Socialist Cowboys

Germans have long shown an interest in Native American and cowboy culture. But after World War II, this »hobby« became something more – at least in East Germany. In real socialism, after all, the »Wild West« meant one thing above all others: America. And since that was where the »imperialist enemies of the people« ruled, the cowboys and Native Americans of the GDR were positioned squarely in the tension-filled arena of political symbolism.

The GDR Native Americans received official legitimation as representatives of the victims of US imperialism, while the cowboys were identified with America’s rural proletariat. Both were incorporated into socialist education accordingly. In East Germany, then, a game of »cowboys-and-Indians« was much more than an extravagant leisure activity: it reflected the cultural and political peculiarities of the state. Wild West enthusiasts were monitored and undercut by the Stasi and met with repeated state repression; at the same time, they were supported by the government and exploited for specific political purposes. The »Wild West« in East Germany is a prime example of the conflict between resistance to the dictatorship, conformance to the system and enthusiastic embrace of socialism. Together, the authors of Socialist Cowboys set out to discover what life was really like on the »GDR Reservation« – and what happened to its inhabitants once the Wall fell and they were finally able to visit the Promised Land.

»We share similar points of departure, we and the American Indians – the GDR was, after all, also a Reservation.« An Indian chieftain from Saxony

»We wanted to join the American Indians as comrades-in-arms in the fight against imperialism.« A solidarity-Indian from the Vogtland

»We were the inner rebels.« A cowboy from Thüringen