Realsozialistische Binnenexotik

Die touristische Landschaftswahrnehmung in Selbstzeugnissen von DDR-Reisenden

Abstract

In modern societies, vacation trips are one of the main sources for the production of ego-documents, ranging from the photo album to internet-based travelogues. These documents construct and reflect cultural differences, which in turn constitute the fundaments for individual and collective identities. Based on this assumption, the description of landscapes in travelogues can provide us with a better understanding of shared cultural meanings of travel and vacations as well as the common values of a given society. The article explores the practices of travellers from the GDR up to 1989 and reconstructs the context of individual journeys to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It describes the ways in which the perception of unfamiliar landscapes was inscribed in the narrative of the traveller, and reflects the specific conditions of a “socialistic” understanding of foreign countries. In this way it is possible to better assess the distinctive cultural knowledge of different types of modern societies and their formative influences on the individual and its everyday life.