Why the East Germans Lost

Jacobin ^ | 3 Oct 2020 | Lauren Balhorn

[Rummyfan]

Thirty years since German reunification, the “new states” from the former East still suffer the effects of mass deindustrialization and emigration. But if reunification hasn't delivered the promises of 1990, socialists should recognize why most East Germans didn't defend the old system — and why welfare and public services aren’t enough to build a viable socialist society.

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of German reunification — a decisive event in the end of state socialism in Eastern Europe. On October 3, 1990, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), formerly one of the most enthusiastic members of the Warsaw Pact, was annexed by the Federal Republic following an election victory for the Christian Democrats. Only eleven short months after the Berlin Wall fell, what had long been considered an unalterable and impermeable border ceased to exist, and an entire sociopolitical system disintegrated around it.

Rather than bringing the democratization, let alone the rejuvenation of socialism some initially hoped for, the uprisings of 1989–1990 across Eastern Europe saw the consolidation of a neoliberal order as the supposed price to pay for basic civil liberties and nominal freedom of movement. Communist parties that had ruled for decades fell into disarray, hastily rebranding themselves as social democrats or dissolving entirely. The fall of the Soviet bloc also demoralized large sections of the Left on the other side of the Iron Curtain, prompting the collapse of the international communist movement and helping to set the stage for social democracy’s pivot to neoliberalism.

[dsrtsage]

Most likely their womens olympic team that was years ahead of Lia Thomas

[Steven Tyler]

The vast natural resources of Russia, that wealth and head start, that energy and food growing capacity, the ingenuity and creativity of the Russia people and culture, was not enough to make Communism work.
Soviet strongman and corrupt gubmint staffers tried their best over decades, and they ended by breaking the Soviet economy

[Chainmail]

A well-written and perceptive post.

This Jacobin article is a wistful whitewash of the real situation in East Germany and the rest of the captured nations under Soviet control. Once they had the power, the Soviets controlled everything and if the locals tried to go in any other directions (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.) they were there immediately with T-34s to crush them.

The Communists sweetly omit how and why the Nazis came into power in Germany: the Reds were a major force in Germany after WWI and gangs of revolutionaries roamed all over Germany starting fights in the streets and occasionally, gun battles with army veterans who opposed them. There was a real danger that Germany would follow in the path of the Bolsheviks and fall under the Soviet penumbra - and most Germans saw this as a distinct danger. (Interestingly, the Communists formed "Antifascist" fighting units - Antifa). The only movement that organized the thugs and criminals to fight back against the Communists was the National Socialist Party - Nazis - and that is how they grew into national and total power. They were the only organization who could defeat the growing power of the Communists.

Just a bit like buying an alligator to rid your home of rats...

[T.B. Yoits]

As a German friend of mine explained it to me one time, they think they're better than everyone else and they are born followers.

Bingo.

[bobbo666]

Right after re-unification some colleagues of mine visited EGermany to assess the status of their nuclear industry. It was in shambles, literally. We were surprised that there wasn’t a Chernoble (sp?) type event at every facility. Regular workers could not afford a full set of pipe wrenches to do maintenance on steam pipes — they had one over-sized wrench and various wood blocks to fit in for smaller pipes. Their entire tech was like visiting a pre-1900 plant, and not steam-punk, either. It was ugly.
Communism of any sort (DemoSociailism, progressive, etc) are all failures. Rotten to the core. Anyone claiming to be part of that party has never been to a commie country, or listened to anyone who fled.

[Willy Sierens]

My father was a manual laborer, basically sympathetic towards communism, but he said with skepticism: “In communism, whether you work or don’t work, it doesn’t make a difference!”

And that is basically the problem.