especially with regard to the
legacies of the Holocaust. Both East and West German concepts of
collective identity depended on characterizing the other group as the
heirs of the Nazi era. Dominic Boyer, for instance, contends that the
division allowed Germans on either side of the Wall to regard those on
208 Susan C. Anderson
the other side as possessing authoritarian proclivities, as representing a
national-cultural past against which to measure their ideal of serving
as representatives of a future, more democratic German identity.2
Andreas Huyssen characterizes the notion of East/West difference as
also marking different those on the same side of the Wall who
appeared to be aligned with those on the other side. For example,
West German conservatives regarded the left as identifying with GDR
socialist ideals, and East German officials accused dissidents of being
inimical to socialism.3 Any difficulties that an eastern or western
German had in developing a sense of belonging were ascribed to ‘that
other German: the other German as thief of one’s own potential
identity.’4 In Huyssen’s words: