Divided Nation, New States The Cold War Battle for Legitimacy in Divided Countries in Europe and Asia, 1945–89

Sebastian Gehrig (London)

Recorded on 12.04.2023 at Tagungslounge Leipzig

Historian Dr Sebastian Gehrig (University of Roehampton, London) was the guest of our first of three GlobeLectures in the summer semester 2023. His lecture explored the rise of new international conflicts over “divided nations” during the Cold War. In an era otherwise marked by colonial “partitions” at the end of empire, the ideological stand-off between the superpowers and their allies catapulted the issue of national division to the centre of international politics. Especially at the United Nations, this new problem connected European and Asian Cold War politics and the fate of Germany, China, Korea, and Vietnam directly. This lecture analyzed the impact of the global Cold War on the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic and traced the importance of conflicts over divided nations in Asia for both German governments and ordinary Germans alike.

The lecture was organised and moderated by assistant professor Dr. Fabian Michl (Leipzig University/ReCentGlobe). Thank you for the questions to Therese Mager, Prof. Dr. Matthias Middell and Prof. Dr. Michael Zwanzger.