Fear and Curiosity
The USSR in Historical Research in Germany during the Cold War
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Starting in the 1960s, the Cold War provided only the outer framework for contemporary observation of Soviet development and actual historical research. Perhaps more influential than the Cold War were the starting conditions for the subject “East Euro-pean History”, which were marked by the Nazi era and the Second World War. The field underwent a professionalisation from journalistic observation to academia and, in terms of methodology, oriented itself away from “the ethno-history” to structural and social history. The most important topics covered are the Second World War and German occupation, education and social stratification, studies on culture and ideology, the tension between terror and progress, as well as the comparison of dicta-torships in the 20th Century.
(Osteuropa 2-3/2013, pp. 211–236)