The long-standing fascination with memory of and memory within the former German Democratic Republic has been an uninterrupted phenomenon since the state's dissolution a quarter of a century ago. The past few years alone have welcomed dozens of books and edited volumes on the rich literary, cultural, and historical legacies of the GDR. Joining them is Marcus Colla's study, which traces the Prussian revitalization within the GDR. The apparent revival of a Prussian past associated with nationalism, imperialism, and even the seeds of National Socialism within the self-proclaimed antifascist state seems a curious incongruity, and yet Colla's monograph illuminates the complex practice in the GDR of both revitalizing and suppressing Prussia's lingering ghosts. As the first study dedicated to analyzing the Prussian afterlife in the GDR, the book centers the political and cultural contexts fueling this “renaissance.” Via a theoretical lens informed by historical culture, a multidimensional framework that articulates how people relate to and construct the past, Colla's book examines how “history” in the GDR was constantly (re)negotiated, renewed, and defined. This focus on historical culture also sheds light on the GDR's efforts to self-legitimize through a turn towards a shared German history.
Given its emphasis on temporal configurations of past, present, and future, it follows that Colla's text eschews a linear chronological or even thematic structure in favor of what he describes as a “series of concentric rings” (16), rippling out from a narrower focus on specific East German policies and concluding with a discussion of the GDR's historical culture within a broader European context. As the innermost “ring,” chapter 1 traces the reception of Prussia in the immediate postwar years in the GDR, from the general sense of Prussophobia to the eventual exploitation of Prussian history to encourage regional tourism. Here, Colla's focus on GDR policies rewards readers with a deeper understanding of the state's reception of and attitude toward Prussia, revealing a much more intricate set of values than prevailing notions of a straightforward, no-nonsense GDR morality tend to imply. The author then initiates a closer examination of Prussia's shifting political and cultural associations in both East and West Germany in chapter 2, exploring how GDR authorities often took their cue from policymakers in the West. The chapter ultimately argues that the revitalization of Prussia in the GDR must be contextualized within the larger sociopolitical landscape of the Cold War, particularly in terms of how various symbolic actions and statements adopted new meanings both within the GDR and abroad.
The book then shifts to the role of historians, intellectuals, and artists in articulating the “Prussia-Renaissance” (3) and legitimizing it within its intellectual context. In chapter 3, for example, Colla addresses the seeming lack of logic behind the revitalization of the militarist symbols within the antifascist state, revealing how this fascination with the Prussian past can indeed be seen in accordance with – and not in spite of – Marxist-Leninist ideology. Turning to the role of art, pop culture, and popular history, chapter 4 discusses the “surge of subversive creative energies” (17) catalyzed by the “Prussia-Renaissance,” with particular focus on the shifting mythologies surrounding the figure of Frederick the Great. The outermost circle, discussed in chapter 5, revives the overarching concept of temporality and investigates a broader pan-European shift in historicity, of which the East German “Prussia-Renaissance” was just one manifestation. Concluding with a tantalizing observation regarding the GDR's ultimate failure to rein in its own historical and meaning-making practices towards the close of the 1980s, Colla's five chapters – despite their resistance to a chronological narrative – nevertheless leave readers with a sense of the “story” of the afterlife of Prussia in the GDR.
While Colla makes no promise to investigate contemporary vestiges of Prussia or East Germany, his study includes a welcome addition in the section “Prussia Today” (264–272), illustrating the enduring relevance of these erstwhile states as part of Berlin's current physical and cultural landscape. To that end, one might wish for a deeper engagement with symbols such as the GDR's Palace of the Republic (Palast der Republik), which the author dismisses as “ugly and incongruous” (266). Built on the site of the former Berlin Palace (Berliner Schloss), a Prussian structure associated with imperialism and nationalism, the “People's Palace” served as the seat of the East German parliament and the site of numerous cultural and artistic venues. While I certainly cannot present an aesthetic defense of the Palast, I do think the debates surrounding its demolition in favor of the reconstruction of the former Berlin Palace, completed in 2020, nevertheless parallel the author's “story” of Prussia in the GDR. While Colla correctly points out that many opposed the rebuilding of the Schloss due to its Prussian associations, the book misses an opportunity to acknowledge the very real mourning for the loss of the Palast itself, which for many represented the center of the GDR's cultural and political spirit.
Beyond its focus on Prussia and East Germany, Marcus Colla's monograph tells the story of history itself, shedding light on the GDR's shifting historicizing practices. Exploring how emerging historical models both challenged and revitalized how East Germany negotiated its own past, present, and future, the book provides a crucial look at efforts to establish and maintain a cohesive identity. Colla's lively prose is rife with metaphor and at times strikingly colorful, painting Prussia, for example, as a staggering Rasputin whose “genie could no longer be put back into its bottle” (232) and staging the GDR, perhaps rather too glibly, as a “geopolitical accident” (16). These evocative images inform a complex engagement with history that is sophisticated yet accessible. Comprehensive and richly informative, this book is recommended to anyone interested in Prussia, the German Democratic Republic, and new approaches to narrating and understanding history, memory, and myth.
