Eastern German News
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Newsletter of the Eastern German Studies Association |
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Proofs have been read for the collected papers of the 1998 conference, and the book should appear next spring.
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The annual Otzenhausen conference this year runs from 2-5 November. Held at the confortable facilities of the Europäische Akademie Otzenhausen, the theme this year is Deutsche Fragen -- von der Teilung zur Einheit. There will be three plenary sections:
There will be four sectionals on these themes:
Brief paper proposals are due by 15 August 2000. Participants without papers are also welcome, but those who participate are expected to be there for the entire conference.
Paper proposals and requests to attend should be directed to:
I attended this conference several years ago, and recommend it.
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East German Unification Case Study
EGSA member Meredith Heiser and colleagues have developed a web-based German Unification Case Study. This is designed for classroom use.
DEFA Mailing List
DEFA-L is a new e-mail discussion list sponsored by the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It is intended to facilitate communication among those interested in the cinema of the German Democratic Republic, and films dealing with eastern Germany since reunification. To subscribe to the discussion and to be a part of an ongoing exchange of information about DEFA and related topics, just send an e-mail to the DEFA-L administrator, (this is not yet an automated system): DEFA-L-request@german.umass.edu
For general information about the DEFA Film Library and what it has to offer, please see our website: http://www.umass.edu/defa
EislerMusic.com -- the first English-language website devoted to composer Hanns Eisler is now on-line. Eisler, a pupil of Schoenberg who broke with his teacher in the late 1920s, was perhaps best known for the incidental music he wrote for some of Bertolt Brecht's most controversial plays. Brecht, whose close friendship with Eisler spanned nearly four decades, described Eisler's music as "the ultimate test" for his writing.EislerMusic.com will include reviews, links to scholarly resources, a complete discography and an interactive forum for discussion.
Andy Lang
Hanns Eisler Forum
Cleveland, Ohio
langa@ucc.org
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Peter Barker, Slavs in Germany: The Sorbian Minority and the German State since 1945, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-7734-7704-7. Price: $89.95.
Peter Barker (ed.), THE GDR AND ITS HISTORY: RÜCKBLICK UND REVISION: DIE DDR IM SPIEGEL DER ENQUETE-KOMMISSIONEN. This is the first volume in English on the Enquete-Commissions. It contains thirteen contributions, seven in English and six in German.
Jarausch, Konrad H (ed.), Dictatorship as Experience: Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR (New York: Berghahn, 1999). An interesting collection of essays, mostly by people from the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Studien at Potsdam.
McAdams, A. James, Judging the Past in Unifed Germany (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Meurer , Hans Joachim, CINEMA AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN A
DIVIDED GERMANY 1979-1989: The Split Screen (Toronto: Edward
Mellen, 2000). This study provides a comparative analysis of the
political, economic and ideological determinants shaping East
and West German Feature films during the so-called established
phase of the two states between 1979 and 1989. I the first part
the author provides a theoretical framework for comparing the
two film cultures on an abstract ideological level. The second
part analyses the extent to which the political systems of the
FRG and GDR shaped production, distribution and exhibition in
order to establish a particular type of film culture. Finally,
it investigates in greater detail how political, economic and
cultural debates surrounding the question of an East and West
German identity were translated into filmic discourse.
Monika Gibas, Rainer Gries, Barbara Jakoby & Doris Müller, Wiedergeburten. Zur Geschichte der runden Jahrestage der DDR (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1999). This is a large and fascinating book. In 300 pages with a profusion of illustrations (many in color), it covers the anniversary celebrations of the GDR, focusing on those divisible by 5. There are chapters on Socialist holidays, political rhetoric, architecture, film, the Stasi and others. It is a product of of a DFG-supported project titled "Propagandageschichte Freiburg & Leipzig." ISBN: 3-933240-81-6. The book is not listed in the usual Internet sites (e.g., amazon.de). It can be ordered through VLB (which American booksellers familiar with Germany should be able to use), or directly from the publisher for DM. 54, postage included:
Donald Phillips, Germany
and the Transnational Building blocks for Post-National Community.
(Greenwood). This work links a focus upon the Federal Republic,
central to post-Cold War Europe's future, with a study of private
business, perhaps the most indispensable agent of Germany's post-1945
rehabilitation. Here, it is shown how interdependent business
needs may overcome nationalist and
institutional conceptions in the transnational integration processes
Donald Phillips, Post-National Patriotism and the Feasibility of Post-National Community in United Germany (Greenwood). Here, focussing on the unification process and racism in post-unification Germany, the falsehood of the national precept of organisation is highlighted to show how German-based transnational business may play a leading role in the development of a sense of post-national patriotism.
The latest issues of the SAPMO library's list of its holdings include:
Randy Bytwerk can provide a photocopy for those find a particular issue interesting.
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EGSA home page
President:
Laurence McFalls
Department de science politique
Université de Montreal
C.P. 6128
succursale Centre-ville
Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7
Canada
Email: laurence.mcfalls@umontreal.ca
Past-President:
Henry Krisch
Dept. of Political Science
University of Connecticut
341 Mansfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-102
Phone: (860)429-8552
Fax: (860) 486-3347
Email: henryk@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Membership and Treasurer:
Newsletter:
Randall Bytwerk
CAS Department
Calvin College
3201 Burton SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Phone: (616) 957-6286
Fax: (616) 957-6601
Members- at-Large:
Scott Gissendanner
Potsdamer St. 82
15711 Koenigs Wusterhausen; Germany
Germany
Email: gissendanner@t-online.de
October 2000 EGSA Newsletter
Last updated 24 October 2000
Web Page by Randall Bytwerk
Calvin College
URL: <http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/egsg/latest.htm>