A Cultural Shift in the 1970s

Abstract

This essay explores how an international project between socialist nations unraveled transnationally. I explain the cultural shift toward taboo topics in the 1970s and argue that the shift was forced by two factors: first, the rise of a new generation of youngsters unaffected by World War II, and second the relative ease of transnational mobility. Starting in 1972, Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia allowed citizens to travel more freely in a project called the “borders of friendship.” Exploring changes in the representations of World War II and what was later to be called the Holocaust in literature; in the celebration of rock music and film; and at international happenings, I argue that teenagers starting in the 1970s were raised with an increased sense of acceptance not only of their history but also their state. Critically, however, they also gained a greater sense of ideological irony: just as it became more acceptable to discuss taboo topics like Stalinization or the expulsion of Germans, so too was their understanding that deviations from strict ideology were more accepted.