Power and Society in the GDR, 1961-1979 by Mary Fulbrook

Author:Mary Fulbrook [Fulbrook, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782381013
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Published: 2013-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion: Normalizing the Rules?

Günter Hauthal was in many ways the ideal type of a socialist enthusiast for the Heimat, who was committed to bringing the socialist perspective into the knowledge, reception, and practice of Heimat. Hauthal did not just have commitment; he also had energy and enthusiasm. Hauthal was not afraid to speak his mind, and did not hesitate to point to the shortcomings he witnessed in the transition of his local Heimat to socialism. However, neither these attributes, nor the additional support of the party, were sufficient to turn Altenburg into a socialist Heimat. For Hauthal to have had impact upon the way others related to their Heimat, it would have been necessary, apart from an ideological commitment, to relate to traditional local structures, form relationships, and make compromises. In fact, as Hauthal found out in the 1970s, local ties and structures proved much more enduring and important than party support, for local party hierarchies changed, bringing with them often abrupt changes in the interpretation of party guidelines, while local elites and structures transformed themselves much more gradually.

Jürgen Thormann was also an outsider in important respects. He did not have a university degree, and the fact that he was in the SED had clearly been an important factor in his selection to head a malfunctioning organization. Yet Thormann had grown up in the GDR, he had no reason to believe, as Hauthal had been perfectly entitled to assume, that a belief in socialism and in the party would guarantee success in the ‘new Germany’. Thormann was successful because he shielded the cultural league members as much as possible from politics, while doing his utmost to conform to the rules of every-day local politics in style, language, and appearance. When a conflict of interest arose, Thormann sided with ‘his’ cultural league and not with the SED. He could be successful in encouraging Heimat activity amongst Heimat friends in the cultural league because he was accepted as ‘one of them’.49

Thormann’s success at influencing the cultural league in Mühlhausen and in encouraging a growing number of members to pursue the ‘sensible use of free time’ which the party proposed as its cultural ideal came at a price. Attempting to shield individuals meant, in effect, a surrender of the party’s ultimate goal, to create socialist citizens not least through the ways in which these citizens spent their free time. This had been a price which Hauthal had never been prepared to pay. To Hauthal, exploring the socialist Heimat meant pursuing new themes for a newly dominant class. Hauthal was committed, in effect, to shaping a new memory based on remembering working class activists, and more generally the traditions of the working people, within the particular locality. From the late 1950s, Hauthal had to accept that he would not be able to pursue this commitment with other cultural league activists. Rather than submitting to the personal and ideological continuities among Altenburg Heimatfriends, Hauthal chose instead to go his own way, and stuck with his interests in working class history.

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