Zukunft am Ende

All things DDR-nostalgic? 1989, the German year of reunification, represents a turning point for many. A large number of so-called Wende reminder texts - change reminder texts - which reflect and process the impact of the change on cultural systems of meaning have subsequently emerged.
The focus of this book is a subset of such texts consisting of autobiographies by DDR- humanities scholars. Christiane Lahusen's analysis shows that these should not be dismissed as retrospective idealization of the DDR reality. Rather, a considerably more complex picture emerges: autobiographies are less addressed to the past as to the future, because only the collapse of state socialism allowed the autobiographer to refer back to a political utopia they had long since lost to DDR history.