Sex, Thugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll: Teenage Rebels in Cold-War East Germany. By Mark Fenemore. New York: Berghahn Books. 2007. Pp. xviii+277. Cloth $90.00. ISBN 1-571-81532-5. Paper $32.50. ISBN 1845457188.

摘要

This book contributes to the growing body of literature that challenges the ColdrnWar portrait of the GDR as an uncompromising state, a monolith in whichrnordinary citizens gained autonomy only by retreating into their privatern“niche” societies. While the SED regularly clamped down on nonconformistrnteenagers, from the mid-1950s through the 1980s it could not stop youths inrnsubcultures from challenging its model of the upright Socialist. Labeled byrnthe regime as Rowdys, Bengels, and dozens of other pejorative names, thesernEast German youths embraced jazz, beat music, and rock ‘n’ roll. They worernthe T-shirts, jeans, and leather jackets of American teens, and they expressedrntheir sexuality and individuality by gyrating in the solo rock dance importedrnfrom the west. Such behaviors were the antithesis of the uniformed FreernGerman Youth (FDJ), who sang the “International,” danced in pairs, and con-rndemned the mass consumer culture of western capitalism. The rock subculturesrnwere in 1955 such a force that the regime resigned to co-opt them. The SEDrnrolled back this liberalization in 1965 but was forced at various times in thernnext decades to co-opt them again. While scholars have already documentedrnthe development of the FDJ and rock ‘n’ roll culture in the GDR, Sex, Thugs,rnand Rock ‘N’ Roll unlike other books makes nonconformist youth in allrnmilieus, including racist right-wing subcultures, the focus of analysis.