The Academic and the Everyday in the GDR

Feb 20, 2014

Lecture at the GHI | Speakers: Sigrid Jacobeit (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Wolfgang Jacobeit (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) | Lecture Series: Historians Shaped by History: East German Intellectual Biographies

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany continues to be shaped by narratives of clear-cut differences between East and West. This lectures series will take a biographical perspective on coming of age as a scholar in East Germany. It will explore the impact of the collapse of the GDR on individuals' careers and the challenges they faced in adjusting to the academic culture of the West. The experiences of the speakers, who represent three different generations, highlight the differences and similarities between East and West – before and after 1989 – and will challenge the audience to reflect on their own "western" intellectual practices.

Spring Lecture Series 2014


Historians Shaped by History: East German Intellectual Biographies

Organized by Leonard Schmieding and Uwe Spiekermann

  • The Academic and the Everyday in the GDR
    February 20, 2014
    Speakers: Sigrid Jacobeit (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Wolfgang Jacobeit (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
  • Research between Central Planning and the Market: The Experiences of an East German Economic Historian, 1965-2005
    March 27, 2014
    Speaker: Jörg Roesler (Berlin)
  • In the Labyrinth of Memories: The Battle over the Stasi Files in the Peaceful Revolution of 1990/91
    April 24, 2014
    Speaker: Stefan Wolle (DDR Museum Berlin)
  • Between East and West: Contemporary History as Biographical Challenge
    May 15, 2014
    Speaker: Jürgen Danyel (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam)