31.10.2013 Views

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: FROM RED TO GREEN IN ... - Isioma

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: FROM RED TO GREEN IN ... - Isioma

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: FROM RED TO GREEN IN ... - Isioma

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

this sense, this dissertation heeds Anselm Döring-Manteuffel’s call for research<br />

not only regarding the rise <strong>of</strong> the dictatorships <strong>of</strong> the twentieth century, but<br />

above all “regarding the development and stabilization <strong>of</strong> free societies.” 16<br />

How<br />

have radical movements in European and German history come to accept liberal<br />

democratic norms? What has encouraged a deradicalization <strong>of</strong> fringe elements,<br />

and how has this deradicalization taken place? What mix <strong>of</strong> political institutions<br />

and cultural developments has fostered these changes? Specifically for the case<br />

<strong>of</strong> West Germany, how did the Bonn Republic avoid the fate <strong>of</strong> the Weimar<br />

Republic? This study <strong>of</strong> the Left in West Berlin attempts to provide some<br />

answers to these important questions.<br />

Commentators have <strong>of</strong>fered a number <strong>of</strong> explanations regarding<br />

Germany’s transition from a totalitarian state to a prosperous democracy. Many<br />

authors, especially those writing in the post-unification era, have emphasized the<br />

political as well as economic stability <strong>of</strong> the Bonn Republic. 17<br />

Some <strong>of</strong> these<br />

16<br />

Hinsichtlich der Entstehung und Stabilisierung freier Gesellschaften.<br />

Anselm Doering-Manteuffel, “Deutsche Zeitgeschichte nach 1945: Entwicklung<br />

und Problemlagen der historischen Forschung der Nachkriegszeit,”<br />

Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 41, no. 1 (1993): 29.<br />

17<br />

On the stability <strong>of</strong> the Federal Republic, see especially Manfred<br />

Görtemaker, Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Von der Gründung bis zur<br />

Gegenwart (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1999), 13. Jeffrey Herf looks to “trends in political<br />

culture and the nature <strong>of</strong> democratic institutions to account for the unexpected<br />

resilience <strong>of</strong> West German democracy from 1977 to 1983.” Jeffrey Herf, War By<br />

Other Means: Soviet Power, West German Resistance, and the Battle <strong>of</strong> the Euromissiles<br />

(New York: The Free Press, 1991), 2. For a useful review <strong>of</strong> several contributions<br />

to understanding Germany’s transformation, see Marc Morje Howard,<br />

“Continuity and Change in Germany’s Turbulent Twentieth Century,”German<br />

Politics and Society 18, no. 3 (2000). Howard notes that “according to most<br />

13

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!