Letters to the Editor and the Public Sphere in the GDR

• In Event: Inventing Communities, Spheres, and Publics

Abstract

Using the example of the GDR, the article argues that the communist rulers established a non-public communication channel between politics, administrations, industry and the population that took on most functions of the non-existing public sphere: letters to the editor. By law, those letters were considered petitions. The editorial offices had to register and answer them in a timely manner or transmit them to the authorities for consideration. This policy of focusing on individual cases whilst avoiding the public sphere levels of mass communication and public meetings had two advantages for the ruling communist party: Critics were satisfied and “kept quiet” and other people were left in the dark unless they heard rumours during “encounters”. Having said that, those in power accepted that the absence of a critical discursive space hampered the process of innovation and social change – setting the GDR apart from countries with autonomous media systems.

Authors

• Michael Meyen, U Munich

• Anke Fiedler, UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES