Dissident Marxism and Utopian Eco-Socialism in the German Democratic Republic: The Intellectual Legacies of Rudolf Bahro, Wolfgang Harich, and Robert Havemann

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Rudolf Bahro, Wolfgang Harich and Robert Havemann were probably the best-known critics of the German Democratic Republic'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.

In this sweeping study, Alexander Amberger introduces these concepts, relates them to each other, and poses the question of their relevance then and now.