| Description |
xii, 307 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
1. Interpreting the East German Dictatorship -- 2. Structures and Mentalities of Power -- 3. Collusion: Patterns of Complicity -- 4. Render unto Caesar? The Pivotal Role of the Protestant Churches -- 5. The Creation of a Niche Society? Conformity and Grumbling -- 6. Modes of Popular Dissent -- 7. The Fragmentation of Political Opposition -- 8. The Growth of Political Activism -- 9. The End of a Dictatorship: Mass Mobilization and Regime Implosion, Autumn 1989 -- 10. The Peculiarities of the East German Dictatorship |
| Summary |
Founded on the ruins of Hitler's defeated Third Reich, and lacking any intrinsic legitimacy, the German Democratic Republic nevertheless became the most stable and successful state in the Soviet bloc. Yet in the 'gentle revolution' of 1989 it collapsed with startling speed. How can this extraordinary story of political stability followed by sudden implosion be explained? With the opening of the East German archives, it is at last possible to look inside the apparently impregnable dictatorship. Mary Fulbrook provides a compelling interpretation of structures of power and patterns of popular opinion within the GDR. This absorbing study explores the ways in which the tentacles of the all-pervading state captured East German society in the grip of Stasi, party, and mass organizations, and analyses the emergence in the 1980s of oppositional cultures under the ambivalent shelter of a Protestant Church which had come to terms with the communist state |
| Analysis |
Germany (Democratic Republic) History, 1945- |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [291]-300) and index |
| SUBJECT |
Germany (East) -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85054666
|
|
Germany (East) -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh90002752
|
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Germany -- History -- 1945-1990. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh91001545
|
| LC no. |
95030139 |
| ISBN |
0198203128 |
|
