Les usages politiques de l’héritage antifasciste dans les relations franco-est-allemandes

In post-war France, the reconfiguration of the political field led to a competition between political actors over the legacy of the Résistance. This conflict of succession was particularly striking between the Gaullist current and the Communist Party. In the Soviet occupied zone of Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) built a proper anti-fascist liturgy to better distinguish itself from the National Socialist past. Thus, the GDR took over the legacy of the German resistance and made it a founding myth of the new regime. Similarly, the GDR used this “invented tradition” for its international recognition campaign. East German propaganda was particularly effective in France because it echoed the political uses of the Resistance heritage.