Senior Instructor of German Dr. Florian Gassner will be presenting on “The ‘German Family’ & The Berlin Wall” at the Family Studies Lecture Series at Langara College on October 30 at 1:30 pm.
Abstract
After World War II, Germans often described their nation as a broken family. The separation from the dear brothers and sisters in the east – “die lieben Brüder und Schwestern im Osten” – became a popular trope in the West to describe the division of Germany. This motif remains popular today, but mostly to ask why it has been such a challenge for these brothers and sisters to once again live under one roof after 1990. This talk will explore a pivotal factor in this development: The economic and social pressure on the nuclear family in the former GDR after unification. The loss of jobs and credentials after 1990 forced large sections of the work force to seek (often lower-paying) employment in the west, breaking up existing social structures. At the same time, this society faced a new social system that represented at times very different beliefs about the rights and duties of the family.
