The Study of East German Youth after 1989. Perspectives for a History of Knowledge of Post-Unification Germany

The fall of the Berlin Wall precipitated an unprecedented surge in studies of young East Germans and comparative youth studies in in East and West. Researchers sought to discern the social consequences of the "great experiment" of transformation. The field of youth studies therefore provides a useful case for exploring a history of knowledge approach to contemporary German history. This articles focuses on "epistemes of unification" and identifies moments of knowledge circulation, traveling data, traveling concepts, and the "writing back" of self-proclaimed "former GDR researchers," in order to move beyond diffusionist interpretations that see East German research taken over by Western models, practices and actors.