Reading: “Solidarität und Gewalt”

Ever since German reunification and the pogrom-like attacks on migrants in the 1990s, the “brown East” has been on everyone’s lips. Since then, there have been constant questions about the causes of racism and right-wing violence in East Germany.

The historian Carsta Langner traces the history of migration in eastern Germany from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. In her talk, she will draw on contemporary sources to discuss the experiences of migrants. Racism was a significant part of this. However, state socialism and the slogans of ‘friendship among nations’ and ‘international solidarity’ had motivated quite a few East Germans to campaign for the interests of migrants and against racism.

The author
Dr Carsta Langner, is a research employee and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Erfurt, as well as a sub-project leader within the DFG research group “Voluntariness”. Her research focuses on the history of voluntary participation under state socialism, as well as the history of civil society in Germany and on racism and migration in East Germany during its period of social upheaval.