35.3 - Integration or Exclusion
Focus
- Remy, Dietmar; Salheiser, Axel: Integration or exclusion: former national socialists in the GDR.
- Fehlauer, Heinz: NS-Unterlagen aus dem Berlin Document Center und die Debatte um ehemalige NSDAP-Mitgliedschaften.
- Best, Heinrich: The formation of socialist elites in the GDR: continuities with national socialist Germany.
- Meenzen, Sandra: "Gutes Klassenbewusstsein, Parteiverbundenheit und Prinzipienfestigkeit": SED-Sekretäre mit NSDAP-Vergangenheit in Thüringen.
- Gieseke, Jens: Antifaschistischer Staat und postfaschistische Gesellschaft: die DDR, das MfS und die NS-Täter.
- Kuhlemann, Jens: Differenzierte Biografien, differenzierte Integration: ehemalige Nationalsozialisten in der Deutschen Wirtschaftskommission und den DDR-Regierungsdienststellen (1948-1957).
- Salheiser, Axel: Social inequality, mobility, and the illegitimate inheritance of status: recruitment and career patterns of GDR business elites.
- Müller, Armin: Konkurrierende Netzwerke: SED und alte Intelligenz in Unternehmen der DDR-Industrie.
- Gebauer, Ronald: The peaceful revolution and its aftermath: collective memory and the victims of communism in East Germany.
Mixed Issue
- Marx, Johannes: Path dependency and change in international relations: institutional dynamics in the field of intellectual property rights.
- Bang Petersen, Michael; Skaaning, Svend-Erik: Ultimate causes of state formation: the significance of biogeography, diffusion, and neolithic revolutions.
- Müller-Benedict, Volker: The quantitative development of academic careers in Germany 1850-1940: growth, exams and age structure.
- Mochmann, Ingvill C.; Lee, Sabine: The human rights of children born of war: case analyses of past and present conflicts.
- Morgan, Katalin: Scholarly and values-driven objectives in two South African school history textbooks: an analysis of topics of race and racism.
- Zhukov, Dmitry; Lyamin, Sergey K.: Computer modeling of historical processes by means of fractal geometry.
- Munshi, Soumyanetra: Partisan competition and women's suffrage in the United States.
- Hoang, Thi Hong van: The gold market at the Paris stock exchange: a risk-return analysis 1950-2003.
- Veselkova, Marcela: Income shocks to trade balance under the gold standard.
HSR Vol. 35 (2011) No. 3: Focus: Integration or Exclusion
Dietmar Remy & Axel Salheiser (Eds.): Integration or Exclusion: Former National Socialists in the GDR
Not only West Germany saw the social rehabilitation of former members of the NSDAP after 1945, nominal Nazis also got their chance in the GDR. Due to the omnipresent state myth of anti-fascism, disclosed brown shadows of the past could put careers at risk anytime, but submissive loyalty to the young socialist state and its leadership could balance the scales. Honest autobiographical information was demanded from all cadres – and the fallacies of a misled Third Reich youth (or needed members of the old intelligentsia) were likely to be forgiven in order to appeal to their gratitude. However, simply keeping silent turned out even more successful a strategy in many cases: the general exculpation of the populace and the anti-fascist propaganda made serious checks and Stasi investigations inopportune for the Communist regime.
This focus of Historical Social Research addresses the ambiguous relation of integration and exclusion of former National Socialists in East Germany and the discourse of exculpation. Besides case studies on a variety of institutions and statistical analyses of their personnel, three general questions are discussed: What was state party SED’s actual strategy regarding former members of the NSDAP and NS perpetrators and to what extend did this strategy change over time? How many former National Socialists could embark on socialist cadre careers in the GDR? And how many of them could get away with lies about their past?