Manchester Metropolitan University

Faculty Member, History

Senior Lecturer, Modern European History

Thesis Title: 'Nonconformity on the Borders of Dictatorship: Youth Subcultures in the GDR'

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Drawing on the work of Detlev Peukert and Arno Klönne for the Third Reich, the PhD focuses on youth nonconformity in Leipzig during the first two decades of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It uncovers several important youth subcultures in the GDR (associated with Bebop, Rock 'n' Roll and Beat music) and relates these to young people’s stubborn pursuit of their own identity (or Eigensinn) in the face of official attempts to influence them. Changes in mass media and entertainment in the West merged with social and cultural continuities closer to home to create new forms of milieu-based immunity.

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