The Nuclear Crisis: The Arms Race, Cold War Anxiety, and the German Peace Movement of the 1980s

Published by Berghahn Books 2016

The Nuclear Crisis

The Arms Race, Cold War Anxiety, and the German Peace Movement of the 1980s

Edited by: Christoph Becker-Schaum , Philipp Gassert , Martin Klimke and Wilfried Mausbach

Volume 19 in the series Protest, Culture & Society

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785332685

Overview
Contents

About this book

In 1983, more than one million Germans joined together to protest NATO’s deployment of nuclear missiles in Europe. International media overflowed with images of marches, rallies, and human chains as protesters blockaded depots and agitated for disarmament. Though they failed to halt the deployment, the episode was a decisive one for German society, revealing deep divisions in the nation’s political culture while continuing to mobilize activists. This volume provides a comprehensive reference work on the “Euromissiles” crisis as experienced by its various protagonists, analyzing NATO’s diplomatic and military maneuvering and tracing the political, cultural, and moral discourses that surrounded the missiles’ deployment in East and West Germany.

Author / Editor information

Christoph Becker-Schaum is the Director of the Green Memory Archive at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin.

Philipp Gassert is a Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Mannheim and a past deputy director of the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC. His publications include America’s Wars (co-written with Alexander Emmerich, 2015).

Martin Klimke is Associate Dean of Humanities and Associate Professor of History at New York University Abu Dhabi. He is the author of The Other Alliance: Global Protest and Student Unrest in West Germany and the US, 1962–1972 (2010) and co-author of A Breath of Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle, African‐American GIs, and Germany (2010).

Wilfried Mausbach is the Executive Director of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) at Heidelberg University. He is the coeditor of The American Presidency: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2012) and of Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in West Germany and the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s (2010).

Marianne Zepp was Program Director for Contemporary History at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. She is the coeditor of Politische Gewalt in Deutschland: Ursprünge – Ausprägungen – Konsequenzen (Göttingen: Wallstein 2014).

Christoph Becker-Schaum is the Director of the Green Memory Archive at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin.

Reviews

“[This volume consists] of nineteen erudite and informative contributions by an extraordinary series of contributors -- making it an unreservedly recommended publication for college and university library Nuclear Weapons & Warfare History, War & Peace, and Political Advocacy collections.” • Midwest Book Review

“This volume is a well-conceived collection of different approaches to the events of the “Nuclear Crisis” and the reactions of a large, broad and heterogeneous peace movement. It is especially through its multidimensional description also well suited as an introduction to this topic. With the help of this volume is seems possible to ‘learn from history,’ because who considers the arguments and discussion threads of the debates will recognize much in the contemporary themes of the peace movement.” • Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen

“This is an important volume on a key phase of the Cold War, one that will be of interest to scholars, but can also be assigned to undergraduate and graduate students. The various chapters build on each other beautifully, forming a coherent whole. Aside from a couple of rough spots, they are beautifully written, though they originally appeared in German. A list of abbreviations and annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter make this volume highly reader-friendly.” • German History

“The breadth and balance of this collection make it an excellent introduction to the strategic challenges and nuclear anxieties of the Second Cold War. In giving such detailed coverage of the 1980s, it represents a kind of milestone in the historicization of peace movements.” • William Glenn Gray, Purdue University

“With great conceptual clarity, the contributions to this volume offer innovative perspectives on the connections between international and domestic politics, the renegotiation of ‘peace’ in the political arena, and questions of collective agency. One of its great strengths is its multi-dimensional approach, integrating traditional methods of studying policy and diplomacy with an astute and precise analysis of media, protest actions, grass-roots activism, and the gendering of peace and protest.” • Benjamin Ziemann, University of Sheffield

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xviii
Introduction: The Nuclear Crisis, NATO’s Double-Track Decision, and the Peace Movement of the 1980s Christoph Becker-Schaum, Philipp Gassert, Martin Klimke, Wilfried Mausbach and Marianne Zepp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 From Helsinki to Afghanistan: The CSCE Process and the Beginning of the Second Cold War Anja Hanisch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Chapter 2 The NATO Double-Track Decision: Genesis and Implementation Tim Geiger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Chapter 3 SS-20 and Pershing II: Weapon Systems and the Dynamization of East-West Relations Oliver Bange Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Chapter 4 NATO’s Double-Track Decision and East-West German Relations Hermann Wentker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Chapter 5 Political Parties Jan Hansen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
Chapter 6 Eco-pacifism: The Environmental Movement as a Source for the Peace Movement Silke Mende and Birgit Metzger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter 7 Rationality of Fear: The Intellectual Foundations of the Peace Movement Marianne Zepp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Chapter 8 The Institutional Organization of the Peace Movement Christoph Becker-Schaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Chapter 9 The Spaces and Places of the Peace Movement Susanne Schregel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Chapter 10 The Protagonists of the Peace Movement Saskia Richter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Chapter 11 The Independent Peace Movement in East Germany Rainer Eckert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Chapter 12 Visual and Media Strategies of the Peace Movement Kathrin Fahlenbrach and Laura Stapane Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Chapter 13 The Churches Sebastian Kalden and Jan Ole Wiechmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Chapter 14 Trade Unions Dietmar Süss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	258
Chapter 15 The Police Michael Sturm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
Chapter 16 “Men Build Missiles”: Th e Women’s Peace Movement Reinhild Kreis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	290
Chapter 17 Nuclear Attack and Civil Defense: Preparing for the Worst-Case Scenario in Politics and Science Claudia Kemper Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
Chapter 18 Nuclear Doomsday Scenarios in Film, Literature, and Music Philipp Baur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
Chapter 19 A Triumph of Disarmament? Th e 1980s and the International Political System Florian Pressler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	338
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	352