The Official Concept of the Nation in the Former Gdr: Theory, Pragmatism and the Search for Legitimacy

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the ultimate indication that the GDR remained a state without proper legitimacy. While other states in the Soviet Bloc also lacked democratic legitimacy, their people did not belong to a larger nation, which a neighbouring capitalist state also claimed to represent. How the East German regime tackled the problem of the German nation from the birth of the GDR until its collapse is the subject of this book. Official policy regarding the nation was characterized by inconsistencies and dramatic U-turns. Using archive material previously unavailable and interviews with significant actors, the author examines the primary factors which determined policy, including the role of leading East German theorists, the personal convictions of the ruling elite, public opinion and the influences of Bonn and Moscow. What emerges is that the need to prove the legitimacy of the GDR took precedence over both consistency and the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism.