Power and the People; A Social History of Central European Politics, 1945-56

by Edited by Eleonore Breuning, Jill Lewis and Gareth Pritchard

• ISBN13: 9780719070686
• ISBN10: 0719070686
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-08-06
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This book covers various aspects of the social history of politics on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the period 1945 to 1956. The contributors come from a range of countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and the United Kingdom) and comprise a mixture of established historians and younger scholars engaged in pioneering research. The chosen time-frame saw most of the decisive developments which set the pattern for the remaining Cold War period and is therefore of key importance for any student of this topic.

Author Biography

Eleonore Breuning is Emerita Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Wales Swansea. Jill Lewis is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Wales Swansea. Gareth Pritchard is the Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Glossary	xi
Biographical notes	xvii
List of abbreviations	xxi
Map 1: International boundaries in Central Europe, 1945-56	xxv
Map 2: The languages of Central Europe c. 1945 (before expulsions)	xxii
Introduction	1	(16)
I Workers
1 Social protest in the Ruhr, 1945-49
Dick Geary	17	(12)
2 Young workers, the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the June 1953 uprising
Alan McDougall	29	(13)
3 Worker protest and the origins of the Austrian Social Partnership, 1945-51
Jill Lewis	42	(15)
4 Workers in Hungary
Mark Pittaway	57	(22)
II Ethnic and linguistic minorities
5 Between 'Heimat' and 'expulsion': the construction of the Sudeten German 'Volksgruppe' in post-war Germany
Eva Hahn and Hans Henning Hahn	79	(17)
6 The Sorbs of Lusatia, the Socialist Unity Party and the Soviet Union, 1945-53
Peter Barker	96	(14)
7 The Carinthian Slovenes
Robert Knight	110	(20)
8 Historical trauma in ethnic identity: the years of homelessness of the Hungarian minority in post-war Slovakia
Dagmar Kusá	130	(23)
III Youth
9 'Reforming mentalities': the Allies, young people and new music' in Western Germany. 1945-55
Toby Thacker	153	(15)
10 Saints and devils: youth in the SBZ/GDR, 1945-53
Mark Fenemore	168	(14)
11 Austrian youth in the 1950's
Karin M. Schmidlechner	182	(18)
12 Sokol and the Communists: the battle for Czech youth, 1945-48
Mark Dimond	200	(19)
IV Women
13 Women, work and unemployment in post-war West Germany
Vanessa Beck	219	(16)
14 Women and the Left in post-war East Germany
Gareth Pritchard	235	(17)
15 Gender and abortion after the Second World War: the Austrian case in a comparative perspective
Maria Mesner	252	(14)
16 Hungarian women in politics. 1945-51
Andrea Peto	266	(15)
Index	281