Death in East Germany, 1945-1990

Felix Robin Schulz is Lecturer in Modern European History at Newcastle University. He has taught at Lancaster University, the University of York, and Sunderland University. His research interests include the history of sepulchral cultures, regional and national memorialization, and the link between landscape and identity. He has published on death and disposal in East Germany as well on the history of the Alps.

“[The author] offers a nuanced description of funeral practices in the GDR, which because of its broad empirical base alone can be recommended to all readers who want to explore in a sober manner the theme of death. Schulz’ results deepen our knowledge of church and economic policies of the SED.”  ·  Sehepunkte“Felix Robin Schulz’s insightful and thoroughly researched book makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on the history of East Germany. It is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive study of sepulchral culture in the GDR. Schulz is to be strongly commended for his extensive archival research in Berlin and in a number of city archives. He also visited numerous sites personally, which lends him a further layer of authority over his subject matter and allows him to make observations on how quickly certain spatial elements of socialist sepulchral culture are disappearing.”  ·  Heléna Tóth, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich“[A] book on a fascinating subject, and one that offers a genuinely new perspective on the history of the German Democratic Republic. It links a number of topics that are of considerable interest… Although the GDR has attracted an enormous historical literature over the past couple of decades, the subject here has not been investigated until now…no one has attempted anything like this before—a book that links, among other things, the social aftermath of Nazism, the political history of the German Democratic Republic, the long-term developments in funeral and burial practices and cultures, and the relations between church and state in the GDR.”  ·  Richard Bessel, University of York

• List of IllustrationsList of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgementsGlossaryIntroductionChapter 1. The Origins of Modern German Sepulchral CultureChapter 2. After Death: The Organization of DisposalChapter 3. Resting Places? Cemeteries in the GDRChapter 4. Burning Bodies: Cremation in the GDRChapter 5. The Communal Burial of Ashes: ‘New’ Spaces for DisposalChapter 6. Funerals in the GDR: A Diversity of RitualsConclusionBibliographyIndex