Half of the picture: representations of East Germany in GDR review, 1958-1989

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Hillaker, Lorn Edward
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History

Abstract

This thesis seeks to use external self-representation of East German identity in official propaganda to examine how images of an idealized East Germany were instrumentalized to establish GDR (German Democratic Republic) legitimacy abroad. These representations shall be examined through the lens of the magazine GDR Review from 1958-1989. It argues that despite the current impression of a relatively static, hyper-politicized, communist society, a changing and externally-presented aspirational identity was developed in the GDR through a mutually-reinforcing dual-process of defensive counter-narrative construction and an offensive narrative of internal socialist development, both of which interacted to attempt to establish GDR legitimacy abroad. These changes are best understood through a four-stage process of legitimation, recognition, stabilization, and crisis that reveals an externalized GDR identity capable of responding to changing political climates, the goals of the SED (Socialist Unity Party) regime, and emerging social issues in the quest for legitimacy.

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