Query:

Literature on German Identity

November 1994

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 07:48:46 EST
Subject: Query: German identity

Submitted by: David A. Brenner
brenner@spot.Colorado.EDU

Here is a query for the list:

A doctoral student of mine is looking for recent/contemporary survey
research on German identity, esp. East German identity, as well as any
evidence of FRG governmental policy to foster a common "new and old
Federal States" type of German identity.

Thanks in advance,
David Brenner
Dept. of Germanic/Slavic Langs. and Lits.
University of Colorado at Boulder

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 13:47:35 EST
Subject: Re: Query: German identity

Submitted by: Eric D. Weitz
weitz@STOLAF.EDU

In response to David Brenner's request: I don't know
of survey research as such in the ex-DDR, but certainly anyone
interested in questions of DDR identity should read the results of the
oral history project directed by Lutz Niethammer just before the
Wende. I don't have the full bibliographical citation of the major
work at hand, but the title is *Auf der Suche nach der volkseigene
Erfahrung*. Shorter pieces derived from the same project are:

"Annaehrung an den Wandel: Auf der such nach der volkseigene
Erfahrung in einer Industrieprovinz der DDR," in *Alltagsgeschichte*,
ed. Alf Luedtke (Frankfurt: Campus, 1989).

"Das Volk der DDR und die Revolution: Versuch einer historischer
Wahrnehmung der laufenden Ereignisse," in *Wir sind das Volk!"
ed. Charles Schueddekopf (Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1990).

Also a critically important study about the regime's efforts to
construct identity is:

Meuschel, Sigrid. *Legitimation und Parteiherrschaft in der DDR* (Frankfurt:
Suhrkamp, 1992).

Eric D. Weitz
History Department
St. Olaf College
weitz@stolaf.edu

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 13:50:17 EST
Subject: Re: Query: German identity

Submitted by: Erwin K. Welsch
EWELSCH@MACC.WISC.EDU

There are a few books on identity in post-unification
Germany and an extensive literature during the 1980s. How extensive
does the search need to be? One problem is that there is not a
subject heading for German identity as such. The student might try
such terms as Ethnicity, Identity (Psychology), Group Identity,
National Characteristics combined with Germany for results
in doing a catalog search. Are materials in German wanted?

One book is a historical survey: Harold James, German Identity 1770-1990 (1989)
that might be of use as background. There is another on literary identity,
German Literature at a Time of Change (1991).

In German, Michael Schwarzenau, Deutschland im Umbruch (1991) has a lengthy
bibliography. Additional queries welcome.

Erwin K. Welsch
West European History Librarian
Memorial Library 278G
University of Wisconsin-Madison
728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
EWelsch@WISCMACC.Bitnet
EWelsch@vms2.macc.wisc.edu

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 16:11:00 EST
Subject: Re: Query: German identity

Submitted by: Gerald R. Kleinfeld
ATGRK@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU

Another volume on German Identity is the special issue of the GERMAN
STUDIES REVIEW on German identity also edited by Harold James. 220
pages with contributions by scholars in Germany and the United
States.

G. R. Kleinfeld

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 07:37:00 EST
Subject: Re: Query on German identity

Submitted by: Elisabeth Angele
GICHICAGO@AOL.COM

A recent opinion poll was conducted by the magazine DER SPIEGEL in 1993:

Erst vereint, nun entzweit. Spiegel-Umfrage ueber die Einstellungen der West-
und Ostdeutschen zueinander. Der Spiegel, Nr. 3, 18. Januar 1993, p.52-62.

There have been a couple of articles in THE GERMAN RESEARCH SERVICE, Special
Science Reports, on identity, self-perception, etc.:

People's objective situation better than perceived. Two studies
conducted by the Berlin-based Scientific Center for Social Research
highlight trends in social conditions among east and west Germans.
p.3-4. German Research Service, Vol. X, No. 3/94

East German body language before and after unification. According to
a study, the facial expressions and body language of citizens of the
former GDR clearly reflected feelings of discontent and despondency.
New evidence suggests that these non-verbal signals of frustrations
have since largely vanished. p.3-4, German Research Service, VOL. X,
No.8/94.

"Walls in Heads" still firm. Using "role playing" sessions, east and west
Germans have studied their mutual preconceptions and prejudices, which were
frankly and openly discussed. p. 13-14, The German Research Service, Vol. X,
No. 5/94.

The Impact of the "Unification Shock". Clinical psychologists investigating
social tensions in the former GDR in the wake of German reunification, have
discovered a surprisingly low incidence of mental disorders. p. 9-10. The
German Research Service, Vol. IX, No. 11/93

Highly motivated and resilient. Irrespective of their current economic
worries and integration problems, east Germans are well prepared to
face the challenges of our achievement- oriented society and German
unity. This has been revealed in a study on the shift in attitudes
among east Germans from 1977 until the present day. p. 1-3. The
German Research Service, Vol. IX, No. 2/93

And here are two books:

Nuss, Bernard: Das Faust Syndrom. Ein Versuch ueber die Mentalitaet der
Deutschen. Bonn: Bouvier, 1992. 213 pp. ISBN 3416023722

Weidenfeld, Werner/Korte, Karl-Rudolf: Die Deutschen. Profil einer Nation.
Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, c1991. 275 pp. ISBN 3608913580
reviewed by Manred Kuechler in his article NEW GERMANS IN A NEW GERMANY?,
published in German Politics and Society, Summer 1992, issue 26, p.117-126.

There was also a SPIEGEL SPEZIAL ISSUE, titled DAS PROFIL DER DEUTSCHEN,
1/1991.

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 14:03:36 EST
Subject: Re: Query: German identity

Submitted by: Fritz Heinzen
VonRanke@AOL.COM

Greetings:

A forthcoming book, The American Impact on Postwar Germany edited by Reiner
Pommerin, will have several chapters on postwar German identity. From
Berghahn Books ISBN# 17571810048, ca. $32, probably available at the
beginning of 1995.

The following books have some discussion of German identity, some much more
than others. (Some in fact may have very little on the subject, so please
forgive me if that is the case, I am basing this quick list on my very faulty
memory - it has been 5+ years since I have read some of these works.)

A German Identity, 1770-1990 by Harold James Routledge 1989

The Rubble Years: The Cultural Roots of Postwar Germany by Hermann Glaser
Paragon 1986

Ermath, Michael, ed. America and the Shaping of German Society, 1945-1955.
Berg Publishers 1993

West Germany Today edited by Karl Koch Routledge 1989

Germany's Past and Europe's Future by Edwina S. Campbell
Pergamon-Brassey's 1989

Germany Between East and West edited by Edwina Moreton Cambridge Univ. Pr.
1987

The New Germany and the New Europe edited by Paul B. Stares Brookings
Institution 1992

American Policy and the Reconstruction of West Germany, 1945-1955 edited by
Jeffrey M. Diefendorf, Axel Frohn, & Hermann-Josef Rupieper Cambridge Univ.
Pr. 1993

Regards,
Fritz Heinzen
<VonRanke@aol.com>

Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 07:27:39 EST
Subject: Re: Query: German identity

Submitted by: Georg Fertig
PLUHU3@NYX.UNI-KONSTANZ.DE

It might be worth looking at the polemical article published by
Guenter Kunert, a rather well-known ex-GDR writer, in Sueddeutsche
Zeitung, 15 Nov 1994, on "Unsere Identitaet, unsere Erfahrungen,
unsere Werte". I do not have the exact title here, but it is on the
first feuilleton page.
Georg Fertig

Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 07:29:27 EST
Subject: Re: Query on German identity

Submitted by: Elisabeth Angele
GICHICAGO@AOL.COM

I just discoverd that the HANDWOERTERBUCH ZUR DEUTSCHEN EINHEIT, ed. by
Werner Weidenfeld and Karl-Rudolf Korte, Frankfurt: Campus, 1992, 800 pp.,
ISBN 3593345838, offers interesting articles on these issues, too. There are
thorough articles/entries on:

- Einstellungen zur deutschen Einheit
- Identitaet
- Nationalbewusstsein
- Berichte zur Lage der Nation (statements by the governments)
- Staatsbewusstsein
- Deutschlandbegriff im sprachlichen Wandel .....etc

Each article ends with bibliographical references.

Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 16:00:40 EST
Subject: Re: Query on German identity

Submitted by: Elisabeth Angele
GICHICAGO@AOL.COM

Georg Fertig just mentioned on h-german the article by Guenter Kunert in
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, Nov. 15, 1994. It is actually part of a series of
articles on the question of WHAT IS GERMAN which started in the Nov. 8, 1994
issue which we just received in our library today. The first article by
Michael Winter is titled VEREINT UND DOCH GETRENNT - Wie man dem deutschen
Riss auf den Grund gehen kann. It is published in the feuilleton section, p.
11, Tuesday, November 8, 1994, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, No. 257.

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Posted: 25 Feb 1995
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