Punk in the Federal Republic of Germany From 1976 to the 1990s. Youth Protest Aganist /With Mass Culture

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin H. Geyer
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416116288

The aim of this project is to systematically focus on punk as a cultural phenomenon and West German punks as actors. By so doing, the social formation punk in West Germany is traced. Punk is often described as a subcultural niche, in which context and historicization play a minor role. This project counters this tendency by reading this formation and their followers as a rebellion within mass culture. The punks certainly played with notions of mass culture and did not have a closed worldview. They are always viewed in interception with other actors. Four main points guide the research. First, punk was a youth culture between protest, everyday life and commerce. Second, punk in the Federal Republic was circulating in a transnational space through media reception and usage. Third, there existed transnational, national and local forms of appropriation which took place within the movement (doing punk). Fourth, punk oscillated between individualisation and modern mass culture. The youth culture continuously drew on transnational media transfers and took up inspiration from various European countries and the US. On the one hand, the punks were opposed to the alternative milieu and their appreciation of authenticity. On the other hand, they also rejected mainstream society and the phenomena of mass culture. However, they simultaneously adopted strategies of mass culture. Therefore, punks were critical of consumer culture and fixated on consumption at the same time. By uncovering these processes, it is important to take the actors and their self-perceptions as subjects seriously. The rebellion aimed at the creation of self-relations of individualisation within mass culture. Hence, doing punk, i.e. performative practices of self-formation, played a central role. That is how the rebellion gained visibility.While carving out these results, shifts in the general research landscape as well as delays through long archival waiting times and the Covid19 pandemic occurred. Research in punk cultures became very dynamic, which led to a discovery of unknown archival material in the US. These documents guarantee that the West German punks can be rooted in a transnational framework for the whole analysis period. Furthermore, files of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Stasi) could be viewed, which prove that GDR punks were a part of this transnational exchange. This extended material base must be systematically integrated into the already gained insights. Moreover, long waiting times in getting access to restricted archival material and the insecurity caused by Covid19 were also factors that interfered with the progress of the project. That is why an extension is necessary.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants