idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The communist ruling parties (CPs) of Eastern and East Central Europe after 1945 can be considered to be the most effective political organizations of the 20th century. They claimed to put utopian societal models into practice, determined their million members' biographies and efficiently bound them to their basic organizations – even through their demise and erosion in the late 1980s. Yet, although there is no question about their societal and cultural shaping power, recent historiography is still dominated by classic narratives of political history. CPs are mainly interpreted as isolated, monolithic power machines.
In contrast, it is this conference's aim to re-interpret the highly normative party life and the CPs' power-securing practice at all levels. Analyses of the party organizations' inner workings will shed light onto the "closed society" of the CP as well as gain insights into the logic of the party leaderships and their apparatuses' actions; the social composition of the membership; and their value systems respectively. In addition, there is the question of the mid-level party functionaries' room for maneuver which should open up new perspectives on Soviet-style political systems. Further questions to be discussed include the parties' local social practice and the efficacy of the CPs' ability to endow meaning on party membership through rituals and ideology.
The main aim of this conference is to develop a comparative perspective that can be implemented across the broad spectrum of Eastern Bloc CPs. The conference will focus predominantly on the East German SED, the CPSU and the Polish United Workers' Party.
The conference is supported by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.
Program
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5
14.30 REGISTRATION
15.15–15.30 WELCOME
15.30–17.15
Rüdiger Bergien, Potsdam:
From Stalinist
Bulwark to Mediation Agency? The SED’s Central Party Bureaucracy after 1956
Christoph Boyer, Salzburg:
Communist Party Apparatuses as Steering Organizations. Paths of
Development in East Central Europe
Discussant: Dariusz Stola, Warsaw
17.30–18.30 SNACK (Building Am Neuen Markt 9 d)
19.00–21.00 PUBLIC LECTURE (in German)
Jens Gieseke, Potsdam: Die SED – Staatspartei in der ostdeutschen Gesellschaft. Fragen und Befunde eines soziokulturellen Zugriffs
Die Public Lecture ist eine öffentliche Veranstaltung.
Der Eintritt ist frei, eine Anmeldung nicht notwendig.
DISCUSSION
Moderator: Frank Bösch, Potsdam
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6
9.00–10.45 PANEL 2: MECHANISMS OF POWER AND ‘INFORMAL RULE’
Andrea Bahr, Potsdam:
Paternalism in Local
Practice: Logics of Repression, Ideological Hegemony and Everyday Management of Society in a SED District Secretariat
Krzysztof Dabek, Warsaw:
PZPR – Polish United Workers’ Party in Retrospective. Mechanisms of a
Totalitarian Regime
Discussant: Jay Rowell, Strasbourg
10.45–11.15 COFFEE BREAK
11.15–13.00 PANEL 3: GRASSROOTS PARTY LIFE – PRACTICES OF THE EVERYDAY
Sabine Pannen, Potsdam:
Behind Closed Doors. Erosion of SED Party-Life in the 1980s
Edward Cohn, Grinnell: The Paradox of Khrushchev-Era Party Discipline in the Soviet Communist Party
Discussant: TBA
13.00–14.30 LUNCH BREAK
14.30–16.15 PANEL 4: SELF-PERCEPTIONS AND CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL COMPOSITION
Jens Gieseke, Potsdam:
What Did the Comrades Think? SED Membership in Secret Opinion Polls
and Police Reports
Michel Christian, Geneva: “It Is Not Possible to Allow Past Mistakes to Come Again”, Recruiting Policy of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia between 1968 and 1989
Discussant: Thomas Lindenberger, Potsdam
16.15–16.45 COFFEE BREAK
16.45–18.30 PANEL 5: PARTY LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP STYLES
Martin Sabrow, Potsdam:
Erich Honecker – the ‘Leading Representative’, a Generational
Perspective
Mark Kramer, Cambridge:
Communication and Decision Processes in and amongst the Eastern
Bloc’s Communist Party Leaderships
Discussant: Jürgen Danyel, Potsdam
19.00 DINNER
(at “Zum Fliegenden Holländer”,
Benkertstraße 5, 14467 Potsdam)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7
9.00–10.45 PANEL 6: DECLINE, DOWNFALL,TRANSFORMATION
Frédéric Zalewski, Paris:
On the Way to Party Pluralism? The PZPR and the Reform of the
Socialist Party System in 1988–1989
Jan C. Behrends, Potsdam:
What Is to Be Done? Gorbachev’s Komanda and the End of Communism in the USSR
Discussant: TBA
10.45–11.15 COFFEE BREAK
11.15–12.30 CONFERENCE RESUME: OLD PARTIES,NEW PERSPECTIVES?
Panelists
Mark Kramer, Cambridge:
Padraic Kenney, Bloomington
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
SNACK (Building Am Neuen Markt 9 d)
Information on participating / attending:
Registration is finished.
Please contact:
Stephanie Karmann
Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam
karmann@zzf-pdm.de
Date:
12/05/2013 14:30 - 12/07/2013 12:30
Registration deadline:
11/25/2013
Event venue:
Haus der Brandenburgisch-Preußischen Geschichte (HBPG), Lecture Hall
Am Neuen Markt 9
14467 Potsdam
Brandenburg
Germany
Target group:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
History / archaeology, Politics, Social studies
Types of events:
Conference / symposium / (annual) conference
Entry:
11/26/2013
Sender/author:
Marion Schlöttke
Department:
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event45681
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