Material fantasies : expectations of the Western consumer world among the East Germans

The Resource Material fantasies : expectations of the Western consumer world among the East Germans
Label
Material fantasies : expectations of the Western consumer world among the East Germans
Title remainder
expectations of the Western consumer world among the East Germans
Statement of responsibility
Milena Veenis
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"This study of East German fantasies of material abundance across the border, both before and after the fall of communism, shows the close and intricate relation between ideology and fantasy in upholding social life. In 1989, news broadcasts all over the world were dominated for weeks by images of East Germans crossing the Berlin Wall to West Germany. The images, representing the fall of communism and the democratic will of the people, also showed East Germans' excitement at finally being able to enter the western consumer paradise. But what exactly had they expected to find on the other side of the Wall? Why did they shed tears of joy when for the first time in their lives, they stepped inside West German shops? And why were they prepared to pay more than 10 percent of their average monthly wage for a pineapple? Drawing on fifteen months of research in the fast-changing post-communist East Germany, Veenis unravels the perennial truths about the interrelationships of fantasies of material wealth, personal fulfillment and social cohesion. She argues persuasively that the far-fetched socialist and capitalist promises of consumption as the road to ultimate well-being, the partial realization and partial corruption thereof, the implicit social and psychological interests underlying the politicized promises in both countries form the breeding ground for the development of materialist, cargo-cult-like fantasies, in which material well-being came to be seen as the place of "fulfillment and ultimate arrival"."--Publisher's website
Member of
Cataloging source
YDXCP
Dewey number
306.3
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Language note
English
LC call number
HC290.795.C6
LC item number
V44 2012
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
Series statement
Technology and European history series
Series volume
6

Context

Context of Material fantasies : expectations of the Western consumer world among the East Germans

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