Nonconformity, Dissent, Opposition, and Resistance in Germany, 1933-1990

“This book brings fresh light to previously marginalized subject in German history. It is an original approach, up-to-date written without scholarly jargon, easily accessible to students, both at undergraduate and graduate. It is highly focused departing from the usual “histories” of a single country arguing for the “two German states”, and the three political systems.”- Prof. Dr. László Kürti, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Miskolc, Hungary

This book contrasts three very different incarnations of Germany – the totalitarian Third Reich, the communist German Democratic Republic, and the democratic Federal Republic of Germany up to 1990 – in terms of their experiences with and responses to nonconformity, dissent, opposition, and resistance and the role played by those factors in each case.  Although even innocent nonconformity came with a price in all three systems and in the post-war occupation zones, the price was the highest in Nazi Germany.  . It is worth stressing that what qualifies as nonconformity and dissent depends on the social and political context and, thus, changes over time.  Like those in active dissent, opposition, or resistance, nonconformists are rebels (whether they are conscious of it or not), and have repeatedly played a role in pushing for change, whether through reform of legislation, transformation of the public’s attitudes, or even regime change.

Sabrina P. Ramet is Professor Emerita at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.  She is the author of 14 previous books, including The Catholic Church in Polish History:  From 966 to the Present (Palgrave, 2017), and Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe: Collectivist Visions of Modernity (2019). 

“This unusual study compares the struggle over nonconformity across three political regimes, the Third Reich, the GDR and the FRG. The analysis of dimensions like the role of religion, sexuality, politics and culture exposes the dialectic between regime efforts to enforce conformity with its own ideology as well as popular resistance against it. This unconventional approach sheds new light on the similarities and differences between different forms of German politics and society in the mid-twentieth century.” (Konrad Jarausch, Department of History (Emeritus), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)

“By applying the lens of non-conformity to modern German regimes – Nazi, occupation zones, East and West Germany – Ramet goes beyond standard treatments of dissent and opposition. Her elevation of religious, sexual, and cultural non-conformity to share the plane of political dissent in explaining political change is well-documented, convincingly argued, and engagingly written.” (Robert F. Goeckel, Professor of Political Science And International Relations, SUNY-Geneseo, New York, USA)