In this second episode of the ZZF Podcast in English Ned Richardson-Little and host Lee Holt discuss the history of the German Democratic Republic, its global context, and the rise of illiberal constitutionalism in Central Europe. Richardson-Little explores how East Germany’s history is intertwined with global economic and political forces, and examines current trends towards authoritarianism.

Ned Richardson-Little is a Research Associate at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam (ZZF), Department V, “Globalizations in a Divided World”. He received his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the supervision of Prof. Konrad Jarausch which was published in 2020 under the title “The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany,” (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Richardson-Little's projects include the Volkswagen Foundation research group “The Other Global Germany: Transnational Criminality and Deviant Globalization in the 20th Century” (2019-2024) and the Volkswagen Foundation project at the University of Erfurt (2021-2023) and at the ZZF Potsdam (2023-2025) entitled "Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East Central Europe: Historical Analysis in Comparative and Transnational Perspectives".

Lee Holt is a Research Associate (Copy Editor and International Research Coordinator) at the ZZF (Department “Globalizations in a Divided World“), where he has worked since September 2023. He received his Ph.D. in Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and has worked as a translator and editor since 2007.

Learn more about Ned Richardson-Little’s research project at the ZZF: https://zzf-potsdam.de/en/research/projects/the-rights-of-the-volk

Literature:

• Ned Richardson-Little. The German Democratic Republic: The Rise and Fall of a Cold War State. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.

• Ned Richardson-Little. The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

• Christoph Lorke, “Die Welt in der DDR. Globalgeschichtliche Zugriffe auf den SED-Staat, ihr Nutzen und ihre Grenzen,” Historisches Jahrbuch (2021).

• Marcia Schenk. Remembering African Labor Migration to the Second World: Socialist Mobilities between Angola, Mozambique, and East Germany. (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).