This book tells the story of the German Democratic Republic from “the inside out,� using the lens of generational change to deconstruct an intriguing array of social identities that had little to do with the “official GDR� version authoritarian rulers regularly sought to impose on their citizens. The author compares the “identities� of five societal subgroups (GDR writers and intellectuals; pastors and dissidents; women; youth; and working-class men), exploring the policies defining their lives and status before/during/after the 1989 Wende, as well as the diverging “exit, voice and loyalty� dilemmas encountered by each. The “dialectical� components treated in this work center on the extent to which eastern identities were lost, found and reconfigured across three generations, from 1949 to 1989, from 1990 to 2005, then up to 2020. It explores how the existence of a separate East German state and the socialization processes imposed on each subculture has not only complicated the search for national unity since 1990 but also -- perhaps more controversially—invoked new challenges directly related to ongoing East-West structural disparities since unification and the treatment of eastern Germans by often more privileged western Germans.

In contrast to most migration studies that focus on specific "foreigner" groups in Germany, this study simultaneously compares and contrasts the legal, political, social, and economic opportunity structures facing diverse categories of the ethnic minorities who have settled in the country since the 1950s. It reveals the contradictory, and usually self-defeating, nature of German policies intended to keep "migrants" out-allegedly in order to preserve a German Leitkultur (with which very few of its own citizens still identify). The main barriers to effective integration-and socio-economic revitalization in general-sooner lie in the country's obsolete labor market regulations and bureaucratic procedures. Drawing on local case studies, personal interviews, and national surveys, the author describes "the human faces" behind official citizenship and integration practices in Germany, and in doing so demonstrates that average citizens are much more multi-cultural than they realize. Joyce Marie Mushaben is a Professor of Comparative Politics and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. An itinerant scholar since the 1970s, she has studied political mobilization, national identity, gender dynamics and generational change at unversities in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Erfurt, thanks to generous support from the DAAD, the Fulbright Commission, the Ford Foundation, the German Marshall Fund and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, inter alia.

This book is a study of four separate-but-related German Questions, as perceived, interpreted and answered by members of the postwar generations who constitute a majority of the citizens in the 'old states' of the now united Bundesre publik.

In 1984, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti aptly summarized popular perception of the divided nationality of the two Germanys, East and West: "There are two German states, and two they shall remain." Few would have disagreed. By the 1980s, both German states had come to occupy respected niches in the international community. Still, neither

Since 2005, Angela Merkel has transformed not only the way Germans see themselves but also the way that politicians worldwide, male and female, perceive women in power. The East German daughter of a Protestant pastor, this physicist-turned-politician has deployed her life experiences to cultivate a unique set of leadership skills. Her pragmatic, data-driven, and future-oriented approach to politics - grounded in a commitment to democratic pluralism, human rights, and personal responsibility - has produced extraordinary paradigm shifts in many national policies in the wake of major crises. As the first English-language scholarly book to provide an in-depth account of her career and influence, Becoming Madam Chancellor examines Merkel's achievements across six key policy domains, contextualizes these within broader German history before and after reunification, and uncovers the personal and political factors that have contributed to Chancellor Merkel's hard-earned status as the world's most powerful woman.

Since 2005, Angela Merkel has transformed not only the way Germans see themselves but also the way that politicians worldwide, male and female, perceive women in power. The East German daughter of a Protestant pastor, this physicist-turned-politician has deployed her life experiences to cultivate a unique set of leadership skills. Her pragmatic, data-driven, and future-oriented approach to politics - grounded in a commitment to democratic pluralism, human rights, and personal responsibility - has produced extraordinary paradigm shifts in many national policies in the wake of major crises. As the first English-language scholarly book to provide an in-depth account of her career and influence, Becoming Madam Chancellor examines Merkel's achievements across six key policy domains, contextualizes these within broader German history before and after reunification, and uncovers the personal and political factors that have contributed to Chancellor Merkel's hard-earned status as the world's most powerful woman.