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....What is remarkable about the philosophy of putting economic security over individual liberty is that it is such standard left-wing fare. And it sounds so familiar lately.
Since the demise of the GDR, many have come to recognise and regret that the genuine "social achievements" they enjoyed were dismantled: social and gender equality, full employment and lack of existential fears, as well as subsidised rents, public transport, culture and sports facilities. Unfortunately, the collapse of the GDR and "state socialism" came shortly before the collapse of the "free market" system in the west.
Ms. de la Motte should not be so sad. She could have a fine future ahead of her in Washington, D.C.
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That piece of pro-tyranny, anti-human tripe was one of the most disgusting things I've read in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteHere's a clue for Ms. de la Motte: the fall of the Iron Curtain didn't "demonise" the DDR. It did that itself when it put up that wall and killed anyone who tried to climb it from the inside.
Obviously Ms. de la Motte was one of the elites that fared pretty well in the Soviet Bloc. (Gee, I wonder why a priveledged Communist academic would be black listed from teaching in the west right after unification?)
ReplyDeleteShe should talk to some of the proletariat that had to stand in lines for food to maybe/maybe not be at the grocery store. I know a woman who was in Soviet Poland until she was 12. Her father and brother had made it out to West Germany when she was 8. He used to send her oranges at Christmas. She was in complete awe of the Munich area grocery stores and got to see her very first banana.
Anyone who holds any illusions as to the "positive" aspects of the DDR would do well to read the book "Stasiland" by Anna Funder. It was even worse there than we in the West knew.
ReplyDeleteI was in Nuremberg in 1989 and quite clearly remember showing some East Germans a compact disc. They had no idea what it was.
I didn't read the entire article, but in the second paragraph you excerpted Ms. de la Motte seems to be oblivious to the fact that many of the "social achievements" she yearns for: full employment [at any cost], subsidised rents, public transport, and [excessive spending] on culture and sports facilities contributed to the collapse.
ReplyDeleteAs Margaret Thatcher reportedly said, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend."
I wonder how many neighbors one would have to rat on to gain "social achievement."
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the book she co-authored (http://www.arterypublications.co.uk/books/stasi_hell_or_workers_paradise.html), particularly the last paragraph of the description there, you can see she's not defending the police state aspects etc we all know about. She's talking instead about the *other* aspects which get no hearing at all in the media. The West German attitude to Easterners is "you spent 40 years in a police state, that's all I need to know", and she's saying, "well, actually, life wasn't quite that one-dimensional, and the transition was handled really badly, and not everything now is perfect and there are actually some things that might be learned by a comparison". That's a far cry from saying "let's go back there, it was flawless".
ReplyDelete