Becoming East German ― Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler

Fulbrook (German history, U. College London, UK) and Port (history, Wayne State U.) bring together 12 essays that aim to move beyond analysis of forms of power and repression in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the types of dissent and resistance to Communist rule, and instead focus on subjectivity and physicality in the historical process of becoming East German. After reviewing approaches to the history of the GDR, essays consider the physical and psychological effects of life in East Germany, such as memory and identity, including cultural nationalism during the First German Writers' Congress of October 1947, the letters of Greta Kuckhoff in relation to the "Red Orchestra," and narratives of anti-fascist conversion; health and diet, including heart disease and risk factors, tuberculosis, dieting, and luxury dining; working class behavior; East Germany's relationship with Israel; football; and experiences of everyday humiliation. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Andrew I. Port is an Associate Professor of history at Wayne State University in Detroit, and Editor-in-Chief of Central European History. He is the recipient of a Marie Curie FCFP Senior Fellowship at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and the DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies. His first book, Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic (2007), appeared in German translation as Die Ratselhafte Stabilitat der DDR (2010), and his current project looks at German reactions to genocide in other parts of the world since 1945.