Gdr and Its History

Ten years have now passed since the political changes in the GDR which led to unification. A central feature of the past decade has been the discussion concerning the process of historical evaluation of the GDR's 40-year existence. This volume takes as its main focus the official process of 'Geschichtsaufarbeitung', as represented by the two Enquete Commissions set up by the Bundestag which completed their work in 1994 and 1998 respectively. Several of the contributions are by leading participants in the Commissions, such as Dorothee Wilms, the last CDU Minister for Inner-German Relations and Markus Meckel MdB (SPD), the last Foreign Minister of the GDR and the original proposer of the Commissions in the Bundestag. Other chapters look at the various independent initiatives in the area of 'Geschichtsaufarbeitung', the role of the Commissions in the context of the overall 'Geschichtsdebatte' in relation to the GDR and the attitude of the PDS to the official process of 'Geschichtsaufarbeitung'. Other topics include an analysis of the way in which Buchenwald was presented to the public after unification, a re-evaluation of the 'Zwangsvereinigung' of the KPD and SPD, an examination of the role of education in the GDR, the controversial way in which the Churches were treated in the work of the first Commission which led to the dissenting report by the SPD members and the legacy of GDR architecture. This is the first volume in English on the Enquete-Commissions and will be of interest to students and teachers of contemporary German politics and history. It contains thirteen contributions, seven in English and six in German.