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East Germany

Bleiker, Roland, Nonviolent Struggle and the Revolution in East Germany, Cambridge MA, Albert Einstein Institution, 1993, pp. 53

Brant, Stefan, The East German Rising, 17th June 1953, London, Thames and Hudson, 1955, pp. 202

Dale, Gareth, Popular Protest in East Germany 1945-1989, London, Frank Cass, 2004, pp. 256

Dale, Gareth, The East German Revolution of 1989, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2007, pp. 252

Eye-witness stresses the role of civic groups and the increasing radicalisation of workers and technicians, and engages critically with other interpretations of the revolution. See also his earlier book, Dale, Gareth , Popular Protest in East Germany 1945-1989 London, Frank Cass, , 2004, pp. 256 .

Della Porta, Donatella, Mobilizing for Democracy: Comparing 1989 and 2011, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 384

Expert on social movements combines analysis of movements with theory of democratisation, and using comparative framework discusses causes and outcomes of 1989 movements in Eastern Europe with the Middle East and North Africa from 2011. Particular, but by no means exclusive, focus on GDR and Czechoslovakia and on Tunisia and Egypt.

Einhorn, Barbara, Socialist Emancipation: The Women’s Movement in the GDR, ed. Kruks, Sonia, Rapp, Rayna, Young, Marilyn B., In Kruks, Sonia ; Rapp, Rayna ; Young, Marilyn B., Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism New York, Monthly Review Press, , 1989, pp. 396,

Einhorn, Barbara, Feminism in Crisis: The East German Women’s Movement in the “New Europe”, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 41, no. 1 (April), 1999, pp. 14-28

Funk, Nanette, Feminism in Former East Germany, Dissent, no. (Spring), 1992, pp. 152-156

Garton Ash, Timothy, We the People: The Revolution of 89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague, London, Granta Books in association con Penguin, 1990, pp. 156

(Published in New York by Random House as The Magic Lantern).

Guenther, Katja, Making Their Place: Feminism after Socialism in Eastern Germany, Palo Alto CA, Stanford University Press, 2010, pp. 262

Examines feminist activism in two East German cities, Erfurt and Rostock, in context of economic and political upheaval in former socialist bloc, and the trends undermining the rights and status of women.

Hekma, Gert ; Oosterhuis, Harry, Gay Men and the Sexual History of the Political Left, New York, Harrington Press, 1995, pp. 408

Includes chapters on the often difficult relationship between socialist, anarchist or social democratic movements and homosexuality in countries such as pre-First World War Netherlands, Civil-War Spain, the German Weimar Republic and post-1945 East Germany.

Hildebrandt, Rainer, The Explosion: The Uprising Behind the Iron Curtain, Boston, Little Brown, 1955, pp. 198

Hirschmann, Albert O., Exit, voice and the fate of the German Democratic Republic, World Politics, Vol. 45, no. Jan., 1993, pp. 172-202

Much cited conceptual analysis contrasting the movement of emigration through Hungary to the West and the internal resistance.

Joppke, Christian, East German Dissidents and the Revolution of 1989: Social Movements in a Leninist Regime, New York, New York University Press, 1995, pp. 277

Maier, Charles S., Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 464

Drawing on newly released Party and Stasi archives, Maier analyses the 40 years of East German history, and charts both the growth of dissent (for example the autonomous peace campaigns and youth culture) in the 1980s, and the systemic decline of the regime due to economic crisis and corruption at the top. See also: Maier, ‘Civil Resistance and Civil Society: Lessons from the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1989’, in Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 260-76.

Martens, Lorna, The Promised Land: Feminist Writing in the German Democratic Republic, New York, State University of New York Press, 2001, pp. 273

Writings by prominent intellectuals, including Christa Wolf, exploring how far the GDR gave women the equality it proclaimed.

Mueller, Carol, Claim “Radicalization?” The 1989 Protest Cycle in the GDR, Social Problems, Vol. 46, no. 4 (November), 1999, pp. 528-547

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson, Nonviolent Revolutions: Civil Resistance in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 178

Compares ‘unsuccessful’ and ‘successful’ movements against Socialist regimes (Tiananmen and East Germany 1989), against military regimes (Panama and Chile in the 1980s) and against personal dictators (Kenyan opposition to Moi and the Philippines struggle against Marcos). Draws some fairly brief general conclusions.

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson, Nonviolent Struggle: Theories, Strategies, and Dynamics, New York, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 264

Designed as a textbook, it covers history, theoretical developments and debates about the results of nonviolent movements. It categorizes nine types of nonviolent action, which are illustrated by case studies.  A separate chapter explores key issues of why and when sections of the armed services defect from a regime challenged by a nonviolent movement. 

Opp, Karl-Dieter ; Voss, Peter, Origins of a Spontaneous Revolution: East Germany 1989, Ann Arbor MI, University of Michigan Press, 1995, pp. 280

Study based on fieldwork interviewing various actors.

Ostermann, Christian F., Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, the German Question and the First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain, ed. Ostermann, Christian F., Budapest, Central European University Press, 2003, pp. 492

A documentary history in sections, including: i. origins of crisis April 1952-mid-June 1953; ii. the uprising; with introductions to each section and general well referenced introduction.

Prins, Gwyn, Spring in Winter: The 1989 Revolutions, ed. Prins, Gwyn, (Preface by Vaclav Havel), Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1990, pp. 251

Includes reflections by leading participants in revolutions from Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, a journalist’s view of ‘Why Romania could not avoid bloodshed’, and an essay by J.K. Galbraith on dangers of the triumph of a simplistic economic ideology, and a comparative chronology of 1988-1990.

Ramet, Pedro, Church and Peace in the GDR, Problems of Communism, Vol. 35, no. Jul.-Aug, 1984, pp. 44-57

Sandford, John, The Sword and the Ploughshare: Autonomous Peace Initiatives in East Germany, London, Merlin Press jointly with END, 1983, pp. 111

Sarotte, Mary Elise, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 344

Highly-praised analysis challenging the inevitability of German reunification and the spread of NATO. Discusses role of political leaders and dissidents in 1989, drawing on documents and interviews, and assesses the views from various world capitals.

Saxonberg, Steven, The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 434

Chapter 10 ‘Nonviolent Revolutions’ compares Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

Thompson, Mark R., To Shoot or Not to Shoot: Posttotalitarianism in China and Eastern Europe, Comparative Politics, Vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, pp. 63-83

Seeks to explain why in 1989 there was a massacre in Beijing but not in Berlin or Prague. Similar discussion in Thompson, Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) .

Tokes, Rudolf L., Opposition in Eastern Europe, ed. Tokes, Rudolf L., London, Macmillan, 1979, pp. 306

Includes surveys of human rights and political change, worker resistance and potential for peasant opposition, and essays on Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and Hungary from 1968-1978.

Vollnhal, Clemens, Jahre des Umbruchs: Friedliche Revolution in der DDR und Transition in Ostmitteleuropa, Goettingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012

The disintegration of the Soviet bloc led to different kinds of peaceful transformation in Central Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s.  In spite of many differences, common tendencies became apparent. Leading experts elaborate on similarities and differences in the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.