Date of Graduation

1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

History

Committee Chair

Robert Blobaum

Abstract

Not long after Germans began the historic task of dismantling the Berlin Wall in 1989, their country was again reunited after forty-five years of division. For the second time in less than a century, a majority of Europe’s Germans were brought together under the banner of a single political sovereignty. As the enlarged Federal Republic psychologically reorients and physically reconstructs itself, the event is likely to have continued European and worldwide implications. Understanding the new Germany’s internal development and its evolving self-perceptions is to conceive of the country’s role now and in the years ahead; central to understanding Germany today is its postwar history. The predominant element which dictated German identity, or loss of identity, in the past half century was the painful political partition imposed from beyond German borders following the Second World War. This remarkable experiment conducted by the world’s postwar superpowers attempted to recast separately organized polities into discrete nations of socialists and democrats. During the decades of coexistence, Germans on either side of the Iron Curtain lived very different lives under opposing social and political structures. The result was a real and observable diverging evolution, the effects of which persist in the post-unification era. While the respective groups, the East Germans and West Germans, were exposed to varying influences, the postwar separation left its mark on the whole German countenance. This thesis will argue that, while political, social, ideological, and economic forces indeed reshaped the lives of East and West Germans in very different ways, the self-definitions constructed in the postwar era only added a new dimension to the

dormant, but still extant, national identity of the Germans; they did not engender two distinct nations. This discussion will follow the course of German coexistence, examine the influences which formed the contours of identity, and attempt to gauge popular responses to the challenges of the postwar partition. Additionally, an effort will be made to demonstrate the conflicts of post-unification society as consequences of the division. This thesis will offer an explanation of the most severe problems in Germany since 1990 as symptoms directly linked to a new crisis of identity, one which has beset the reunited nation and prevented little more than formal unification, by elucidating their meaning in a broader social historical context. It will also suggest a solution to the ostensibly impassable problem that plagues Germany by identifying the less-celebrated, but promising, foundations of a stable future. The goal of this research will be to gain a greater understanding of the dissociation and conflict that have followed the optimism of the seemingly auspicious revolution. Although most literature separately addresses the disruptive events in German society and seeks to expound them individually, evidence

shows that they are interrelated and that they may be interpreted as explicitly associated to this central, underlying problem of identity. A close look at German society reveals what may be needed to resolve this confusion and where it may be found. However, attention should first be given to traditional German concepts of national identity before examining society’s three most vexing matters for the nation’s sense of self in the new era. This facilitates a more accurate interpretation of contemporary events and an awareness of the possible solution, which is likely to entail reclaiming the common heritage of both East and West Germans.

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