Das Versprechen der Freiheit und das unzufriedene „Volk“ - Ostdeutsche im Transformationsprozess

In the organizer's words:

In cooperation with the Mercator Forum Migration and Democracy (MIDEM) at TU Dresden

Revolutions are promises of freedom. But disappointment often follows on their heels. The transformations in the course of reunification were not without consequences: East Germans like to stylize themselves in public discourse as victims of German unification. At the same time, however, they proved to be a powerful political player.

On the one hand, the revolutionary upheaval of 1989 was driven by the population. On the other hand, today the East German population dominates public debates through their voting behavior and not least through their victim discourse.

In his lecture, sociologist Prof. Dr. Detlef Pollack traces how East German protest behaviour can be used to understand how a population is constituted as a people and how collective self-empowerment degenerates into resentment in democracy.

This also raises the fundamental question: What remains of the promise of freedom - and how can it still be kept today?

Introduction and moderation: Prof. Dr. Hans Vorländer, TU Dresden