Does the recently more positive German interaction with the concept of Ostalgie, on whether Germans ought to miss the GDR and what about it is worth missing, have much of a basis in the reality of life for GDR citizens?

by thelithiumcat

In the West we are taught that life in post-war East Germany (the German Democratic Republic or DDR) was terrible. But in my reading for one of my history modules this year, I've come across a phenomenon known as 'Ostalgie' which wonders whether there are things people should be remembering from the GDR. This has led to television shows in the past decade or so bringing up times when life in the GDR was supposedly better than today.

So I was wondering, what was life in the GDR really like? Quite obviously it's unlikely to have been entirely good or entirely bad, but is there any substantial historical justification to this Ostalgie phenomenon?

Esco91

To answer your question simply, from the many, many former Ossies I know, life was much better in the DDR than painted in Britain/USA, but nowhere near as good as in the BRD at that time.

Now, the problem is that this must not be spoken and must certainly not be printed. There are various sources that we can look to to expose many of the lies, but you would have to be far more specific about the particulars.

You mention Ostalgia, one of the big things here is products. Many DDR products were claimed to be of very poor quality in the West. The test of time suggests that actually the opposite was true for many products, as does the fact that many have carried on into the unified Germany (if they were as bad as we were told, they wouldn't be able to compete in a capitalist market).

Another point on the subject is that certainly the biggest downside to life in the DDR was the Stasi and their many eyes and ears. What we have learnt in the past few years regarding NSA/GCHQ acivities in Germany has negated that for many. Also rarely written of is the incompetence of the Stasi. Probably the best example of this I can remember is the story of Helmut Klopfleisch, which is best told in English by Simon Kuper in his excellent book Football Against the Enemy (1994/1996).

So basically, what is your comparison point? Life in the DDR compared to former BRD? 99.9% would say BRD. Life in the DDR compared to other Eastern Block countries? The DDR was paradise. Life in DDR against modern BRD? Well, there are certainly movements to bring many of the old DDR policies back into modern day Germany (the opposition party in the Bundestag is currently Die Linke, which has many former DDR supporters).

There's also the other side of Ostalgia. Many Ossis I know reminisce about trips in the Trabi to Bulgaria or their summer house in the countryside, but I feel much of this is because it was virtually a shared experience, even though families did it separately, the experience did not differ much. It's hard to reminisce in this manner for those of us in the West.

There is then the treatment of some former Easterners and Eastern companies after the wall came down. Peoples lives were ruined or drastically altered to fit in with the propaganda that was spread by Western governments. I know a fair few people with interesting stories, but the most accessible is the story of Jenas big company Carl Ziess, which was butchered at every opportunity by (in order) the US, the Russians and then reunified Germany for political gain yet still remains one of the countries most succesful companies today. Carl Zeiss AG (although this wiki does look a little bit politically biased compared to what I've heard when visiting their plants)

Ill try and edit this later if I can find the German forum discussing it I read a couple of weeks ago. That has some really interesting points and arguments in it from both sides.