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> Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Oh boy oh boy, I don't even know where to start... of

> Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Oh boy oh boy, I don't even know where to start... of course the past is glorified, because people tend to selectively remember only the good things and they are always afraid about the present and an uncertain future And of course I too have plenty of good memories of my childhood, until my mid teens when the great disillusionment set in about having to live the rest of my life locked up in this petrified country. I don't owe those good childhood memories to East Germany or socialism, but to my family alone. Of course pre-teen kids don't grasp the reality around them, because they are shielded from it by their families. And of course there are still die hard communists who led a comfy and safe life in East Germany who then suddenly found themselves without power and purpose in unified Germany (and it's the loss of power which really gnaws on them, not the money, because even the unemployed in West Germany were much better off than a highly qualified factory worker in East Germany). In the 60's and 70's you would also find enough Germans both in East and West who still said in private that their time in the "Hitler Jugend" or "Bund Deutscher Maedels" was the best of their life. My grandmother was one of them. If life in East Germany was so great, why do you think people went to the streets in '89 to finally overcome this miserable and bleak existance despite the real risk of being gunned down and rolled over by tanks like in 1953? Not even the police and army loved this state enough to defend it from those so called "counter-revolutionaries".

washadjeffmad 3y ago
>people tend to selectively remember only the good things East Germany suffered less during the recent pandemic because of residual investment in social services and infrastructure. Socialism built a more human-centric society. >why do you think people went to the streets in '89 Propaganda is a hell of a drug. Technology changed everything, and people felt like they were missing out on the future. That was the power of television broadcast, like TikTok today, or the Facebook and Twitter of yesteryear. My family was involved in getting the portable news camcorders designed, the broadcast satellites up, and the reporters into the field of the US's largest national news network by 1980. Suddenly, the entire world could see itself in stunning detail and color. America made the market and sold the world on the consumption of "newness". We've got it, and you don't! (Topple your government for some fruit!) I don't think either world was truer than the other, but one was certainly better at making people feel unhappy with what they had.
- flohofwoe 3y ago
  > East Germany suffered less during the recent pandemic because of residual investment in social services and infrastructure. You should consider finding different news sources. 4 of the 6 states on the territory of the former GDR are at the top of the 'COVID-related deaths per capita' statistics, in Saxony and Thuringia twice as high as the German average, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was only saved by its low population density: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1116058/umfrage/todesfaelle-mit-coronavirus-je-einwohner-nach-bundeslaendern/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1116058/umfra... > ...investment in social services and infrastructure This investment mainly happened after the reunification in the 90's, and dwarfs anything the GDR invested in 4 decades of its existence. > Socialism built a more human-centric society. Even if that were remotely true it wouldn't have any effect today. The Eastern part of Germany is still poorer than the Western part (even though it caught up quite a bit compared to the difference right after the reunification), which leads to more political extremism (both left and right) and less immunity towards anti-democratic propaganda, like the anti-vaxx bullshit. Also, back in the 80's East Germans didn't need "US propaganda" to see what's up. Many had relatives in West Germany, and could see the difference of quality of life, and much more important, of personal freedom, with their own eyes.

washadjeffmad 3y ago

>people tend to selectively remember only the good things East Germany suffered less during the recent pandemic because of residual investment in social services and infrastructure. Socialism built a more human-centric society. >why do you think people went to the streets in '89 Propaganda is a hell of a drug. Technology changed everything, and people felt like they were missing out on the future. That was the power of television broadcast, like TikTok today, or the Facebook and Twitter of yesteryear. My family was involved in getting the portable news camcorders designed, the broadcast satellites up, and the reporters into the field of the US's largest national news network by 1980. Suddenly, the entire world could see itself in stunning detail and color. America made the market and sold the world on the consumption of "newness". We've got it, and you don't! (Topple your government for some fruit!) I don't think either world was truer than the other, but one was certainly better at making people feel unhappy with what they had.

flohofwoe 3y ago
> East Germany suffered less during the recent pandemic because of residual investment in social services and infrastructure. You should consider finding different news sources. 4 of the 6 states on the territory of the former GDR are at the top of the 'COVID-related deaths per capita' statistics, in Saxony and Thuringia twice as high as the German average, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was only saved by its low population density: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1116058/umfrage/todesfaelle-mit-coronavirus-je-einwohner-nach-bundeslaendern/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1116058/umfra... > ...investment in social services and infrastructure This investment mainly happened after the reunification in the 90's, and dwarfs anything the GDR invested in 4 decades of its existence. > Socialism built a more human-centric society. Even if that were remotely true it wouldn't have any effect today. The Eastern part of Germany is still poorer than the Western part (even though it caught up quite a bit compared to the difference right after the reunification), which leads to more political extremism (both left and right) and less immunity towards anti-democratic propaganda, like the anti-vaxx bullshit. Also, back in the 80's East Germans didn't need "US propaganda" to see what's up. Many had relatives in West Germany, and could see the difference of quality of life, and much more important, of personal freedom, with their own eyes.