INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE
THE MEANING OF 1989
ABOUT
Thirty years on, the fall of the Berlin Wall still exercises the political imagination like few other events in recent history. This is not surprising given that ‘1989’ was arguably as great a caesura as the French Revolution of 1789. However, while the sequence of events leading to the fall of the Wall and the demise of Soviet communism has been well documented, the historical meaning of 1989 remains the subject of intense controversy.
There are good reasons to challenge both the prevalent understanding of 1989 as a triumph of free-market economics and liberal democracy and the attendant reading of East German history as a mere anteroom to 1989. Such interpretations not only eclipse an important historical experience that foreshadowed the economic slump of 2008; they also obscure the deep systemic roots of the ecological catastrophe unfolding in uncanny slow motion before our eyes. As with the revival of nostalgic visions for a post-capitalist future, such reductive readings of 1989 only perpetuate the binary logic of the Cold War.
This conference seeks to enhance our understanding of both the global historical significance of 1989 and the specific historical experience of the GDR. Bringing together researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds, the event features original contributions which seek to engage with the meaning of 1989 and which depart from now familiar and well-trodden paths.
Heiko Feldner and Nick Hodgin
CONFERENCE ORGANISERS
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
29th November 2019
Owain Glyndwr, 10 St John's Street, Cardiff, CF10 1GL
WELCOME TALK
09:00 - 09:15
By conference organisers,
Heiko Feldner and Nick Hodgin
SESSION A
09:15 - 11:00
Chair: Marc Schweissinger, Cardiff University
Ute Feldner and Heiko Feldner,
Christ College Brecon/Cardiff University
The Devil Take the Hindmost: the Meaning of 1989
Michał Krzykawski, University of Silesia Katowice
1989 or the Downfall of European Social Democracy: an Eastern-European Perspective
Evelyn Preuss, Yale University
1989: The Meanings of a Revolution and the East German Legacy in Global Perspective
COFFEE & TEA
11:00 - 11:15
SESSION B
11:15 - 13:00
Chair: Debbie Pinfold, University of Bristol
Nick Hodgin, Cardiff University
Kosmonauts: the past's presence and futures past
Ernest Ženko, University of Primorska
Requiem for the Second World: the Political Unconscious in Wolfgang Becker’s ’Good Bye Lenin!’
Peter Thompson, University of Sheffield
The GDR, Class and the Primacy of Politics
LUNCH BREAK
13:00 - 14:00
SESSION C
14:00 - 15:45
Chair: Fabio Vighi, Cardiff University
Martin Brady, King’s College London
1989 and Beyond: the Legacy of GDR New Music
Stephan Petzold, University of Leeds
Normalising Dissatisfaction: Popular Music in the late GDR and the Coming of the 1989 Revolution
David Clarke, Cardiff University
Making a Space for Ritual: GDR Regime Loyalists after the End of State Socialism
COFFEE & TEA
15:45 - 16:00
SESSION D
16:00 - 17:45
Chair: Conny Opitz, Cardiff University
Janine Ludwig, University of Bremen
Remembering unrealised ambition in forgotten literature of the Wende
Tom Hedley, Trinity College Dublin
Im Osten nichts Neues? Topologies of Continuity in Marc Bauder’s ‘Das System: Alles verstehen heißt alles verzeihen’
Jakub Szumski, Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw/University of Jena
Ordinary Stasi: the Discovery of Corruption and the Fall of East German Socialism
POST-CONFERENCE SOCIAL
18:00 -
Registration
Fri, 29 NovOwain Glyndwr29 Nov 2019, 09:00 – 18:00Owain Glyndwr, 10 St John St, Church St, Cardiff CF10 1GL, UK/Wales
