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East German culture has been ignored for too long
- snowpid 2y agoIt is a lie that Eastern German books weren't read, given the commentator and Erpenbeck (she lived in Italy as a kid, no one East German could dream of!) are from privileged commie closed families and try to white wash communist criminal rule. I recommend Der Turm by Uwe Tellkamp, an author from Dresden, a very sucessfull book in the year 2008. I started to hate the SED again after reading the first half. (Though some might feel bad about his very right wing positions after 2015).
- cjbenedikt 2y agoHistory - and Deutungshoheit with it- are decided by the winner i.e. West Germany.
- snowpid 2y agoexcept West Germany was not the winner. It was the people of East Germany.
- cjbenedikt 2y agoThat appears to be debatable by some. The people that took to the streets in East Germany (and risking their lives) before the wall came down weren't asking for unification. They wanted a democratic East Germany.The protesters were anything if quiet, so there's no shortage of evidence of what they believed and demanded at the time. The evidence shows that they were by no means a "reunification movement." The "Awakening '89" (Aufbruch 89) declaration, signed in September of 1989 at the founding of the New Forum, is illustrative. The declaration articulated a vision of reform and humanitarian socialism: "We want leeway for economic initiative but no degeneration into a dog-eat-dog society," it announced. "We want free, self-confident people who nevertheless act community-conscious[ly]. We want to be protected against violence and thereby not put up with a state of bailiffs and police spies." Notably, nowhere in the declaration is German reunification listed as a demand.