Paper short abstract:

Radical social changes rearrange places in the past into a present discursive order. The unification of Germany has influenced the recollection of the no longer existing GDR. I examine how the rewriting of history is intertwined with the identity formation of the former GDR citizens.

Paper long abstract:

Post socialist transformations offer a great opportunity to examine how individual memories are intertwined with present discourses about the past. The paper discusses how radical social changes are also retrospective in that they rearrange places in the past into a present discursive order. This is certainly true for the no longer existing East German state. The demise of the German Democratic Republic has caused radical changes in all parts of everyday life for its former citizens. These transformations also influence the recollection of life under socialism. Since the unification of Germany, dominant discourses about the GDR are to a great extent formed by West Germans who have not themselves experienced "real existing socialism". Big parts of everyday life have been considered controlled by the socialist regime and therefore ideologically contaminated.

At the core of the analysis stands how the rewriting of history influences identity formation. Through life story interviews, I examine how persons grown up in the GDR handle, resist and contribute to the politicization of their childhood. What is possible to say about the GDR in today's Germany? Which memories are being left out when telling your life story? Which themes are impossible to avoid and how are they related to the individuals own experiences? How does the recollection of the GDR position the East Germans in relation to their West German compatriots? Which continuities and discontinuities are articulated in the construction of Eastern Germany?