Representing Iran in East Germany: Ideology and the Media in the German Democratic Republic

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Economic and political relations with Iran were a primary concern for the German Democratic Republic leadership and dominated the GDR's press. This is the first book to analyse the representation of Iran in the media, from the GDRs formation in 1949 until 1989, the last complete year before its demise. Covering key events, such as the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in 1953, the White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the Iran-Iraq war, the author reveals that only in periods where the two countries enjoyed less amicable or poor relations, was the press free to critically report events in Iran and openly support the cause of the countrys communist party, the Tudeh. The book explores the use of the press as a tool for ideological education and propaganda. It also examines how the states official Marxist-Leninist ideology, the GDRs international competition with West Germany, and cultural prejudices and stereotypes impacted reporting so powerfully.

Reviews

This is not only interesting for those who research GDR media history or the interdependencies between the SED state and Iran; rather, the work also offers new insights into the media presence of a representative of the (Global) South in a country of the "East" during the core phase of the Cold War. * H-Soz-Kult (Bloomsbury Translation) *
'In this eloquently-written monograph, rich in empirical history tuned with relevant theory, Dr Klsener fills in an intriguing shadowy gap in research on the relationship between the USSRs most important satellite the German Democratic Republic and Iran, thereby making a number of exciting findings. It is conventional wisdom that during the forty years of its life span, the GDR merely managed to advance from the status of a vassal of the USSR to its junior partner, being entirely dependent on the Soviet Union in foreign affairs. However, as Dr Klsener painstakingly proves in his research, the GDRs imposing apparatus of printed media functioned through a totally different mechanism in reporting on Iran, mostly relying on Western news sources. This analysis is tied to the key historical developments and the findings are the more crucial, given the GDRs role, entrusted by the USSR, as a proxy-handler of the Tudeh party Irans communists. The book is a must-read for both scholars of Iran and the Soviet Bloc and researchers into mass media in authoritarian societies.' -- Denis V. Volkov, Associate Professor and Leading Research Fellow, HSE University, Russia

Author Bio

Edgar Klsener is Senior Lecturer in Music Journalism at the Manchester College of BIMM. Previously he was Teaching Assistant in Sociology at The University of Manchester, U.K, where he also completed his PhD. He has published numerous journal articles in German and is a professional journalist.