Comments on: Back in the GDR

By: Roger Sweeny

Roger Sweeny — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:25:17 +0000

How can anyone talk about “Good Bye, Lenin!” and not mention “Hogan’s Heroes?”

By: James

James — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 16:41:52 +0000

I’ve left it late to comment on this blog entry, but I rarely drop in on Crooked Timber for much the same reason, if in reversed polarity, that ‘Kieron’ rarely looks in on Glenn Reynolds. If Chris’ impression of communist East Germany in its later days doesn’t live up what he imagines other people’s fantasies of it are, well, it sounded bad enough for me. As for nostalgia, I grew up in post-imperial Britain, which was ridden with a longing for the past right up to the days of John Major. But, like the East Germans, it wasn’t a longing for ALL of the past – we weren’t nostalgic about: no votes for women/pre-NHS childhood mortality/preWar coalmining/smog/no bathrooms/dentistry. It seems to be a universal human tendency to recall group endeavour with fondness, and many East Germans do interpret their history in that way. So do our war veterans, our veteran political campaigners, or more or less any group who have worked together for a common cause. But there is another kind of fantasy about Ostalgie: that it is more than a selective nostalgia, that there was worthwhile compensation in communist life for the Stasi, the lack of passports, the unfree press and television, the rotten food, the absurdities exemplified by Chris’s anecdote about the doctors who wanted to live together. That post-Wall life in the east can be properly understood by characterising it as the ravages of untrammelled capitalism (by whom? the West Germans, the EU? doesn’t sound too likely to me). These too are heavy exaggerations. (I doubt Chris needs telling, however, that 1984 was not East Germany’s blackest year. I’m not accusing him of thinking that.)

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 10:25:39 +0000

Perhaps you might be interested in how Leipzig is these days? I visited it last year. Of course, it was Leipzig where the demonstrations that led to the fall of the DDR began. There’s a column errected in the middle of the square to commemorate the fact. Overall it did seem a rather quiet place to me (the election rallies being held at the time were not exactly enthusing the populace). These days Leipzig’s town centre at least is indistinguishable from any Western city but the suburbs are full of beautiful old buildings that have fallen into desuetude, and the train from Berlin to Leipzig passes by many crumbling old factories. Gleaming new trains far better than anything in the UK pass through rural poverty you would not see in the UK.

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 14:40:22 +0000

There are a number of fascinating essays waiting to be written on these and related issues. Unfortunately, “what I did with my summer vacation, 1984” is not it. Sorry, Chris, but do try again. Doug, it was a blog posting, not an essay. Just my personal take on what I saw and heard and I’m not claiming any special authority for myself.

By: Doug Muir

Doug Muir — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 14:30:55 +0000

I’m not sure what the point of Chris’s post is. In a week in East Germany in 1984, he didn’t see disappearances and torture. Okay… In all seriousness, we now have a pretty good picture of how things were in the DDR back when. No, it wasn’t the totalitarian nightmare that oppresses the imagination of many naive (and some not so naive) anti-Communists. On the other hand, it was an oppressive state that wasted enormous human potential, ravaged the environment, and left a legacy of damaged institutions and loss of social trust that is still hurting the country today. There is a serious post to be made on the topic of Communostalgia. In fact, there is a rich and, so far, largely neglected vein of material here. There is nostalgia for the good old days in every single post-Communist country, and it’s not always restricted to the obvious candidates like the elderly and the poor. In some cases it’s simply nostalgia that is Communist by historical accident: every 40 year old has a soft spot for the songs he first heard when he was 21, even if they were awful things about international brotherhood and unity. In many cases, though, it’s a real sense of loss of thing like a slower pace of life, a sense of national pride and dignity, very close ties of family and friendship, etc. Or of decrepit but beloved institutions like Pioneer Camp for kids or free group vacations with the worker’s union. There’s the uneasy fear of having made a Faustian bargain with the market that underlies so much political discourse in the region. There’s the tangled connection between Communism and nationalism, which is most obvious in Russia but which is an issue in several other Eastern European countries too. And then of course there’s the whole related but distinct phenomenon of Yugonostalgia, which is rapidly becoming a cottage industry in the former Yugoslavia. There are a number of fascinating essays waiting to be written on these and related issues. Unfortunately, “what I did with my summer vacation, 1984” is not it. Sorry, Chris, but do try again. (FWIW, I live in Romania, which was pretty similar to East Germany—somewhat poorer, a bit more oppressive, otherwise much of a muchness.)

By: Gabriel Syme

Gabriel Syme — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 11:48:57 +0000

There were not, as far as I could tell, widespread disappearances, torture or any of that stuff. Rather, people adjusted, adapted, whispered and grumbled and hoped for better times (though all thought that the wall was there for the rest of their lives). Grim and depressing, sometimes, but this was not Leningrad 1937. The horrors were there alright, if you knew where to look. Plus thousands of little human tragedies, people with no control over their lives, forever locked in the grey, dull and mediocre existence. I was a dissident in another East European country and I still shudder at the memory of those days…

By: Raven

Raven — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 02:14:20 +0000

If you expect a comedy (although it is pretty comical in parts), then I can understand that you might find it a disappointing movie. But it captures pretty nicely (in my opinion) the difficulties of change after reunification, the development of the family depicted in the movie, the way people care for each other, and the heartbreak caused by the separation of families during the time Germany was divided. I found it a very humane (and in a sense a very true) movie.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 01:10:54 +0000

a drama about sabotage in a factory making agricultural machinery. Oh boy.

By: norman geras

norman geras — Sun, 03 Aug 2003 23:16:05 +0000

I have to say I found Good Bye (sic) Lenin disappointing, Chris. The trailer really appealed to me; the basic idea seemed pretty good. But once you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve got the whole thing. It unfolds, or rather remains where it is, over too much time and by the end I was impatient to get home.