The Unbuilding of East Germany: Excavating Biography and History

Data project


Andrews, M. 2017. The Unbuilding of East Germany: Excavating Biography and History. University of East London. https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.00000213
CreatorsAndrews, M.
Description

Background to Professor Molly Andrews' longitudinal research project:

In 1992, Molly Andrews conducted interviews with 40 East Germans, most of whom had been leading critics of the East German government, and had played an important role in contributing to the bloodless revolution of 1989. They included artists, actors, religious leaders, scientists, and politicians, but also official employees and informal informants of the Stasi, as well as academics, writers and politicians who were members of the Communist Party up until 1989. The 1992 study was supported by the Max Planck Institute of Berlin.

Twenty years later, supported by the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and the University of East London, a follow-up study was conducted with fifteen of the original forty participants, predominantly with those who had been dissidents in 1989.

The translator, Birgit Schmitt, was used for the 1992 and 2012 interviews.

Based on this longitudinal study, two exhibitions were organized, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall: the first was at the German Historical Institute, London (31 October 2014–31 January 2015), and the second at the Wissenschaftzentrum, Berlin (12 November 2014–31 March 2015).

Year2017
PublisherUniversity of East London
Portfolio itemsRemembering East Germany's Peaceful Revolution
Grand national narratives and the project of truth commissions: a comparative analysis
Forgiveness in Context
Truth-telling, justice, and forgiveness: A study of East Germany’s Truth Commission
Criticism/self-Criticism in East Germany: Contradictions between theory and practice
Life review in the context of acute social transition: The case of East Germany
Against Good Advice: Reflections on conducting research in a country where you don't speak the language
One hundred miles of lives: The Stasi files as a people's history of East Germany
Beyond narrative: The shape of traumatic testimony
The nice Stasi man drove his Trabi to the nudist beach: Contesting East German Identity
Narrating Moments of Political Change
Against Good Advice: Reflections on conducting research in a country where you don't speak the language
Exploring Cross-cultural boundaries
Generational consciousness, dialogue, and political engagement
Continuity and discontinuity of East German identity following the fall of the Berlin Wall: A case study
Text in a changing context: Reconstructing lives in East Germany
Imagining the 'baffling geography' of age
External resourceRobert Havemann Gesellschaft Archive of the GDR opposition
Project dates01 Jan 1992 to end of 31 Dec 2012
Publication dates
Online12 Oct 2017
FunderThe Max Planck Institute
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
The University of East London
Statement of availability

Interview transcripts & other materials pertaining to the longitudinal research project are held by the Robert Havemann Gesellschaft Archive. A short film, 'November 9th - A Peaceful Revolution' (Droth, 2014), is available upon request from Molly Andrews.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.15123/DATA.00000213
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