North Germany And The Punk Rock Movement - 2040 Words

East Germany and the Punk Rock Movement That Paralyzed It The punk rock movement, which started in the early 1970s in England and America, expanded through Germany. At the end of WWII and the beginning of the postwar years different economic, social, and political ideals led to the division of Germany. Two very distinct Germanys emerged causing West Germany to join the Western Allies and East Germany to integrate into the socialist camp (Hoffmeister, Tubach 124). East Germany paid close attention to westernized music; specifically punk rock since these types of music did not comply with socialist ideals (Hurley 160). By the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, an underground punk scene sprang up in East Germany (Hurley 163). Some†¦show more content†¦The conditions in East Germany during the 1970s-1980s were that of total institutions culminating an environment of transition. East Germany found itself transitioning from one political, economic, and social system to a governmental system that operated in the form of a †Å"total institution†.The concept of â€Å" total institution† developed by sociologist Erving Goffman describes institutions that have complete control over people’s lives and usually have them enclosed or isolated from the outside world (Mouzelis 9). These institutions can be prisons or mental institutions, in this case, I claim the East German government was a total institution since it had complete control over its citizens under an enclosed environment. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) controlled East Germany. The Soviet Union controlled the GDR through the Socialist Unity Party (SED) (Hoffmeister, Tubach 123). The GDR and the SED were governmental institutions that oppress the people of Germany and had many regulations against its citizens. The SED was a Marxist- Leninist party, and even though the GDR stands for the German Democratic Republic, it was only Democratic in the name because other then that it was totalitarian. Out of the shackles of an oppressing environment came an emerging voice known as the punk rock scene. Punk music has an identity of its own