Feudalism in the GDR : Medieval History at the Humboldt University (1946-1989)

Résumé Fr En

L’introduction du matérialisme historique dans le travail universitaire et la recherche en Allemagne de l’Est a finalement conduit à la dissolution de cet entrelacement de l’enseignement et de la recherche. Sur le plan organisationnel, ce processus est marqué par la fondation de l’Académie des sciences (et de ses instituts) chargée de la recherche. À la différence de cela, l’Université se réduit à l’enseignement et à la formation professionnelle.

Feudalism as centre of a Marxist based historiography was rather a concept of the Middle Ages in the perspective of the GDR than a historiography of the Middle Ages based on research analysis. How this effected the concrete historian and his work will be analysed to expand the state of research on the historiography of the GDR. The GDR attempted to obtain legitimacy and identity by creating genuine socialist traditions. Feudalism was unable to serve as a founding myth of the GDR which collapsed in 1989. New approaches reflect feudalism not only from a historiographical point of view, but as part of medieval studies which can be studied as a science about the Middle Ages.