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ABSTRACT
This article examines the experiences of East Germans and their adaptation to economic transformations before, during, and after 1989/90. It re-uses social science interviews from the 1990s as historical sources to show how notions of normalization, economic change, and subjectivity were intertwined. Unlike previous research on the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the article conceptualizes “normalization” not as a specific period, but as a way of organizing social and economic change. The concept of normalization, as used in this article, allows experiences of both the socialist planned economy in East Germany and the capitalist market economy that emerged after reunification to be connected as a coherent period. Taking a bottom-up perspective, the article argues that East Germans framed their self-normalization as a process of catching up with Western economic normality, thereby aligning themselves with highly contested theories of modernization. From the subjects’ standpoint, there is little to no mention of ideas or concepts of neoliberalism playing a significant role in this process.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all the participants in the joint meeting of the chairs of Prof. Dr. Stefanie Middendorf (University of Jena) and Prof. Dr. Jan Eckel (University of Freiburg) in May 2023 for their insightful comments on a draft of this paper. I am grateful to Dr. George Bodie for his critical reading of an earlier version.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Archive Institute for Social Science Research, “Everyday Living” Project Group, Leipzig Study 1991–1994, transcript interview N-IA2, 1992, p. 31. All translations by the author. For better readability, all quotes have been revised.
2. For an intellectual history of time diagnostics before, during, and after 1990, see Eckel (Citation2020).
3. Transcript interview N-IA2, p. 34.
4. The concept of normalization and its implementation were highly contested within GDR scholarship.
5. For the concept of “socialist responsibilization” in the East German health system, see Offermann (Citation2019).
6. For an in-depth discussion of the history of knowledge behind the interviews, see Villinger (Citation2022a) and Villinger (Citation2022b).
7. Whereas in Britain sociological research data has been processed and re-used by historians for some time now, the awareness of the problem has been less pronounced in German contemporary history research. On the current debate in the UK, see (Goldthorpe Citation2022; Lawrence Citation2022; Savage Citation2010).
8. The project was part of the research group “The Long History of the ‘Wende.’ Lifeworld and System Change Before, During and After 1989/90,” which was founded and led by Prof. Kerstin Brückweh between 2016 and 2020 at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam.
9. Madarász was part of a research project at UCL entitled “The Normalisation of Rule? State and Society in the GDR, 1961–1979,” led by Mary Fulbrook.
10. Archive Barbara Schier, Merxleben Study 1991–1997, transcript of the interview conducted by Barbara Schier with Helga Böninger, Karl Böninger, and Corinna Hajek in Merxleben on April 3, 1994, p. 17. All names of respondents are pseudonyms.
11. Transcript of the interview with Helga Böninger, Karl Böninger, and Corinna Hajek, p. 19.
12. Transcript of the interview with Helga Böninger, Karl Böninger, and Corinna Hajek, p. 20.
13. BStU, MfS, BVfS Leipzig, AKG 00608/02, Information über Reaktionen der Bevölkerung des Bezirkes Leipzig zum 35. Jahrestag der DDR und zur Versorgungs- und Preisproblematik, 10.10.1984, p. 69–73.
14. Archive Institute for Social Science Research, “Everyday Living” Project Group, Leipzig Study 1991–1994, transcript interview N-V3, 1992, p. 88
15. Archive Cordia Schlegelmilch, Wurzen Study 1990–1996, transcript of Cordia Schlegelmilch’s interview with Jutta Pfeil on October 11, 1991, in Wurzen, Cassette 19/B, p. 29.
16. Archive Institute for Social Science Research, “Everyday Living” Project Group, Leipzig Study 1991–1994, transcript interview N-U2, 1992, p. 88.
17. Archive Institute for Social Science Research, “Everyday Living” Project Group, Leipzig Study 1991–1994, transcript interview N-U6, 1992, p. 30.
18. Ibid., p. 29.
19. Transcript of the interview with Jutta Pfeil 19/B, p. 29.
20. Archive Cordia Schlegelmilch, Wurzen Study 1990–1996, transcript of Cordia Schlegelmilch’s interview with Peter Stein on October 28, 1991, in Wurzen, Cassette 226/B, p. 76.
21. Archive Cordia Schlegelmilch, Wurzen Study 1990–1996, transcript of Cordia Schlegelmilch’s interview with Stefan and Maria Schulze on October 30, 1991, Cassette 228/A p. 24.
22. Ibid, p. 16.
23. A search for the term “neoliberalism” in the 1949–1990 issues of East Germany’s main communist newspaper, Neues Deutschland, yields only 20 hits. Of these, 13 are from the 1940s and 1950s.
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Clemens Villinger
Clemens Villinger is a research fellow for modern history at the German Historical Institute London. His research interests include the transformation of East Central Europe and East Germany before, during and after 1989/90, the British-German history of normality, economic and everyday history, and the history of knowledge and social sciences.