German Yearbook of Contemporary History
The German Yearbook of Contemporary History targets English-speaking readers with interests in the history of the 20th and 21st centuries. Each volume is dedicated to a specific topic. It is published by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History and contains translated articles from the leading German journal Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte as well as previously unpublished articles and commentaries.
Volume 9: Estranged yet Entangled: Perspectives on East German History
Dierk Hoffmann, Hermann Wentker, and Jonathan R. Zatlin
The contributions in this volume demonstrate that taking the GDR seriously as an autonomous historical actor (rather than as a mere footnote of history) opens up new perspectives on German-German history as much as it informs us about developments behind the Iron Curtain. As is often the case, public discourse about the past is often animated by current events to romanticize the past. Rather than rely on the vagaries of collective memory, scholars must remain committed to reconstructing the history of the GDR. It is the aim of this joint project, predominantly featuring the work of historians from Germany and the United States, to contribute to this effort. Together, these articles and the reflections on them remind us that the division of Germany was never as complete as it seemed. Even when the two Germanies were the most estranged, they remained very much entangled with each other.
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Series Preface by Andreas Wirsching