Editing East Germany (section)

=== GDR identity ===
[[File:Karl Marx memorial.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Karl Marx]] monument in [[Chemnitz]] (renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt 1953–1990)]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0816-002, Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Platz, Brunnen.jpg|right|thumb|[[City-Hochhaus Leipzig|Uni-Riese]] ("University Giant") in 1982. Built in 1972, it was once part of the [[University of Leipzig|Karl-Marx-University]] and is Leipzig's tallest building.]]

From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity.<ref>[[David Priestland]], ''Red Flag: A History of Communism'', New York: [[Grove Press]], 2009.</ref> Because of the imperial and military legacy of [[Prussia]], the SED repudiated continuity between Prussia and the GDR. The SED destroyed a number of symbolic relics of the former [[Prussian aristocracy]]{{Snd}}[[Junker (Prussia)|Junker]] manor-houses were torn down, the [[City Palace, Berlin|Berliner Stadtschloß]] was razed and the [[Palace of the Republic, Berlin|Palace of the Republic]] was built in its place, and the [[equestrian statue of Frederick the Great]] was removed from East Berlin. Instead, the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including [[Thomas Müntzer]]'s role in the [[German Peasants' War]] (1524–1525) and the roles of heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. The SED upheld other notable figures and reformers from Prussian history{{Snd}}such as [[Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein|Karl Freiherr vom Stein]] (1757–1831), [[Karl August von Hardenberg]] (1750–1822), [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]] (1767–1835), and [[Gerhard von Scharnhorst]] (1755–1813){{Snd}}as examples and role models.

==== Remembrance of the Third Reich ====
The communist regime of the GDR based its legitimacy on the struggle of anti-fascist militants. The [[Buchenwald Resistance]], a resistance group, was established at the memorial site of the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], with the creation of a museum in 1958, and the annual celebration of the Buchenwald oath taken on 19 April 1945 by the prisoners who pledged to fight for peace and freedom. In the 1990s, the 'state anti-fascism' of the GDR gave way to the 'state anti-communism' of the FRG. From then on, the dominant interpretation of GDR history, based on the concept of totalitarianism, led to the equivalence of communism and Nazism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |date=April 2020 |title=À Buchenwald, les antifascistes ont perdu la guerre mémorielle |trans-title=In Buchenwald, the anti-fascists have lost the memory war |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2020/04/COMBE/61583 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung 'Neues Deutschland' über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |date=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=2–3, 88–91 |language=de |trans-title=GDR politics of remembrance. Shown in the report of the daily newspaper 'Neues Deutschland' on the national memorial sites in Buchenwald, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen}}</ref>

Although officially built in opposition to the 'fascist world' in West Germany, 32% of GDR public administration employees in 1954 were former members of the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP). However, in 1961, the share of former NSDAP members among the senior Interior Ministry administration staff was less than 10% in the GDR, compared to 67% in the FRG.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |date=January 2021 |title=Antisémite, l'Allemagne de l'Est ? |trans-title=Anti-Semite, East Germany? |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2021/01/COMBE/62660 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |language=fr}}</ref> While a work of memory on the resurgence of Nazism was carried out in West Germany, this was not the case in the East.

On 17 October 1987, around thirty [[Skinhead|skinheads]] threw themselves into a crowd of 2,000 people at a rock concert in the [[Zionskirche, Dresden|Zionskirche]] without the police intervening.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |title=L'Allemagne paiera |date=2013 |pages=166–167 |language=fr |trans-title=Germany will pay}}</ref> In 1990, the writer [[Freya Klier]] received a death threat for writing an essay on [[antisemitism]] and [[xenophobia]] in the GDR. SPDA Vice President [[Wolfgang Thierse]], for his part, complained in ''[[Die Welt]]'' about the rise of the extreme right in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the former GDR, in particular the terrorist group NSU, with the German journalist Odile Benyahia-Kouider explaining that "it is no coincidence that the neo-Nazi party NPD has experienced a renaissance via the East".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |author-link=Odile Benyahia-Kouider |title=L'Allemagne paiera |date=2013 |pages=179 |language=fr |trans-title=Germany Will Pay}}</ref>

The historian Sonia Combe observes that until the 1990s, the majority of West German historians described the [[Normandy landings]] in June 1944 as an "invasion", exonerated the [[Wehrmacht]] of its responsibility for the genocide of the Jews, and fabricated the myth of a diplomatic corps that "did not know". In contrast, [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] was never a taboo in the GDR. The Nazis' crimes were the subject of extensive film, theatre, and literary productions. In 1991, 16% of the population in West Germany and 6% in East Germany had antisemitic prejudices. In 1994, 40% of West Germans and 22% of East Germans felt that too much emphasis was placed on the genocide of the Jews.<ref name=":2"/>

Historian [[Ulrich Pfeil]], nevertheless, recalls the fact that anti-fascist commemoration in the GDR had "a hagiographic and indoctrination character".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Pfeil |first=Ulrich |author-link=Ulrich Pfeil |date=9 April 2020 |title=Die DDR als Zankapfel in Forschung und Politik |trans-title=The GDR as a Bone of Contention in Research and Politics |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/307645/die-ddr-als-zankapfel-in-forschung-und-politik/#footnode48-48 |website=[[Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung]] |language=de}}</ref> As in the case of the memory of the protagonists of the German labour movement and the victims of the camps, it was "staged, censored, ordered" and, during the 40 years of the regime, was an instrument of legitimisation, repression, and maintenance of power.<ref name=":3"/>