"Las democracias en todo el mundo están en crisis, sobre eso existe un acuerdo generalizado. Sin embargo, la pregunta de lo que significa realmente vivir en democracia pasa frecuentemente a un segundo plano. Christina Morina utiliza fuentes, a las que se ha prestado poca atención hasta ahora, para mostrar hasta qué punto ha evolucionado de forma diferente el entendimiento sobre la democracia en Alemania Oriental y Occidental desde los años ochenta. Su análisis histórico, metódicamente refinado y revelador, basado en cartas, peticiones y panfletos, da voz a los ciudadanos y a las ciudadanas de la República Democrática Alemana y de la República Federal Alemana. Morina, con este libro, proporciona impulsos sorprendentes y necesarios para los debates sociales actuales. Su libro arriesga mucho sin polarizar: la democracia es un proceso, no un estado." - Los motivos del jurado
A diverse and wilful democracy: the first history of post-1990 German politics and culture
What motivates the federal republic? Nearly 75 years since its creation and more than thirty since reunification, German democracy is under pressure: political extremism is spreading, the major political parties are battling vanishing approval ratings, and resentment and anti-democratic feelings are on the rise. How did we get here?
Renowned historian Morina believes that to understand modern German history, we need to stop thinking of it as a straightforward story of democracy and dictatorship. In «A Thousand Departures», she examines countless letters to politicians, petitions, leaflets and other documents to show how citizenship and democracy have meant different things to different people over the past 40 years. For the first time, this «people’s history» of modern Germany looks at the 1989 revolution in light of the history of German democracy – revealing the diverse and stubborn ways in which Germans from all walks of life, east and west, have approached democracy in theory and in practice, how their ideas are shaping the so-called Berlin Republic, and the associated opportunities and dangers.