Another classic made right around the time The Wall went up.
Posted on 11/09/2009 3:41:40 PM PST by inflorida
For many in the GDR, the fall of the Berlin Wall and unification meant the loss of jobs, homes, security and equality
On 9 November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down I realised German unification would soon follow, which it did a year later. This meant the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the country in which I was born, grew up, gave birth to my two children, gained my doctorate and enjoyed a fulfilling job as a lecturer in English literature at Potsdam University. Of course, unification brought with it the freedom to travel the world and, for some, more material wealth, but it also brought social breakdown, widespread unemployment, blacklisting, a crass materialism and an "elbow society" as well as a demonisation of the country I lived in and helped shape. Despite the advantages, for many it was more a disaster than a celebratory event.
Just two examples. My best friend, a foreign languages teacher, lost her job and was blacklisted because, at the time the wall fell, she happened to be teaching at a government law college. She was not a member of the party or indeed political at all. After much effort she managed to find a job helping young people excluded from school, with no long-term contract and on a much lower salary. My brother, who has a PhD in the philosophy of science, lost his research job at the academy and ever since has only been able to find odd, low-paid temporary jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
One thing I appreciate about British newspapers is that they don’t even pretend to be unbiased. The Guardian is a leftist newspaper and they make no effort to disguise this fact.
Agreed. A candid enemy is preferrable to a false friend any day.
Capitalism on its worst day is a hundred times better than anyday under Communism.
Oh, but they had some impressive Ulbrichtian Memorial Statuary in honor of the Great Soviet Fraternal Brotherhood.
Bet these pompous idiot party parasites just loved the artwork. But they still have to explain how, East Germany was the first State in modern history to actually lose population through the fifties and sixties. Without the Berlin Wall the country would have virtually ceased to exist.
I was in Germany in June 1990, seven months after the wall fell, and we took the train from Munich to Berlin (through the east). What stands out in my mind is the memory of the creeks and rivers. Slow moving, black sludge was what passed for rivers and streams, not to mention the 2-cycle Trabants covered all the buildings with black soot.
My question for the author: do you think your children’s future will be better or worse than their prospects would have been in the GDR?
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Another classic made right around the time The Wall went up.
Capitalism is fine; socialism is what you’re talking about.
Speaking of "incomptence," it is clear you do not know what "Captialism" is. Go educate yourself and come back when you're ready to engage intelligently (and intelligibly).
where’s the barf alert!
Today I went on line looking for an English version of the GDR constitution — and couldn’t find one. Maybe my google skills are lacking — or maybe that constitution was so meaningless and corrupt and a lie that not even the most idiotic of modern communists bother with the pretense.
If there was anything enduring in the GDR, it’s fundamental statement of principles ought be out there for us to emulate and adore.
Dude, are you apologizing for the DDR?
Dude.
Karma’s a bitch.
You’re really young, aren’t you?
I visited Moscow in the spring of 1989 at the age of 14 and me and my classmates will never forget what we saw. Besides the run-down and depressed infrastructure, the blank looks on the faces of the Russians made a mark I will never forget. The trip was only three days long but it forever marked me with what a tragedy communism is.
and no more cars that look like this:
“Slaves lost much after Civil War and abolition.”
She escaped.
We haven’t experienced capitalism in our lifetimes. We’ve had a sick brew of capitalism, socialism and fascism since the progressives started in earnest in 1900.
He, she, or it perhaps doth protest too much. The anecdotal information may or may not be correct, and the experience of one family, who seem to have been unusually blessed with higher educational opportunities,& may not be representative of East German society in general. All I know is anecdotal, too, if I except the MSM reports. My uncle’s family were from Dresden (in East Germany). He came to the US as a “male war bride.” The family property was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden, but even the bombed- out lot in the city center was of value. No end of effort before the fall of the wall recovered anything for him or his sister— the only survivors— and after the fall the claim was rejected for various reasons, mostly because he was dead, and his wife did not file this or that soon enough.
When I was a graduate student, one of my acquaintances was a fairly striking East German woman majoring in American Lit. She spoke flawless American English, spoke French much more beautifully than did I, Spanish at least as well as I did, and Italian well, also. I used to kid her about being raised to be a spy. She didn’t confirm or deny, but clearly the fall of the wall altered her life plans.
But then, we have long time West German friends who visit us every few years, and communicate fairly often, who say that the economic burden West Germany assumed on behalf of reunification was huge, and that the East Germans were just not ready to compete at the production level of the West.
Bottom line for me for now is that you are probably right, the author is and was probably one of the communist regime’s pampered elite.
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