'To Live a Peaceful Life': African American Defectors in the German Democratic Republic.

This article examines the experiences of six African American servicemen who defected from the U.S. Army stationed in West Germany in the early 1950s and sought political asylum in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Their defections were motivated primarily by experiences of racism in the United States, the U.S. military, and West Germany, particularly regarding restrictions on interracial relationships and intimate life. The article contrasts their personal narratives with the East German Ministry for State Security (MfS or Stasi) perspective, which reframed their asylum requests within a Marxist–Leninist anti-imperialist framework, emphasizing racism as a tool of capitalist oppression rather than focusing on intimate or personal reasons. Over decades, the defectors settled in East Germany, navigating complex issues of belonging, citizenship, and integration amid shifting Cold War and decolonization dynamics, while the Stasi monitored their private lives as indicators of political reliability. This case study highlights how race and racism shaped Cold War geographies and migration, revealing the interplay between intimate experiences and broader political ideologies in the GDR’s approach to asylum and socialist identity.