Dissident Marxism and Utopian Eco-socialism in the German Democratic Republic: The Intellectual Legacies of Rudolf Bahro, Wolfgang Harich, and Robert Havemann (Historical Materialism Book, 306)

In the 1970s, several members of the DDR opposition began to investigate the limits to unrestrained economic growth. The result of their work was three distinctive eco-utopias with an astonishing relevance to contemporary debates. This volume presents the first detailed account of them for an English-language readership. ‎Contents ‎Foreword ‎Acknowledgements ‎Abbreviations ‎Chapter 1. Introduction ‎1. Research Question and State of the Art ‎2. The Concept of Political Utopia ‎3. Political Utopia Since the 1960s ‎4. Time, Place, and Actors ‎5. Political Utopia and the GDR ‎6. Meadows and the GDR ‎6.1. The Economic Situation in the GDR ‎6.2. The Club of Rome and Post-materialist Discourse ‎6.3. The Apocalypse as a Problem of Imperialism ‎Chapter 2. Communism without Growth?: Wolfgang Harich and the Eco-dictatorship ‎1. Harich and His Era ‎2. The Primacy of Nature: Harich’s Return to Archistic Utopia ‎2.1. The Archistic Utopian Tradition ‎2.2. Harich’s Utopian Construct ‎2.3. Situating Communism without Growth? in Utopian History ‎3. How Communism without Growth? Was Received ‎3.1. Reactions from SED Circles ‎3.2. Reactions to the Book in the West ‎Chapter 3. Rudolf Bahro’s The Alternative in Eastern Europe ‎1. Bahro’s Life: Exploring the Realms of the Possible ‎2. The Origins of The Alternative ‎2.1. Frustration ‎2.2. Mentors and Companions ‎2.3. His Dissertation ‎2.4. Bahro and Dutschke ‎3. The Alternative ‎3.1. Criticism and Analysis ‎3.2. Utopia in The Alternative ‎4. Bahro and Utopianism ‎4.1. Up to 1980 ‎4.2. Post-1980 ‎4.3. A Post-materialist Philosophy of Praxis ‎5. The Alternative as an Alternative? ‎5.1. Impact in the GDR ‎5.2. Reception of Bahro’s Work in the West ‎Chapter 4. Tomorrow: Robert Havemann in Pursuit of the Third Way ‎1. The Life of Robert Havemann ‎2. The Origins of Tomorrow ‎3. Havemann’s Classical Utopia ‎3.1. Critique of Industrial Society and World Systems ‎3.2. The Third Way via Utopia ‎4. Havemann’s Utopian Ideas and Their Place in Utopian History ‎4.1. Tomorrow in the Context of Havemann’s Political Works ‎4.2. Situating the Book in Utopian History ‎5. The Reception of Tomorrow in the East and the West ‎5.1. The East ‎5.2. The West ‎Chapter 5. Conclusions ‎Bibliography ‎Index of Names "Rudolf Bahro, Wolfgang Harich and Robert Havemann were probably the best-known critics of the DDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party. Yet they saw themselves as Marxists, and their demands extended far beyond a democratisation of real socialism. When environmental issues became more important in the West in the 1970s, the Party treated it as an ideological manoeuvre of the class enemy. The three dissidents saw things differently: they combined socialism and ecology, adopting a utopian perspective frowned upon by the state. In doing so, they created political concepts that were unique for the Eastern Bloc. Alexander Amberger introduces them, relates them to each other, and poses the question of their relevance then and now"-- Provided by publisher