Although there has been much attention paid by historians like Detlev Peukert and Sascha Lange to the history of the Leipziger Meuten during the Third Reich, few researchers have linked this history to the continued existence of Meuten in Leipzig in the 1950s. Often the same gangs behaved in a very similar way on the same streets. Although direct links are not proven, they could have had older brothers or cousins who engaged in nonconformity and resistance in the previous political regime.
Comparative analysis allows a reassessment of Rowdytum in the GDR. Here, I am influenced by Alfons Kenkmann’s argument in Wilde Jugend. While Peukert prized the subculturalists as resisters to National Socialism, Kenkmann shows that they were not entirely immune from it.
I would argue that in both regimes, youth subcultures matter as indicators of the regime’s difficulty in indoctrinating, controlling and manipulating youth. Although presented largely as apolitical and criminal, such activities nevertheless challenged the GDR’s total claim. The documents provided show the authorities’ view of the gang phenomenon in Leipzig from the early 1950s to the late 1960s.
Wenn Sie eine Meinung zu diesen Thema (Rowdytum in der DDR) haben, bitte schreiben Sie mir an (m.fenemore@mmu.ac.uk). Ich interessiere mich für alle Arten von Jugendnonkonformität in der DDR (besonders im Raum Leipzig) von den 50er bis in die 80er Jahren. Sind Sie ein ehemaliger rocker, Halbstarke, Jazz, Bebop oder Beat Fan, Tramper, Heavy Metal, Grufti, Goul, Glatze oder Punk? Wenn nicht, finden Sie daß solche Dokumente uns nutzen um eine neue Blick auf die DDR zu werfen?
Although for many people, the prevailing image of the GDR is still one of a country absent of colour surrounded by a wall built of barbed wire and concrete, my research reveals another side to East Germany, one in which young people were not just passive receivers of official ideological indoctrination, but were agents in creating their own symbolic worlds of meaning, identity and culture.