has also had nearly complete access to the records which the GDR and its institutions left behind, and has profited from an abundance of institutions and scholars.
For Czech historians, the results of research on the GDR are all the more interesting because both Communist régimes – the East German and the Czechoslovak – had a great deal in common. It is only natural, therefore, that the editors of Soudobé dějiny should want to present Czech readers with a survey of German archives, research institutions, topics, methods, and results of research on the GDR.
In 1998 we approached colleagues from the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden, and asked them if they would prepare a German number of Soudobé dějiny. Our Dresden colleagues – the Director of the Hannah Arendt Institute Klaus-Dietmal Henke, Christoph Boyer, and Jörg Osterloh – responded enthusiastically, and within a year had compiled a large set of typescripts, which they edited and sent to Prague. The articles were written by a number of other colleagues from several German research institutions. We have not altered them in any way. For technical reasons, the original version of the Bibliography has been left as compiled according to German usage. Our task in Prague was to see to the proper translation of the contributions.
On behalf of the editors I wish to apologize to our readers, authors, and German editors for the delay that arose during translation and resulted in this double-issue being published about six months behind scheduled.
This number of Soudobé dějiny is thematically conceived as a survey of recent German research into the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Special attention is devoted to economic and social history. The articles were written on the basis of recently completed (or about to be completed) dissertations or are the results of recent research projects. Taken all together, they provide a picture of the state of the most recent research in this area. The authors are predominantly of the young and middle generations of historians from west and east Germany.
In selecting the articles, we have sought to present the most important German institutions concerned with the history of the GDR, and some idea of the focus of the work going on there.
The Institute of Contemporary History, Prague, entrusted the compiling of this number to the Hannah Arendt Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, Dresden, among whose main topics is the history of Czechoslovakia and of Czechoslovak relations with its German neighbour(s). We consider this a confirmation of the solidly based collaboration of the two research institutes. This is certainly not the last project to be based on a number of shared aims.
Dresden, November 1998
Martin Sabrow
East German historiography, which was already in a state of decay ideologically during the revolutionary months, also fell apart institutionally during the reunification of Germany. At the end of the process, the historical sciences in the GDR changed from a developing secondary sprout into a dead branch of a field that had a history of more than two hundred years. Seen from the perspective of ‘bourgeois’ historical sciences, it declined from the position of historiographical actor to being a subject of historical research. Hand in hand with that, the historicization under way is not only expanding the base of sources for the formation of opinion on the now completed development of East German historiography; it also means the liberation of judgement from political bonds and provides impulses for considering the theoretical and methodological basis of the scholarly investigation of East German historiography.
Should it be measured primarily by the yardstick of the demands that it itself set and analyzed from the point of view of the system itself? Or, alternatively, is the only possible basis of a future picture of the historiography of East Germany to be established using the universal standards of scholarship in the West, which were once condemned as being ‘bourgeois’? Is it, then, appropriate to write the history of the GDR ‘from within’ or ‘from without’? Or is there behind the inner and outer perspectives a third perspective that maintains an equilibrium between ‘history of the victors’ and ‘ostalgia’ (nostalgia for the East)? To which partial historical discipline does the work of the other German historiography belong? Must it be considered a part of the history of dictatorship, which inquires into the contribution history made to maintaining the SED régime and its state, and places at the centre of attention the link between politics and academia in the GDR? Or is it primarily part of the history of scholarship, which, for example, places the East German and West German development of the discipline into their context, investigates the continuity and discontinuity of the discipline in the GDR, and inquires into the contribution East German historians have made to our conception of history? Can one ultimately make generalizations about historiography in the GDR? Or, upon closer scrutiny, does this monolithic image of socialist historiography disintegrate into individual pieces, which differ from one another either by their nature or by the various schools and groups they represent, and are defined completely differently, according to how remote they were from the legitimizing pressures of the régime?
Against the background of these questions the author presents an overview of the history of historiography in the GDR and of the various interpretative approaches to the special phenomenon of ‘historiography in chains’ in a socialist state.
Regulation of the Labour Market in the Soviet Occupied Zone and, later, the GDR, 1945–6
Dierk Hoffmann
No overall plan for the control of the labour force in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR ever existed. Rather, this sphere of the centrally controlled economy depended on a number of factors, all of which contributed to the fact that immediately after its defeat in World War II Germany did not go straight from a wartime economy of rationing to a planned economy. Between 1945 and 1947 some changes occurred at the middle level, which determined overall economic conditions and made almost impossible a return to capitalism with private ownership of property and the means of production (for example, with land reform, sequestration, and confiscation of bank assets).
The first step towards state regulation of the labour market in the Soviet Occupied Zone and then the GDR was the total registration and categorization of persons fit for employment. Their subsequent assignment to various workplaces was to be determined by the labour offices. The re-introduction of the compulsory holding of a work registration booklet (the Arbeitsbuch) was to ensure control over the employment of every individual. Anybody reluctant to accept the job assigned to him or her was in danger of losing his or her food-ration tickets. The politicians and bureaucrats in charge of labour and the SED leadership, however, were soon forced to consider the fact that their ideas about the control of the labour force were often merely wishful thinking and could hardly be realized. In view of their lack of qualifications, workers submitting to the regulation of the market had to re-qualify or be trained from scratch. Among the instruments used for the control of labour, therefore, were institutions of job counselling, training, and re-qualification.
Till the establishment of the GDR, in 1949, methods were used to force people into certain kinds of jobs. In the years that followed, persons could go for jobs where there were vacancies. The SED leadership placed increasing importance on wage policy. It first decided to increase wages in mining and metallurgy, in order to create motivation for the voluntary movement of workers into these areas. The labour board, however, till the building of the Berlin Wall, in 1961, had very limited room for manoeuvre; that was determined by the Soviet occupying authorities, their demands that workers should be assigned to Soviet joint-stock companies, and the open frontier across which at least 2.7 million persons emigrated from east to west Germany.
From a War Economy to a Planned Economy:
The Role of Traditional Institutions in the Building of the Economic System in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, 1945–52
Friederike Sattler
The author explores the extent to which traditional German institutions were employed in Sovietization in the Soviet Occupied Zone immediately after WW II. She analyzes the functional transformation of the Chambers of Commerce in the transition from wartime economy to planned economy. Already in the late 1930s the Chambers of Commerce were changed from institutions of economic self-management to a fixed part of the planning and controlling bureaucracy of the wartime economy without any meaningful authority of their own. This transformation made it possible, after the war, for the Chambers of Commerce to be used without much difficulty as instruments of control and for the incorporation of private trades and businesses into the nascent centrally planned economy, without the authority to influence its operation. Under the economic conditions at the time, the return to traditional Chambers of Commerce did not act as a brake on the nascent Sovietization . Rather, it tended to act as a catalyst in that process.
Youth Policy in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, 1945–61
Peter Skyba
The Communist régime in East Germany hoped that it would be able to win over the population, particularly the youth, and mobilize it in order to realize its aims. With the founding of the Free German Youth (FDJ) association, in 1946, the Communists (first the German Communist Party – KPD, later the Socialist Unity Party – SED), against the will of the other political parties, successfully pushed for a united youth organization, a concept they had adopted as their own as early as the 1930s. By ensuring their predominance in the leading organs of this ‘mass organization’ they also achieved a monopoly on the organizing of ‘work with youth’.
In the early 1950s there were increasingly clear signs of a crisis in the Free German Youth. The crisis had resulted from an attempt systematically to indoctrinate all members of the association in Marxist-Leninist ideology, and mainly to militarize them, which was accompanied by an extensive recruitment campaign for the armed forces. It became clear that the Free German Youth was unable to have practically any meaningful influence on its members, as long as it did not in practice respect their needs and interests. The failure of SED youth policy was soon demonstrated by the surprisingly large number of young people who took part in the popular uprising of 17 June 1953. In the years that followed, youth policy oscillated between efforts to provide young persons with comprehensive ‘education in the socialist spirit’ and ‘mobilization’ and, on the other hand, the recognized necessity to accommodate them in at least some respects.
Only under the weight of the problem of mass emigration by young people did some possibilities appear for youth to participate freely in the Free German Youth. The impulse for reform, which was hotly debated at the top levels of the SED, did not, of course, wait for the end of the ‘thaw’, in 1956, and the troubled Free German Youth found itself on the verge of dissolution. Nor did the gradual stabilization of the association in later years bring any increase in its prestige amongst the youth or a solution to the problems that chronically stemmed from this. SED youth policy can thus serve as evidence that the SED régime’s attempt to establish a dictatorial ordering of society met with only partial success.
‘The Circuitous Road to Socialism’:
The Central Control Commission as a Special Organ of the SED Régime
Jutta Braun
After nationalization officially came to an end in the GDR, in the spring of 1948, the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and the Soviet occupation authorities discovered that the last bit of the private sector would remained preserved. At the same time, however, strict legislation relating to economics was adopted as part of the criminal code; this included the sanction of expropriation of property, thus enabling expropriation of private businesses by the courts. Consequently, liquidation of part of the private sector did not take place under the slogan ‘socialism’, which the Soviet leadership, in view of overall German policy, at first eschewed; instead, it was carried out by making private business a crime.
Political trials against the owners of private businesses were now given the green light. The Central Control Commission (ZKK) was soon involved in these trials as an investigative organ. This body was established in the spring of 1948 and was mainly composed of persons loyal to the SED. Its task, however, was not merely to investigate; it chiefly served as a political corrective to the courts, which, in the early phases of the GDR were not a source of loyal support for SED policy. The Commission was able to be involved in investigation at all levels; it also had access to court documents, and could personally influence magistrates and state representatives, as well as intervene directly in the trial throughout its course.
The first show trial directed by the ZKK took place in the summer of 1948, expressly referring to the trial of Leonid Ramzin in the Soviet Union, in the 1930s, as its model. Already in the year before the founding of the GDR, there had been shocking violations of the principles of the rule of law. Later, in 1950, four large show trials took place in quick succession, supervised by the ZKK. Private farmers were also faced with intensified repression allegedly for not having made the compulsory deliveries. In connection with the ‘new course’ in judicial policy, begun in 1953, the ZKK was moved out of the limelight. It was ultimately replaced as an investigative body by the State Security Forces (Stasi), which were endowed with far more extensive powers.
The Functional Transformation of the State Security Forces
Roger Engelmann
The State Security Forces (Stasi) in the GDR, like their Soviet model, constituted a secret police force, a secret intelligence agency, and an official investigative organ. This concentration of power was typical of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) throughout the forty years of its existence. The central instrument of power of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), however, underwent substantial changes in connection with developments in the GDR and international politics. One can distinguish roughly three phases: (1) the initial securing of power in conflict with the extensive opposition to the régime (till 1956); (2) the relatively established régime of ‘real-existing socialism’, well versed in preventative repression (1957–75); and (3) a defensive stabilization strategy whose main component was the creation of a fictive normality in the conditions of the growing international détente (1976–89).
The evolution of the Ministry of State Security was on the whole characterized by an enormous growth in the number of employees and in the number of tasks. This growth was orientated to the creation of an organ of control with unlimited powers. The classic approaches of the secret police were increasingly replaced with strategies of preventive control and of clandestinely influencing the whole society. Repression as a deterrent was increased in many cases with the authorities’ use of ‘quiet’ methods, which sought to simulate normality and consensus within and without. Considering their overall taxing nature, however, the measures were, in structural terms, permanently beyond the strength of the apparat.
The Cadres Make All the Decisions:
The management Style and Self-Image of the East-German Elites
Arnd Bauerkämper and Jürgen Danyel
The leading groups within the SED régime distanced themselves from the traditional élites, their typical characteristics, and social differences. They saw themselves as part of a new, egalitarian society. This self-image was strengthened by the far-reaching change of élites in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, during which time members of the hitherto underprivileged social groups were able to achieve leading positions. Particularly among the political élite of the GDR, however, the élites’ conception of their own role was also forming, based on the Leninist doctrine that the Communist Party is the ‘revolutionary vanguard of the working class’. This feeling of superiority of the Communist leading ‘cadres’ could also, in their view, be legitimated by their anti-Fascist past, persecution, and the resistance to the Nazi régime. In practice, apart from these moot models of legitimation, the SED leadership, as an élite, claimed the right to all power and to take decisions on all important social problems. The present article mainly sets out to investigate how this ambivalent situation among East-German élites influenced their style of management and governing.
In the 1950s vacated positions in the various spheres of society were filled by the functional élites, who, on the basis of their expertise and political indoctrination, enjoyed a high social standing. The style of management and decision-making of these ‘cadres’ is characterized by the commanding tone of state directives and the expressly ideological argumentation, which denigrated professional management approaches not linked to politics. The article argues that this style of management, despite the demise of the utopian social vision, determined SED ‘cadre policy’ right up to the final days of the Honecker era.
‘I Am What I Am, Thanks to It’:
The SED in Everyday Life in the GDR
Stefan Wolle
The propagandistic formula concerning the ‘leading role of the Party’ was not some abstract ideological topos in the GDR. Instead it was the political reality, determining the everyday life of the citizens of the country. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland – SED), however, did not govern solely by administrative means. It surrounded itself with an aura of great and long-term effectiveness. ‘The Party’ was the incarnation of the transcendental idea of salvation. Every member owed his or her unconditional loyalty to it. In this sense the Party ranked even above the State, which, in the case of the GDR, it outlived. This status was clearly reflected in the language of the GDR, both in ordinary conversation and as used by the Party functionaries, particularly in official statements.
With its mystifications, power structures, and rituals, the Party determined everyday life in the GDR at all levels and in all spheres of society, with the exception of the Church. SED membership was of decisive importance, for example, in enabling promotion in one’s job, the education of one’s children, social status, and the possibility to travel abroad. Persons who were not SED members, however, were, in exceptional cases, not always condemned to remain at the bottom of the social ladder.
The organizational structures of the SED controlled all spheres of society, including the so-called ‘mass organizations’ and the parties of the so-called Blockpartei. Power was administered mainly by means of the nomenklatura system. With SED-loyal superiors selecting persons for employment and promotion, the SED ensured itself a dominant position in all spheres over the long run. Professional qualifications were at best merely one criterion among many. Party loyalty was always paramount. Over the long-term, however, the suppression of personal initiative, of criticism, and of independent thinking, damaged the mechanisms necessary for the healthy functioning of society, and ultimately led to the demise of the Communist system.
The Special Nature of the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR as Part of the Great Changes in Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe
Michael Richter
The author proceeds from the hypothesis that the conceptual tools for describing the ‘peaceful revolution’ must be measured by the standards of theoretical discourse on revolutions. This poses several problems. The revolution in the GDR was part of the revolution in Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe, that is to say, part of global changes. Consequently a question arises concerning the proportion of general and particular features in developments in the countries of the former East bloc. One of their basic common features was the anti-utopian character of the whole revolution, whose aim was for these countries to be able to join in developments going on in modern Western societies. That, naturally, does not apply in equal measure to all states; each of them, during the revolutionary changes, also included a national (ethnic) component. Developments in the GDR were to a considerable extent influenced by the fact of a divided Germany. The aims of revolution there were not only the establishment of democracy, human rights, and a market economy with socialist features; they also included the wish of a great part of the population for the reunification of the two German states. In this sense, the German situation was substantially different from developments in Czechoslovakia, where national aspirations, by contrast, led to the division of the shared state into two countries.
New Research on the History of the SED State:
A Review Essay on Work Concerning the Technology and Economy of the GDR
Rainer Karlsch
The author presents and evaluates eleven publications written by German historians, who are concerned with various aspects of GDR history, particularly its economy, science and scholarship, and technology.
Bernd Schäfer
The author provides an overview of monographs, essay volumes, relevant articles, and editions of documents, which are concerned with the position of the Churches in the GDR and their relationship with the Communist régime, and were published in Germany during the last ten years. In particular he discusses publications concerned with the Evangelical Church, other Protestant Churches, religious associations, and the Jewish Community. He makes frequent reference to a fact that has been intensely discussed in academic, journalistic, and political circles – namely, that the relationship between the state, the ruling Party, and the Churches was formed not only on the basis of open or clandestine confrontation (in other words, of various forms of persecution and, on the other hand, efforts at maintaining independence); the relationship also consisted in collaboration between ecclesiastics and the state security forces. This relationship is outlined and also explained in some detail by some of the publications discussed in this review.
‘The Central Cadre Database’ of the Council of Ministers of the GDR
Sabine Roß
The author describes the history and operation of the enormous cardfile database of personal information, which the East German Government began in 1972. This database became one of the important instruments of ‘cadre policy’ of the governing Party. It was used for planning and monitoring the leading bureaucrats in the state, particularly in the economics bodies. After German reunification the database, containing a great quantity of information on hundreds of thousands of East Germans, was moved to the Federal Archive in Koblenz, and now constitutes a valuable collection of records for scholars researching the history of the GDR.
The Current State of Sources on the History of the GDR
Hermann Weber and Ulrich
Mählert The authors first provide a concise recapitulation of the development of the situation in German archive science and its practice after the re-unification of the country. They also describe its current state, with a focus on the accessibility of archive record groups. They then provide information on the most important archives and libraries, and offer an overview of the record groups related to the history of the GDR, which are deposited in them. They also list the addresses of the relevant institutions, together with their telephone and fax numbers. This is supplemented with annotations regarding handbooks and guidebooks to German archives.
The Stasi Files as a Source for the Study of Contemporary History
Jens Gieseke
This article familiarizes the reader with the history of files of the Ministry of State Security in the GDR (the Stasi) the way they have been made accessible by the body that now manages them – namely, the Berlin-based Office of the Federal Commissioner for Documentation of the Stasi in the former GDR (BStU). It also provides information on the size of this collection (178 kilometres of documents) and its nature. The author considers possible ways of using these records in historical research and the extent to which they are credible.
Bernd Schäfer
This is a survey of the archives of the Protestant Churches and Roman Catholic Church in the former GDR. It includes their addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.
Dierk Hoffmann An overview of the archives in the different states of the former GDR and their holdings which originated from the workings of the state, Party, or businesses is offered here. This contribution also lists addresses and telephone and fax numbers.
This contribution provides basic information on German institutions concerned with research into the history of the GDR. It lists their addresses and telephone numbers, the names of people on staff, their research orientation, regular publications, and their library and archive holdings. The survey is supplemented with presentations of all the institutions listed (written by the institutions themselves).
A Select Bibliography on the History of the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR
Compiled by Silke Schumann
The bibliography contains independently published works and some articles from journals on the topic of the GDR, which have been published since 1989. Earlier titles are given in bibliographies listed here.
Arnd Bauerkämper (1958) is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam. His work focuses on the social history of the GDR, élites, and British right-wing radicalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. His publications include Die ‘radikale Rechte’ in Großbritanien: Nationalistische, antisemitische und faschistische Bewegungen vom späten 19. Jahrhundert bis 1945 (Göttingen, 1991).
Christoph Boyer (1953) is Senior Researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden, and Privatdozent of Social and Economic History, at the Dresden University of Technology. Among his recent publications is Nationale Kontrahenten oder Partner? Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen Tschechen und Deutschen in der Wirtschaft der ČSR (Munich, 1999).
Jutta Braun (1967) is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Scholarship on Sport, Potsdam. Her professional interests range from the social and economic history of the GDR to the history of sport.
Jürgen Danyel (1959) is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam. The focus of his work is the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, élites in the GDR, and the political treatment of the past in the two German states. He is co-author of Gesellschaft ohne Eliten? Führungsgruppen in der DDR (Berlin, 1997).
Roger Engelmann (1956) is Head of Research at the Office of the Federal Commissioner for Documentation of the Stasi, Berlin. He has published work on Italian Fascism, the relations between East and West Germany, and the State Security Forces in the GDR, including (with Karl Wilhelm Frick) ‘Konzentrierte Schläge’: Staatssicherheitsaktionen und politische Prozesse in der DDR 1953–1956 (Berlin, 1998).
Jens Gieseke (1964) is Senior Researcher at the Department for Teaching and Research in the Office of the Federal Commissioner for Documentation of the Stasi, Berlin. He is concerned with the history of the State Security Forces in the GDR. His publications include Das Ministerium für Staatssicherheit 1950–1989/90: Ein kurzer historischer Abriß (Berlin, 1998).
Dierk Hoffmann (1963) is Senior Research at the Berlin offices of the Institute of Contemporary History, Munich. His area of specialization is social history, and his publications include Sozialpolitische Neuordnung in der SBZ/DDR: Der Umbau der Sozialversicherung 1945–1956 (Munich, 1996).
Rainer Karlsch (1957) is Senior Research Assistant in economics at the Free University of Berlin. He also specializes in social history. His publications include Allein bezahlt? Die Reparationsleistungen der SBZ/DDR 1945–1953 (Berlin, 1993).
Ulrich Mählert (1968) is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, and Co-ordinator of the history forum ‘1949/89/99: A Divided Past – A Shared History?’. His publications include Kleine Geschichte der DDR (Munich, 1998) and, as co-author with Gerd-Rüdigerem Stephan, Blaue Hemden – Rote Fahnen: Die Geschichte der Freien Deutschen Jugend (Leverkusen, 1996).
Jörg Osterloh (1967) is Senior Research at the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden. His main professional interest is social history and he has published articles mainly on POWs during WW II. At present he is working on his dissertation on the Nazi persecution of the Jews in the Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with a focus on the Aryanization of their property.
Michael Richter (1952) is Senior Researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden, The focus of his professional interest is political history, particularly that of the Christian Democrats in the GDR and the last years of the SED régime. His publications include Die Staatssicherheit im letzten Jahr der DDR (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna, 1996).
Sabine Roß (1962) is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History Studies, Potsdam. She is concerned with political and social history, and collaborated on the publication Gesellschaft ohne Eliten? Führungsgruppen in der DDR (Berlin, 1997).
Martin Sabrow (1954) is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, and leads a research project there. The focus of his work is the history of historiography, historical memory, relations between East and West Germany, and Walther Rathenau. He is the author of Die verdrängte Verschwörung: Der Rathenau-Mord und die deutsche Gegenrevolution (Frankfurt, 1999).
Friederike Sattler (1964) is Senior Researcher at the Association for Research on the SED State, at the Free University of Berlin. She has published on the economic and Party system in the Soviet Occupied Zone and the GDR, and is currently preparing a dissertation on that topic.
Bernd Schäfer (1962) is Senior Researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden. His research is primarily on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the GDR. He has published, among other things, Staat und katholische Kirche in der DDR (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna, 1998).
Silke Schumann (1964) was employed in the department of education and research in the Office of the Federal Commissioner for Documentation of the Stasi, Berlin. She is now a Senior Researcher in the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden. Her main area of professional interest is the history of the Stasi and social history. Her publications include Parteierziehung in der Geheimpolizei: Zur Rolle der SED im MfS der fünfziger Jahre (Berlin, 1997).
Peter Skyba (1961) is Senior Researcher at the Hannah Arendt Institute, Dresden, and is involved in the research project ‘Institutionality and Historicity’ at the Dresden University of Technology. His chief area of professional interest is the relationship between political power and youth in the GDR. His publications include Vom Hoffnungsträger zum Sicherheitsrisiko: Jugend in der DDR und Jugendpolitik der SED 1949–1961 (Cologne and Weimar, 1999).
Hermann Weber (1928) has been Head of Political Science and Contemporary History at Mannheim, since 1975. He is also in charge of research at the Institute of Social Sciences, Mannheim, concerning the history and politics of the GDR. The focus of his work is theory in history and the politics of the Communist and Socialist movement. The most important of his many publications are Die Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus (Frankfurt, 1969) and Die DDR 1945–1990 (Munich, 1993).
Stefan Wolle (1950) is Senior Researcher at the Foundation for Research on the SED Dictatorship. His chief professional interests are the history of political power and everyday life in the GDR. His publications include Die heile Welt der Diktatur: Herrschaft und Alltag in der DDR (1971–1989) (Berlin, 1998).
