Biographical (De-)Thematization of Vulnerability from a Historical Perspective

The question regarding the significance of experiences made in the (distant) past for a current biographical positioning will be discussed in the planned contribution with reference to a study for which biographical interviews were conducted with people who were to be recruited as unofficial collaborators by the state security services in the GDR as adolescents. Decades after these experiences were made as well as after the end of the GDR, a total of eight women and men from very different backgrounds were interviewed, who showed a wide range of ways of dealing with these experiences. This makes it possible to analyze the significance of biographical experiences over longer periods of time and social transformations.

The evaluation of these interviews, on the one hand, makes clear references to the biographical positioning within the context of contemporary historical events and developments. On the other hand, these narratives show how early experiences are linked to biographical possibilities and decisions in later phases of life. It also becomes clear that the interviewees have developed the habit of making certain experiences invisible or allowing them to be silenced by reactions in their social environment. In the planned contribution, these aspects will be presented in a comparing manner and further reflected upon on the basis of two case studies.