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qatsiBook Review: Born in the GDR, by Hester Vaizey
Most of the books that show up in the work book sale are new releases, but sometimes there's an odd one that's a few years old. I wonder whether publishers pad out a package with random titles. In any case, this had been on my "to read" list for a while when I saw it, so it was an instant buy.
Vaizey conducted face-to-face interviews with eight people who were children or young adults in East Germany in 1989, discussing their experiences of the GDR regime, the changes of 1989, and German reunification. Though it's difficult to claim they are representative, they do cover a wide cross-section, from the families of party members through to prisoners and those antagonistic to the state. Vaizey highlights the way perceptions of the GDR have been polarized, as represented by the films Good Bye Lenin! and The Lives of Others, and tries to find a third way. She uncovers a broad acceptance of the state of affairs, with the knowledge that there were views that could not openly be discussed, but that compliance was not too difficult for many, and that those who didn't rock the boat were generally satisfied with their lot. However, for some, who could not tolerate the situation, penalties could be harsh (one of the interviewees is a gay man who was approached by the Stasi to act as an informer, and as a result was subsequently caught attempting to leave the GDR, and imprisoned not for his sexuality but for the "crime" of trying to leave the country). There is more consensus in the area of dissatisfaction with the reunification process, which was implemented more as a take-over by West Germany. Although financially inevitable, the opinion of many interviewees is that there could and should have been greater compromise over the political system, with some initial bewilderment and more long-term alienation of Easteners on the materialistic culture of the West, a division that still persists in some ways to this day.
Most of the books that show up in the work book sale are new releases, but sometimes there's an odd one that's a few years old. I wonder whether publishers pad out a package with random titles. In any case, this had been on my "to read" list for a while when I saw it, so it was an instant buy.
Vaizey conducted face-to-face interviews with eight people who were children or young adults in East Germany in 1989, discussing their experiences of the GDR regime, the changes of 1989, and German reunification. Though it's difficult to claim they are representative, they do cover a wide cross-section, from the families of party members through to prisoners and those antagonistic to the state. Vaizey highlights the way perceptions of the GDR have been polarized, as represented by the films Good Bye Lenin! and The Lives of Others, and tries to find a third way. She uncovers a broad acceptance of the state of affairs, with the knowledge that there were views that could not openly be discussed, but that compliance was not too difficult for many, and that those who didn't rock the boat were generally satisfied with their lot. However, for some, who could not tolerate the situation, penalties could be harsh (one of the interviewees is a gay man who was approached by the Stasi to act as an informer, and as a result was subsequently caught attempting to leave the GDR, and imprisoned not for his sexuality but for the "crime" of trying to leave the country). There is more consensus in the area of dissatisfaction with the reunification process, which was implemented more as a take-over by West Germany. Although financially inevitable, the opinion of many interviewees is that there could and should have been greater compromise over the political system, with some initial bewilderment and more long-term alienation of Easteners on the materialistic culture of the West, a division that still persists in some ways to this day.