UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI- Activists in the GDR opposed the state but did not wish for the unification of Germany.

ENPNewswire-October 9, 2019--UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI- Activists in the GDR opposed the state but did not wish for the unification of Germany

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Release date- 08102019 - Molly Andrews has done research with activists of former East Germany and found out that they wanted to renew their country and not to be a part of the West.

After the opening of the Berlin Wall, Molly Andrews interviewed 40 East German activists who had fought against the oppressions of state socialism and who were responsible for the political changes which had led to the fall of the wall.

Since that time, she has continued her longitudinal study with a sub-group of the original participants - returning again in November for the 30th anniversary of the opening of the wall - talking with them about their ideas of what it means to be East German, and exploring the significance of the political rupture of 1989 over time.

Andrews has just arrived in Helsinki to begin her one-year tenure as the Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. As Professor of Political Psychology at the University of East London, Andrews has conducted research in Great Britain, South Africa, the United States and East Germany, always exploring how people construct their understanding of the political world, and how those ideas connect to action over time.

During my year at the Collegium, I intend to write a book on the relationship between history, narrative and identity, Andrews states. - I wish to explore how those who have created revolutionary change in former East Germany reflect on their political engagement over time and the dynamics of intergenerational dialogue in a particular moment of heightened social upheaval.

With the term 'GDR activists' Andrews refers to opponents of the government who wanted to transform the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into a better country, to live in and develop the state towards democracy, away from the politics of oppression. The activists were striving for a new kind of GDR and were not advocates for the unification of Germany.

Losing your home country

Molly Andrews' research demonstrates the complexity of the meaning of national identity in the context of losing one's country. One example is that of Wolfgang Templin, the man Erich Honecker once called 'the number one enemy of the State.' Prior to 1989, like many other dissidents...

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