Born in the GDR: Life in the Shadow of the Wall
Hester Vaizey
Language: English
Pages: 239
ISBN: B01FIYGJUM
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The changes that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 were particularly dramatic for East Germans. With the German Democratic Republic effectively taken over by West Germany in the reunification process, nothing in their lives was immune from change and upheaval: from the way they voted, the newspapers they read, to the brand of butter they bought. But what was it really like to go from living under communism one minute, to capitalism the next? What did the East Germans make of capitalism? And how do they remember the GDR today? Are their memories dominated by fear and loathing of the Stasi state, or do they look back with a measure of fondness and regret on a world of guaranteed employment and low living costs? This is the story of eight citizens of the former German Democratic Republic, and how these dramatic changes affected them. All of the people in the book were born in East Germany after the Berlin Wall was put up in August 1961, so they knew nothing other than living in a socialist system when the GDR fell apart. Their stories provide a fascinating insight not only into everyday life in East Germany, but also into how this now-vanished state is remembered today, a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall.
absolutely content in the GDR system. He felt no envy of West Germans, whom he had learned suffered from high crime and unemployment rates. After the Wall fell, he felt anger at the way everything from East Germany was dismissed as inferior. He believes the West would do well to learn from the policies used in the GDR. Chapter 8’s subject, Mirko, was, like Robert, born into a so-called ‘Red’ (socialist supporter) family. Indeed, Mirko’s father was a Stasi informer. For much of his childhood in
caught the start of the press conference in which the SED spokesperson and Berlin Party chief Günther Schabowski vaguely indicated that travel restrictions to the West would be eased. Schabowski talked about the Party’s desire to simplify migration, and said that until the East German parliament officially passed such legislation, there would be interim measures to allow East Germans to travel freely to the West. But before it got to the crucial moment where Schabowski famously responded to a
perspective of a unified Germany. These eight stories are complemented by accounts from many others, to give a broader context. They explore a range of themes relating to life in the GDR, such as religion, the environment, sexuality, travel, and education. Experiences of this time were far from uniform as the conversations reveal. Through conversations with many East Germans, this book reveals the many and varied ways in which people think about about and make sense of this momentous phase of
time of interview, this is longer than she has lived in reunited Germany. The shelter and comfort she found within the church during these years of ostracization means that she feels that whatever the 114 Katharina ~ Believing in God future holds, the church will always offer her refuge. And living through the transition of 1989 has made her aware of the fact that all political systems have their downsides. Casting her mind back to life in the GDR, Katharina says she often wonders whether
opinion, aware that it did not fit within the accepted socialist narrative. There were certain topics, he explains, that he just knew not to mention, including the Stasi, the army, relations with the Soviet Union, the poor conditions that pensioners were forced to live in, and the fact that East German hospitals were outdated in comparison to West German ones.10 In school therefore, it was easiest to trot out approved stock phrases, which would guarantee good marks.11 Mirko’s contemporary, Robert