UMD History Alum Awarded 2024 German Non-Fiction Prize Prize from the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading)

Christina Morina Wins German Non-Fiction Award

On the basis of personal testimonies, Christina Morina (PhD 2007) in her book Tausend Aufbrüche: Die Deutchen und ihre Demokratic seit den 1980er Jahren ( A Thousand Departures: Germans and Democracy since the 1980s) (Siedler/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, 2023) analyzed citizens’ ideas about democracy in East and West Germany since the 1980s. Her book highlights the limits of West German liberalization as well as the wide range of East German attempts to embrace democracy.

The Prize Jury says her book is a "methodically sophisticated and eye-opening contemporary historical analysis based on letters, petitions and leaflets gives a voice to citizens of East and West Germany. With this book, Morina offers surprising and necessary insights to spur current social debate. Her book risks a great deal, but without polarising – democracy is a process, not a condition."

Christina has been a professor of history at Bielefeld University since 2019. She is particularly interested in the social history and remembrance of National Socialism, the political and cultural history of divided and reunited Germany, and in the relationship between history and memory.