George Mason University Professors Samuel Clowes Huneke (History) and Johanna Bockman (Sociology and Global Affairs) discuss Huneke’s book, "States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany." Recorded live on Zoom March 25, 2022. Hosted by Mason's Center for Humanities Research.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"States of Liberation" traces the paths of gay men in East and West Germany from the violent aftermath of World War II to the thundering nightclubs of present-day Berlin. In this groundbreaking account of male homosexuality in Cold War Germany, Samuel Clowes Huneke uncovers how the history of gay persecution and liberation continues to shape life in reunified Germany today.
Following a captivating cast of characters, from gay spies and Nazi scientists to queer politicians and secret police bureaucrats, "States of Liberation" tells the remarkable story of how the two German states persecuted gay men – and how those men slowly, over the course of decades, won new rights and created new opportunities for themselves in the heart of Cold War Europe. Relying on untapped archives in Germany and the United States as well as oral histories with witnesses and survivors, Huneke reveals that communist East Germany was in many ways far more progressive on queer issues than democratic West Germany.
ABOUT SAMUEL CLOWES HUNEKE:
Samuel Clowes Huneke is Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University. His research focuses on the social and political history of twentieth-century Germany, in particular the history of gender and sexuality, legal history, and the history of democracy. His first book, "States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany" (2022), examines gay persecution and liberation in Germany during the Cold War. His other recent scholarly publications include work on the history of gay suicide and on lesbianism in Nazi Germany in Central European History, New German Critique, and Journal of Contemporary History. He is the project director of the East German Poster Database, a digital project to make the George Mason Library’s collection of seven thousand posters from East Germany accessible online. He also regularly writes for public venues including Boston Review, The Point, and Los Angeles Review of Books.
ABOUT JOHANNA BOCKMAN:
Johanna Bockman is Associate Professor of Sociology and Global Affairs at George Mason University, specializing in globalization studies, economic sociology, urban studies, and East European Studies. Her book, "Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism, was published by Stanford University Press" (2011). More recently, she published two pieces: "Democratic Socialism in Chile and Peru: Revisiting the “Chicago Boys” as the Origin of Neoliberalism" in Comparative Studies in Society and History, and "The Struggle over Structural Adjustment: Socialist Revolution versus Capitalist Counterrevolution in Yugoslavia and the World" in History of Political Economy. Currently, she is writing a book on globalizations and gentrification in Washington, DC, and thinking about collective consumption, privatization, and finance during late socialism in Eastern Europe.
