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Despite Ernst Thälmann's prominence in the German Democratic Republic's official antifascist narrative, there was no 'scholarly' biography of him until 1979. The reasons for this shed light on the political culture of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and its history-writing arm,
the Institute of Marxism-Leninism – especially in the regime's early years under Walter Ulbricht. The refusal to falsify Thälmann's relatively conventional war record by the SED's appointed biographer, party veteran Rudolf Lindau, was a refusal to expunge his own party history from
official memory. As a founding member of the International Communists of Germany (IKD), which was close to Leninism during and immediately after the war, Lindau did not want to contribute to myth-making which failed to account for the actual wartime antimilitarism of his own proto-communist
grouping. The feud was part of wider debates in the SED about the nature of the November Revolution and the origins of the German Communist Party (1918), which ultimately identified the Spartacist tradition as the party's official heritage. Of course, Lindau could not change the party line;
but he was given very considerable latitude to disseminate his own views within party circles. He only came into conflict with the party leadership after being accused of building a 'platform' (i.e. taking collective action) in the early 1960s and even then met no serious sanction. In short,
the SED was not the monolith of cold-war cliché. Instead, it tried to maximise the latitude given to old Communists from a diversity of party traditions.

Using newly available documentation, this article re-examines the debate on the political development of the German Communist Party (KPD) during the mid-1920s. Initially, the history of the KPD was written as the history of the party's subordination to Moscow. However, with the rise of social history, historians shifted the focus of their research to the 'view from below'. Moscow's omnipresence in the history of German communism was replaced by the KPD's ability to formulate policy in response to specifically German socio-economic and political developments. Taking a position between the poles of this polarized debate, Saxony is used as a case study to demonstrate that although the party per se was 'Stalinized' it proved impossible to uproot the local membership from their immediate local environment. Factionalism represented the organized response of local activists against the intrusions of a remote leadership, whose promotion of Moscow's 'line' clashed with their own everyday experience.

Using newly available documentation, this article re-examines the debate on the political development of the German Communist Party (KPD) during the mid-1920s. Initially, the history of the KPD was written as the history of the party's subordination to Moscow. However, with the rise of social history, historians shifted the focus of their research to the 'view from below'. Moscow's omnipresence in the history of German communism was replaced by the KPD's ability to formulate policy in response to specifically German socio-economic & political developments. Taking a position between the poles of this polarized debate, Saxony is used as a case study to demonstrate that although the party per se was 'Stalinized' it proved impossible to uproot the local membership from their immediate local environment. Factionalism represented the organized response of local activists against the intrusions of a remote leadership, whose promotion of Moscow's 'line' clashed with their own everyday experience. [Copyright 2001 Sage Publications Ltd.]

The East German Ministry of State Security, popularly known as the Stasi, was one of the largest and most intrusive secret police systems in world history. So extensive was the system of surveillance and control that in any given year throughout the 1970s and 1980s, about one in fifty of the 13 million East German adults were working for the Stasi either as an officer or as an informer.Drawing on original sources from the Stasi archives and the recollections of contemporary witnesses, The Stasi: Myth and Reality reveals the intricacies of the relationship between the Stasi enforcers, its agent

State, society, and minority groups in the GDR / Mike Dennis and Norman LaPorte -- Between Torah and sickle : Jews in East Germany, 1945-1990 / Mike Dennis -- Jehovah's Witnesses : from persecution to survival / Mike Dennis -- Asian and African workers in the niches of society / Mike Dennis -- Football fans, hooligans, and the state / Mike Dennis -- Sub-cultures : punks, goths, and heavy metallers / Mike Dennis and Norman LaPorte -- Skinheads and right extremism in an anti-fascist state / Norman LaPorte -- Conclusion : minorities, present and past / Mike Dennis

Based on interviews and the voluminous materials in the archives of the SED, the Stasi and central and regional authorities, this volume focuses on several contrasting minorities (Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, "guest" workers from Vietnam and Mozambique, football fans, punks, and skinheads)and their interaction with state and party bodies during Erich Honecker's rule over the communist system. It explores how they were able to resist persecution and surveillance by instruments of the state, thus illustrating the limits on the power of the post-totalitarian East German dictatorship and shedding li

During the Cold War, Britain had an astonishing number of contacts and connections with one of the Soviet Bloc's most hard-line regimes: the German Democratic Republic. The left wing of the British Labour Party and the Trade Unions often had closer ties with communist East Germany than the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). There were strong connections between the East German and British churches, women's movements, and peace movements; influential conservative politicians and the Communist leadership in the GDR had working relationships; and lucrative contracts existed between business

During the Cold War, Britain had an astonishing number of contacts and connections with one of the Soviet Bloc's most hard-line regimes: the German Democratic Republic. The left wing of the British Labour Party and the Trade Unions often had closer ties with communist East Germany than the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). There were strong connections between the East German and British churches, women's movements, and peace movements; influential conservative politicians and the Communist leadership in the GDR had working relationships; and lucrative contracts existed between business