German Unity Day is celebrated on October 3rd. Tag der Deutschen Einheit celebrates the 1990 reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic with ceremonial acts and the citizens’ festival Bürgerfest.
Browse our relevant titles and journals on the ramifications of a divided Germany below.
Easily access critical research material with Berghahn eBooks!
Take advantage of 35% off all German Studies titles with discount code GSA2022, valid through October 18th, 2022 on orders placed via Berghahn website.
BREWING SOCIALISM
Coffee, East Germans, and Twentieth-Century Globalization
Andrew Kloiber
Sifting through the relationship between material culture and ideology, this unique work examines the complex tapestry of traditions, history and cultural values that underpinned the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Volume 27, Studies in German History
Read the Introduction
Forthcoming in November 2022
END GAME
The 1989 Revolution in East Germany
Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk
Translated from the German by Patricia Sutcliffe
End Game, a rich, sweeping account of the autumn of 1989 as it was experienced “on the ground” in the German Democratic Republic, powerfully depicting the desolation and dysfunction that shaped everyday life for so many East Germans in the face of economic disruption and political impotence.
Volume 26, Studies in German History
RETHINKING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AFTER ’68
Selves and Solidarities in West Germany and Beyond
Edited by Belinda Davis, Friederike Brühöfener, and Stephen Milder
The year 1968 has widely been viewed as the only major watershed moment during the latter half of the twentieth century. Rethinking Social Movements after ’68 takes on this conventional approach, exploring the spaces, practices, organization, ideas and agendas of numerous activists and movements across the 1970s and 1980s.
Volume 31, Protest, Culture & Society
Read Introduction
MINORITY DISCOURSES IN GERMANY SINCE 1990
Edited by Ela Gezen, Priscilla Layne and Jonathan Skolnik
Informed by comparative approaches, the volume investigates social and aesthetic interventions into contemporary German public and political discourse on memory, racism, citizenship, immigration, and history.
Volume 23, Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association
Read the Introduction
DON’T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL
Western Culture in East Germany and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Gerd Horten
“In this book Gerd Horten brilliantly analyses the problematic impact of Western consumer culture on the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. No other study has so clearly highlighted the connection between consumer culture and the collapse of the regime. It expands our view of the too often neglected late GDR and offers a persuasive explanation of its decline.” • Christoph Classen, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History
Read the Introduction
POSTWAR SOLDIERS
Historical Controversies and West German Democratization, 1945–1955
Jörg Echternkamp
“Echternkamp successfully applies the concept of collective representation to the three fields of conflict he has selected. His research clarifies the extent to which the collective representations of war and military have enabled and contributed to political and cultural change.” • Sehepunkte
Volume 39, Making Sense of History
Read the Introduction
OPEN ACCESS! Now available as paperback!
COMRADES IN ARMS
Military Masculinities in East German Culture
Tom Smith
“With [this book] Tom Smith has made a substantial contribution that will be useful to multiple fields, adding most notably to the research on gender in the GDR. The book is cogently written, comprehensively researched, and theoretically fluent.” • German Studies Review
Read Full Text
A DRAMATIC REINVENTION
German Television and Moral Renewal after National Socialism, 1956–1970
Stewart Anderson
“What deserves highlighting is that the author casts the German-German commonalities of the medialization of values and norms during Cold War in a new light. He thus provides insights that are important for the moral and media history of the divided country. This is why it is to be hoped that this book will stimulate further research on this topic.” • H-Soz-Kult
Read the Introduction.
THE PATH TO THE BERLIN WALL
Critical Stages in the History of Divided Germany
Manfred Wilke
“The Path to the Berlin Wall constitutes a superlative model of combining biography with the study of nationalism.” · Choice
GERMAN DIVISION AS SHARED EXPERIENCE
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postwar Everyday
Edited by Erica Carter, Jan Palmowski, and Katrin Schreiter
” … It offers a stimulating and unprecedented insight into a past that is (re)discovered on both sides of the Wall, strangely close and dissimilar at the same time.” • Francia
Read the Introduction.
Berghahn Bestseller!
THE HISTORY OF THE STASI
East Germany’s Secret Police, 1945–1990
Jens Gieseke
Translated from the German by David Burnett
“The book is an exceptional achievement in every respect: it offers a calm, detached, factual and well balanced socio-historical analysis of the MfS (Ministry for Security) that covers all aspects.” • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Read the Introduction.
New in Paperback!
GENDERING POST-1945 GERMAN HISTORY
Entanglements
Edited by Karen Hagemann, Donna Harsch, and Friederike Brühöfener
“[This volume] deals with a fascinating but largely by historical research neglected field…[it] convincingly does justice to its claim enrich traditional historiography and to treat contemporary history as gender history.” • Sehepunkte
Read the Introduction.
A HISTORY SHARED AND DIVIDED
East and West Germany since the 1970s
Frank Bösch
Translated from the German by Jennifer Walcoff Neuheiser
“[The volume] provides over 500 pages of stimulating reading. It will be of interest to scholars researching in relevant fields and to graduate students embarking on doctoral work. It would also be excellent for a postgraduate seminar.” • Journal of European Studies
Read the Introduction.
In Paperback!
NARRATIVES IN THE MAKING
Writing the East German Past in the Democratic Present
Anselma Gallinat
“A fascinating and thoughtful ethnography of Eastern German government and media institutions and perspectives. The book succeeds as a carefully designed, balanced, and executed study, providing convincing evidence from multiple memory intermediaries.” • American Historical Review
Read the Introduction.
Of Relevant Interest from Berghahn Journals
Editor: Jeffrey J. Anderson, Georgetown University
German Politics and Society is a joint publication of the BMW Center for German and European Studies (of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). These centers are represented by their directors on the journal’s Editorial Committee.
German Politics and Society is a peer-reviewed journal published and distributed by Berghahn Journals. It is the only American publication that explores issues in modern Germany from the combined perspectives of the social sciences, history, and cultural studies.