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In Search of Rationality and Objectivity: Origins and Development of East German Thanatology

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Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War Europe

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Abstract

The officially sanctioned thanatology of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) stressed a scientific approach, in which death was seen as a biological reality that needed to be faced and accepted rationally and objectively. However, such views could be troubling, as even the chief ideologist of the GDR, Kurt Hager, noted in 1979 that a purely scientific understanding of death represented a real challenge to Marxist–Leninist thinking. This challenge was especially pressing, since the East German state had battled with the churches from the mid-1950s on over the administration and meaning of death. A close reading of the materials concerning death culture in the GDR is a revealing case study of the relationship between materialism, religion and socialism in East Germany.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    H. Feifel (1959) The Meaning of Death (New York: McGraw-Hill), p. vii.

  2. 2.

    There is some mindfulness of change over time to be found, such as the discussion of the gamut of interpretations of death defined by the polar attitudes of stoic acceptance or idealistic glorification of death that mark out Western thought: H. Marcuse, ‘The Ideology of Death’, in Feifel (ed.), Meaning of Death, pp. 64–76.

  3. 3.

    The science of death itself is complicated enough, a good starting point despite a lot of further research is still: S. Younger et al. (eds.) (1999) The Definition of Death: Contemporary Controversies (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press).

  4. 4.

    Feifel, Meaning of Death, p. xviii.

  5. 5.

    A. Malysch et al. (eds.) (1983) Ihre Namen leben durch die Jahrhunderte fort: Kondolenzen und Nekrologe zum Tode von Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels (Berlin: Dietz Verlag).

  6. 6.

    H. Gemkow and A. Miller (1990) August Bebel—“ein prächtiger alter Adler”: Nachrufe, Gedichte, Erinnerungen (Berlin: Dietz).

  7. 7.

    I. Fetscher, ‘Vorwort’, F. Reisinger (1977) Der Tod im marxistischen Denken heute: Schaff, Kolakowski, Machovec, Prucha (München: Kaiser), p. 9.

  8. 8.

    G. Freidank (1975) Alles hat am Ende sich gelohnt—Material für weltliche Trauerfeiern (Leipzig: Zentralhaus für Kulturarbeit der DDR), pp. 29–30.

  9. 9.

    D. McLellan (1969) The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx (London: Macmillan), p. 22.

  10. 10.

    V. Kieran (1991) ‘Religion’, in T. Bottomore (ed.), A Dictionary of Marxist Thought—2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell), pp. 465–68; D. McLellan (1986) Marx (London: Fontana), pp. 24–38.

  11. 11.

    T. Bottomore (ed.) (1963) Karl Marx—Early Writings (London & New York: McGraw-Hill), pp. 43–4.

  12. 12.

    T. Bottomore (ed.), Karl Marx—Early Writings, p. 44.

  13. 13.

    See: K. Marx, Theses on Feuerbach—4th thesis 1845, first published in the year of his death 1886 as an appendix to: F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the end of German Classical Philosophy, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886ecgp/index.htm.

  14. 14.

    Freidank, Alles hat am Ende sich gelohnt, p. 29.

  15. 15.

    R. Williams (1980) Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: Verso), p. 104.

  16. 16.

    Williams, Materialism and Culture, p. 104.

  17. 17.

    R. Bhaskar (1991) ‘Materialism’, in T. Bottomore (ed.), A Dictionary of Marxist Thought (Oxford: Blackwell), p. 372, please note this was written before the turn towards critical realism.

  18. 18.

    See the development of materialism: J. Choron (1963) Death and Western Thought (New York & London: Collier), pp. 186–98.

  19. 19.

    The GDR official liturgy suggested as a possible starting point for any eulogy a line from Otto Grotewohl: ‘The highest aim in life is the creative deed’. See: F. Kretzschmar (1982) Der Tag hat sich geneigt—Zur Gestaltung weltlicher Trauerfreiern (Leipzig: Zentralhaus Publikation), p. 12.

  20. 20.

    For the instrumental role of the Warsaw-based philosopher Adam Schaff in the postwar engagement of Marxism with the role of the individual see: F. Reisinger, Der Tod, pp. 100–29.

  21. 21.

    The catalogue and the holdings of the Bibliothek und Druckschriftensammlung des SED-Bezirksparteiarchivs Magdeburg and material concerning religion and theological question indicates this very clearly, Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Magdeburg (LHSA Mageburg), P30.

  22. 22.

    R. Rochhausen (1958) Der Sputnik und der liebe Gott Broschiert (Berlin: Dietz).

  23. 23.

    M. Baskin (1957) Materialismus und Religion (Berlin: Dietz), p. 110.

  24. 24.

    E. Haeckel (1958) Gibt es ein Weiterleben nach dem Tode?—Aus “Die Welträtsel”(Berlin: Dietz), footnote 1.

  25. 25.

    The differentiation of these ceremonies is complex and goes beyond the scope of this chapter. See: F. Schulz (2013) Death in East Germany, 1945–90 (New York: Berghahn).

  26. 26.

    Bundesarchiv Berlin (BA Berlin), DO4, No. 326, Grundsätze und Erfahrungen bei der Gestaltung sozialistischer Feierlichkeiten um Geburt, Eheschließung und Tod in Stalinstadt, 24 April 1958, 1.

  27. 27.

    P. Franz (1980) Die historische und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung des Bestattungswesen unter der Berücksichtigung der aktuellen Situation in der DDR, PhD Thesis Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, p. 1.

  28. 28.

    BA Berlin, DO1, 7500 Letter from Abteilung Innere Angelegenheiten, Sektor II to Deutschen Kulturbund, 22 December 1961, p. 2.

  29. 29.

    T. Krause (1995) Der Umgang mit ethischen Problemen des Lebensende in der DDR und die Entstellungen Medizinischen Personals zu Sterbenden und zum eigenen Tod, MD Dissertation, Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Leipzig, p. 4.

  30. 30.

    Among others see: J. Brinks (1997) ‘Political Antifascism in the German Democratic Republic’, Journal of Contemporary History xxxii:2, 207–17; S. Behrenbeck (1996) Der Kult um die toten Helden, Nationalsozialistische Mythen, Riten und Symbole, 1923–1945 (Vierow bei Greifswald: SH Verlag).

  31. 31.

    W. Eichhorn (1964) Von der Entwicklung des sozialistischen Menschen (Berlin: Dietz), p. 76.

  32. 32.

    Reisinger, Der Tod, pp. 268–70.

  33. 33.

    H. Steußloff (1967) Zur Kritik der ideologisch-theoretischen Verschleierung der Todesprobleme in der modernen christlichen Theologie, PhD dissertation, Jena, 90.

  34. 34.

    Streußloff, Verschleierung der Todesprobleme, p. 98.

  35. 35.

    Magdeburger Volkstimme 16 July 1976, 2; Neues Deutschland, 15 July 1976, Nr. 167, 2; LHSA Mageburg, Rep. 41, Nr. 1433, Eulogy by A. Pisnik.

  36. 36.

    THSA Weimar, BPA Erfurt, IV/B/2/5–200, 281: Fernschreiben, 30 June 1971.

  37. 37.

    For more details see: J. Redlin (2009) Säkulare Totenrituale: Totenehrung, Staatsbegräbnis und private Bestattung in der DDR (Münster: Waxmann).

  38. 38.

    Landeshauptstaatsarchiv Schwerin (LHA Schwerin), Rep. 7.11.1. BT/RdB Schwerin, 3995, Eine Ansprache aus Güstrow.

  39. 39.

    LHA Schwerin, Rep. 7.11.1. BT/RdB Schwerin, 3995, Arbeitsgruppe für weltliche Bestattung im Bezirk Schwerin.

  40. 40.

    G. Freidank, Alles hat am Ende sich gelohnt, pp. 5–6.

  41. 41.

    K. Hager (1979) Philosophie und Politik (Berlin: Dietz), p. 23.

  42. 42.

    K. Blumenthal-Barby (1982) Betreuung Sterbender (Berlin: VEB Volk und Gesundheit).

  43. 43.

    K. Blumenthal-Barby (1986) Wenn ein Mensch stirbt … (Berlin: VEB Volk und Gesundheit).

  44. 44.

    Blumenthal-Barby, Wenn ein Mensch stribt …, pp. 55–6.

  45. 45.

    BA Berlin, DQ1, No. 11613, Letter Möwius to Mecklinger, 17 March 1982, attached report, 5–6.

  46. 46.

    BA Berlin, DY 30/IV B 2/14/46, Arbeitsgruppe Kirchenfragen am ZK der SED: O.Klohr/W.Kaul/K.Kurth, Über Wirkungsfelder und Wirksamkeit kirchlicher Institutionen in der DDR. Kirchenstudie 1981 (Rostock Warnemünde). See also: I. Lange (2004) ‘Von der Wiege bis zur Bahre: Zur Geschichte Sozialistischer Feiern zu Geburt, Ehe und Tod in der DDR’, Kulturnation: Online Journal für Kultur, Wissenschaft und Politik, xxvii:1. The area of funeral rites of the GDR warrants further study, ideally utilizing oral history projects to unlock the many regional differences.

  47. 47.

    J. Bowker (1993) The Meaning of Death (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 3–42; Reisinger, Der Tod, pp. 18–91.

  48. 48.

    Bowker, Meaning of Death, p. 227.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

    Felix Robin Schulz

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  1. University of Oxford, St Antony’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Paul Betts

  2. All Souls College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Stephen A. Smith

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Schulz, F.R. (2016). In Search of Rationality and Objectivity: Origins and Development of East German Thanatology. In: Betts, P., Smith, S. (eds) Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War Europe. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54639-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54639-5_9

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