BEING “EAST GERMAN” OR BEING “AT HOME IN EASTERN GERMANY”? IDENTITY AS EXPERIENCE AND AS RHETORIC

An apparent resurgence of East German identity aroused much scholarly interest in recent years whilst it is contested in the German public discourse. Scholars see the phenomenon as based in experiences of domination and cultural devaluation; German scholars focus on East-West German differences, and the public discourse refers to the continuation of the “[Berlin] Wall in people's minds.” When conducting field research in Saxony-Anhalt in 2001, I found, however, that my informants would consciously and carefully negotiate their senses of belonging. Many avoided claims to an exclusive identity category and instead emphasised more local senses of attachment which nevertheless encompassed the whole of eastern Germany. This article seeks to highlight the interplay of these two kinds of belonging. Its central argument is that they are two aspects of the same phenomenon. The article therefore explores how identity is based in the mundane and quotidian forms of everyday life leading to senses of belonging that allow for a reflexive positioning of the self and the other. This belonging is at certain times also voiced explicitly. The article also explores how and when identity rhetoric comes into play.     

The Fate of Former East German Police in Reunified Germany, 1990–1996: The Dialectics of Inclusion and Exclusion

This article analyzes the vetting of former East German police in Berlin and Brandenburg in the context of the former East Germany's transition to democracy and German unification. Police are one of the most critical and sensitive sectors of the civil service and typically, along with teachers, among the first groups to be vetted in the context of democratic transitions. The German case illustrates the often unpredictable and inconsistent approaches to vetting that led to very different outcomes throughout the East. It identifies several factors that influenced vetting and employment prospects for former East German police officers. These included political geography, who did the vetting, how a candidate's past was interpreted (whether aggravating or mitigating circumstances were weighed), the institutional arrangements for vetting, state‐mandated guidelines or criteria for determining suitability, and timing.     

Learning about ourselves through considering others: an examination of German students' cross-national learning

The paper examines the research and findings in relation to cross-national learning, which provide the background to an evaluation of a collaborative module run by German and English academics. A discussion of language and the need to engage the German audience in their own language is outlined, highlighting some of the difficulties inherent in translation and ensuring concepts are accurately conveyed, before examining the earlier literature in relation to cross-national learning. Drawing from this we outline how the module was developed and designed, with the core material being case studies which were used as vehicles to explore differences and similarities in social work systems—not merely in terms of practice, but also in relation to legislation and organisation. Of particular interest were reflections and comments from German social work students about the potential benefits of cross-national learning for their own practice in Germany. We conclude that the use of case studies enables greater student engagement and that the findings of earlier studies in relation to their use is confirmed, along with clear evidence that such approaches enable deeper reflections about students' own social work practice and systems.     

Translating case management in a service for older people in Berlin

Case management is a coordinating process designed to align service provision more closely to the identified needs of people requiring assistance in the context of complex care systems. It is an approach that has crossed the borders of different national welfare systems where it has been adopted to address ostensibly similar problems. This empirically based but primarily methodological article draws on the author's doctoral research during which he spent an extended period in Berlin investigating a citywide case management service for older people in the context of German long-term care policy and legislation. It explores the extent to which a specific case study can illuminate how case management adapts in differing national welfare systems and highlights the particular methodological challenges of ‘translation’ and ‘equivalence’ in cross-national research. The article outlines how institutional context both shaped and constrained the Berlin case management service and highlights the necessity in cross-country research for a critical contextual examination of apparently similar features. This is particularly relevant where English words and expressions are directly absorbed into the local language, an important yet rarely addressed complicating factor.     

Families and their Social Relations in German Cities

This paper looks at the personal embeddedness of families in three German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart) and examines the community question with data collected at the end of 2003. The study is based on the theoretical views of Barry Wellman, who used a network analysis perspective to conceptualize ‘the Community Question’. The results of the German study have reconfirmed the results of Wellman's East York Study and show that networks are not a product of only one community model. As a consequence it is less helpful to talk about saved, lost and liberated communities but more helpful to regard communities as a mixture of strongly knitted nuclear clusters and broader sparsely knitted relations which have access to different groups and their resources. Most networks consist of kinship, friends, local and long distance ties, multistranded and specialised ties. The current analysis of the data of this study indicates that in German cities there is no correlation between the different distributions of the community.     

The non-profit sector in East Germany: before and after unification

The paper describes how the non-profit sector in East Germany has passed through several distinct phases in recent years. It shows how the role of the non-profit sector under the system of party dominance and centralised economic and social planning signified a major contradiction of East German society: the artificial under-development of civic society in eastern Europe's most successful economy. During the first phase of the transition period in late 1989, the expression and manifestation of political views was predominant. With the disintegration of the socialist party-state, the needs for social service provision increased. West German organisations have increasingly become the dominant factor in East German non-profit sector affairs. The paper argues that the East German non-profit sector will emerge as a slightly poorer and more secular version of its West German counterpart.     

The German debate over the intake of Uyghur Guantanamo inmates: a research note

Given the recent increase of scholarly interest in the Uyghur diaspora's international activism, this research note presents the development of the Uyghur issue in Germany. Although the Uyghur issue has gradually received attention in German legislative debate, this was not primarily achieved through diasporic efforts; rather, the willingness of sympathetic German parliamentarians to offer Uyghur activists the opportunities and venues to operate played a determining role. However, party politics and reservations from the executive branch have prevented Berlin from accepting Uyghur Guantanamo inmates.     

TRAVEL AS AN ANALYTIC OF EXCLUSION: BECOMING NONCITIZENS,AND THE POLITICS OF MOBILITY AFTER THE BERLIN WALL

This article examines the ways in which travel serves as an analytic to understand citizenship and the production of noncitizens after the Berlin Wall. This production is linked to a shift in the post-Wall German and European discourses and practices of asylum, which are significantly renegotiated and restricted shortly after the Wall falls. It is not only the law that changes, but also the mobility of the subjects perceived not to belong. The production of non-citizens is also related to official and unofficial articulations that attach Germanness to “Whiteness.” “Black” subjects must not only negotiate their citizenship via real histories of mobility and displacement but also because their skin itself signifies travel and adventure. In the end, I write about the space that this imagination of travel and adventure through “Black” bodies both opens up and closes off for a politics based on “Blackness.” I turn from normative accounts to the voices and bodies of “Black” subjects themselves.     

Commercial discourses,gentrification and citizens’ protest: The linguistic landscape of Prenzlauer Berg,Berlin1

Since reunification in 1990, Prenzlauer Berg, located in the former East Berlin, has turned from a cheap and neglected area into a popular middle‐class neighbourhood. The area's new character is reflected in its linguistic landscape. These days the signs of posh shops and trendy bars adorn its streets. But alternative views are noticeable too. Graffiti is present even on the most expensively refurbished buildings and residents put up slogans to protest against their flats being refurbished and sold to new owners. This case study of the changing graphic environment of Prenzlauer Berg shows that, despite the strong influence of commercial discourses, the public space remains an area of contestation between civil society, private businesses and the state. The particular approach to linguistic landscape I developed combines textual and visual analysis with interviews with sign producers. This has enabled me to show how the linguistic landscape both reflects as well as shapes social change and urban development in Berlin since reunification. Seit der Wende ist der Prenzlauer Berg, zu DDR Zeiten vernachlässigt und heruntergekommen, zu einem der beliebtesten Stadtteile des neuen Berlins geworden. Der neue Charakter des Kiez, sichtbar an seinen renovierten Häusern und steigenden Mietpreisen, lässt sich auch anhand seiner sprachlichen Landschaft (linguistic landscape) erkennen. Heutzutage bestimmen die aufwendig gestalteten Schilder teurer Geschäfter und schicker Bars Prenzlauer Bergs Strassenbild. Es gibt aber auch andere Stimmen. Bewohner von Häusern, die an Investoren verkauft wurden und denen nun gesteigerte Mieten drohen, protestieren mit Plakaten gegen die Politik der Ankäufer. Fast keine der neu gestrichenen Fassaden ist frei von Graffiti und überall findet man Poster, die zu Demonstrationen und Unterschriftenaktionen aufforden. Ausgehend von Fotografien und Interviews mit den Autoren von Schildern, Plakaten und Transparenten zeigt der vorliegende Artikel, dass der öffentliche Raum – die Strasse – trotz der Dominanz kommerziellen Diskurse, ein Bereich bleibt, in dem Staat, private Inverstoren und bürgerliche Gesellschaft aufeinander treffen und ihre – oftmals im Konflikt zueinander stehenden – Meinungen zum Ausdruck bringen. [German]     

Students' dreams for the future and perspectives on resilience-building aspects of their lives: The view from East Greenland

This study explores how perspectives from students can increase knowledge of how teachers and school authority can support students in building up resilience as a response to social challenges in the community. A locally flexible methodology using structured drawings (including classroom observation), semi-structured interviews, and semantic coding and situated analyses in a case study in East Greenland provided the following results: The students' aspirations were mostly about getting an education and a job and becoming socially successful. The students' motivation for attending school and doing educational assignments often depended on the social interaction with their teachers, and the students requested more involvement in decision-making processes at school to create more meaningful educational practices. If schools are to support the processes of building resilience and motivation for education, schools should include students' perspectives and encourage students' agency by listening to what they have to say.     

More than just the Adoption of Western Capitalism? Time Use Changes in East Germany Following Reunification

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this paper examines changes in East German time use following the German Reunification of 1990, which led to large and unexpected economic and institutional changes, including the switch from a socialist to a capitalist system. By estimating Differences-in-Differences models, the study finds that East Germans reduced the time they spend on market work (96 min per weekday) and nonmarket work (51 min), while increasing the time allocated toward leisure and job search activities. The observed declines in market work time were largest for low-educated East Germans, those who were in the lowest income group, as well as for individuals between the ages 46 and 64. When comparing trends in time use for East and West Germany between 1990 and 2000, I provide evidence for a convergence in East German time use to its West German counterpart following the adoption of Western Capitalism and several other institutional and economic changes in East Germany. One possible explanation for this might be the adoption of West German time preferences following the reunion of the two regions.     

Re-evaluating the Community Question from a German perspective

The far-reaching effects of the social systemic division of labor on the organization and contents of primary ties make the Community Question an important issue for many sociologists. This paper looks at the personal embeddedness of families in three German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, and Stuttgart) and examines the Community Question with data collected at the end of 2003. It is based on the theoretical views of Wellman [Wellman, B., 1979. The community question. The intimate networks of East Yorkers. American Journal of Sociology 84, 1201–1231], who used a network analysis perspective to conceptualize “the Community Question”. The results of this German study generally support the results of Wellman's second East York Study. However, the network structures analyzed in my study vary from the three ideal-type models. Cluster analysis shows that Wellman's typology can be replicated relatively well in Germany. In contrast to traditional discourse related to the Community Question, particular network types are not associated with low levels of social relations. Moreover, structural factors do not explain the existence of different network types. Thus, the networks are not a product of only one community model. They suggest that it is less helpful to talk about “Saved”, “Lost”, or “Liberated” communities than it is to regard communities as a mixture of strongly-knit nuclear clusters and of broader, sparsely-knit relations that provide access to different groups and their resources.     

Accommodating ‘foreigners’: narrative accounts of Berlin's German-born Turkish Ausländer

This paper examines the discursive messages conveyed through everyday encounters among German-born Turkish Ausländer (foreigners) and ethnic Germans in Berlin. Using narrative analysis, I explore how these messages operate to maintain a series of separate and unequal social relations based on gender, ethnicity, religion, and skin colour. The personal experiences of local residents illustrate how these discourses serve to mark some Ausländer as less threatening than others, some as preferable, and others as undesirable. Some Ausländer are also considered more valuable than others, and the status of one often depends on the superior or subordinate status of the other. Through exploring these complexities as experienced by local informants, this paper shows the importance of certain interactive processes that construct Ausländerness in varying ways, while still defining people's identities in relation to norms that privilege the dominant subjects.     

How Do Children Matter? A Comparison of Gender Earnings Inequality for Young Adults in the Former East Germany and the Former West Germany

The former Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) differed sharply in their family policies. We follow 1950s and early 1960s birth cohorts from their first jobs to 1989 to see in what ways having children affected earnings for women and men. For the FRG, we find that being a parent had stronger earnings effects (positive for men and negative for women) than in the GDR, with much of this impact mediated by employment hours for women. This does not mean that having children was unimportant for women's and men's earnings in the GDR, but it indicates that the less variable life course led to more society‐wide than individual‐level impact. Further, in the East, some young women balanced family and employment by taking jobs below their qualifications, and this reduced their earnings.     

Emotional Climate in a European Problem Area: East Berlin and West Berlin Three Years After Reunification

In autumn of 1992, three years after the unification of Germany, during a period of violent attacks against foreigners, 120 students from East Berlin and West Berlin and 20 foreign students living in West Berlin answered the Emotional Climate Questionnaire developed by de Rivera and Fernandez-Dols. Foreign respondents expressed a positive attitude toward their government/state and believed in prosocial behavior to a greater extent than respondents from East Berlin and West Berlin. Whereas East Berlin students disagreed only somewhat with statements in favor of selfishness and egoism, West Berlin students strongly disagreed with them. We attribute the differences that were found in the answers of the foreign students to their national values. In addition, we regard the differences between the emotional climates of East Berlin and West Berlin as reflecting a climate of instability among East Berliners. We interpreted selfishness as a kind of polarized behavior indicating a climate of instability. A factor analysis revealed 5 factors of an emotional climate: Nation's Future, Just World, Reactive Egoism, Scepticism, and Basic Egoism. The concept of emotional climate is discussed on the basis of the current data.     

A Matter of Time: Examining Collective Memory in Historical Perspective in Postwar Berlin

Abstract  This article examines how officially designated memorial sites marking resistance to and persecution by the Nazi regime in Berlin have changed in the postwar era. Clearly the content of memorial culture changes over time. So, however, do the political and bureaucratic channels through which memorial landscapes themselves are created, and thus the avenues through which states (in this case the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic) construct landscapes of official collective memory. Such an analysis reveals not only the changes and continuities in the form and content of official representations, but also the changing relationship between a state, its people, and the collection of officially approved objects in the urban landscape designed to convey representations of a city's and a country's past. Looking closely at these intersections also makes clear that the landscape of official memorials must not be identical with collective memory understood more broadly.     

Gay Men's Perspectives on HIV Prevention and Treatment in Berlin,Germany: Lessons for Policy and Prevention

Qualitative data from interviews with gay men in Berlin, Germany were used to identify challenges facing HIV prevention and treatment as well as opportunities to improve them. In 2015, 20 self-identified gay men in Berlin—who had all received HIV prevention services and/or treatment (broadly defined)—participated in 1-on-1 qualitative interviews (30–75 min long). Ages ranged from 24 to 54, 35% self-identified as HIV-positive, and the remainder as HIV-negative. With regard to challenges to HIV prevention, participants highlighted (a) an already high HIV burden among gay men in Berlin and thus a need for doing prevention with positives (test-and-treat, and treatment as prevention); (b) the lack of a universal free condom distribution program; and (c) relaxed attitudes around the seriousness of HIV as a result of HIV treatment optimism. Participants highlighted that although condoms are an effective HIV prevention strategy (and thus certainly an area for focus), HIV prevention campaigns would benefit from updates with regard to embracing a diverse range of biological and behavioral prevention strategies, as well as expanded methods for making access to postexposure prophylaxis and free rapid HIV-antibody testing. This study informs HIV prevention approaches in Berlin, Germany as well as other urban centers where MSM are disproportionally affected by the HIV epidemic.     

BOGDAN MUSIAL AND THE QUESTION OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE POGROMS IN LVIV IN THE SUMMER OF 1941

This paper demonstrates that the rescue operations that saved thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust were in part the result of coordination and cooperation between the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), via a network of local relief organisations in Europe and worldwide. A landmark decision in building this network was the creation in 1927 of a new agency – HICEM, an abbreviation of the names of three resettlement organisations: HIAS, an American organisation with its headquarters in New York; the Paris‐based Jewish Colonisation Association, and Emigdirect, based in Berlin. During the Nazi period, as Jews were gradually pushed out of German social and economic life, HICEM was able to connect dozens of local Jewish committees throughout the world and bring thousands of Jewish refugees to safe havens in the United States, South and Central America, the Far East and Australia. The study also shows that, despite tension between HIAS and the JDC, both organisations stood firm in their mission of rescuing Jewish refugees.     

Stigma Management and Resistance among High‐Achieving Undocumented Students

Based on 32 in‐depth interviews with undocumented students at four‐year colleges and college graduates in Southern California, this study examines the stigma management and resistance practices undocumented students employ in an educational context. Shock, shame, embarrassment, and fear of deportation initially cause them to employ a variety of stigma management methods to keep their status secret while accepting its negative societal evaluation. However, the experience of higher education facilitates the stigma resistance of redefining their identities, labeling the denial of their full participation in society as injustice, engaging in social activism (e.g., demanding passage of the DREAM Act or the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act), and publicly embracing an undocumented social identity. This study shows how undocumented college students develop academic resilience and motivation through stigma resistance their college experiences help them engage in.