ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a modified interpretation of the reciprocal relationship between the economic base and its statal superstructure, and argues that cultural, ideological, educational ties follow political, military and economic alliances. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) the Soviet model, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics being the first and most powerful of the socialist states, is one of the main ingredients of her specific cultural and national identity. There is the prominent position given to the Russian language, the first foreign language in the GDR and a compulsory subject for all children, but really more influential as the language of international socialist communication. The chapter attempts to isolate the all-pervasive Soviet model as a superordinate category responsible for a variety of changes, and to confine it to cultural concerns which have contributed to a change of the GDR’ s cultural and educational identities.
