“OSTALGIE” AND THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC: the disputes over the memories of the homosexualities

Abstract

Abstract: Ostalgie, a German neologism that designates the nostalgic sentiment towards life in the former German Democratic Republic, has been a characteristic feature of the discussions that succeeded the German unification. The compliance or setback towards Ostalgie occurs within a series of disputes over the framing of a national memory. It is in this discursive competition of memory that homosexualities and their experiences in East Germany find a useful ground for their problematization, albeit trapped in a constant dispute that either aims to generalize the repression of these groups as the only trace of their lives in the GDR, or attests for a sexual revolution that would have benefited them and put them at an advantage over their western counterpart. Thus, we intend here to outline the treatment of homosexuality within the former socialist state, as well its disputes over that memory as a result of the ambiguities that surrounded homosexual lives in East Germany.

Keywords: Memory. Sexualities. East Germany.