The Construction of Solidarity in Public Spaces Between Germany and Cuba Before and After the German Reunification

Abstract

The concept of solidarity between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Cuba have been the focus of several works of academic research. This contribution, however, aims to understand how these relations could persist in a reunified Germany by analyzing the communication of solidarity between the GDR and  Cuba before and after reunification.

This article illustrates how the GDR and Cuba communicated solidarity towards their respective people and among each other, and argues that the GDR’s type of solidarity communication was not transferred to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany after reunification, but rather to its  non-governmental solidarity organizations. The German working group Cuba Sí of the Party of Democratic Socialism serves as an example to compare the communication styles of these two transnational partners.Focusing on this example, this article studies the evolution of power relations and cooperation structures before and after reunification,. In order to further comprehend and classify solidary communication of the period, this analysis aims to understand the continuity of ideological structures present in the Cold War beyond the collapse of the state socialism