Die verdrängte Zeit

The Rediscovery of the East German Avant-Garde Why is the memory of the culture of the East always caught between politicizing analysis or apolitical Ostalgie? Marko Martin rediscovers the East German avant-garde and shows what it can still tell us today. The preoccupation with the GDR past seems hopelessly trapped between empty phrases. Why do those who helped shape the upheaval in 89/90 find themselves today almost in a kind of unrelated terra incognita with their youthful readings, intellectual imprints, or musical preferences, while at the same time Western experiences of '68 have long since entered the collective memory? This book does not claim to provide a definitive alternative history of the GDR; it attempts to open up a new, non-ideological perspective. For example, what did literature and film art look like in the walled-in country that was neither politically oppositional nor state-supporting, but rather shrewdly conquered its freedom? What role did jazz and punk play? "Die verdrängte Zeit" is a provocatively good-humored reminder of worldly cultural achievements that were not only well-intentioned but also well-made - and that came into being not because of but in spite of the regime.