Data and Code for: "A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Luis R. Martinez, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy; Jonas Jessen, DIW Berlin; Guo Xu, University of California-Berkeley

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
replication material			10/14/2021 03:32:PM

Project Citation:

Martinez, Luis R., Jessen, Jonas, and Xu, Guo. Data and Code for: “A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-12-08. https://doi.org/10.3886/E138061V1

Project Description

Summary: This paper exploits the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within East Germany at the end of WWII to study political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered, 40% of what would become the authoritarian German Democratic Republic was initially under Allied control but was ceded to Soviet control less than two months later. Brief Allied exposure increased protests during the major 1953 uprising. We use novel data on the appointment of local mayors and a retrospective survey to argue that even a "glimpse of freedom" can foster civilian opposition to dictatorship.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: dictatorship; social protest; post-World War II period

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      D74 Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
      N44 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913-
      P51 Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

Geographic Coverage: Germany

Time Period(s): 1945 – 1990 (Post-WWII events in Spring and Summer of 1945, protests in June 1953)

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-12-08]

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DDI 2.5

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