Dissident Marxism and Utopian Eco-Socialism in the German Democratic Republic

Alexander Amberger studied political science at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg from 1999–2006. Since 2011, he has been a staff member for political education at 'Helle Panke' e.V. – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Berlin, and since 2017, a member of the Historical Commission of the party executive of DIE LINKE.

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations



1 Introduction

 1 Research Question and State of the Art

 2 The Concept of Political Utopia

 3 Political Utopia Since the 1960s

 4 Time, Place and Actors

 5 Political Utopia and the GDR

 6 Meadows and the GDR



2 Communism without Growth?: Wolfgang Harich and the Eco-Dictatorship

 1 Harich and His Era

 2 The Primacy of Nature: Harich’s Return to Archistic Utopia

 3 How Communism without Growth? Was Received



3 Rudolf Bahro’s The Alternative in Eastern Europe

 1 Bahro’s Life: Exploring the Realms of the Possible

 2 The Origins of The Alternative

 3 The Alternative

 4 Bahro and Utopianism

 5 Is The Alternative Really an Option?



4 Tomorrow: Robert Havemann in Pursuit of the Third Way

 1 The Life of Robert Havemann

 2 The Origins of Tomorrow

 3 Havemann’s Classical Utopia

 4 Havemann’s Utopian Ideas and Their Place in Utopian History

 5 The Reception of Tomorrow in the East and the West



5 Conclusions



Bibliography

Index of Names