Grashoff, UR;
(2019)
Driven into Suicide by the Communist Regime of the German Democratic Republic? On the Persistence of a Distorted Perspective.
Central European History
, 52
(2)
pp. 310-332.
10.1017/S0008938919000165.
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Abstract
The assumption that the communist dictatorship in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) drove many people into suicide has persisted for decades, and is still evident in academia and public discourse. High suicide rates in Eastern Germany that can be traced back to the 19th century cannot, however, be due to a particular political system. Be it monarchy, democracy, fascism or socialism, the frequency of suicide did not change significantly. In fact, the share of politically motivated suicides in the GDR amounts to only one to two per cent. Neither political, economic, cultural or macro-social factors had a significant impact on the suicide rate. This is further corroborated by an analysis of two sub-levels of the GDR society which were more likely to be affected by repression: prisons and the army. In both cases no higher suicide rate is verifiable. Complimentary to the quantitative approach ‘from above’, a qualitative analysis ‘from below’ underlines the limited importance of repression, and points to a regional pattern of behaviour linked to cultural influences and the role of religion, specifically protestantism. During the last decades, an overly politicised interpretation of suicide in the GDR has also overlooked the importance of the social microclimate with weak suicide-inhibiting factors in East Germany. The persistence of the misperception was facilitated by several factors: The bereaved ones in the East, the media in the West and a few victims of suicide themselves blamed the regime and downplayed individual and pathological aspects. Moreover, state and party officials in the GDR unintentionally reinforced the politicisation of suicide by imposing a taboo fuelling the flames of speculation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Driven into Suicide by the Communist Regime of the German Democratic Republic? On the Persistence of a Distorted Perspective |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0008938919000165 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938919000165 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10024703 |
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