Blind and visually impaired people in the GDR - social conditions, everyday life and self-advocacy

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gabriele Lingelbach
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545935542

The project examines the history of the tens of thousands of blind and visually impaired people in the GDR from the perspective of disability history. Firstly, it analyzes the group-specific ideological and legal discourses and regulations formulated by the state and the political party SED. Secondly, it asks how the conditions thus established shaped the social conditions and everyday lives of blind and visually impaired people and how the latter changed over time. Thirdly, the project explores the question of what room for action the impaired had under the conditions of the dictatorship in order to shape their own living conditions and to what extent the official association for the blind and visually impaired was actually able to represent the interests of its members. The project thus contributes to the hitherto largely unexplored contemporary history of disabled people in state socialist dictatorships. The question is to what extent in socialist states - in which work, the ability to work and the goal of high labour productivity played an essential role - specific rehabilitation policies were implemented for people with (visual) disabilities. The project also analyzes the extent to which the propagated socialist humanism (as well as the competition between the two German states) generated welfare and integration claims of those affected and influenced state action towards them. Accordingly, it will be examined to which extent this led to specific social conditions and everyday experiences of blind and visually impaired people, which differed at least in part from those of 'Western' societies. Furthermore, the extent of self-advocacy will be investigated which was specific and limited under the conditions of SED rule. The three questions mentioned at the beginning will be explored paradigmatically, using the example of visually impaired and blind people in the GDR in order to determine, whether the often emphasized, relative privileged position of blind and visually impaired people in comparison to other groups of people with disabilities also existed in the GDR. The project thus aims to enrich not only the research on the contemporary history of people with disabilities in socialist states, but also the research concerning the inner differentiation within the group of people with disabilities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants