Ostalgia (German Ostalgie, from Osten) - nostalgia for the times and culture of the GDR. Sometimes defined as “a recollection, a retrospective look at things and circumstances from everyday life in the former GDR.” In a broader sense, ostalgia is a longing for the bygone socialist past in the countries of the so-called socialist camp. The authorship of the neologism Ostalgie, or at least its actualization, is attributed to the German artist Uwe Steimle, who performed with the Ostalgie program.
Ostalgia is a cultural phenomenon of self-identification. There is a contrast between people in their way of life and culture: “Ossi” (Easterners) and “Wessi” (Westerners). Commitment to one’s culture is expressed, in particular, in the choice of characteristic “Ostalga” goods, films and their characters, a passion for socialist symbols, etc. 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, products branded “made in the GDR” continue to be in demand in Germany. As a rule, they can be ordered in special online stores. The assortment is extremely diverse: clothing from the GDR era, music, films, and even authentic banknotes and orders that the party leadership awarded to heroes of labor are offered.
However, the “Wessi”, that is, the West Germans, do not lag behind the “Ossies”. For them, however, purchasing goods with the brand “made in the GDR” is rather a kind of exciting journey, akin to using a time machine. “Food products sell best,” says Silke Rüdiger, owner of one of these online stores. Champagne “Little Red Riding Hood” from East German Freiburg, mustard from Saxon Bautzen, cucumbers from Spreewald and even ClubCola, a lemonade popular in the GDR, an analogue of American Coca-Cola, are in high price and esteem.
Thus, the Berlin Ostel hotel is extremely popular, the interior and all the things in which reproduce everyday life East Germany. The hotel owners put a lot of effort into finding not replicas, but real furniture and household items for all 60 rooms of their hotel. As a result, everything at Ostel is authentic, made in the GDR. There are even portraits of the Secretary General of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) Erich Honecker in the rooms.
“Our guests want to feel like it was in the past, in addition to this, they like that we are calm - there are no TVs, no phones, or any luxury items,” owner Daniel Helbig revealed to Deutsche Welle journalists the secret of the hotel’s success. However, if for Western Germans “living in the GDR” is an interesting attraction, then for Eastern Germans it is a reason to remember their youth.
Nostalgia for the GDR is connected with people's emotions, and not with their political position, says Dirk Grüner, owner of the Ostalgie Kabinett near Magdeburg. “People come to our museum and tears come to their eyes when they see they look at our exhibits,” he says. last years Gruner collected almost 20 thousand household items from the GDR era. “Some of our visitors ask us to sell them kitchen utensils, because they are of excellent quality,” says Dirk Grüner, adding that he refuses such requests. After all, as he put it, “otherwise there would have been nothing left in the museum a long time ago.”
Still, even a quarter of a century has passed since the collapse of the GDR, some Germans feel like strangers in a reunified Germany. They feel that with the disappearance of the GDR they have lost their homeland. This conclusion was reached in the course of his research by sociologist from the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin), Professor Klaus Schroeder. “Life in the GDR was clearer and simpler for many,” he explains hidden reasons so-called "ostalgia".
The East Germans felt that with the radical transition of the economy to a market economy, everything they had achieved was immediately devalued. In 1990, many of the enterprises where they worked were closed. The products simply turned out to be unnecessary to anyone, and the qualifications of the employees were unclaimed.
According to the sociologist, “ostalgia” itself is a harmless phenomenon. However, he also has back side. Thus, 40 percent of German youth whose parents grew up in the former East Germany do not consider the GDR a dictatorship. And 50 percent believe that democracy in West Germany was not real. According to Professor Schroeder, this is due to the desire of the "Ossies" to achieve recognition in the eyes of the "Wessies". It is important, the professor warns, that longing for the past does not lead to a false interpretation of history: “It is not “ostalgia” that is dangerous, but the apolitical nature of German society.”
As Germany prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019 - the spontaneous explosion of freedom that led to the collapse of communism in Europe - residents of the country are divided in their memories of days gone by. According to a federal government survey of the events of 1989, 57% of Germans living in the eastern part of the country assessed life under Communism more positively than negatively, writes The Washington Post.
“In surveys people said, ‘Socialism didn’t do me any harm’ or ‘My life in the GDR was not empty,’” says Gabrielle Haubold, an architect and urban planner who lives in the small town of Eisenhüttenstadt on the Polish border. The city of steelworkers, built more than half a century ago and intended to demonstrate the power of the socialist economy, was called Stalinstad until 1961. There, the times of socialism still evoke fond memories.
“People remember what it was like to live in the GDR, when everything was different,” Haubold continues. “We had a job, a social security system, and we didn’t have to worry about a lot of things.” But, of course, we must remember that we paid a certain price for these benefits.”
Those who held senior positions in the East German government or worked for the notorious Stasi secret police were prosecuted or went into hiding after German reunification in 1990. But over time, such a past ceased to be perceived as a shameful stigma.
Polished Memories
In the 50s, Eisenhüttenstadt, the “city of steelworkers,” gave shelter to thousands of workers of giant metallurgical enterprises. Today the city looks like a preserved version of a forgotten era. Unemployment has reached 20% in recent years, the population has fallen by a third, and growth prospects are extremely slim.
Local historian Andreas Ludwig is one of the few residents of western Germany who moved to Eisenhüttenstadt after reunification. In 1993, he opened a museum of everyday culture of the GDR. Over the years, he convinced many local residents to bring textbooks, household items, posters there - in short, everything that could help tell future generations of Germans about that era. Now his collection includes 150 thousand exhibits. Many "Western" Germans still accuse "Eastern" Germans of romanticizing communist life, noting that they forget about oppression, lack of freedom and economic disadvantages. However, according to Ludwig, nostalgia for the times of the GDR is rather a way to draw attention to the problems of a united Germany. “When people say that they lived better in the GDR, politicians get angry.
But Klaus Schröder, a professor of political science at Berlin's Free University, draws on his own research to say that even East German teenagers born after 1989 have idealized views of life under communism, thanks to their parents and teachers who glamorized life in the GDR.
“Yes, many young people living in eastern Germany want the GDR back, but this is a mythical GDR that is only in their imagination and has nothing in common with the real eastern Germany before 1989,” Schröder notes. - In fact, young people know little about the real GDR. They are not taught about this in schools, so they created their own version, based only on the nostalgic and positive aspects.”
Growing frustration
At the same time, people's bright hopes for a better future have faded. While in 1991, 97% of East Germans expected their living standards to be equal to those of their Western compatriots within two decades, today only 12% of Germans living in Eastern Europe hope for social equality. “Many people in Eisenhüttenstadt were disappointed in the early 90s when state factories were closed or privatized,” says Wolfgant Anton, 73, former director schools. - Many people have lost their sense of self-respect. Today these are those who love to remember all the good things associated with the GDR
Scientific work on the study of life in the GDR is carried out in the Berlin GDR Museum, the exhibition of which provides an opportunity to look at the history of the GDR from different sides: from the point of view of the private life of people with many happy moments, and from the point of view of the impact of the dictatorship on their lives and destinies. Professor Klaus Schroeder, a sociologist at the Free University of Berlin, explains the reasons for this ostalgia by saying that “Life in the GDR was more understandable and simpler for many.”
According to Dr. Frank Koch from the Center sociological research Berlin and Brandenburg: “ostalgia began because in the east they expected too much from the unification, but received too little.” At the same time, he notes that Eastern identity is not fellowship, like that of the Bavarians or Saxons, and the East Germans themselves do not want to integrate. A similar opinion is expressed by Professor Jurgen Hardt, a psychoanalyst from Jena: “during the period of reunification, politicians made many promises, which aroused many hopes, which for the majority remained unrealized,” while also noting that the “Aussies” and "Vessi" are still strangers to each other. 40% of German youth whose parents grew up in the GDR do not consider it a dictatorship, while 50% believe that democracy in Germany was not real. Researchers say that all GDR fashion is most attractive to those who were 10 to 12 years old in the 80s. According to a survey by Stern magazine in 2009, 57% of “Ossies” to one degree or another regretted that nothing remained of everyday GDR life. According to Associate Professor of the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication of IKBFU. I. Kant M. S. Potemina “Ostalgia... - This is nostalgia for the time when people had dreams, there was hope. When people dreamed of the world abroad. Now that they live in this world, their dreams have been replaced by deep disappointment.”
The theme of ostalgia is touched upon in films:
“Good bye, Lenin!” (2003, Wolfgang Becker), who in some way contributed to the spread of ostalgia
"Kleinruppin Forever" (2004, Carsten Fiebeler (German)),
"Sunny Alley" (1999, Leander Hausman) - in which, according to critics, everyday life in the GDR was embellished,
“Love Behind the Wall” (2009, Peter Timm).
"Ostalgie" (2018) is a video game in which the game space is the GDR during the late Perestroika and the collapse of the socialist camp.
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The unification of Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and great changes in the political and cultural life of the country could not but affect literature. ““German unification literature” is, without a doubt, one of the most important and pressing issues, interesting not only in the light of literary studies modern literature, but also important for understanding how German literature is perceived by society,” Volker Wedeking rightly notes... But authors do not always live up to the expectations of critics and politicians. Their calm, slightly ironic, sometimes melancholic style of narration allows insufficiently attentive Western critics to accuse young Eastern authors of nostalgia for the GDR. In this regard, the word “ostalgia” is increasingly mentioned in the media and critical literature. This state of affairs, no doubt, was facilitated by the countless autobiographies, essays, notes, observations, private memoirs, and artistically revised diaries of former residents of the GDR, which flooded the book market in the first years after the “reunification” of the two German states. The ongoing literary controversy over the uncritical attitude and nostalgically colored portrayal of the reality of the GDR did not spare even Günther Grass, whose novel “Ein wetes Feld” (“Wide Field”) became the reason for a new surge of indignation among West German critics, literary scholars and even politicians. No less surprise and emotion was caused by the fact that the novel was very popular among readers, who elevated it to first place among other bestsellers. The novel gained especially many fans among the population of the former GDR, who share the views of some of the novel's characters, representatives of East Germany. ...
Sources:
1. Dominic Boyer. Ostalgie and the Politics of the Future in Eastern Germany. Cornell University // Ostalgia and the politics of the future in East Germany
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31102722_Ost..
2. Donna Werbner - Germans embrace communist past, CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/09/18/germany.east/
3. “OSTALGIA” IN THE LITERATURE OF UNITED GERMANY https://journals.kantiana.ru/journals/courier/1612/46..
4. Andrea Rota. Testi pubblicitari ostalgici: una breve analisi semiotica, in “Linguistica e Filologia” 24/2007, p. 137-152.
5.Francois Caviglioli. Nostalgia for the Iron Curtain // Le Nouvel Observateur, France, December 13, 2007
6. https://vk.com/public97220602?w=wall-97220602_2914
MOSCOW, October 6 – RIA Novosti, Ksenia Melnikova. East and West Germans celebrate the 28th anniversary of German reunification. Long years While they lived on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall, they dreamed of restoring the unity of the nation. But when this finally happened, it turned out that they were still separated by a wall - in traditions, mentality, upbringing, income and even language. East Germans admit that with the disappearance of the GDR they lost their homeland, and remember the socialist past with warmth, often highly idealizing it.
Baba Yaga and Spreewald cucumbers
“This summer I went to the next reunion of our school’s alumni. We see each other every five years. Now I live in Holland, but for this I come to Germany,” says Heidi Coolen. In addition to school albums with photographs, former classmates bring chocolate, Little Red Riding Hood champagne, the famous Spreewald cucumbers, lecho, mustard from the Saxon Bautzen and an analogue of American cola - ClubCola lemonade, popular in the GDR. Everyone remembers together how they went to the UPC (Unterrichtstag in der Produktion), collected potatoes, and laugh at how they are portrayed as “Wessy”.
In modern Germany, things and objects associated with the socialist past are in great demand: kitchen utensils, chandeliers, toothbrushes, porcelain figurines made in the GDR. East Germans are helped to rewind time and go back several decades into the past by retro food shops and restaurants, which are opening more and more every year. There are magazines, books and films about life in the GDR.
“I rewatch Soviet fairy tale films with great pleasure. Baba Yaga and the hut on chicken legs are simply beyond competition. Nowadays you won’t find anything like this,” admits 40-year-old Sandra Dogan. According to her, today much of what was in the GDR is missing. “Back then, every child was guaranteed a place in kindergarten, it was easy to go to university, medicine was free, there was no unemployment, people were more friendly. Everything we did was valued, nothing was left unattended,” she lists to RIA Novosti.
Frau Gert, who is already over eighty, agrees with her: “There used to be order. We lived together, worked, were confident in the future. In the village, neighbors helped each other, everyone was like one family.” An elderly woman complains that now everyone is on their own, “behind their own fence.”
“At that time there were many youth organizations, but today’s teenagers simply don’t know what to do with themselves: they either sit with their eyes glued to their cell phones or are glued to their screens. And the school program was much more effective,” regrets a resident of Frankfurt an der Oder Holger Renitz.
The issue of pensions is especially acute. Angela Merkel promised to equalize them by 2025, but so far the difference is noticeable. Sometimes the gap reaches 450 euros, writes Spiegel. “I have lived in Thuringia since childhood, worked as a bus driver all my life, and my pension is less than that of many other Germans,” Ralf Schwieder complains in a conversation with RIA Novosti (he asked to change his real name).
In the position of the humiliated
The GDR and West Berlin became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, but in essence it was annexation. On the territory of the former socialist state, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949 was put into effect, banknotes were changed, and military personnel, officials and intelligence officers were subject to lustration.
Symbol of the Cold War: The Berlin Wall25 years ago, the Berlin Wall, the fortified border of the GDR with West Berlin, fell. According to Russian historians, while trying to cross it, 192 people died, about 200 were injured, and more than 3 thousand were arrested.The differences in the mentality of “Ossies” and “Wessies,” as they ironically called each other, have not been erased to this day. “The wall is in our heads,” the Germans themselves say. “West Germans usually end up in the elite; there is real cultural colonialism, and we are also talking about the authorities in the eastern states themselves,” says Thomas Kruger, head of the Federal Agency for Civic Education. He is one of the few "Ossies" who made their way into power. The fact that highest post The country is occupied by Angela Merkel, who was born in the GDR, and only slightly smoothes the situation.
In the east they admit that they often feel inferior citizens, they believe that as a result of the unification, “their homeland was defamed,” and they themselves found themselves “in a position of humiliation.” No wonder - they paid dearly for the unification.
The conditions are dictated by Germany
Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German authorities told their newfound compatriots that their technology was ten years behind and their economy was uncompetitive. All large enterprises of the former GDR decided to close: millions were left without work. This fate befell the Brandenburg Iron and Steel Works, the largest in the eastern lands. Back in the 1970s, it produced 2.3 million tons of steel a year, employing ten thousand people. The united country did not need this steel, and in 1992 the Brandenburg Industrial Museum was opened on the territory of the plant.
Unemployed "Ossies" in search of better life went west. Those who previously managed entire enterprises began sweeping the streets and delivering goods.
Currently, the industry of the eastern lands accounts for no more than ten percent of the German economy. Family income levels are about 20 percent lower. And the average cost of one hour of working time is seven euros less. Many people prefer to work in the West, coming home only on weekends. Due to the strong population outflow and low birth rate, demographic problems arose in the territory of the former GDR.
Public opinion polls conducted in the country have repeatedly shown that the Ossies are prone to nostalgia for their old way of life. Almost half of the population of East Germany is sure that “there was more good than bad in the GDR, there were problems, but one could live with them,” and “the people actually lived happier and more prosperous than in Germany after unification.” Young people do not agree with this: the new generation likes to live in a united country, and they know about the wall only from the stories of loved ones or from history lessons.
The federal government is forced to invest a lot of money in the development of the east, in particular, in improving social security. Several trillions of dollars have already been pumped into the economy of the former GDR. Some eastern lands spend more budget funds than they earn.
It was not possible to erase the differences in the mentality of East and West Germans after a split that lasted more than forty years in a quarter of a century. However, culture and sports come to the rescue. The Germans admit that they feel truly united during the Olympic Games, as well as the World and European Football Championships.
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall fell more than twenty years ago. This time was enough for an entire generation to grow up not knowing what life was like in a divided Germany. But was this time enough for the visible difference between East and West Germany to disappear? Was it enough to make East and West Germans no longer differentiate?
To give answers to these questions, in essence, it is not necessary to travel from, say, for example, to (although such a trip would absolutely give answers to these questions), it is enough to move from the west of Berlin to its eastern part.
With such a movement, you can notice that the bourgeois-sleepy, pacified, consumerist, boring atmosphere of the Western was suddenly replaced by the freakish creativity, decadence and ebullient cheerfulness of the Eastern. The streets have changed. They became dirtier, but more interesting, seedy nooks and crannies appeared, a large number of entertainment establishments such as bars and clubs. The people in East Berlin look different. It's full of bohemians, punks and just city freaks. Such changes may well cause negativity among some particularly sanctimonious people, but the fact remains that almost all tourist life (except, perhaps, shopping, for which people go to the vicinity of Kurfürstendamm) is concentrated in East Berlin. Moreover, it is from the former capital of the GDR that all the main symbols of modern Berlin associated with this city originate. Namely, the TV tower, Alexanderplatz, Weltzeituhr and Unter den Linden, with its very socialist appearance in places. In essence, we can say that West Berlin during the time of divided Germany contributed practically nothing to the modern appearance of the capital.
However, one should not conclude from Berlin alone that the difference between the two parts of a united Germany still remains very noticeable. There are other cities too. And no matter how many years pass, the difference between the West and the East is felt as before. In the east there is still a lot of sometimes pleasing, but more often depressing socialist architecture, houses and streets are often unkempt, and the cars on the streets are simpler. Here you often get a kind of dusty gray reinforced concrete feeling that you can experience on the outskirts of large Russian cities. But one thing is certain: eastern cities are more diverse, more contrasting, and more individual, if you like. I don’t want to say that Western cities are devoid of individuality, but in terms of atmosphere and spirit, the cities of the former GDR give them a big head start.
Not only the cities, but also the people differ in the two parts of a united Germany. East and West Germans, of course, belong to the same ethnic group and have been living in the same country for more than twenty years, but the sociocultural differences between them are still great.
For the most part, former citizens of the GDR produce perhaps a more depressing impression. They often have a tense, dissatisfied expression on their face and a wary look, as if they are constantly expecting a dirty trick from those around them. They do not have the polish and unobtrusive self-satisfaction that can be seen in their Western counterparts. They are often less educated and more prone to bad habits. But when communicating in person, it suddenly turns out that East Germans are more intricate, they have more interests and unusual hobbies.
This, of course, is the author’s personal observation, possibly made on a non-representative sample. Then it will be interesting to find out what the Germans themselves think about all this. Almost all the Ossies (East Germans) with whom I had the opportunity to talk on this topic said that they were always more comfortable communicating with other Ossies than with Wessies (respectively, West Germans). According to them, the inhabitants of the former GDR are simpler and more soulful than the mainly consumption-oriented residents of West Germany. The Vessis, in turn, also admit that there is a misunderstanding and accuse their Eastern brethren of prejudice and labeling. Like, Western means a soulless consumerist.
Sometimes misunderstanding reaches the everyday level. So, one of my friend Vessi, who came to study at the University of Dresden, was asked by other students (from local Ossis) why she was studying, because in West Germany women still do not work.
This strange prejudice, which still exists today, comes from the times of the GDR, where maternity leave was six months, after which the child could be placed in a nursery. In Germany, places in kindergarten were given to children only from the age of three, so a woman, as a rule, did not work for a long time after the birth of a child.
By the way, the idea that all East Germans curse their GDR past and are delighted with a united Germany is not true. Many representatives of the older generation believe that there was more order and justice in the GDR. Some young people, for whom employment issues are pressing, are convinced that the GDR provided much more guarantees in this regard. The fall of the wall became for the Germans not only the moment of the long-awaited unification of the nation and the restoration of the integrity of the territory, but also a certain watershed. Thus, when describing their life before and after the fall of the wall, Germans of the middle and older generations say vor der Wende and nach der Wende (i.e. before and after the turn). As for the East Germans, in their speech you can find the expression zu den Ostzeiten (in Eastern times). In addition, among the Ossies there is such a common feeling, understandable only to them, as Ostalgie (Ost+Nostalgie) - longing for the GDR times and everything connected with them: from interior design and T-shirts with an Olympic bear to films about the Indians of the DEFA studio.
The Wessies, in turn, have economic claims against the former GDR. Rich Western lands are forced to financially support poor Eastern ones, including, by the way, arm-aber-sexy Berlin, which is considered a bankrupt city.
Interestingly, in the less free and liberated GDR, people developed a certain creativity and ingenuity, which was passed on to the next generation and even increased in it. Perhaps the lack of satiety with material goods, combined with protest against the GDR regime, played a role here. Perhaps the shock that occurred in 1989, which the inhabitants of any country experience when there is a regime change, became a stimulus for the latent creativity of the Ossies. Well, most likely both. The West Germans did not know all this, and their creativity remained largely intact.
In general, differences between West and East in Germany still remain, as do mutual grievances. In all likelihood, in the next twenty years the differences will disappear, and with them all differences. This will probably be good for the prosperity of the country. But it’s still a pity, because at the same time Germany will lose part of its originality.
The differences between East and West Germans are increasingly disappearing (Part 1)
Berlin is cut into two parts by a concrete wall - this is symbolic. This is the language of the Cold War, when the border of the worlds passes through one city, one country. Let me remind you that Berlin is the capital of the united Germany created by Otto von Bismarck in 1871, and that it was so until 1945. Since 1701, this city was the capital of Prussia, and then of the whole of Germany.
As for me, the more interesting division is not into East and West Germany, but into South and North, Catholic and Lutheran. Indeed, we are talking about important cultural differences. Now the old line of division between North and South is returning - this is a line of demarcation that has very deep historical roots that go back to the time of the Reformation in Europe.
The difference between Germany and the GDR
The main difference is that West Germany was a capitalist country included in Western European cultural society. It was also significantly Americanized in many ways, both politically and culturally.
East Germans continued to live under totalitarianism, although it was a completely different totalitarianism. They were limited in their cultural and tourist opportunities and did not know the world. The socialist planned economy determined everyday life.
There is also a clear distinction between the classical Prussian and Francophile parts of Germany. There the internal mood of people is different. The Prussian tradition is discipline, work, order, while the Francophile tradition encourages enjoying life.
Bavaria is a “free state”
There are also a number of divisions within the eastern and western parts of Germany. Saxony and Bavaria are very specific federal states (the so-called free states), and their residents identify themselves with them. Don't forget about difficult relationships with Austria and Switzerland. Germany is much more diverse than many people think. For southern Germans, the north of their country seems in many ways like a different country. However, politically Germany is united and united.
German reunification
The issue of German unification was always on the agenda after 1945. Even in the anthem of the GDR there was a line that it must unite. For a long time, West Germany did not recognize the East German state.
After the unification in 1990, the economic factor played a major role. East Germany joined Western Germany (i.e. the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany). Many people forget that demographically western Germany is much larger than the eastern part, that is, 65 million versus more than 16 million people.
Therefore, East Germany is only small piece the whole of Germany. East Germans wanted economic benefits from unification, as well as freedom of movement and democratic freedoms and rights.
West Germans were generally positive about the fact of unification. For some this was very important, but for many it was understandable, natural and therefore neutral. There are Germans from the western part of the country who have never been to the eastern part before.
Stasi - East German "KGB"
A few words about the Stasi, a kind of “East German KGB”. This institution was less bloody than its Russian counterpart, but penetrated deeper into society. Surveillance in the GDR was carried out much more vigilantly than in the USSR. A large percentage of the population of eastern Germany took part in the work of this intelligence service as “informers”. The minority is by conviction, the majority is through pressure and coercion.
Ministry state security GDR
We are talking about a figure from tens to hundreds of thousands. Many people suffered from this activity: some were thrown behind bars, but mostly careers and families were destroyed. Lustration was serious and detailed, but not tragic: those who lost their jobs through it became pensioners. The pensions are decent, such that a person can afford to vacation in Spain once a year.
To be continued…
It turns out that not everything is so smooth
Original taken from matveychev_oleg abandoned us in the USSR, and the West Germans robbed us and turned us into a colony
Rally in Dresden
Daria Aslamova visited Germany and was surprised to discover that 27 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country remains divided.
Tell us later what life is like there in East Germany...
I'm sitting in a Berlin beer hall with my German colleagues, Peter and Kat, and I can't believe my ears:
Are you joking?! Dresden is two hours away by car. Have you really never been to the former GDR?
My friends look at each other confusedly:
Never. You know, for some reason I don’t want to. We are typical “Wessi” (West Germans), and there is always an invisible line between “Wessi” and “Ossi” (East Germans). We're just different.
But the Berlin Wall was destroyed more than a quarter of a century ago! - I exclaim in confusion.
She hasn't gone anywhere. It stands as it stood. People just have bad eyesight.
RISING FROM THE ASHES
All my life I have avoided meeting Dresden. Well, I didn't want to. “There, in the ground, there are tons of human bones crushed into dust.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five.) My half-German mother-in-law was nine years old in 1945 and survived the night of February 13-14 when the full might of British and American air power fell on Dresden. She survived only because her grandmother managed to drag her into the corn fields. She lay with the other children, who were frozen in the grass like rabbits, and looked at the bombs falling on the city: “They seemed terribly beautiful to us and looked like Christmas trees. That's what we called them. And then the whole city burst into flames. And all my life I was forbidden to talk about what I saw. Just forget."
Overnight, 650 thousand incendiary bombs and 1,500 tons of high-explosive bombs fell on the city. The result is massive bombing became a fire tornado that covered an area four times larger than the destruction of Nagasaki. The temperature in Dresden reached 1500 degrees. People flared up like living torches and melted along with the asphalt. It is absolutely impossible to calculate the number of deaths. The USSR insisted on 135 thousand people, the British stuck to the figure of 30 thousand. Only corpses pulled out from under destroyed buildings and basements were counted. But who can weigh human ashes?
One of the most luxurious and ancient cities Europe, "Florence on the Elbe " was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth. The goal of the British (namely, they insisted on destroying the historical center of Dresden) was not only the moral destruction of the Germans, but also the desire to show the Russians what the aviation of the so-called “allies” was capable of, who were already preparing an attack on the war-exhausted USSR (Operation “Unthinkable” ").
Afterwards, I heard many times how stubborn, die-hard Germans stubbornly collected ancient, charred stones, how they carried out unprecedented construction work for more than forty years and restored Dresden, but I just shrugged my shoulders. I don't need props. I don’t like, for example, the toy center of the restored Warsaw, which looks like a Lego construction.
But Dresden put my disbelief to shame. These German pedants achieved the impossible. Dresden has once again become the most beautiful of European cities. Two contradictory feelings possess me: admiration for the Saxon industriousness, their passionate love for their land and... fury at the thought of our stupid Russian generosity. The USSR, a country that lost 27 million people during the German invasion, was bleeding, starving (my veteran father said that the worst famine was after the war), suddenly makes the only and unique gesture of nobility in the history of mankind - ten years after great war returns 1240 restored paintings to the defeated enemies, including Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, Dürer, Vermeer and 3000 priceless jewelry! Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, pearls, sapphires, kilograms of gold and silver. This does not include the artistic value of the treasures! Green diamond 41 carats, white diamond 48 carats. There are not enough rooms to display all the exhibits!
An unbearable feeling of nausea comes over me. My father ate his first meal then Sahara , he wore in the Far East frosts canvas shoes and a quilt under his belt, he worked two shifts at a factory, his brother returned from the war without legs, the country was in ruins, and we, Russian fools, then believed that history would not forget us our nobility!
But it's true, we haven't forgotten! - my new German comrade timidly tells me. - Nobility remains for centuries!
And before my eyes stands the lean face of Merkel, arguing that Russians have not matured to European values, and they should be punished with sanctions. What right does she have to remind Russians of morality?!
Where then are the signs that should remind everyone that the treasures of Dresden are Russian trophies for the unheard-of crimes of the Germans against Russia, which my country generously returned, forgiving everything? Where is the gratitude? Why do German guides in Munich say that Dresden was bombed by Russian aircraft? - I say, choking with anger. - And the Sistine Madonna, a masterpiece of Italian painting, could easily hang in the Hermitage. And they spit on us in Germany, not remembering our kindness, your press compares us to barbarians.
So these are “Wessi” (West Germans), they tell me with contempt. - They are constantly brainwashed. We are different, “GDR members”. You will understand this yourself soon.
WHAT ARE THEY, EAST GERMANS?
Not well-cut, but tightly sewn, with firm features and sedate manners. People of coarse grinding and harsh yarn. It is not easy for their lips to stretch into a smile. They are somewhat reminiscent of Russians - they absolutely do not understand why they need to lavish smiles on strangers. But in communication, if they open up, they are sincere, open people, they say exactly what they think. The women are dense, “black earth” - not at all like the fragile shepherdesses and ballerinas of the famous Dresden and Mason porcelain displayed in the windows of expensive stores.
Actually, East Germans look exactly like their ancestors looked, which is easily explained by the lack of fresh blood. If in the western part of Germany only in Frankfurt almost half of the population is made up of visitors, then in all of eastern Germany there are at most one and a half percent of foreigners. They don’t like strangers here, they hate refugees, and the refugees themselves are in no hurry to stay here, trying to get to large Western cities. Once, looking at a portrait of some Saxon elector in the Dresden gallery, I compared it with the face of a museum guard and involuntarily burst out laughing. Well, just twins: the same pink chubby cheeks, double chin, Blue eyes slightly bulging, arrogant look. Nothing has changed in three hundred years!
There aren't many people here. Even in Dresden, where you've never heard of traffic jams. And beyond Dresden, closer to the Polish border, you can drive tens of kilometers and not see not only people, but even cars. But cleanliness everywhere is like in an operating room! There is nowhere to throw the bull. Everything seems to have been licked by the tongue. This is not Cologne, spit on by migrants, or the same Frankfurt. The green geometry of the fields, vigorous, tall hops, from which such excellent beer is then made, earing wheat, rich peasant lands with strong outbuildings, sleek, trimmed, washed land. A real holiday of labor and order! Trees grow like soldiers, flowers are brought up under strict discipline. But where are these stubborn farmers themselves? Where are their tracks on the neat gravel paths? Nobody! I even developed a theory that at night little green men descend from the sky onto beautiful Saxony, cultivate the fields, cut the grass, clean the roads, and at dawn disappear like ghosts. There are simply no other explanations.
But later I realized where people from eastern Germany disappeared to.
GDR: THE COUNTRY THAT HAS DISAPPEARED FROM THE MAP
We know very well what happened BEFORE the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we know almost nothing about what happened AFTER. We know nothing about the tragedy experienced by the “socialist” Germans, who so enthusiastically broke down the wall and opened their arms to their “capitalist brothers.” They could not even imagine that their country would disappear within a year, that there would be no equal unification agreement, that they would lose most their civil rights. An ordinary Anschluss will occur: West Germany will seize East Germany and completely absorb the latter.
The events of 1989 were very reminiscent of the Ukrainian Maidan, he recalls historian Brigitte Quek. - The world media broadcast live how thousands of young Germans broke the wall and applauded them. But no one asked, what does a country of 18 million people want? Residents of the GDR dreamed of freedom of movement and “better socialism.” They had a hard time imagining what capitalism looked like. But there was no referendum, like you had, for example, in Crimea, which means that the “Anschluss” was absolutely not legitimate!
After the start of perestroika and Gorbachev’s rise to power, it became clear what the end awaited the GDR without support Soviet Union, but the funeral could have been decent, says Dr. Wolfgang Schelicke, Chairman of the German-Russian Institute of Culture. - United Germany was born as a result of a hasty and unsuccessful birth. Helmut Kohl, Federal Chancellor of Germany, did not want to delay, fearing that Gorbachev would be removed. His slogans were: no experiments, Germany is stronger and has proven with its history that it is BETTER than the GDR. Although the intelligentsia understood that if all West German laws were poured into another country overnight, it would cause a long-term conflict.
On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist. The Federal Republic of Germany created a special humiliating Office for the care of the former GDR, as if the East Germans were backward and unreasonable children. In essence, East Germany simply capitulated. In just a year, almost two and a half million people lost their jobs, out of a total workforce of 8.3 million.
All government officials were kicked out first,” says Peter Steglich, former ambassador GDR in Sweden. - We, at the Foreign Ministry, received a letter: you are free, the GDR no longer exists. I, unemployed, was saved by my Spanish wife, who was left to work as a translator. I had a few years left before retirement, but for young diplomats who had received an excellent education, this was a tragedy. They wrote applications to the German Foreign Ministry, but not a single one of them was hired. Then they destroyed the fleet and army, the second most powerful in the Warsaw Pact countries. All the officers were fired, many with pitiful pensions, or even no pensions at all. Only technical specialists who knew how to handle Soviet weapons were left.
Important gentlemen-administrators arrived from the West, whose goal was to dismantle the old system, introduce a new one, compile “black” lists of unwanted and suspicious people, and carry out thorough purges. Special “qualification commissions” were created to identify all “ideologically” unstable workers. “Democratic” Germany decided to brutally deal with the “totalitarian GDR”. In politics, only the vanquished are wrong.
On January 1, 1991, all employees of the Berlin legal services were dismissed as unfit to ensure democratic order. On the same day at the University. Humboldt (the main university of the GDR) liquidated the history, law, philosophy and pedagogical faculties and expelled all professors and teachers without retaining their seniority. In addition, all teachers, professors, scientific, technical and administrative staff in educational institutions The former GDR was told to fill out questionnaires and provide details of their political views and party affiliation. If they refused or withheld information, they were subject to immediate dismissal.
“Purges” began in schools. Old textbooks were thrown into a landfill as “ideologically harmful.” But the Gedar education system was considered one of the best in the world. Finland, for example, borrowed its experience.
First of all, they fired the directors, members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany that ruled in the GDR, recalls Dr. Wolfgang Schelick. - Many humanities teachers lost their jobs. The rest had to survive, and fear came to them. The teachers did not go underground, but they stopped discussing and expressing their point of view. But this affects the upbringing of children! Russian language teachers were also fired. English became a compulsory foreign language.
Russian, like Czech or Polish, can now be learned at will, as a third language. As a result, East Germans forgot Russian and did not learn English. The atmosphere everywhere has completely changed. I had to work with my elbows. The concepts of solidarity and mutual assistance have disappeared. At work, you are no longer a colleague, but a competitor. Those who have a job work their butts off. They have no time to go to the cinema or the theater, as was the case in the GDR. And the unemployed fell into degradation.
Many people lost their homes. And for what an ugly reason. Many East Germans lived in private houses that were badly damaged during the war (West Germany suffered much less damage than East Germany). Construction materials were in great short supply. Over the course of forty years, the owners of the houses restored them, collected them literally stone by stone and could now be proud of their beautiful villas. But after the wall fell, beloved relatives who used to send Christmas cards came from the West and claimed a share in the houses. Come on, pay it off! Where did the former GDR member get his savings? He received a good salary, had social guarantees, but he was not a capitalist. Oh, no money? We don't care. Sell your house and pay our share. These were real tragedies.
But the most important thing is that there has been a complete change of elites. The Germans, who were not very successful there, poured in from the West and immediately seized all the high-paying positions in the former GDR. They were considered trustworthy. To this day, 70 percent of the administration in Leipzig is “Wessy.” Yes, there is no mercy for the powerless. Virtually all control over the former republic fell into the hands of the new colonial administration.
The USSR abandoned the GDR just like that, without even leaving any agreement between the owners of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR, says former diplomat Peter Steglich with bitterness. - Smart, statesmanlike people foresaw conflicts over property and the Anschluss of the GDR instead of the unification of the two Germanys on equal rights. But there is a statement from Gorbachev: let the Germans figure it out themselves. This meant: the strong take what they want. And the West Germans were strong. The real colonization of the GDR began. Having removed local patriots from power, denigrated and humiliated them, the Western colonialists began the most “delicious” part of the program: the complete privatization of state assets of the GDR. One system intended to completely devour the other.
ABILITY TO “CLEAN” OTHERS’ POCKETS
On state level one must rob skillfully, gracefully, wearing white gloves and very quickly, before the victim comes to his senses. The GDR was the most successful country of the Warsaw Pact. Such a fatty piece had to be swallowed immediately, without hesitation.
First, it was necessary to show future victims a gesture of generosity by establishing a one-to-one exchange rate between East and West marks for GDR citizens. All West German newspapers shouted loudly about this! In fact, it turned out that only 4,000 marks could be exchanged. Above this, the exchange rate was two eastern marks to one western. All GDR state enterprises and small businesses could only exchange their accounts on a two-to-one basis.
Consequently, they lost half of their capital at once! At the same time, their debts were recalculated at the rate of 1:1. You don’t have to be a businessman to understand that such measures led to the complete ruin of the industry of the GDR! In the fall of 1990, production in the GDR dropped by more than half! Now the Western “brothers” could talk condescendingly about the unviability of socialist industry and its immediate privatization “on fair and open terms.” But what the hell are fair conditions if the citizens of the GDR had no capital?! Oh, no money? It's a pity. And 85% of the country's entire industry fell into the hands of the West Germans, who actively led it to bankruptcy. Why give a chance to competitors? 10% went to foreigners. And only 5% could be bought by the true owners of the land, the East Germans.
- Were you robbed?- I ask my ex General Director of the metallurgical plant in the city of Eisenhüttenstadt, Professor Karl Döring.
Certainly. The residents of the GDR had no money, and all property fell into Western hands. And we don't forget who sold us. Gorbachev. Yes, there were demonstrations for freedom of movement and nothing more, but no one demanded that the GDR disappear from the world map. I emphasize this. For this, a corresponding position was needed from Gorbachev, a man who failed the test of history. No one can take this “glory” away from him. What is the result? East Germans are much poorer than West Germans. A lot of research shows that we are “second class” Germans.
What was important to Western industrialists? A new market is nearby where you can dump your goods. This was the fundamental idea. They got so carried away destroying our industry that they finally discovered that the unemployed could not buy their goods! If you do not preserve at least the remnants of industry in the East, people will simply flee to the West in search of work, and the lands will become empty. That’s when I managed to save at least part of our plant thanks to the Russians. We increased our exports to Russia, selling 300-350 thousand tons of cold-rolled steel sheets in 1992-93 for your automotive industry, for agricultural machinery. Then the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, one of the largest in Russia, wanted to buy our shares, but Western politicians did not like this idea. And she was rejected.
- Yes, it looks like “fair privatization”, - I note with irony.
Professor Karl Doering very proud of his little steel town Eisenhüttenstadt(formerly Stalinstadt), which is only 60 years old. The first socialist city on ancient German soil, built from scratch with the help of Soviet specialists. The dream of justice and equal rights for all. An exemplary showcase of socialism. The creation of a new man: a worker with the face of an intellectual, reading Karl Marx, Lenin and Tolstoy after his work shift.
It was new organization public life“, - the professor tells me with slight excitement, I walk along the completely deserted streets of the city. - After the factory, the theater was the first to be built! Can you imagine? After all, what was the main thing? Kindergartens, cultural centers, sculptures and fountains, cinemas, good clinics. The main thing was the man.
We walk along a wide avenue with restored houses of Stalinist architecture. The neatly trimmed lawns are wonderfully green. But in the spacious courtyards where the flowers are fragrant, you can’t hear children’s laughter. It’s so quiet that we can hear the sounds of our own steps. The emptiness has a depressing effect on me. It was as if all the inhabitants were suddenly blown away by the wind of the past. Suddenly a married couple with a dog comes out of the entrance and in surprise I shout: “Look! People, people!
Yes, there are not enough people here,” says Professor Döring dryly. - Previously, 53 thousand people lived here. Almost half left. There are no children here. Girls are more determined than guys. As soon as they grow up, they immediately pack their things and head west. Unemployment. The birth rate is low. Four schools and three kindergartens were closed because there were no children. And without children this city has no future.
WOMEN HAD THE HARDEST TIME
Marianne, a waitress from a cafe in Dresden, and I first had a fight and then became friends. A tired woman of about fifty threw a plate of wonderful pork knee onto my table with such force that the fat splashed onto the tablecloth. I was indignant first in English, and then in Russian. Her face suddenly brightened.
You are Russian?! Sorry,” she said in heavily accented Russian. - I used to teach Russian at school, but now you can see for yourself what I’m doing.
I invited her for an evening cup of coffee. She came in an elegant dress, with lipstick on her lips, suddenly looking younger.
It’s terribly nice to speak Russian after so many years,” Marianna told me. She smoked cigarette after cigarette, telling her story, the same as that of thousands of women from the former GDR.
When the "Wessies" arrived, I was immediately thrown out of work as a party member and a Russian teacher. We were all suspected of having connections with the Stasi. And about the Stasi, the Wessies have now created a whole legend - they say that animals worked there. As if the CIA were better! If we had good intelligence, the GDR would still exist. My husband was also laid off - he was then working at a mine in the town of Hoyerswerda (we lived there before). He couldn't stand it. I drank myself, like many others. For Germans, work is everything. Prestige, status, self-esteem. We divorced and he moved west. I was left alone with my little daughter. I didn’t yet know that this was only the beginning of all the troubles. In the West, women hardly worked at that time. Not because of laziness. They did not have a system of kindergartens and nurseries. To get a job, I had to pay an expensive nanny, which practically ate up all my earnings. But if you sit at home with a child for five or six years, you lose your qualifications. Who needs you after this?
In the GDR, everything was arranged perfectly: you could go to work six months after pregnancy. And we liked it. We're not homebodies. The children were looked after reliably and responsibly, and their early education was taken care of. The "Wessies" came and abolished the entire system, closed most of the kindergartens, and in the remaining ones they introduced such a fee that the majority could not afford it. I was saved by my parents, who were forced into retirement. They could sit with my daughter, and I rushed around looking for work. But I was labeled as an “unreliable communist.” With my university education, I even worked as a cleaner.
- But weren’t you paid unemployment benefits?
Ha! "Vassie" then introduced a new rule that benefits should be paid only to those women who lost their jobs with children who can prove that they are able to provide day care for the children. And at that time my parents and husband still worked part-time. There was no one to look after the child. And I never received the benefits. In general, I became a waitress. Sorry for throwing the plate. Life just seems so hopeless sometimes. My daughter grew up and moved to the west, working there as a nurse. I hardly see her. A lonely old age lies ahead. I hate those who broke the Berlin Wall! They were just fools.
Why don't I go west? Don't want. They invited all this terrorist trash to join them. One and a half million idle refugees, when Germany itself is full of unemployed! I will stay here because we are the real Germany. The people here are patriots. Have you seen? All the houses here have German flags on them. But in the west you won't see them. This, they say, may offend the feelings of foreigners. Every Monday I go to a rally of Pegida, a party that opposes the Islamization of Europe.
Come and you will see real Germans.
“PUTIN IS IN MY HEART!”
Monday. The center of Dresden, surrounded by many police cars. Musicians in folk costumes play folk songs, middle-aged women and men sing along with them, happily stamping their feet. There are also many young men with a defiant expression on their faces. What I see makes me tetanus. Russian flags fly proudly everywhere. One flag is simply amazing: half German, half Russian. The standard bearer tries to explain to me in bad Russian that his flag symbolizes the unity of Russians and Germans. Lots of guys wearing T-shirts with a portrait of Putin. Posters with Putin and Merkel next to them with pig ears. Or Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a euro sign resembling a swastika. Posters of Muslim women in burkas with crisscrosses. Calls for “friendship with Russia” and “war with NATO.” People, where am I? Is this Germany?
Many protesters are carrying stuffed pigs. A good, fat pig is a symbol of a well-fed, Christian Germany. No halal food! "Long live Russia!" - they shout around me. Some enthusiastic elderly woman repeats to me: “Putin is in my heart.” My head is spinning.
A young man named Michael clarifies the situation.
- Why do you believe Putin so much?- I’m surprised.
He is the only strong leader who fights terrorism. And who to believe? This pro-American puppet Merkel, who opened the borders to strangers? They rape our women, kill our men, eat our bread, hate our religion and want to build a caliphate in Germany.
“But here in East Germany I hardly see any foreigners.”
And we will do everything so that you don’t see them. We are not racists. But everyone who comes to this country must work and respect its laws.
I tell Michael about what I saw in January in Munich. Young hysterical fools shouting “Munich should be colored!”, “We love you, refugees!” I remember how five thousand liberals were eager to beat up a hundred sane people who came out with the only slogan “No to the Islamization of Germany!” Only the police saved them from the massacre, clearing the way for the “fascists” with their batons.
So this is “Wessie,” says Michael with indescribable contempt. “They believe everything their stupid newspapers write.” And we were born in the GDR. We are different and not easily deceived.
IMMUNITY TO PROPAGANDA
This is how we are alike! We both agreed on this expression! Me and Alternative for Germany MP Jörg Urban:
Yes, we are distrustful, East Germans and Russians, and we hate anything that even remotely resembles propaganda. And this saves us from illusions. West Germany, as a showcase of ideal capitalism, lived without problems for 50 years. They grew up in the spirit that nothing could happen to them. "Vassies" are not realistic and are unable to look at what is happening rationally.
People in the GDR clearly knew that lying was a necessary part of life, for various reasons. They were often lied to, and they knew that they were being lied to. This, oddly enough, did not interfere with life. I was a happy young man, an excellent student, received a scholarship and was planning to supplement my education at the expense of the state abroad. I had confidence that everything would be fine tomorrow. And then everything collapsed. It’s easier for young people, they are flexible. Now imagine adults who worked all their lives, and then they were told that no one needs you, your socialism was nonsense. They lost their jobs and, in a moral sense, got punched in the face. It was a difficult time, the collapse of illusions. But these people got up and started their business from scratch. They know that life is not heaven, success is not a gift, and any enterprise can go down the drain right now. The fact that we happily became a united Germany, hang out flags and are ready to fight for our country - this is not nationalism. This is the secret of survival. The easiest people to understand us are the Russians, who suddenly lost their identity during perestroika and are regaining it now.
The "Wessies", the West Germans, have lived in a guaranteed paradise for so many years that they are unable to fight. Their culture is Conchita Wurst. Such a person is not capable of fighting for his country. But we can.
I sigh heavily:
But you understand that Germany is not only part of NATO, but also territory occupied by the United States. Secret agreements...
“I don’t want to know about them,” says Mr. Jörg Urban with a distinctly ironic smile. - There are rumors about a secret pact to subjugate Germany to the United States. Do I really care? All world history has proven hundreds of times that treaties are just pieces of paper. When a wave of popular anger rises, it sweeps away everything. Before our eyes, the collapse of the USSR, Yugoslavia, the GDR, and the Warsaw Pact took place. The same could happen with NATO or the EU. When an idea matures and takes hold of minds, any legal act becomes insignificant. If Germany again becomes a strong independent power defending its interests, the secret pacts will become just archival dust.
