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ix Acknowledgments The research was supported by Calvin College, which provided a sabbatical , other time for travel and research, and an environment conducive to writing because one has something to say rather than because one has to. The archivists and librarians at the Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv in Berlin oversee a pleasant working environment, and they know their holdings. Colleagues have taken the time to read drafts of the manuscript and give responses that sharpened my thinking and rescued me from error. Robert D. Brooks, who first prompted my interest in the topic thirty years ago (and it did take some prompting), gave me most helpful counsel. John Rodden did, too. My Calvin colleagues David Diephouse, Barbara Carvill, and Wally Bratt offered good advice. My departmental colleague Quentin J. Schultze gave the penultimate draft a thorough reading that reminded me of what a prince among colleagues he is. The three people who reviewed the manuscript for Michigan State University Press made a variety of suggestions, many of which I took with thanks. My friends who were once citizens of the German Democratic Republic have stimulated my thinking in many ways. I particularly thank Pastor Wolfgang and Cornelia Gröger, the Kalinkat family, Günter Gießler, and Christa Fischer. They offered friendship and hospitality both before and after 1989. Sharon and David Bytwerk took the annoyances of a husband and father writing a book in good cheer. I thank the publishers of the following essays for permission to incorporate parts of them into this book. • “Und Ihr habt doch gesiegt: Rhetorical Aspects of a Nazi Holiday” originally appeared in ETC: A Review of General Semantics 36 (1979): 134–146, published by the International Society for General Semantics, Concord, California. • “The Dolt Laughs: Satirical Publications under Hitler and Honecker” originally appeared in Journalism Quarterly 69 (1992): 1029–1038. • “The Failure of the Propaganda of the German Democratic Republic” originally appeared in Quarterly Journal of Speech 85 (1999): 400–416. x Acknowledgments • “The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic ” originally appeared in Communication Studies 49 (1998): 158–171. • “The Pleasures of Unanimity in the GDR” originally appeared in After the GDR: New Perspectives on the Old GDR and the Young Länder. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001) 109–124. ...

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