Reenactment in the GDR and the FRG. An Actor-centered Study

Abstract

While the formative phase of the Anglo-American reenactment scene has already been well researched, a historicisation of reenactments as a popular cultural practice of visualising the past is still largely lacking for Europe. In particular, little is known about the developments in East and West Germany. This is the starting point for our article, which provides an initial reconstruction and classification of the developments in the two German states, which gained momentum especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Our focus is on the subjective experience of contemporary actors, on the basis of which it we trace how various groups of people interested in history in the two German states formed and consolidated and in which ways they were similar or different. It also sheds light on the political and everyday conditions under which people acted. On the basis of these initial actor-centered explorations, the text draws attention to desiderata for further research and suggests research questions for future studies in this field – for example with regard to the transnational relationships and networks of both reenactment scenes and the developments during the post-reunification period.