Hans Misselwitz
“Herausfordernde Vergangenheit” / Aus Geschichte lernen? Über den Umgang mit „verstörenden Vergangenheiten“
[“A Challenging Past” / Learning from History? On Dealing with “Disturbing Pasts”]
The GDR served as the legitimizing version of the second postwar German state, in contrast to the other German state, which defined itself as anti-communist during the Cold War. The fact that the GDR ultimately dissolved itself can also be explained by the evident erosion of its ideological cohesion, but not by its self-image as an anti-fascist alternative. Thus, after 1990, the population in the East found itself in a new order of political freedoms and a reality in which its lived historical positioning no longer held political validity. This can be observed in the handling of political challenges right up to the present day.
This paper aims to explore a learning process in the GDR and its significance for today. It traces the author’s own biographical journey toward anti-fascism and examines wider social engagement with the theme — specifically, the idea of politically or morally imperatives to resistance, which must prove its worth in the present.
Hans J. Misselwitz, born in 1950 in Altenburg (Thuringia), studied biology and biophysics in Jena and Berlin, and earned his Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1980 from the Academy of Sciences. From 1981 to 1986 he studied theology at a theological college. 1987–88 he was Fellow of the World Council of Churches in the U.S. In 1989 he was Pastor in Hennigsdorf near Berlin. From 1981 to 1989, he was active in the Pankow Peace Circle and the independent peace movement in the GDR. In 1990, he was a member of the 10th People’s Chamber of the GDR, and Parliamentary State Secretary in the GDR Ministry of Foreign Affairs; he was also head of the GDR delegation at the Two Plus Four negotiations. From 1991 to 1999, he served as director of the State Agency for Political Education of the State of Brandenburg. From 1999 to 2015, he served on the SPD Party Executive Committee, including as Chief of Staff to Deputy Party Chairman Thierse, Secretary of the Commission on Fundamental Values, and Advisor on Policy Issues. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Commission on Fundamental Values on the SPD Party Executive Committee. His publications on foreign policy decisions from 1990 onward and on political developments in East Germany include Nicht länger mit dem Gesicht nach Westen. Das neue Selbstbewusstsein der Ostdeutschen (No Longer Facing West: The New Self-Confidence of East Germans) (1996).