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Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War EuropeIn Search of Rationality and Objectivity: Origins and Development of East German Thanatology

Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War Europe: In Search of Rationality and Objectivity:... [The officially sanctioned thanatology of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) stressed a scientific approach, in which death was seen as a biological reality that needed to be faced and accepted rationally and objectively. However, such views could be troubling, as even the chief ideologist of the GDR, Kurt Hager, noted in 1979 that a purely scientific understanding of death represented a real challenge to Marxist–Leninist thinking. This challenge was especially pressing, since the East German state had battled with the churches from the mid-1950s on over the administration and meaning of death. A close reading of the materials concerning death culture in the GDR is a revealing case study of the relationship between materialism, religion and socialism in East Germany.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War EuropeIn Search of Rationality and Objectivity: Origins and Development of East German Thanatology

Part of the St Antony's Series Book Series
Editors: Betts, Paul; Smith, Stephen A.
Schulz, Felix Robin
Science, Religion and Communism in Cold War Europe — May 15, 2016
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19 pages

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References (1)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
ISBN
978-1-137-54638-8
Pages
205 –224
DOI
10.1057/978-1-137-54639-5_9
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The officially sanctioned thanatology of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) stressed a scientific approach, in which death was seen as a biological reality that needed to be faced and accepted rationally and objectively. However, such views could be troubling, as even the chief ideologist of the GDR, Kurt Hager, noted in 1979 that a purely scientific understanding of death represented a real challenge to Marxist–Leninist thinking. This challenge was especially pressing, since the East German state had battled with the churches from the mid-1950s on over the administration and meaning of death. A close reading of the materials concerning death culture in the GDR is a revealing case study of the relationship between materialism, religion and socialism in East Germany.]

Published: May 15, 2016

Keywords: German Democratic Republic; Christian Theology; Socialist Society; Tragic Death; Socialist Ritual

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