"Gutes Klassenbewusstsein, Parteiverbundenheit und Prinzipienfestigkeit": SED-Sekretäre mit NSDAP-Vergangenheit in Thüringen

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

"The First and Second Secretaries of the District and County Councils of the East German Communist Party (SED) were the provincial vicegerents of the regime and, thus, belonged to the most powerful exponents of the socialist society. As files from the Berlin Document Center prove, a considerable share of secretaries from counties that nowadays form the German State of Thuringia had been members of the NSDAP before 1945. However, this information is not confirmed by SED party records, foremost of which are the handwritten CVs in secretaries' cadre files. Although an 'automatic' or 'unconscious' 1944 NSDAP enlistment of youngsters has been a common interpretation among historians, new indications raise the questions to what extent the SED deliberately invited young careerists who had a tainted biography and whether or not a mutual agreement of silence and record forgery was made. At least one secretary (who later even became a GDR minister) admitted that he had joined the NSDAP and noted it in his post-1990 memoirs. Most remarkably, the autobiographical writings also refer to an early confession - absolution was received from a merited and elder Communist. It can be argued that the case was not a singularity." (author's abstract)

Angaben zum Objekt

• Weitere Titel: "Class consciousness, party alignment and adherence to Principles": Thuringian SED party secretaries with a NSDAP past
• ISSN: 0172-6404
• Umfang: Seite(n): 47-78
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Anmerkungen: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Historical Social Research, 35(3)

Klassifikation und Themen

• Thema: Politikwissenschaft ; Geschichte ; allgemeine Geschichte ; politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur ; Bundesrepublik Deutschland ; SED ; Elite ; politische Elite ; Entnazifizierung ; Partei ; Mitgliedschaft ; Biographie ; NSDAP ; Eliteforschung ; Bestandsaufnahme ; Thüringen ; historische Analyse ; DDR-Forschung ; Macht ; Parteisekretär ; Herrschaftsapparat ; DDR ; Vergangenheitsbewältigung ; Opportunismus ; Kommunismus ; Integrationspolitik ; empirisch ; empirisch-quantitativ ; historisch

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Meenzen, Sandra
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wo): Deutschland
• (wann): 2010

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.35.2010.3.47-78
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-310683
• Rechteinformation: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 21.06.2024, 16:26 MESZ