Ernst Thälmann: Der 1 Weltkrieg als Erlebnis, Erinnerung und DDR-Legimätsdiskurs

Translated title of the contribution: Ernst Thälmann: The First World War as Experience, Memory and Legitimating Narrative

Norman LaPorte

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    Abstract

    The chapter contributes to a wider understanding of how ‘author collectives’ located within the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in the former East Germany wrote history as a legitimating narrative. The specific example here is how the biography of the chairman of the German Communist Party (KPD), Ernst Thälmann, was re-written to provide a model example of how the ‘socialist’ Germany was the heir to the anti-war and anti-imperialist traditions of the now divided nation. It also uses the files of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism to show how – like the debates over the nature of the November Revolution of 1918 – there remained tensions between Communists of differing political socialisations during the 1950s, thereby qualifying the seeming monolithic nature of regime’s political elite.
    Translated title of the contributionErnst Thälmann: The First World War as Experience, Memory and Legitimating Narrative
    Original languageGerman
    Title of host publication‘Das rote Erbe der Front’
    Subtitle of host publication Der Erste Weltkrieg in der DDR
    Place of PublicationBerlin
    Publication statusAccepted/In press - 1 Apr 2018
    EventThe Red Inheritance of the Front - The First World War in the GDR - Frankfurt an der Oder, Frankfurt, Germany
    Duration: 1 Jun 20162 Jun 2016

    Conference

    ConferenceThe Red Inheritance of the Front - The First World War in the GDR
    Country/TerritoryGermany
    CityFrankfurt
    Period1/06/162/06/16

    Keywords

    • German communism
    • memory
    • first world war
    • ernst thälmann
    • cold war

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