A Movement Without Memory: Feminism and Collective Memory in Post-Socialist Germany

The creation and maintenance of strategically useful collective memories can be important achievements for social movements, yet not all movements will attempt or succeed in these endeavors. This article examines how the shared history of the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) gender egalitarianism project was forgotten in the unified Germany. Feminist activists faced many conditions that appeared conducive to propagating a collective memory of the GDR's policies of gender egalitarianism. Ultimately, however, several factors militated against it: a politically and culturally hostile climate, perceived threats to the movement, the specific relationships between memories, and the timing of openings for memory work. For these reasons, a positive public collective memory of gender relations in the GDR did not develop in post-unification Germany.