Honecker’s Children

During the final decade of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), young citizens found themselves at the heart of a rigorous program of socialist patriotic education, yet following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the emphasis of official state rhetoric, textbooks and youth activities changed beyond recognition. For the young generation growing up during this period, “normality” was turned on its head, leaving a sense of insecurity and inner turmoil. Using a combination of archival research and interviews, together with educational materials and government reports, this book examines the relationship between young people and their two successive states in East(ern) Germany between 1979 and 2002

Anna Saunders is Lecturer in German at the University of Wales, Bangor.

List of tables and graphs * Acknowledgements * List of abbreviations and terms * Introduction: Honecker’s Germany: a world of the past? * Eastern identity in the wake of the GDR * Frameworks: defining the GDR in the 1980s * Growing up under Honecker * Researching young behaviours * The parameters of patriotism * Nation and state * Germany: problematic patriotisms * The GDR’s patriotic programme * Conclusion * Young people of the 1980s: a generation of loyal patriots? * The foundations of identity: historical consciousness * Peace must be armed!’: protecting the fatherland * ‘Educating hatred’: young people and the ‘imperialist’ West * Proletarian internationalism: the politics of solidarity * Rooted in the present? Pride in the achievements of the GDR * Conclusion * October 1989 – October 1990: The rise and fall of a GDR identity * Reform and renewal: education and youth work during the Wende * Hope of a reformed socialism: 9 October – 9 November 1989 * From socialism to scepticism: 9 November 1989 – 18 March 199O * The GDR becomes history: 18 March – 3 October 1990 * Conclusion * Civic loyalties in the wake of unification * Societal change and education in the absence of the blue shirt * The double burden of overcoming the past: historical consciousness in united Germany * Military loyalties in the absence of the enemy * International allegiances in a new world order * United yet divided? Social, economic and political trends since the Wende * Conclusion * Conclusion: Death of the GDR: rebirth of an eastern identity? * Tables * Graphs * Bibliography