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- Title
ON A SUPPOSED TABOO: FLIGHT AND REFUGEES FROM THE EAST IN GDR FILM AND TELEVISION<sup>1</sup>.
- Authors
Niven, Bill
- Abstract
This article takes issue with the view that the theme of the flight of Germans from central and eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War was a 'taboo' topic in the GDR. It does so by exploring portrayals of this theme in GDR cinema films, and television series. It argues that, because GDR culture developed and retained through the decades an interest in representing the early postwar period, it was almost inevitable that cultural portrayals would feature the theme of the flight and resettlement of Germans, and of the part they played in the construction of socialism. Far from depicting German refugees negatively, GDR films and television series adopted a largely sympathetic perspective. Nevertheless, at the same time they made clear that the flight of Germans needed to be understood as a consequence of the Nazi war of aggression. This inherent ambivalence is the hallmark of one TV series in particular, Wege übers Land.
- Subjects
GERMANY (East); GERMANY; POPULAR culture; WEGE ubers Land (TV program); GERMANS in foreign countries; REFUGEES in motion pictures; WAR &; society; POLITICAL refugees; WORLD War II refugees; MASS media; GERMAN emigration &; immigration history; EAST Germany in mass media; HISTORY
- Publication
German Life & Letters, 2012, Vol 65, Issue 2, p216
- ISSN
0016-8777
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1468-0483.2011.01568.x