The Cold War Politics of Cultural Minorities: Jews and Sorbs in the German Democratic Republic, 1976-1989

Abstract

This article compares cultural identity politics relating to Jews and Sorbs in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1976 to the collapse of communism in 1989. Drawing on state and party sources, oral histories, literature and documents from the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), it juxtaposes state constructions of minority identities with the views and actions of Jewish and Sorbian students, writers and intellectuals. In its first three decades, the East German Communist party (SED) generally treated Jewish culture with suspicion or indifference and often conflated Jewishness with the capitalist West. In contrast, the party celebrated a folkloric vision of Sorbian culture that linked Germany with the Slavic East. By the mid-1980s, the SED altered its posture towards Jews and Sorbs. In the GDR's final decade, SED officials attempted to cultivate Jewish culture while viewing Sorbs with increased suspicion. The main reason for this shift was that SED officials placed Cold War foreign policy concerns over Marxist-Leninist ideological consistency. Treatment of Sorbs worsened as Sorbs forged ties with dissidents in other Eastern Bloc nations. Meanwhile, celebrations of Jewish culture aimed to improve the GDR's ties with Western Europe by embracing Western Holocaust memory. The article also shows that SED efforts to cultivate minority cultural identities often backfired at the grassroots level. The minority cultural images promoted by the state often had little resonance outside leadership circles. Average GDR citizens frequently grew disenchanted with SED cultural minority policies, ultimately helping by the 1980s to destabilize the regime.