The East German intelligentsia and the chronotopes of a lost utopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1997, I conducted interviews with and observed former East German academics who belonged to the Leipzig branch of the Rosa Luxemburg Association. This segment of the East German intelligentsia shared counterfactual narratives about how reformers could have changed the trajectory of East German history. Identifying with the reformers, they signalled their loyalty to the German Democratic Republic while distancing themselves from its reputation for political repression. They also shared narratives about the post-socialist era in which they cast themselves as victims of Germany’s reunification. These narratives implied that they did not unduly benefit from reunification nor pose a threat to the new democratic order. Other segments of the former East German intelligentsia, such as jurists and journalists, represented themselves as professionally active in the post-socialist time-space, consciously shaping their reputation in relation to their western German colleagues. The article concludes with a comparison to the Romanian and Polish intelligentsias, who, unlike segments of the East German intelligentsia, cast themselves as contributing to their nations’ respective futures.