The studies published in this volume are revised and updated versions of papers which were first presented at the Eighteenth New Hampshire Symposium on East Germany, held in June 1992. They are concerned above all with how the GDR's past is to be understood and what use is to be made of this understanding when it comes to dealing with the present and future of the new united Germany. Contents: Acknowledgements; Introduction; Michael Brie, The Difficulty of Discussing the GDR; Roger Woods, The East German Contribution to German Identity; Michael Hoffman and Dieter Rink, The Coalworkers of Espenhain: A Study in the Decline of Tradition in an Established Industrial Region; Eckhard Schroter, When Cultures Collide: The Case of Administrators from East and West Berlin; Peter Marcuse, Is Anything Positive to be Learned from the GDR? Cities and Housing in Real Existing Socialism; Rainer Eckert, The Conflict between Academic Ethos and Security Intelligence Activity: Institutions of Higher Learning in the GDR; Roland Berbig, "status quo vadis"? Schriftstelleriches Sozialverhalten und Autorenevaluierung am Beispiel der Poetenszene des "Prenzlauer Bergs"; Daniela Dahn, Uber kulturlose Versuche kultureller Vereinheitlichung-Anpassungszwange im Beitrittgebiet; Christine Zehl Romero, No Voices-New Voices? Literature and Literary Climate in the Former GDR since the Wende.