A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany

Arbeitspapier

This paper exploits the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within East Germany at the end of WWII to study political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered, 40% of what would become the authoritarian German Democratic Republic was initially under Allied control but was ceded to Soviet control less than two months later. Brief Allied exposure increased protests during the major 1953 uprising. We use novel data on the appointment of local mayors and a retrospective survey to argue that even a "glimpse of freedom" can foster civilian opposition to dictatorship.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15606

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions ; Structure and Scope of Government: General ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913- ; Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: General
• Subject: spatial RDD ; autocracy ; protest ; political resistance ; East Germany ; World War II

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Martínez, Luis R. ; Jessen, Jonas ; Xu, Guo
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/265827
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET