(english / italiano)
3 ottobre 1990 - 3 ottobre 2004
Quattrordici anni fa la annessione della DDR alla Rep. Fed. Tedesca
1. Quando cade il Muro... (Tonino Bucci, da Liberazione del 7/8/2004)
2. Germany: Ostalgia for the GDR. NO CHANCE TO MOURN ITS PASSING (P.
Linden, D. Vidal, B. Wuttke, Le Monde diplomatique, August 2004)
VEDI ANCHE:
ERICH HONECKER: AUTODIFESA DINANZI AL TRIBUNALE DI BERLINO
http://digilander.libero.it/lajugoslaviavivra/CRJ/DOCS/honeck.html
L'INNO NAZIONALE DELLA DDR:
http://www.olympic.it/anthems/gdr.mid
SEE ALSO, IN ENGLISH:
East Germans display deepening discontent (by Bertrand Benoit)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a49a9e54-f52b-11d8-85e9-00000e2511c8.html
dpa: East Germans say communism is a good idea
http://www.expatica.com/source/
site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=10955
=== 1 ===
http://www.liberazione.it/giornale/040807/archdef.asp
Quando cade il Muro...
Quando cade il Muro, Jana Hensel ha soltanto tredici anni e vive a
Lipsia, una della maggiori città dell'allora Ddr, la Germania
orientale. Quasi non c'è il tempo per rendersi conto del precipitare
degli eventi. In men che non si dica un intero mondo crolla. Soltanto
dopo oltre un decennio - e metà della propria vita trascorsa nella
"nuova" Germania - Jana Hensel
realizza di non essere più in grado di ricordare il tempo prima della
Wende, della svolta.
La Germania di oggi si muove tra l'immagine pacificata di un paese
finalmente riunificato, senza più conti in sospeso col passato, e la
ricerca tormentata di un'identità collettiva dalla quale buona parte di
tedeschi sono tuttora esclusi, come stranieri in patria. Come una sorta
di fiume carsico improvvisamente tornato in superficie, è esploso negli
ultimi anni il problema della memoria, della raccolta di ricordi e
testimonianze sulla quotidianità della vita nella Ddr, persi via via
per strada. Ad incarnare questa tendenza non è soltanto quella moda
conosciuta con il neologismo di «ostalgia», che spinge molti tedeschi a
collezionare vecchi simboli e oggetti d'uso quotidiano della Germania
dell'Est. Si tratta, piuttosto, di un fermento più diffuso che ha nella
letteratura e nel cinema i suoi momenti di maggiore espansione e che
pure fatica a valicare i confini tedeschi - se si fa eccezione per il
film "Goodbye Lenin" del regista Wolfgang Becker che ha riscosso
successo anche in altri paesi europei.
Quegli «ultimi giorni della nostra infanzia dei quali, naturalmente,
non sapevo allora che fossero gli ultimi, sono per noi oggi una specie
di porta in un altro tempo che ha il sapore di una fiaba e per il quale
non ci è possibile trovare le parole giuste». Questa frase di Jana
Hensel, tratta dal romanzo Zonenkinder che le è valso, nonostante la
giovanissima età, una notevole popolarità in Germania, mette il dito
sulla piaga. Fare i conti con l'identità tedesca significa anzitutto
affrontare un problema letterario, «trovare le parole giuste» per
descrivere un passato e un'infanzia definitivamente perdute.
«Come tutto il nostro paese aveva desiderato non è rimasto nulla della
nostra infanzia e all'improvviso, quando siamo cresciuti e ci sembra
già troppo tardi, mi rendo conto di tutti i ricordi persi. Ho paura di
conoscere poco il terreno sul quale cammino, di aver guardato raramente
indietro e sempre davanti. Vorrei di nuovo sapere da dove veniamo, così
mi sono
messa alla ricerca dei ricordi smarriti e delle esperienze sconosciute,
anche se temo di non trovare più la strada all'indietro».
Da qui prende corpo un viaggio nella memoria, un sentiero narrativo che
attraversa diversi momenti della quotidianità della Ddr: la scuola, il
rapporto genitori-figli, l'architettura delle città, i trasporti,
l'educazione, l'amore, l'amicizia, lo sport. E tuttavia l'impresa non
ha una chiara marca politica, è piuttosto un flusso di ricordi che si
sottrae alla trappola della censura o del divieto di parlare dell'Est
se non in termini di demolizione. «Quelli dell'Ovest - spiega Hensel in
un'intervista - si fanno sempre forti della domanda "perché raccontate
la Ddr in maniera naif? Perché non prendete posizione?" Non ho più
voglia di difendermi dall'accusa di "ostalgia". La Ddr è stata già
indagata criticamente a tutto campo, messa in scena, persino
musealizzata. Si ha la sensazione che tutti quanti o lavoravano per la
Stasi o attaccavano manifesti. Che sia esistita una
quotidianità reale, concreta: questo dobbiamo raccontare».
E' una quotidianità raccontata senza pudori e celebrazioni, afferrata
in dettagli all'apparenza insignificanti, come quando «dopo il crollo
del Muro scomparirono per primi i quadri di Lenin e Honecker dall'aula
scolastica» e «gran parte dei compagni di classe» si misero in viaggio
con i genitori per «prendersi il soldo del benvenuto», seguiti ben
presto anche dagli insegnanti. Spariscono anche i «sabati», le giornate
di mobilitazione e di lavoro volontario, le raccolte di alimenti per la
rivoluzione sandinista, le manifestazioni di solidarietà per Nelson
Mandela.
Con Jana Hensel, un'intera generazione di autori nati nella Ddr intorno
al 1970 si è resa visibile con un'esplosione di testi di narrativa che
affrontano il rapporto tra est e ovest a partire dalle medesime
categorie esistenziali e biografiche. Julia Schoch, classe 1974,
descrive nei suoi racconti - pubblicati nella raccolta Il corpo della
salamandra - i conflitti interni a una
generazione in cerca di felicità e benessere, che si imbatte però, ogni
volta, nei ricordi dell'ex Ddr.
Jacob Hein, classe 1971, ritorna sulla propria gioventù nel volume di
racconti La mia prima T-Shirt, mentre il romanzo d'esordio di André
Kubiczek (classe 1969) Giovani talenti tratteggia l'orizzonte culturale
dell'ultima fase di vita della Ddr. In tutti domina però una percezione
comune, una crescente disillusione nei confronti delle aspettative che
in tanti, dopo il crollo del Muro, avevano nutrito verso le sirene del
capitalismo occidentale. L'amara scoperta che l'ideologia continua a
dominare incontrastata proprio laddove tutti ne decretano la scomparsa.
Tonino Bucci
=== 2 ===
http://mondediplo.com/2004/08/04ostalgia
Le Monde diplomatique, August 2004
NO CHANCE TO MOURN ITS PASSING
Germany: Ostalgia for the GDR
Germany is now in economic distress; the Socialist-Green coalition in
power is selling off public assets and dismantling the social welfare
system. Unemployment, especially in what was East Germany, is high. No
wonder the Easterners are nostalgic for their protected past.
by Peter Linden and Dominique Vidal and Benjamin Wuttke
GEORGE Tabori recently staged Gotthold Lessing’s The Jews for the
Berliner Ensemble and added a few lines of his own: "Ah, the good old
days - alas, long gone, by the grace of God." Was he thinking of
Ostalgia, the ambivalent nostalgia felt by many former citizens of East
Germany (1)?
Marianne Birthler presides over a mound of paper, old files belonging
to the Stasi, the state security arm of the former German Democratic
Republic (GDR). She says about the Ostalgic movie Good Bye, Lenin!: "I
have happy memories of particular tunes or objects. But I don’t feel
any nostalgia for the GDR." She thinks Ostalgia is a reaction by "those
who think any criticism of socialism undermines their own life
history". Sigmund Jähn, a former cosmonaut who was "president" of East
Germany in Good Bye, Lenin!, sees Ostalgia as "the expression of an
American-style lack of true culture. They [West Germans] focus on
making money . . . leaving East Germans to calm down, stewing in their
own juice."
Professor Jens Reich (2) does not dispute his fellow citizens’
attachment to their past but sees it as "a passing fad exaggerated by
the media". After the fall of the Berlin wall those in favour of
democratic transformation of the GDR, including the Greens, only picked
up 5% of votes. He adds: "The remaining 95%, who wanted an end to
communism, shouted us down." He thinks Ostalgia marks the "deliberate,
collective end of an epoch". The last chance to reform communism had
been wrecked in 1968 when Soviet forces crushed the Prague spring.
The writer Thomas Brussig says the GDR "disappeared without us having a
chance to mourn its passing. Ostalgia is a delayed reaction . . .
Nostalgia is part of human nature. Everyone likes to remember their
youth. The passing of time makes everything rosier." Particularly as
the official line is that there was nothing worth keeping in the GDR
besides the green arrow traffic signal (3). Brigitte Rauschenbach, a
lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin, is convinced that mourning
will never be complete until "former East Germans acknowledge the
ambivalence of their feelings about the regime". In 1945 people felt a
subconscious mixture of love and hate for Hitler. "Ostalgia", she adds,
"is more like unfocused melancholy."
Jana Hensel had a major success with her book Zonenkinder (4), which
she believes helped "to bridge the gap between individual and
collective memories": her fellow citizens at last realised that "their
story was not of marginal interest but a key issue". Whether they
stayed in the East or moved West, each is trying to find traces of the
GDR in songs, food or broadcasts.
Surprisingly Egon Krenz, the last president of the GDR, now out of
prison (5), is dismissive. In his modest home on the Baltic coast he
starts by emphasising the negative side of Ostalgia. Rather than really
testing memories, it is a "caricature . . . making fun of life in the
GDR". Stefan Arndt, the producer of Good Bye, Lenin!, uses the same
term: "People caricature things, saying ’Their cola was awful,’ ’They
never had any bananas’ or ’That ghastly wallpaper’ but there’s no
mention of real life." Krenz acknowledges that there is a good side to
Ostalgia: "People who lived in the East have experienced two types of
society and can compare them." At least 17 million people know there
was more to the GDR than "Trabants or the Stasi . . . Despite all the
things that turned out badly everyone had work, with cheap housing and
a good health service free of charge . . . They miss all those
benefits."
Peter Ensikat, a cabaret artist, sees the trend as a "reaction to what
has happened since the wall came down". People in the East "threw
everything away without thinking . . . All they wanted was to join West
Germany, though they knew nothing about it beyond its ads on
television".
So perhaps the nostalgia is a combination of disappointment with the
present and longing for the past. Wolfgang Herr, a journalist, says:
"The more you get to know capitalism the less inclined you are to
wonder what was wrong with socialism." Cynics will comment that this is
because he used to work for the communist daily Neues Deutschland. But
many Ossis say it wasn’t all so bad then and it’s not that great now.
We spoke to two other journalists, Gerhard Leo, 81, and his grandson
Maxim, 34. Gerhard thinks Ostalgia reflects "the rejection of the new
society by a steadily increasing number of East Germans, who are so
desperate they forget the shortcomings of the GDR." Maxim justifies "a
legitimate desire to defend a lifestyle that has disappeared" but also
refers to "memories of a GDR that never existed". Gerhard thinks that
the socialist principle of secur ity for all should apply in western
society. Maxim disagrees, convinced it came at too high a price in
freedom and efficiency: "Security rhymes with mediocrity. If you deny
people success, you stifle the driving force behind society. If they
achieve prosperity it can be redistributed afterwards."
Christian Schletze, a young member of the IG Metall trade union, is
still looking for the rosy future promised by Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
He says: "The economy in my area was destroyed and with the shortage of
funds the schools, health service and arts centres no longer work
properly." What happened to the €1,250bn invested in the Länder of the
former GDR, where there are now only 6m jobs, compared with 9.7m in
1989? Journalist Renate Marschall remembers how people were convinced
hard work was all that was needed and how hurt they were to discover
the truth. They were told: "We don’t need your skills any more. We have
no use for you." Instead of the promised 30 years of prosperity and
growth they had 10 years of disaster.
Rita Kuczynski has published two collections of interviews with former
Ossis (6). She thinks reunification marked "the beginning of the end
for the welfare state" and sees a similarity between "the present
stagnation of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany in the
1980s". That is why there is no justification for Ostalgia: "Why did 4
million people move out? It went bankrupt."
Irene Dolling, a teacher at Potsdam University, says of women’s rights:
"In the East women went out to work; in the West they stay home and
mind the kids." In the GDR women had to do much of the housework too,
but rising unemployment and the disappearance of many kindergartens has
undermined the relative liberation of work: "In the GDR 86% of all
women worked. Now only 56% do." The birth rate has been halved in 15
years, plummeting to the 1929 level. Stefan Arndt says: "Single mothers
with kids managed quite well in the GDR. Now they are in danger of
falling into the poverty trap. Even if they manage to find a space in a
kindergarten, it opens at 9am and closes at 2pm. You can’t make a
living working only three or four hours a day."
Reich thinks Ossis miss "a peaceful, congenial lifestyle without
competition, hinging on the family" much more than the welfare system:
during morning and afternoon breaks at work everyone had a chance to
chat. Wolfgang Engler, lecturer in the sociology of culture at a drama
school, explains: "East Germans adjusted very well to a collective
lifestyle including their workplace and the kindergarten. Their ego
could flourish between individual and collective demands, with the
group having to strike a balance at all times." Too much pressure from
the authorities threatened the group. Too much pressure from below
threatened the state. He adds: "The awareness of togetherness nourished
a sense of solidarity."
And security, adds Pascal Thibault, a French journalist working in
Berlin. He believes that because of their history Germans have come to
fear the future. He explains: "For the French the worst is never
certain to happen, for the Germans it’s always a possibility." What
Ossis miss most is the tranquillity of the GDR, described by writer
Volker Braun as the most boring country in the world. But says Enkisat,
it’s a boredom that "the homeless, jobless and temporary workers really
miss". It was a niche society. Everyone, providing they stayed within
limits, could enjoy "a safe, mediocre existence without being bothered
by the system . . . It was easier then to escape the pressures of
bureaucracy than it is now to avoid the pressures of money." Ossis feel
just as powerless as before. Enkisat concludes: "Of course we can make
a fuss, but what’s the point?"
Almost no one referred to the wall and the Stasi. Those most hostile to
the communist regime talked of a second dictatorship, although the
comparison is absurd. (The first dictatorship of the Nazi regime, and
the second world war, killed 60 million people, including several
million genocide victims.) Birthler’s statistics are impressive,
though: drawing on an army of informers (perhaps 2% of the nation), the
Stasi compiled some 40m files whose contents covered half the
population. There were 250,000 political prisoners.
"If you weren’t politically active you never met the Stasi," says Marie
Borkowski, the widow of a dissident who spent many years in prison.
People were exclusively concerned with their own affairs and knew
nothing of what was going on. Kuczynski agrees that it was possible to
spend your whole life without problems, providing you played by the
rules. Brussig agrees: "All you had to do was not attract attention,
not tell jokes against the system." According to Herr: "Telling jokes
about Honecker [Communist party leader for many years] could lead to
serious trouble, but calling your foreman at work a fool was OK.
Nowadays anyone can call [Chancellor] Schröder names, but not their
supervisor, unless they want to get the sack."
Some are amazed anyone hankers after a grey communist past. Birthler
remarks: "Slaves can’t do anything wrong - and not everyone likes
freedom." Brussig theorises: "Many people are afraid of freedom. They
would rather be safe." He adds that the communist regime suited people
"you wouldn’t want to talk to for more than half an hour - emotional
and intellectual primitives". Iris Radisch, a literary critic, praises
Wolfgang Hilbig, the first writer to describe the GDR "as it really was
- dead, cold and grey" (7). The painter Jens Bisky uses the term
Duldungstarre to describe the Ossi mindset. It’s an almost
untranslatable word used by farmers to describe the look of sows who
are paralysed by the pheromones of the hog as they wait to mate (8).
Dazed and seduced, perhaps.
Intellectuals, Hensel says, "wanted to restore democracy in the GDR and
failed". They blame the people. "They have no idea what 35%
unemployment means, wrecked lives and a country gone bust." Engler
thinks the snobs’ scornful attitude to ordinary people is "unbearable.
As if they wanted to make Ossis pay for their own failure in 1990. They
hate the people who didn’t vote them into power, preferring
reunification and the Deutschmark" (9).
The other peoples of liberated eastern Europe were able to keep their
nation states, but not the East Germans. The GDR disappeared and
advocates of reunification did their best to remove all trace of its
existence. "Our country no longer existed and nor did we," says Maxim
Leo. His grandfather blames it on the western legal system: "A third of
Ossis had to leave their homes, re appropriated by someone from the
West. But not a single one of us benefited from this law - not even
Jews dispossessed by the Nazis."
This is grist to the Ostalgic mill. Anja Weinhold was hurt by the
closure of DT64, a popular radio station: "In our village it was the
only link with the outside world.When it stopped I felt like a
foreigner in my own country." Even the Ossis’ favourite chocolate bar,
Raider, was renamed Twix. Vincent Von Wroblewski, a philosopher, says:
"By denying our past, they stole our dignity."
For Michael Gauling, former contributor to the satirical weekly
Eulenspiegel, there is a different Ostalgia for each generation: "Young
people focus on the 1989-90 revolution which failed but left a deep
impression." Gerhard Leo remembers those feverish months, torn between
the advocates of democracy and their slogan, "We are the people" and
those in favour of reunification, who replied "We are one people". The
GDR was awash with democratic process, flyers, meetings and
demonstrations. Some people still say "if only it could have lasted".
But, Leo adds, the Deutschmark prevailed over "the revolution that so
many, including communists, had so long awaited". Kuczynski says many
in the West wanted it too: "The leftists involved in the student
uprisings of the late 1960s were counting on the GDR." When the wall
fell, they thought it marked the start of the revolution. "After
reunification they complained: ’But why did you sacrifice the
alternative society?’ "
Ostalgia does not only concern the past. We talked to students in a
cafe on Rosa Luxemburg Platz. Uwe Lorenz, computer scientist, said: "In
the East the future looks promising for organisations campaigning for
an alternative global market, especially Attac." The new Länder are
more active opponents of Schröder’s attempts to dismantle the welfare
state than their western counterparts. They are also the first to
suffer. In Berlin even Humboldt University, in the East, now has bigger
strikes than the Freie Universität. Luigi Wolf, a student of political
science, is adamant: the anti-war movement is more radical in the GDR.
"The Ossis", explains Lorenz, "can draw on a clearer identity than
people in the West, having experienced a form of socialism. If they
think up another form, everything will change." Schelze interrupts,
saying that they know what kind of socialism they want "having been
subjected to Stalinism . . . My grandfather used to say: ’The GDR isn’t
a socialist state.’ It’s yet to be achieved. We thought it could be
done in 1989 and we are still fighting for it." He is convinced that,
with their experience, Ossis have huge potential. Lorenz rejects any
comparison of Stalinism and capitalism, explaining: "The GDR was a
bureaucratic workers’ state, but it was also more egalitarian."
Weinhold is less optimistic. On the basis of past experience, only 2%
of Ossis think they can exert any influence on politicians. The
communist regime did not listen to them, and its capitalist successor
has turned them into second-class citizens. Ostalgia, she adds, "helps
them to regain confidence", rehabilitating the parts of their past that
deserve to be saved and defended by collective action: "I know what I
feel proud of and want to win back, but also what I don’t want any
more." Lorenz is not so sure: "Another world is possible, but how is it
to be achieved? There are only a few answers to such questions and any
reference to Eastern bloc countries is taboo."
Someone shouted: "We should reconcile the movement of emancipation and
our utopian ideals." Von Wroblewski has no intention of giving up his
socialist ideals "but you have to make it clear what can and can’t be
done". Commenting on the speed with which Ossis have matured, he says:
"History has cheated them so many times they have no illusions left."
Resignation, a complete lack of interest in politics, and xenophobia
are dominant attitudes. And what does he think of the 25% of the
electorate who vote for the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the
rebranded Communist party? He believes that it reflects the social
malaise, rejection of change and longing for the past. Lacking a
plausible alternative, even intellectuals focus all their energy on
careers, trying to find a cosy niche and adapt to the system. If
anything, he suggests, Ostalgia is a "flight from reality for lack of
an alternative".
Engler thinks an alternative is taking shape: "My optimism has grown
out of the present crisis. More and more people are going to refuse to
accept the consequences." He is convinced of the need for radical
social reforms, unthinkable under the present system, and sees the
GDR’s good points as "a utopian possibility based on the satisfaction
of human needs" (10). That is why the memory of 1989-90 is important, a
time when everyone - workers, farmers and intellectual - discussed
everything. As the former cosmonaut Jähn says: "Doesn’t everybody want
a country providing work and justice for all?" He misses its humanism
and dreams "of a society based on social justice, devoted to education
and culture, without any exaltation of violence". He adds: "We are
further away from that goal now than we were." Dieter Borkowski, a
dissident, says, "No one likes to say goodbye to the dreams of their
youth."
Bertolt Brecht wrote in a 1953 poem, Der Radwechsel: "I am sitting
beside the road/ The driver is changing a wheel/ I don’t like where I
am/ I don’t like where I am going/ Why do I watch the changing of the
wheel/ With impatience?"
See also :
Retro fittings, by Benjamin Wuttke,
The museum of GDR daily life, by Peter Linden.
* Peter Linden and Benjamin Wuttke are journalists based in Munich and
Berlin
(1) As in Ost Deutschland. Its citizens are still called Ossis.
(2) Co-founder of New Forum Political Movement in 1989 and member of
parliament until German unification in 1990.
(3) For vehicles filtering right at traffic lights.
(4) Zone kids, a reference to the Soviet zone, as the GDR was often
called.
(5) He was found guilty, without proof, of giving the order to fire on
people trying to escape from the GDR and was sentenced to six and a
half years in prison. He served four, the last two in a day-release
centre. He owes the state€500,000.
(6) Die Rache der Ostdeutschen (The vengeance of East Germans) and Im
Westen was neues? (What’s new in the West?), Parthas, Berlin, 2002 and
2003.
(7) Literaturkritik.de, n° 3, March 2002
(8) Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, 11 March 2004.
(9) The Berlin wall fell in November 1989. In the elections in March
1990 the eastern branch of Kohl’s Christian Democrat party, in favour
of reunification, won an easy majority, defeating the civil rights
activists who advocated a separate, but democratic state. The first
pan-German elections were held in December.
(10) In the East the most highly rated values are order, security,
justice, freedom, solidarity and equality. See Wolfgang Engler, Die
Ostdeutschen als Avantgarde, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 2002.
Translated by Harry Forster
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1997-2004 Le Monde diplomatique
3 ottobre 1990 - 3 ottobre 2004
Quattrordici anni fa la annessione della DDR alla Rep. Fed. Tedesca
1. Quando cade il Muro... (Tonino Bucci, da Liberazione del 7/8/2004)
2. Germany: Ostalgia for the GDR. NO CHANCE TO MOURN ITS PASSING (P.
Linden, D. Vidal, B. Wuttke, Le Monde diplomatique, August 2004)
VEDI ANCHE:
ERICH HONECKER: AUTODIFESA DINANZI AL TRIBUNALE DI BERLINO
http://digilander.libero.it/lajugoslaviavivra/CRJ/DOCS/honeck.html
L'INNO NAZIONALE DELLA DDR:
http://www.olympic.it/anthems/gdr.mid
SEE ALSO, IN ENGLISH:
East Germans display deepening discontent (by Bertrand Benoit)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a49a9e54-f52b-11d8-85e9-00000e2511c8.html
dpa: East Germans say communism is a good idea
http://www.expatica.com/source/
site_article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=10955
=== 1 ===
http://www.liberazione.it/giornale/040807/archdef.asp
Quando cade il Muro...
Quando cade il Muro, Jana Hensel ha soltanto tredici anni e vive a
Lipsia, una della maggiori città dell'allora Ddr, la Germania
orientale. Quasi non c'è il tempo per rendersi conto del precipitare
degli eventi. In men che non si dica un intero mondo crolla. Soltanto
dopo oltre un decennio - e metà della propria vita trascorsa nella
"nuova" Germania - Jana Hensel
realizza di non essere più in grado di ricordare il tempo prima della
Wende, della svolta.
La Germania di oggi si muove tra l'immagine pacificata di un paese
finalmente riunificato, senza più conti in sospeso col passato, e la
ricerca tormentata di un'identità collettiva dalla quale buona parte di
tedeschi sono tuttora esclusi, come stranieri in patria. Come una sorta
di fiume carsico improvvisamente tornato in superficie, è esploso negli
ultimi anni il problema della memoria, della raccolta di ricordi e
testimonianze sulla quotidianità della vita nella Ddr, persi via via
per strada. Ad incarnare questa tendenza non è soltanto quella moda
conosciuta con il neologismo di «ostalgia», che spinge molti tedeschi a
collezionare vecchi simboli e oggetti d'uso quotidiano della Germania
dell'Est. Si tratta, piuttosto, di un fermento più diffuso che ha nella
letteratura e nel cinema i suoi momenti di maggiore espansione e che
pure fatica a valicare i confini tedeschi - se si fa eccezione per il
film "Goodbye Lenin" del regista Wolfgang Becker che ha riscosso
successo anche in altri paesi europei.
Quegli «ultimi giorni della nostra infanzia dei quali, naturalmente,
non sapevo allora che fossero gli ultimi, sono per noi oggi una specie
di porta in un altro tempo che ha il sapore di una fiaba e per il quale
non ci è possibile trovare le parole giuste». Questa frase di Jana
Hensel, tratta dal romanzo Zonenkinder che le è valso, nonostante la
giovanissima età, una notevole popolarità in Germania, mette il dito
sulla piaga. Fare i conti con l'identità tedesca significa anzitutto
affrontare un problema letterario, «trovare le parole giuste» per
descrivere un passato e un'infanzia definitivamente perdute.
«Come tutto il nostro paese aveva desiderato non è rimasto nulla della
nostra infanzia e all'improvviso, quando siamo cresciuti e ci sembra
già troppo tardi, mi rendo conto di tutti i ricordi persi. Ho paura di
conoscere poco il terreno sul quale cammino, di aver guardato raramente
indietro e sempre davanti. Vorrei di nuovo sapere da dove veniamo, così
mi sono
messa alla ricerca dei ricordi smarriti e delle esperienze sconosciute,
anche se temo di non trovare più la strada all'indietro».
Da qui prende corpo un viaggio nella memoria, un sentiero narrativo che
attraversa diversi momenti della quotidianità della Ddr: la scuola, il
rapporto genitori-figli, l'architettura delle città, i trasporti,
l'educazione, l'amore, l'amicizia, lo sport. E tuttavia l'impresa non
ha una chiara marca politica, è piuttosto un flusso di ricordi che si
sottrae alla trappola della censura o del divieto di parlare dell'Est
se non in termini di demolizione. «Quelli dell'Ovest - spiega Hensel in
un'intervista - si fanno sempre forti della domanda "perché raccontate
la Ddr in maniera naif? Perché non prendete posizione?" Non ho più
voglia di difendermi dall'accusa di "ostalgia". La Ddr è stata già
indagata criticamente a tutto campo, messa in scena, persino
musealizzata. Si ha la sensazione che tutti quanti o lavoravano per la
Stasi o attaccavano manifesti. Che sia esistita una
quotidianità reale, concreta: questo dobbiamo raccontare».
E' una quotidianità raccontata senza pudori e celebrazioni, afferrata
in dettagli all'apparenza insignificanti, come quando «dopo il crollo
del Muro scomparirono per primi i quadri di Lenin e Honecker dall'aula
scolastica» e «gran parte dei compagni di classe» si misero in viaggio
con i genitori per «prendersi il soldo del benvenuto», seguiti ben
presto anche dagli insegnanti. Spariscono anche i «sabati», le giornate
di mobilitazione e di lavoro volontario, le raccolte di alimenti per la
rivoluzione sandinista, le manifestazioni di solidarietà per Nelson
Mandela.
Con Jana Hensel, un'intera generazione di autori nati nella Ddr intorno
al 1970 si è resa visibile con un'esplosione di testi di narrativa che
affrontano il rapporto tra est e ovest a partire dalle medesime
categorie esistenziali e biografiche. Julia Schoch, classe 1974,
descrive nei suoi racconti - pubblicati nella raccolta Il corpo della
salamandra - i conflitti interni a una
generazione in cerca di felicità e benessere, che si imbatte però, ogni
volta, nei ricordi dell'ex Ddr.
Jacob Hein, classe 1971, ritorna sulla propria gioventù nel volume di
racconti La mia prima T-Shirt, mentre il romanzo d'esordio di André
Kubiczek (classe 1969) Giovani talenti tratteggia l'orizzonte culturale
dell'ultima fase di vita della Ddr. In tutti domina però una percezione
comune, una crescente disillusione nei confronti delle aspettative che
in tanti, dopo il crollo del Muro, avevano nutrito verso le sirene del
capitalismo occidentale. L'amara scoperta che l'ideologia continua a
dominare incontrastata proprio laddove tutti ne decretano la scomparsa.
Tonino Bucci
=== 2 ===
http://mondediplo.com/2004/08/04ostalgia
Le Monde diplomatique, August 2004
NO CHANCE TO MOURN ITS PASSING
Germany: Ostalgia for the GDR
Germany is now in economic distress; the Socialist-Green coalition in
power is selling off public assets and dismantling the social welfare
system. Unemployment, especially in what was East Germany, is high. No
wonder the Easterners are nostalgic for their protected past.
by Peter Linden and Dominique Vidal and Benjamin Wuttke
GEORGE Tabori recently staged Gotthold Lessing’s The Jews for the
Berliner Ensemble and added a few lines of his own: "Ah, the good old
days - alas, long gone, by the grace of God." Was he thinking of
Ostalgia, the ambivalent nostalgia felt by many former citizens of East
Germany (1)?
Marianne Birthler presides over a mound of paper, old files belonging
to the Stasi, the state security arm of the former German Democratic
Republic (GDR). She says about the Ostalgic movie Good Bye, Lenin!: "I
have happy memories of particular tunes or objects. But I don’t feel
any nostalgia for the GDR." She thinks Ostalgia is a reaction by "those
who think any criticism of socialism undermines their own life
history". Sigmund Jähn, a former cosmonaut who was "president" of East
Germany in Good Bye, Lenin!, sees Ostalgia as "the expression of an
American-style lack of true culture. They [West Germans] focus on
making money . . . leaving East Germans to calm down, stewing in their
own juice."
Professor Jens Reich (2) does not dispute his fellow citizens’
attachment to their past but sees it as "a passing fad exaggerated by
the media". After the fall of the Berlin wall those in favour of
democratic transformation of the GDR, including the Greens, only picked
up 5% of votes. He adds: "The remaining 95%, who wanted an end to
communism, shouted us down." He thinks Ostalgia marks the "deliberate,
collective end of an epoch". The last chance to reform communism had
been wrecked in 1968 when Soviet forces crushed the Prague spring.
The writer Thomas Brussig says the GDR "disappeared without us having a
chance to mourn its passing. Ostalgia is a delayed reaction . . .
Nostalgia is part of human nature. Everyone likes to remember their
youth. The passing of time makes everything rosier." Particularly as
the official line is that there was nothing worth keeping in the GDR
besides the green arrow traffic signal (3). Brigitte Rauschenbach, a
lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin, is convinced that mourning
will never be complete until "former East Germans acknowledge the
ambivalence of their feelings about the regime". In 1945 people felt a
subconscious mixture of love and hate for Hitler. "Ostalgia", she adds,
"is more like unfocused melancholy."
Jana Hensel had a major success with her book Zonenkinder (4), which
she believes helped "to bridge the gap between individual and
collective memories": her fellow citizens at last realised that "their
story was not of marginal interest but a key issue". Whether they
stayed in the East or moved West, each is trying to find traces of the
GDR in songs, food or broadcasts.
Surprisingly Egon Krenz, the last president of the GDR, now out of
prison (5), is dismissive. In his modest home on the Baltic coast he
starts by emphasising the negative side of Ostalgia. Rather than really
testing memories, it is a "caricature . . . making fun of life in the
GDR". Stefan Arndt, the producer of Good Bye, Lenin!, uses the same
term: "People caricature things, saying ’Their cola was awful,’ ’They
never had any bananas’ or ’That ghastly wallpaper’ but there’s no
mention of real life." Krenz acknowledges that there is a good side to
Ostalgia: "People who lived in the East have experienced two types of
society and can compare them." At least 17 million people know there
was more to the GDR than "Trabants or the Stasi . . . Despite all the
things that turned out badly everyone had work, with cheap housing and
a good health service free of charge . . . They miss all those
benefits."
Peter Ensikat, a cabaret artist, sees the trend as a "reaction to what
has happened since the wall came down". People in the East "threw
everything away without thinking . . . All they wanted was to join West
Germany, though they knew nothing about it beyond its ads on
television".
So perhaps the nostalgia is a combination of disappointment with the
present and longing for the past. Wolfgang Herr, a journalist, says:
"The more you get to know capitalism the less inclined you are to
wonder what was wrong with socialism." Cynics will comment that this is
because he used to work for the communist daily Neues Deutschland. But
many Ossis say it wasn’t all so bad then and it’s not that great now.
We spoke to two other journalists, Gerhard Leo, 81, and his grandson
Maxim, 34. Gerhard thinks Ostalgia reflects "the rejection of the new
society by a steadily increasing number of East Germans, who are so
desperate they forget the shortcomings of the GDR." Maxim justifies "a
legitimate desire to defend a lifestyle that has disappeared" but also
refers to "memories of a GDR that never existed". Gerhard thinks that
the socialist principle of secur ity for all should apply in western
society. Maxim disagrees, convinced it came at too high a price in
freedom and efficiency: "Security rhymes with mediocrity. If you deny
people success, you stifle the driving force behind society. If they
achieve prosperity it can be redistributed afterwards."
Christian Schletze, a young member of the IG Metall trade union, is
still looking for the rosy future promised by Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
He says: "The economy in my area was destroyed and with the shortage of
funds the schools, health service and arts centres no longer work
properly." What happened to the €1,250bn invested in the Länder of the
former GDR, where there are now only 6m jobs, compared with 9.7m in
1989? Journalist Renate Marschall remembers how people were convinced
hard work was all that was needed and how hurt they were to discover
the truth. They were told: "We don’t need your skills any more. We have
no use for you." Instead of the promised 30 years of prosperity and
growth they had 10 years of disaster.
Rita Kuczynski has published two collections of interviews with former
Ossis (6). She thinks reunification marked "the beginning of the end
for the welfare state" and sees a similarity between "the present
stagnation of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany in the
1980s". That is why there is no justification for Ostalgia: "Why did 4
million people move out? It went bankrupt."
Irene Dolling, a teacher at Potsdam University, says of women’s rights:
"In the East women went out to work; in the West they stay home and
mind the kids." In the GDR women had to do much of the housework too,
but rising unemployment and the disappearance of many kindergartens has
undermined the relative liberation of work: "In the GDR 86% of all
women worked. Now only 56% do." The birth rate has been halved in 15
years, plummeting to the 1929 level. Stefan Arndt says: "Single mothers
with kids managed quite well in the GDR. Now they are in danger of
falling into the poverty trap. Even if they manage to find a space in a
kindergarten, it opens at 9am and closes at 2pm. You can’t make a
living working only three or four hours a day."
Reich thinks Ossis miss "a peaceful, congenial lifestyle without
competition, hinging on the family" much more than the welfare system:
during morning and afternoon breaks at work everyone had a chance to
chat. Wolfgang Engler, lecturer in the sociology of culture at a drama
school, explains: "East Germans adjusted very well to a collective
lifestyle including their workplace and the kindergarten. Their ego
could flourish between individual and collective demands, with the
group having to strike a balance at all times." Too much pressure from
the authorities threatened the group. Too much pressure from below
threatened the state. He adds: "The awareness of togetherness nourished
a sense of solidarity."
And security, adds Pascal Thibault, a French journalist working in
Berlin. He believes that because of their history Germans have come to
fear the future. He explains: "For the French the worst is never
certain to happen, for the Germans it’s always a possibility." What
Ossis miss most is the tranquillity of the GDR, described by writer
Volker Braun as the most boring country in the world. But says Enkisat,
it’s a boredom that "the homeless, jobless and temporary workers really
miss". It was a niche society. Everyone, providing they stayed within
limits, could enjoy "a safe, mediocre existence without being bothered
by the system . . . It was easier then to escape the pressures of
bureaucracy than it is now to avoid the pressures of money." Ossis feel
just as powerless as before. Enkisat concludes: "Of course we can make
a fuss, but what’s the point?"
Almost no one referred to the wall and the Stasi. Those most hostile to
the communist regime talked of a second dictatorship, although the
comparison is absurd. (The first dictatorship of the Nazi regime, and
the second world war, killed 60 million people, including several
million genocide victims.) Birthler’s statistics are impressive,
though: drawing on an army of informers (perhaps 2% of the nation), the
Stasi compiled some 40m files whose contents covered half the
population. There were 250,000 political prisoners.
"If you weren’t politically active you never met the Stasi," says Marie
Borkowski, the widow of a dissident who spent many years in prison.
People were exclusively concerned with their own affairs and knew
nothing of what was going on. Kuczynski agrees that it was possible to
spend your whole life without problems, providing you played by the
rules. Brussig agrees: "All you had to do was not attract attention,
not tell jokes against the system." According to Herr: "Telling jokes
about Honecker [Communist party leader for many years] could lead to
serious trouble, but calling your foreman at work a fool was OK.
Nowadays anyone can call [Chancellor] Schröder names, but not their
supervisor, unless they want to get the sack."
Some are amazed anyone hankers after a grey communist past. Birthler
remarks: "Slaves can’t do anything wrong - and not everyone likes
freedom." Brussig theorises: "Many people are afraid of freedom. They
would rather be safe." He adds that the communist regime suited people
"you wouldn’t want to talk to for more than half an hour - emotional
and intellectual primitives". Iris Radisch, a literary critic, praises
Wolfgang Hilbig, the first writer to describe the GDR "as it really was
- dead, cold and grey" (7). The painter Jens Bisky uses the term
Duldungstarre to describe the Ossi mindset. It’s an almost
untranslatable word used by farmers to describe the look of sows who
are paralysed by the pheromones of the hog as they wait to mate (8).
Dazed and seduced, perhaps.
Intellectuals, Hensel says, "wanted to restore democracy in the GDR and
failed". They blame the people. "They have no idea what 35%
unemployment means, wrecked lives and a country gone bust." Engler
thinks the snobs’ scornful attitude to ordinary people is "unbearable.
As if they wanted to make Ossis pay for their own failure in 1990. They
hate the people who didn’t vote them into power, preferring
reunification and the Deutschmark" (9).
The other peoples of liberated eastern Europe were able to keep their
nation states, but not the East Germans. The GDR disappeared and
advocates of reunification did their best to remove all trace of its
existence. "Our country no longer existed and nor did we," says Maxim
Leo. His grandfather blames it on the western legal system: "A third of
Ossis had to leave their homes, re appropriated by someone from the
West. But not a single one of us benefited from this law - not even
Jews dispossessed by the Nazis."
This is grist to the Ostalgic mill. Anja Weinhold was hurt by the
closure of DT64, a popular radio station: "In our village it was the
only link with the outside world.When it stopped I felt like a
foreigner in my own country." Even the Ossis’ favourite chocolate bar,
Raider, was renamed Twix. Vincent Von Wroblewski, a philosopher, says:
"By denying our past, they stole our dignity."
For Michael Gauling, former contributor to the satirical weekly
Eulenspiegel, there is a different Ostalgia for each generation: "Young
people focus on the 1989-90 revolution which failed but left a deep
impression." Gerhard Leo remembers those feverish months, torn between
the advocates of democracy and their slogan, "We are the people" and
those in favour of reunification, who replied "We are one people". The
GDR was awash with democratic process, flyers, meetings and
demonstrations. Some people still say "if only it could have lasted".
But, Leo adds, the Deutschmark prevailed over "the revolution that so
many, including communists, had so long awaited". Kuczynski says many
in the West wanted it too: "The leftists involved in the student
uprisings of the late 1960s were counting on the GDR." When the wall
fell, they thought it marked the start of the revolution. "After
reunification they complained: ’But why did you sacrifice the
alternative society?’ "
Ostalgia does not only concern the past. We talked to students in a
cafe on Rosa Luxemburg Platz. Uwe Lorenz, computer scientist, said: "In
the East the future looks promising for organisations campaigning for
an alternative global market, especially Attac." The new Länder are
more active opponents of Schröder’s attempts to dismantle the welfare
state than their western counterparts. They are also the first to
suffer. In Berlin even Humboldt University, in the East, now has bigger
strikes than the Freie Universität. Luigi Wolf, a student of political
science, is adamant: the anti-war movement is more radical in the GDR.
"The Ossis", explains Lorenz, "can draw on a clearer identity than
people in the West, having experienced a form of socialism. If they
think up another form, everything will change." Schelze interrupts,
saying that they know what kind of socialism they want "having been
subjected to Stalinism . . . My grandfather used to say: ’The GDR isn’t
a socialist state.’ It’s yet to be achieved. We thought it could be
done in 1989 and we are still fighting for it." He is convinced that,
with their experience, Ossis have huge potential. Lorenz rejects any
comparison of Stalinism and capitalism, explaining: "The GDR was a
bureaucratic workers’ state, but it was also more egalitarian."
Weinhold is less optimistic. On the basis of past experience, only 2%
of Ossis think they can exert any influence on politicians. The
communist regime did not listen to them, and its capitalist successor
has turned them into second-class citizens. Ostalgia, she adds, "helps
them to regain confidence", rehabilitating the parts of their past that
deserve to be saved and defended by collective action: "I know what I
feel proud of and want to win back, but also what I don’t want any
more." Lorenz is not so sure: "Another world is possible, but how is it
to be achieved? There are only a few answers to such questions and any
reference to Eastern bloc countries is taboo."
Someone shouted: "We should reconcile the movement of emancipation and
our utopian ideals." Von Wroblewski has no intention of giving up his
socialist ideals "but you have to make it clear what can and can’t be
done". Commenting on the speed with which Ossis have matured, he says:
"History has cheated them so many times they have no illusions left."
Resignation, a complete lack of interest in politics, and xenophobia
are dominant attitudes. And what does he think of the 25% of the
electorate who vote for the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the
rebranded Communist party? He believes that it reflects the social
malaise, rejection of change and longing for the past. Lacking a
plausible alternative, even intellectuals focus all their energy on
careers, trying to find a cosy niche and adapt to the system. If
anything, he suggests, Ostalgia is a "flight from reality for lack of
an alternative".
Engler thinks an alternative is taking shape: "My optimism has grown
out of the present crisis. More and more people are going to refuse to
accept the consequences." He is convinced of the need for radical
social reforms, unthinkable under the present system, and sees the
GDR’s good points as "a utopian possibility based on the satisfaction
of human needs" (10). That is why the memory of 1989-90 is important, a
time when everyone - workers, farmers and intellectual - discussed
everything. As the former cosmonaut Jähn says: "Doesn’t everybody want
a country providing work and justice for all?" He misses its humanism
and dreams "of a society based on social justice, devoted to education
and culture, without any exaltation of violence". He adds: "We are
further away from that goal now than we were." Dieter Borkowski, a
dissident, says, "No one likes to say goodbye to the dreams of their
youth."
Bertolt Brecht wrote in a 1953 poem, Der Radwechsel: "I am sitting
beside the road/ The driver is changing a wheel/ I don’t like where I
am/ I don’t like where I am going/ Why do I watch the changing of the
wheel/ With impatience?"
See also :
Retro fittings, by Benjamin Wuttke,
The museum of GDR daily life, by Peter Linden.
* Peter Linden and Benjamin Wuttke are journalists based in Munich and
Berlin
(1) As in Ost Deutschland. Its citizens are still called Ossis.
(2) Co-founder of New Forum Political Movement in 1989 and member of
parliament until German unification in 1990.
(3) For vehicles filtering right at traffic lights.
(4) Zone kids, a reference to the Soviet zone, as the GDR was often
called.
(5) He was found guilty, without proof, of giving the order to fire on
people trying to escape from the GDR and was sentenced to six and a
half years in prison. He served four, the last two in a day-release
centre. He owes the state€500,000.
(6) Die Rache der Ostdeutschen (The vengeance of East Germans) and Im
Westen was neues? (What’s new in the West?), Parthas, Berlin, 2002 and
2003.
(7) Literaturkritik.de, n° 3, March 2002
(8) Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, 11 March 2004.
(9) The Berlin wall fell in November 1989. In the elections in March
1990 the eastern branch of Kohl’s Christian Democrat party, in favour
of reunification, won an easy majority, defeating the civil rights
activists who advocated a separate, but democratic state. The first
pan-German elections were held in December.
(10) In the East the most highly rated values are order, security,
justice, freedom, solidarity and equality. See Wolfgang Engler, Die
Ostdeutschen als Avantgarde, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 2002.
Translated by Harry Forster
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