Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: 1 online resource (432 p.)

ISBN: 9780822381754

Content: On the night of November 9, 1989, an electrified world watched as the Berlin Wall came down. Communism was dead, the Cold War was over, and freedom was on the rise—or so it seemed. We Were the People tells the story behind this momentous event. In an extraordinary series of interviews, the key actors in the drama that transformed East Germany speak for themselves, describing what they did, what happened and why, and what it has meant to them. The result is a powerful firsthand account of a rare historical moment, one that reverberates far beyond the toppled wall that once divided Germany and the world.The drama We Were the People recreates is remarkable for its richness and complexity. Here are citizens organizing despite threats of bloody crackdowns; party functionaries desperately trying to survive as time-honored political prerogatives crumble beneath their feet; an oppressed people discovering the possibilities of power and freedom, but also the sobering strangeness of new political realities. With their success, East Germans encountered the overpowering might of thie Western neighbor--and stand perplexed before the onslaught of real estate agents, glossy consumer ads, political professionalism--and the discovery that a lifetime of social experience has suddenly lost all usable context. They became, in the words of one participant, a people "without biography."Over all the recent events and unlikely turns recounted here, one thing remains paramount: the sweep of the initial democratic conception that animated the East German revolution. We Were the People brings this movement to life in all its drama and detail, and vividly recovers a historic moment that altered forever the shape of modern Europe.Some Voices of the PeopleBärbel Bohley/ "Mother of the Revolution"Rainer Eppelmann/ Protestant PastorKlaus Kaden/ Church Emissary to the OppositionHans Modrow/ Former Communist Prime MinisterLudwig Mehlhorn/ Opposition TheoristIngrid Köppe/ Opposition RepresentativeFrank Eigenfeld/ New ForumHarald Wagner/ Democracy NowSebastian Pflugbeil/ Democratic StrategistEast German WorkersCornelia Matzke/ Independent Women's AllianceAndré Brie/ Party Vice-ChairmanGerhard Ruden/ Environmental ActivistWerner Bramke/ Party Academic

Note: Frontmatter -- , Contents -- , Acknowledgments -- , List of Abbreviations -- , Introduction -- , PART I • A Long Time Coming: Roots of Dissent and Opposition in the German Democratic Republic -- , 1. The Troubled Emergence of an Idea -- , 2. The Party, the Workers, and Opposition Intellectuals -- , 3. The Many Meanings of "Reform" -- , PART II • Democracy-Now or Never -- , 4. Struggles with Self-Censorship: Deciding How Much to Seek -- , 5. The Constraints of a Party-Centered Perspective -- , 6. Workers in the "Workers' State" -- , 7. Democratic Visions: A Question of Scope, A Question of Possibility -- , PART III • Taking Stock: The Search for a Historical Perspective -- , 8. Between Opportunity and Failure -- , Epilogue -- , Chronology of East German History, 1945-1990 -- , Selected Bibliography -- , Index , In English.

Language: English

Subjects: Political Science

DOI: 10.1515/9780822381754

URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822381754

URL: https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780822381754