Socialism in the GDR: Work
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- A look into how the workplace, workers' rights and democracy functioned in the GDR
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Sources:
Books:
Bruni De la Motte and John Green, 'Stasi State or Socialist Paradise', (London, 2015)
Mary Fulbrook, 'The People's State, East German Society from Hitler to Honecker', (New Haven, 2005)
Austin Murphy, 'The Trumph of Evil: The Reality of the USA's Cold War Victory', (Fucecchio, 2000)
Articles:
Dorothee Wierling, ʻWork, Workers, and Politics in the German Democratic Republicʼ, International Labor and Working-Class History, 50 (1996)
Tilmann Siebeneichner, ‘‘Socialist achievements’ and their protection. The Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse and socialist statehood’ Social History, 39:4 p.463
Videos:
'Das Andere Leben: Arbeit und Wirtschaft in der DDR' • DAS ANDERE LEBEN - Ep ...
The DDR is a personal fascination of mine - I love learning all about it and looking at footage of it, and just trying to imagine this important part of history that's really being laid to the side, forgotten about. Germany, after all, spent more time communist than it did fascist. There is, unfortunately, so much misinformation and propaganda about the DDR, where it is portrayed as a literal hell on earth, and anyone nostalgic about a time when they didn't have to worry about work or death, as either brainwashed or forgetful
Aye you speak to the message of this series! There’s so much misinformation and lies out there. I hope this plays a small part in setting the historical record straight :) Good to hear there’s people out there with a passion for the DDR
@@SocialistSwann So many lies! We didn't even learn about the reparations or the generally lower development. And they acted as though Ossis were only nostalgic about prosecco and pickles, and just sort of forgot all their lived experiences, that an anti-communist from a different country and a different time would know better
Hey guys, I grew up in the West and we only hear horrific stories about the DDR and Honecker being a brutal dictator and that's what we learn in school as well. After I moved to China, I can see how the West has demonize China and communism in general. I'm not politically affiliated to any parties but I would like to know the truth. I've never been to the DDR but my sister used to live in West Berlin and when my brother visited her he had to drive through the DDR and the contrast of West and East is day and night. I'm not entirely sold on communism but I do believe in a meritocratic system to elect competent people to run a good socialist system to serves the well being of their citizen.
@@dehua-2730
If you care to learn a bit more about communist theory and practice i recommend reading State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin
@@djuradjuric7161 books are just theories. You can study all your life but reality is very different. I may not be as informed as Mike Pompeo about China, but I live in China and the reality is very different from Mike Pompeo's narrative. A little bit foundation won't hurt.
Wow, a country that was so wonderful that the government had to build walls and fences with armed guards to keep people from leaving.
А почему немцы хотели покинуть восточную Германию? Что их не устраивало? Чем западная Германия была лучше восточной?
@@Koroleva_O_A East Germany was a totalitarian state. This video is a bunch of nonsense. You couldn’t leave the GDR without permission, and a video like this with a pro-capitalist stance created in East Germany would have landed you in jail.
I’m from South America. Socialist efforts here were hampered by severe US interventions... I hope one day socialism flourishes once again, we already saw it with the Pink Tide at the beginning of the century with remarkable leaders such as Chávez or Rafael Correa... they were then revoked and cancelled by the economic elites
Thanks for the comment comrade :) keep up the good fight!
Ah more of blame the USA for your failures. Latin America has an extremely low average IQ and is the most violent continent on the planet. You are to blame for your problems not the USA.
You are insane.
I agree
@@goclunker
Cope harder westoid
I feel that point about having the "freedom" to go places, but no prospect of ever affording it. The only foreign travel I've done was to the US -- from Canada -- for my dad's funeral, after he died of a cocaine overdose. Even that was only because my mom called in a favour from her employer's travel agent, to get cheap flights to and from Salt Lake City.
The notion of freedom in the west is a lie. Freedom for the rich only, whilst we have to make do. I’m sorry to hear about your dad, solidarity
@@SocialistSwann Thanks. I appreciate you.
@@SocialistSwann I forgot to add that my "freedom" was in fact also conditional on the...er, grace, let's call it, of Amerikkka. I have a criminal record, so I had to apply to US Customs for an exemption to be able to cross the border.
Bastards, the fact you had to beg the “land of the free” for that is a disgrace. I’m genuinely disgusted by the capitalist system we live under
Socialist Swann This capitalist system is what allows you to have the modern standard of living you take for granted and allows for hard working, intelligent people to get the salary they deserve. The true reason why the west has a lot of “poor” people is because of rampant financial ineptitude. It not and never has been because of the system, but people’s own stupidity. A single person can live off $5.00 an hour in the US if they are financially and personally responsible.
Im so sick and tired of people railing against “the system” when in reality it’s almost always their own fault.
time to feed the algorithm™
Feeeeeeeed
@@SocialistSwann Bread for the Algorithm! Maybe the hardest worker of us all
I’m amazed so many people tried to escape this socialist/communist paradise. It’s almost as if it wasn’t true.
Maybe because if you didn’t like the government you would get shot
Almost like all the people feeling capitalist hellholes in Africa and South America and coming to the US… only to find out it’s worse there!
It was so awesome that they had to build a massive wall. 😂
No it happened, my father actually witnessed 2 people killed trying to cross (My father is from former East Germany). People did escape, and many disliked living in the GDR, but not everyone did. Most were content. Forcing your citizens to stay and limiting travel rights is what my dad said was the biggest cause. If they allowed people to visit the West, people would not have tried to escape as much. Imprisoning someone if more likely to make them want to leave than not.
Sure, who wouldn't want to wait ten years to buy a car?
As someone living in the ex. DDR, I can definitely say that a lot of people I have talked about how life was back then could almost always agree to the fact, that while Life in the DDR was not as luxurious as in the BRD, people actually cared for each other and the feeling of being together was way more present! Some liked it, some don't but those were the same people who prefer the BRD over the DDR. The only thing I don't like about the DDR is the Stasi and its methods, which would be a very interesting topic for a Video!
Aye I believe that community spirit really stands out, everyone looked out for each other and that’s something that’s really been lost in our age of “individualism” sadly. Thanks for your personal insight :) I’ll certainly be talking about the Stasi, but not for a while. I feel the Stasi is the thing most people know about when it comes to the DDR, it’s really the only thing that gets talked about in English circles anyway. They’re definitely important but I’d like to discuss other topics first to shed more light on wider society if that makes sense?
@@SocialistSwann Yes please! I think the Stasi is talked about so often is because it is the biggest Flaw in the GDR, whithout it, they couldn't say other bad things about the GDR other then the usual missing of Luxury.
I think that this better social infrastructure was at least partially a function of the system being repressive. People helped each other because they didn't trust the government.
There are a lot of things that people in the DDR complained about while it existed, but now it seems they prefer to remember the good parts of it (which certainly existed).
Some examples for the bad things:
* No freedom of speech
* No freedom of travel
* Access to consumer goods was very limited (you could say this is a good thing, but would you really want to wait 10 years for a car?)
* Free childcare had also its downsides; women that worked in shifts often had to give their kids into week-long child care, i.e. babies were torn from their mothers for the whole work week.
@@SocialistSwann No it doesn't make sense because once you realize that people were under constant surveillance by a massive state machinery that employed a significant fraction of the population, talking about "wider society" in a positive way is meaningless.
Could I have gone to the main square in Berlin and protest against the security apparatus? NO. Than that society is a living HELL.
@@LHFX
I’m sure you’re equally horrified by the murderous security-military apparatus of the US.
Although I was still a child when the wall fell, I only have the best memories of the GDR.
I'd rather live in such a construct than to struggle for bare survival as it is now.
i think that’s what most capitalism simps look over. if you have problems in a country it’s better to have your material needs met than be starving on the streets
I wonder why they had to build a wall... Probably to keep all the west germans out, not to stop people fleeing the DDR
Unappreciated in the US, the US owed it's a transcendence to the fact that it was isolated from the wars of Europe and was thus able to get by with a minimal military for decades while it was also able to pour its resources into its infrastructure. OTHO, the Soviets were always plagued with having to pour their resources into their military at the expense of their infrastructure. Ironically, it is now the US that is being dragged down by over-investment into the military while its infrastructure is being neglected. Just take a train trip in the US......
These achievements are especially amazing when you consider that East Germany was so much smaller in geographic area than West Germany and had fewer resources to draw on, something explained by East German resident and US exile Victor Grossman.
For sure! A lot of the GDR’s shortcomings can be explained by looking at the context of US pressure and fewer resources. I often wonder how much more it could have achieved if its circumstances were more favourable
As someone with family from both sides of the wall, this reads like what how the SED publicly aspired to build the system, rather than the system's actual material conditions. Yes, workers were technically free, but in practice, workers groups had little actual power over their workplace, as everything was organized by the party, over which individuals had little power-the voting structure meant that leadership was more or less decided by internal squabbles between SED bigwigs, rather than leadership from below (a good example being when Ulbricht was replaced by Honecker, the latter more or less banished him from the party and from the public, being so petty as to even remove his name from streets). The army was actually conscripted, which makes sense given the proximity to the West, and while the SED claimed descendence from the KPD of the 30s, the practical reality was that half of all KPD members were in fact slaughtered under Stalin (the other half by Hitler, of course) and the Antifa groups that sprouted up in both East and West Germany to remove former Nazis from political office after the war were quickly squashed by their respective sides. I apologize if any of this critique was mentioned in other videos, this is the first I have seen in my feed.
I am sympathetic to Marxism and left leaning but hearing this kind of blind appraisal always makes me instantly question the validity of what is being said. My parents are from the USSR and they have mixed views but mostly positive things to say about socialism but definitely not like this.
@@danielk3919 Yeah, I think we need to do a better job of differentiating between the theory of socialism in the Eastern Bloc versus its practical reality - there are important lessons to be drawn, but not from the theory, only from the actual political reality, and in that respect I think the modern Left needs to understand that Leftist movements sprouting from authoritarian regimes (Tsarist Russia, post-Nazi Germany, Nationalist/imperialized China, etc) are mostly failed programs with little practical implication for us today. Violent revolutionary theory has failed to bring about the expansion of freedom promised by MLism.
@@marcuscornelius3521 Can i ask, where did your family come from, and what are their mixed views on the USSR?
@@vojislavl6665 I was talking specifically about the DDR but generally, my family hated both sides because they saw the Americans and Soviets as escalating a war for which they would be the front line. They came from Berlin and the area around Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. I don't find their critiques especially useful, because obviously it is tainted by personal experiences, which is why much of my understanding comes from books, especially Social POlicy in the Third Reich by Tim Mason (British Marxist historian) and Creating German Communism by Eric Weitz, who I see to be a fairly reputable source, despite his Western background (he did his thesis on socialist politics in the Ruhr valley, for instance).
@@marcuscornelius3521 but can you mention their positive and negative views then of the DDR?
My family came from Yugoslavia, and in the case of my dad, he is very Yugo nostalgic, and quite a communist himself. Yugoslavs had a falling out with Stalin and it is believed that the standard of living and freedom was greater there than in the USSR. Hence why the period is more popular among people who lived during it, than from people in other eastern bloc countries
People vote with their feet.
And vote they did, with their feet!
Thanks so much for this, I'm really enjoying this series. GDR really was a shining example of AES. Kudos comrade.
Thank you! Completely agree, arguably one of the most advanced socialist societies we’ve seen
@yeetus actually existing socialism. Although advanced encryption system is a good idea.
As an Anarcho Communist, I do see the Marxist Leninist way not going far enough, but I can appreciate how well they did with the state. I’ll take Marxist Leninist over Capitalism any day
I can respect that, good to see principled Ancoms out there and we can appreciate each other’s ideological successes :)
Comrade Oblivion Do you have a good link that compares Anarchism to Marxism, perhaps one that doesn’t take one side and trash the other?
pnyc ooh i agree i wanna see that
The state is absolutely necessary until the class conflict has been definitively won and the experience of Anarcho-Communist experiments proves this. The anarchist militias were always crushed by more powerful, more organized states. By contrast, Marxist red armies were able to secure and defend the revolution against capitalist imperialists and fascists. Imagine "Free Ukraine" trying to repel the Nazis without the mass industrialization and organized red army of Stalin. Once capitalist imperialism is wiped of the face of the ENTIRE Earth, we can start talking about the state withering away.
@@gymnopedie4445 That's my understanding of things as well. I don't understand why someone like Noam Chomsky is so anti-Marx.
I traveled to East Germany and East Berlin with my school a couple years back. We were there three days before we went off to see the Sachsenhausen concentration camps. The East-German, and especially old East-German people I spoke to were some of the nicest people I've met, and I've traveled around a lot and spoken to a lot of people. Even if it was flawed in ways, the DDR sure found out how to make people nice :)
i like how you went into detail on how the workplace democracy actually functioned, i've found it difficult to find analysis of how socialist governments actually worked and this really helped me!
I’m glad this video helped :) It’s so easy to dispel the myth of workers having no say in the GDR. We have to discuss the huge range of channels that workers had to express themselves and aim to bring these systems back in the future
I live in East Germany and many of my coworkers also worked under the DDR regime, there was no democratic process at the workplace whatsoever, none of this was put into praxis.
@@lumpenproletarier9584 even stuff like the childcare and universal employment part?
@@alicesenz6374 That's not workplace democracy....
@@timekeeper2538 then what is it?
My family grew up in USSR and I think people tend to have a misconception of life behind the Iron curtain. Living conditions were definitely not the worst in the world, but I think the biggest issue is the coercion that is fundamental in the system - not unlike prison. One was guaranteed housing and work, which is good, with the caveat that work was mandatory and unemployment (parasitism) was punished often with forced labor - The inability to emigrate/opt-out of the system is what breaks its legitimacy in my eyes even more. Say what you will about the small homeless population % in capitalist countries or unemployment, but people at least have the option to be supported by family and friends, as you are fundamentally free and association is based on voluntary interaction. Some people argue that property rights are inherently coercive, but I seriously don't want to go there because that opens up a huge can of worms.
The precarity of work in capitalist countries (the USA especially) makes it such that work is coercive in much the same way, with the main difference being that there is almost nothing guaranteed to you whereas even under the least charitable views of communism there were ostensible benefits to the system of work.
Sure, you can just choose to be unemployed, but the constant downward pressure on wages and lack of social services makes this incredibly difficult as anyone who you could possibly rely on to take care of your needs would experience a significant degree of economic stress doing so, even if they were "wealthy".
The staggering amounts of consumer debt in the USA actually paint a pretty depressing picture, in my opinion. Everything is so expensive and wages are so stagnant that the majority of the population is engaged in a borderline feudal relationship with a class of financiers who contribute literally nothing productive beyond propagating more rent seeking behavior, which is far worse than anything I have heard of in Actually Existing Socialism.
@@xXEvangelXx Capitalism isn’t the problem but rather tax and land use policy. Without going into too much detail in this reply, a broadly Georgist economic framework with a UBI component and residential zoning liberalization would alleviate practically every issue you brought up.
What about breadlines? Not being allowed to travel? Restrictions of press and religion? What about the people shot trying to cross to West Berlin? Why is East Germany to this day far poorer with a far lower standard of living then the west? Why was the Berlin Wall built?
What about the Great Depression or the Irish Potato famine? Those aren’t blamed on capitalism, are they? Hmm idk, maybe there are other factors that contributed to that, not too mention that those restrictions also experienced in the west. Please read more.
What about sanctions from the west? They were allowed to travel to other communist countries, just like how westerm countries didn't allow people to travel to the eastern bloc
What about the black race? What about gun violence? What about prices and working conditions? What about millions and millions of people in the "non-civilized" world killed for the sake of the civilized one?
They revived the country by themself, not being fed by the US then completely depend on the US. They kept the german traditions
"In the west the worker was afraid of the boss"and in the GDR the worker was afraid of Stasi.The boss could fire you,the Stasi locked you up in Hohenshönhausen for ten years.Whats worst?
I worked - for a West German company - most days in East Berlin for many years. - the 1980s. This video puts forward an interesting narrative, but it is naïve in the extreme. There was much that was excellent about East Germany, but at its heart lay the mistaken expectation that the state could - and should - organise life. It couldn't and didn't do all that well when it did. It was not Hell on earth to be there: just different.
I've been trying to find a book that specifically discusses the GDR. As far away from Hitler and the USSR west Germany or the collapse of the Berlin wall but I'm finding it hard. What would you recommend?
I’d strongly recommend “Stasi State or socialist paradise” as general primer about the GDR that aims to tackle the common myths but also recognises it’s clear faults. But if you want something more in depth, Mary Fulbrook’s “the People’s state” is a must :)
Talking about GDR without talking about that other stuff doesn't make much sense. The GDR was occupied by the USSR for 45 years, it was not an independent state.
@@LHFX Obviously all of the eastern block were under the influence of the USSR but every state was different. You cannot ignore the USSR's presence in the GDR but I would like to know more about the state specifically.
@@alexanderlee5669 Sure, just keep in mind that generally speaking sources that completely ignore that context (such as this channel) tend to analyze things from a rosy nationalistic and / or marxist point of view only.
Whenever countries tried to build a story of their own it was either crushed (e.g. Czechoslovakia) or it went batshit crazy (my country of Romania).
@LHFX Actually Albania left the Warsaw Pact with no problem.
Oh yes. I also have fond memories of stove heating in a damp and mouldy flat, of winters where everything tasted and smellt of lignite. The thought of house books, flag ceremonies at school, of reprimands for lack of class consciousness and a sweater being too American makes me really nostalgic. My eyes get wet when I reminisce about military education at school and university. My longing for this lost country becomes unbearable when I think of those fellow East Germans who as political prisoners were sold for hard currency to the West. The socialist work environment with its shortages of staff, raw materials and the abundance of self important party and trade union secretaries is something all my fellow former East Germans will sorely miss. Rigged elections on all levels, the glaring contrast between improvisation on the shop floor and the official over fulfilment of production quotas makes my heart leap. Yes, the GDR was a wonderful experiment, especially if you attended the right party school, thereby staying clear of the mundane aspects of life. Is it wishful thinking on your part, Socialist Swann, or how do you manage to delude your self about the Worker and Peasant State?
I think a main reason for the romanticizing of the GDR and other Stalinist states from many leftists from the anglo-american sphere is the following: Freedom has two dimensions (as hinted in the video as well): One is the economic dimension, the ability to economically afford what you want to do, and a dimension of civil liberty, i.e. the absence of state repression. People from the UK or the US live in very liberal systems where there's plenty of the latter dimension but little "economic freedom" which is why they mainly focus on their economic hardship while underestimating the value of civil liberties - we must have both, there's no either or.
do you have sources that counter the ones he provided on the GDR, or should we just take you at your word?
@@Zomgtforly It is ironic to see the same question asked about our last dictatorship as about the penultimate one: "Do you have sources?" You don't have to dive into the archives. There's a lot of original SED and MFS footage on UA-cam. Try the Keywords 'Walter Ulbricht yeah yeah', 'Kahlschlagplenum', 'Erich Mielke', 'Mauertote', '24:07
HALLE/S.'89-Dokument des Verfalls'.
If that's not good enough, go and visit the historic sites in what used to be the GDR. For the moment I assume you are just an ill informed believer, not a complete ignorant.
@@JRHass-mo2uq The only thing that could fit is 11th Plenum, which from what I found is the "loss of the soul" of the GDR. Nothing you stated seems to contradict the sources in the video, nor did you provide evidence to your own personal statements. eastgermancinema.com/2013/08/24/the-11th-plenum/
@@Zomgtforly people vote with their feet! Which side had to kill those attempting to escape? Why did they have to? These are important questions for critical thinking on the matter
I worked with a woman in western Germany and she told me that in the GDR she worked and once got to work a bit late. From that point on her co-workers shunned her and would not talk with her.
Damn that looks really good. I mean capitalism hasn't been that bad for me but this looks better.
You’re probably white and able bodied then. Give it time…
I would love to see this series become a full length documentary. It's so difficult to find this stuff that's actually pro-socialist
A communist Dan Snow perhaps? I’d strongly recommend watching “Das Andere Leben” here on UA-cam. A 3 part documentary series with English subtitles, interviewing Ossis about their experiences. It’s eye opening
@@SocialistSwann I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!
Or maybe you should not actively search for documentaries that are pro-something? You won't find documentaries, you'll find propaganda.
@@LHFX There's plenty of docs that are pro-imperialist. I've seen a lot of them lol. So I suppose you're right?
@@SkyFoxCode I doubt you'll find many since the word has a negative connotation (always had since before documentaries were invented). So you can't really be pro something that by definition is bad. But I agree, you can find propaganda for anything.
Another informative video, really enjoyed these videos on the GDR so far and look forward to future videos, also congrats on a speedy road to 1k.
Red salute from the Land of the White Rose, God's Own County - always nice to know there are comrades round these parts.
🔴✊
Thank you comrade! I’m blown away by the response and there is Certainly more to come.
Aye, the people’s republic lives in God’s own county! Red salute o7
The funny thing is when the GDR was forcibly Diaband. The combat group of the working class was the first group that they disarmed and demobilized
Funny isn’t it how they knew people were willing to defend socialism and just decide to brush it under the carpet
@@SocialistSwann Exactly same thing with Ethiopia we used to have communal cooperatives that on like the kind of Richard Wolf promotes were built on community needs and we’re very sustainable and then when the socialist government crashed they virtually crushed them. Even though they had no actual role in the regime they would see it as a form of socialism popularized at the community level and they knew that in order to drive neoliberal economic policies and keep their “”competition” They would have to crush these community-based organizations
Just discovered you through comrade Marron. Tankie Tube needs more short-form bits like this; easy to recommend or digest in between tasks on a busy day. Solidarity and thanks, Swann!
Thank you! Aye I can’t focus on longer videos myself so aim to keep these as bite size as possible. Glad it works for you 😁
I own a car that was built in a VEB! My 1988 VEB Sachsenring Trabant P601s is a very, VERY basic car that does exactly what it was built for, cheap but practical transport for the common people. Yes, it's noisy, smokey, rattley, but it's rare in the UK, and fun to drive! I love it. I even have a large GDR national flag too!
Gosh, its such a wonder why people fled such a utopia in droves...
Cope
Doctors and other professionals could step across the border into the BRD and become instant citizens. The incentive was that they got more money for selling their skills in the West. Nevermind that such a policy was directly related to the Cold War or that it had nothing to do with helping others in need.
That's easy: Western consumer goods, lack of free elections and the freedom to travel. Who said it was a utopia?
@@greenknitter Shhhh. We aren't allowed to talk about that, and every single other time it was tried and failed, resulting in the misery of whatever subject population was under it.
@SteppenWolff100 By whom? My fiance was born and raised in the GDR and told me so much about life there, both good and bad and I've read quite a bit about it. He couldn't travel outside the brother East Bloc countries, there were other political parties but had no power, it was a single party state and they simply did not have the variety of Western good available in the BRD that he saw on West German TV.
If Honecker and the SED had allowed reforms there was a chance the GDR could have survived but they were too hard-line and people got fed up waiting for change to happen. The GDR was great in some respects and my guy is proud East German until he dies but it was authoritarian, a surveillance state and human rights were abused.
I've been to the East many times and spoken to his family and friends who also grew up in the GDR. What's your experience with the country and people?
It should not be forgotten that this was a bargain between the DDR citizen and the DDR state - the citizen get a job, food and a roof over their head provided they showed no dissent and did not challenge the SED's right to govern the DDR. Then there was the infamous Stasi and the distrust it engendered as plenty of people in the DDR must have wondered who they could trust and who might be an informer (there were parents who informed on their children and vice versa or husbands/wives who informed on their spouses) and the Stasi could be brutal in its methods of stamping out dissent or thinking differently - witness the decomposition methods or making people think they were going made by moving things around in their homes. The DDR was not the Third Reich. There was no Holocaust. But much the the DDR's economic and political woes stemmed from its fundamental inability to allow dissenting opinions and avoid groupthink.
I enjoy all your videos, well researched and narrated but have to say I love your outros the most. Very powerful!
Thank you! I feel a video has to end on an inspiring and uplifting note. I’m glad that’s working for you!
@@SocialistSwann Oh they're working alright
#gdrdidnothingwrong
Thats not true.
They didn't remain independent.
Workers of the world, Unite!!!
Proletarier aller Länder Vereinigt euch!
пролетарии всех стран соединяйтесь!
This was great. Concise enough and packed with data instead of opinions and speculation. And you cited your sources! I'm a big reader so that's huge for me. Keep up the good work bro. We need it.
Thank you! Aye I’m a history student so got to use the sources, first to show I have a little credibility but also for people to explore the topics themselves!
@@SocialistSwann Yeah man. That added credibility plus options for doing our own research. So clutch. Maybe you can recommend some other things here. I'm having some trouble finding books that cover China's Great Leap Forward and Proletarian Cultural Revolution that actually use dialectical and historical materialism in their analysis (instead of using those movements solely as fodder for capitalist propaganda). Right now I'm reading 'The Other Side of the River' by Edgar Snow. What else do you recommend?
A small country whose achievements were stupendous.
Another great video! In the next one can you please talk about the Jews in the GDR, you know, what with the Holocaust and what not
Thank you! Yes I’ll definitely add that in, hadn’t actually crossed my mind weirdly, but I have read some great sources on it a bit back so I have something to refer to. Cheers for raising it :)
Advise for converting friends into the revolutionary movement? As I now see it, there are three stages of becoming a communist, first is the rejection of capitalism, second is the learning of the revolutionary theory, and third is the endorsement of the revolutionary movement. Currently three of the ones I am in the process of making revolutionaries out of have shown many signs of the rejection of capitalism. A good use of your effort then would if you could recommend literature for me to give and guide them on. Pretty please?
100% agree with that breakdown there of the stages of becoming a revolutionary. As for advice, I’d *strongly* recommend Lenin’s the state and revolution. The first time anyone who is anti capitalist reads that is eye opening. If they’re still weary about Lenin though and have some liberal perceptions of him, I’d suggest Michael Parenti’s black shirts and reds. In fact I’d recommend that anyway. It is a great primer to ML and discussed fascism, the need for socialism and the strange phenomenon of left anti communism. Anyway, I wish you look comrade, fighting the good fight!
If you're truly, truly serious about this you need to
1. Get into a trade
2. Work HARD and win your coworkers respect.
3. Infiltrate the relevant union or start one and work hard for them without question.
4. Join the largest and most active socialist party/organisation you can and show up to the meetings and work hard for them without question.
5. Campaign hard for any socialist or progressive politician that runs in your area
6. Realise that we are starting from scratch and we will never, ever see the workers revolution. Maybe our children will if they carry on our work, but we never will. But doing any or all of these steps is doing 10000x more than shiting your pants on the internet about Biden/Trump every day.
GDR was so beautiful and perfect thousands of people were shot trying to leave it
whether you agree or disagree with former or existing socialism you have to admit it's successes, which you have done so thank you.
Thanks for posting your sources as well.
Robotron has to be the coolest company name ever!
I sometimes cry of what the world has lost
Nah
The DDR was a mixed bag when it comes to workers and socialism. The guarantee of the right to work and the social benefits (healthcare, childcare) made a great difference; specially in terms of liberating East German women. The fact that these co-existed with an organized workers militia was also impressive. The DDR had one of the highest rates of productivity and technological advancement in the Socialist Bloc. The problem with the Publicly Owned Enterprise (Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB) model though was that it did not include a component of workers management. "managed by the State" marginalised the workers from economic decision making and plannning and empowered bureaucratism. Including the viewpoint of workers in the formulation of five year plans was nice but not enough. Had there been an integral element of workers management in the VEB system; then, in 1989-1990 the workers militia would have risen to defend workers control of management over the means of production. The mass movilisation of armed workers taking over the streets to defend worker managed collectivised property would have spiked and trounced the West German / Imperialist sponsored liberal "monday demonstration" movement, like for example; the mass movilisation of the CDR's in Cuba in July 2021 trounced the Miami sponsored liberal counter-revolution protests.
Someone give us back the wonderful GDR ❤
DDR 2 electric boogaloo when??
Just here to say this is some high quality content and thank you (also here for the algorithm)
Thank you! Glad the quality is good, editing ain’t my strong point and I haven’t got a lot of equipment
Disturbing to see all the foreigners in the comments fetishize the GDR. 1982: Due to fixed prices, goods always cost the same and to keep the trade afloat, the state subsized the unrealistic prices.
In the end the state paid 80% of the product costs which ate up the government budget so there was no money for research and development. Source: Winfried Maier - former minister of prices.
The GDR was kept afloat by trade with and loans given to it by West Germany. Now the debt amounted to 25 billion Dmark which realistically couldn't be paid back.
Infrastructure? Dresden had 6000 leaking roofs and 12 roofers. Want a car? Wait 20 years or be party member. Want a telephone? That's 12 years. Want exotic fruits? Be party member or a friend of one. The biggest nono was the Stasi or course. Imagine the Gestapo took off their gloves and turned them inside out revealing a red fabric, that was the Stasi. Torture, terror and complete surveillance often by friends and family who were forced to comply. I know many people from the GDR. One was raised by his grandpa who was a high ranking party member. None of them miss the GDR and hate the SED. Why would one build a wall with mine fields, barbed wire, sentry towers and ditches to keep their population from fleeing if their country was so great?
9:59 that outro was so fucking inspirational, amazing thanks for the creator of this video
we will be back
you should upload to peertube, it's a federated and open social that is a bit more in tune with leftist ideas
What was the Stasi for?
Are you going to make a video about Walter Ulbricht vs honecker?
I'm a newbie to socialism,i'm actually from Vietnam.I doesn't know much but i think my country and the GDR is some of the best example for what a socialist nation should.Most of the other socialist nation falls is because of error in the socialist government system ,it makes the distance between the people and the government further!Also love your content by the way!
Your nation is the best example in my opinion.
You should watch Luna oi
ur videos are excellent, informative, and always leave me feeling hopeful and inspired. thank u for ur work! :)
Thank you! Really means a lot. The importance of learning history is that you should let it shape your future. The GDR Leads the way there :)
>East very good, West evil bad and Capitalist
Thank you, left-wing man. I surely am convinced about everything that you said about a country from which you're not even from and never lived in.
Have you tried a little thing called reading? I’m sure you have no problem talking about WW2 era Britain or other western nations despite not having lived there at that time. Please open your mind.
Im planning to visit Berlin in October, any suggestions to see some East Berlin monuments?
I was supposed to be there now for uni but that obviously got sadly. The west tore down a lot of things to do with the GDR but a few monuments remain. There’s the Marx and Engels statue opposite the Berliner Dom. Alexander platz is nearly unchanged with the Fernsehturm and the world clock. Worth walking down Karl Marx Allee (formerly Stalin Allee) which is in the video thumbnail. The Ernst Thälmann statue is a great one to see and one of the only ones that survived. There’s obviously the remnants of the wall that still stand but other than that, a lot of East German history has been erased. You’ll have a brilliant time though, enjoy yourself :)
@@SocialistSwann Thank you so much! You're video is excellent btw
Anytime! Reminiscing when I was last there now aha! Cheers glad you enjoyed it
The Red Army monument in Treptower Park is also well worth a visit. Built from the marble of the Reichskanzlei. :D
Not bad
But one of the main criticisms towards the GDR is the Stasi ( Staatssicherheit) pretty much the KGB equivalent
Another great video thanks for showing what benefits the workers received in their free time.
Whilst Britain was in despair with general strikes the GDR was prospering with the benefits of socialism. Capitalism chipped away at the GDR now is the time for socialism to chip away at capitalism now is the nest time we’ve had to achieve socialism with imperialism being the weakest it’s ever been In peacetime.
Solidarity everybody join your parties and put the work in to achieve the achievable ✊
Thank you comrade! 100% agree, now is the time to organise, as a class, and work today for a socialist tomorrow
This is an extremely romantic view of the DDR
I definitely trust this young man from somewhere in the north of England..
Have been really looking forward to this. Another great one mate.
Glad it delivered! Cheers mate :)
My father went once to the GDR, Leipzig. He got acquainted to an fellow worker. So the worker pulled him to a private beer garden in fear of his neighbors snitching him out. And he told my father: "These swines..." He went on, how his work day was made of nothing but standing next to his tools. Everyone, who did not conform to this socialist "work ethos" was at risk, having the Stasi next day in their house. Buying a car, that HE built, could take 10 years - at least. So much for your praised anti bureaucracy of the common worker.
Shortly said: the GDR equals a workers paradise.
Up to 15years for a Trabi, not to mention telephones...etc..
The travel restrictions really resonate with me at the moment. I can't even afford the price of a passport right now, much less overseas travel. I make a decent middle class income but the cost of my prescription medication is out of control. Any out of town travel is out of the question. But I have the freedom!
any source or extra info about the strikes in the GDR?
About them being illegal or the strikes that happened anyway? Stasi State pr socialist paradise and Mary Fulbrook’s the People’s state have good sections on it 👍🏻
@@SocialistSwann thanks.
Thank you for the great content from comrades in Tennessee, US.
Fantastic as always! :D Keep them coming comrade!
More on the way! Thank you comrade
this video has been sitting in my recommendations for a while... i'm glad i finally decided to watch! great video :)
Thank you for watching! The algorithm did good today
Question what is the GDR right to work, as in what does it mean and how was it implemented.
Fascinating! As I watch this video, I feel like a child being read to from a book of fairy tales - but true ones! These tales offer hope and vision; they are comforting, inspiring, and cautionary. I've always believed a better world is achievable.
Subscribed! Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words comrade! Let the tales of the past inspire our future
I'm surprised youtube showed me this video, but hey. I have another promising comrade to watch.
The algorithm did good today, for a change!
You forget to mention the gigantic jail the DDR was, how many people spied on each other, got jailed and tortured when they dared to speak their mind, just minir things you know...
Socialism with a strong military and national service is the best way. This new socialism today where pacifists, the sissification of youth, and entitlement is what turns me off. I look at what socialism was back in the 20th century, that's what I wish still existed. The Stasi and intense surveillance and intimidation of its population would have been nice to not have, but over all, the GDR was the best model of Socialism to this day. (Father grew up in East Germany. Used to love his stories)
Such a well made video man, cheers from NY
Thank you! Enjoy finding new footage for the background of these :)
Socialist Swann do you have a go to place to get footage for the GDR or is it just google-fu
Mic Eggers it’s basically just ripping stuff off UA-cam, looking for GDR films, parades, propaganda etc. The most useful was a travel documentary for East Berlin in the 80s
I traveled to East Berlin through check point Charlie a few times, the city was supposed to be the Capital of East Germany, but it was so ran down, most buildings still had massive bullets holes on them, people looked so so sad, they looked at visitors clothes and shoes and cars as if they have never seen anything descent before and the whole city smelt of burnt car oil because of them imitation little cars , absolutely nothing positive about it.apart from the people at the top,the poverty was equally divided among the ordinary people.
Communism never worked, that’s why it collapsed.!!
Yep,.
1:02 as an American, right to work is a very, unfortunately, different idea, then right to work in the Soviet union.
В Советах была обязанность на труд. Каждый гражданин обязан был трудиться, безработные привлекались к уголовной ответственности за тунеядство. Т.е. любой безработный был преступником..
@@Koroleva_O_A is there a possible way you can translate that to English? Not sure what language that is.
@@waspwrap1235 Это русский язык.. А еще сейчас есть возможность пользоваться машинным переводом..
Imagine what we could achieve if everyone would pull on the same rope and not everyone on his own rope trying to screw the other ones over. No! Imagine we would help each other if someone lacks behind and not just going on, on a selfish trip leaving them behind. Imagine how many wars we could prevent if we would work together for a better life. But everything that holds us back lays deep in the History since the Beginning. Greed, and greed is the fuel of Capitalism.
100%, we are stronger together, United as a people!
Thanks comrade
No, thank you!
Socialist Swann definitely one of my new favorite socialist channels ! I love the focus on the DDR it’s criminally underrated !
Native Itzutakua-98 that means a lot cheers mate, just doing my bit :)
Can you make a Video on the new Forum? I believe it had the potential in 1989 to reform the GDR, instead of being annexed by BRD. Love your Videos, best wishes from eastern Germany.
Definitely! I’ll be making a video to round off the series about the fall of the GDR so stay tuned. All the best and thanks for the kind words :)
Why the hell wasn’t the rest of the eastern bloc if the Soviet Union had been like this then chances are they’d be here to this day
Thank you for making videos on the matter. I would like if you could make a channel talking about the dprk. Like I said in another comment I like to hear your opinions because I don’t think that our diffrances needs to lead to hate.
Just discovered this channel, I must say that this is a very interesting concept for a series! I'm Polish myself, so learning more about the Polish people's republic and fellow socialist republics is always very interesting to me, since socialism is extremely vilified here in post-soviet Poland.
Thank you! I’ve had a whole lot of requests to do Poland actually. I personally don’t know a whole lot about socialist Poland, but I would be more than happy to research it and talk about it on the channel. I’ve been to Poland before and I love the country and its rich history!
I was born and raised in the GDR and although it was not the hell some believe it was it also was NOT the paradise that this video suggests it was. For religious people it was especially bad as they were shunned from society. Also people who were party members of the SED were much better of than others, not even to mention the settlement Wandlitz where the leading politicians lived in luxury enjoying all the western products normal citizens couldn't get or afford.
And in the end the economy couldn't keep up with the capitalistic countries so the imense amount of money needed for the social system which was indeed good could not be earned. So far we have yet to see a country in this world who manages socialism without restricting peoples freedom of opinion, religion and movement. If the Berlin wall had never been built the GDR would have lost all of their most intelligent citizens. Were they too stupid to see how great the GDR was? Probably not.
So i think that socialism and communism are not to be implemented with humans. It is just not part of our nature to live like this. Only force can bring us into this and once that is used it does go wrong eventually. Once people have power they tend to abuse it to make their lives better than everyone elses.
This video has a good point. I lived in America all my life I think the schools and society execrate the bad things about East Germany. I think the East German government did more positive things than bad. They did many good things like give people affordable housing, even though its 2022 schools in America are still allowed to physically punish students but in East Germany they got rid of it in schools in the 1970s but in the United Kingdom it was in 1986 under Thatcher much better than America but worse than East Germany, they gave people affordable healthcare, free access to sports related activities, there were many liberal movements like LGBT rights and women's equality, etc. I think they should done somethings better like reunite Germany but let East Germany a automatous region or keep it two countries its like why Sweden and Finland and Estonia and Latvia choose to be different countries. I can see why many people in East Germany think they are treated like second class citizens or they miss East Germany. I still think America is a great country but people need to get another opinion.
I am all for the equal rights of workers, but i am partially for communism and marxism. Long live East Germany.
Personally as a right winger, for me the DDR is the perfect state since it basically fits my views in almost all ways. Well, except for the soviets occupying it. The DDR’s policies would’ve been good in other nations in the modern era and during their time. Excellent video.
Never thought I’d see the day, left and right united under the banner of the DDR!
A right winger saying something based about the DDR. I never thought I would ever see the day.
Welcome for the supscription comrade
Keep up the great work comrade! Another excellent video
Thank you!
Im a socialist shark and made a video about the ddr too, that what you did comrade, is that what i wanted to do, GOOD VIDEO !!!
Ok
good vid, can you make a vid explaining the collapse?
Another great video, comrade! I am very excited to see your next video on equality in the GDR/DDR. These videos hit the most important topics and I believe I speak for everyone in saying that it is very appreciated.
Thank you comrade! Aye I’m trying to talk about the big topics that are so often ignored in histories of the DDR. There’s so many lessons to learn from these about what socialism can look like
Wheres your educational videos of Stasi? Would love to hear EVERYTHING about the DDR.
Long live the GDR!
🇨🇺❤🇩🇪 ☭
excellent video man! Straight to the point
Thank you! No point messing around, want to make these as concise and informative as possible
Thanks, comrade!
No, thank you comrade!
This is a great video. You make such good stuff!
You should make another series like this that covers another Warsaw Pact country.
I’ll look into in the future :) I don’t know too much about the other nations in the Warsaw Pact other than the basics. Why I started with the DDR because it’s my specialist area I suppose. Speaking the language helps too! But yeah, might make a good research project to further my own understanding of socialism
All hail the almighty algorithm.
UA-cam has done good for once!
Was there election of workplace managers and planners?
Unfortunately not and I believe that’s a great error of the GDR and socialist countries in general as it allowed bureaucratisation to occur. But on the other hand there were checks in place to (in theory) lesson their corruption as happened in the USSR in the 30s
@@SocialistSwann Same here. I am for de-centralized planning (since every economist say that it is limited at fulfilling needs) and workplace democracy at co-ops and state firms and no capitalist parties. I would like to inform that most political scientists would not label the DDR (until 1990) since parties cannot oppose the SED and the right to opposition is a necessary characteristic of democracy. I am saying that I label myself as authoritarian. I am interested to talk. What is the film(s) your footage is from?
I’d say the concept of economic planning with computers is an exciting prospect for future socialism. Would really help wipe out the inefficiency of centrally planning by hand. Aye political scientists wouldn’t call the GDR a democracy but I believe that (at least in the early to mid years) the principle of democratic centralism worked well for internal debate and redirecting policy. So officially, no opposition, but inside the parties there was good debate with different opinions allowed. As for the footage, the majority of it is from an East Berlin travel film from the 80s called “Unser Berlin.” The rest of it is parades, speeches and a chunk from a 1950s film about the FDJ
@@SocialistSwann Thank you. I think that my your comment addressing my question regarding lack of workplace democracy should be pinned since you agreed that it was an error but not addressed in the video.
Nice change in the thumbnails.
On a different note, German social democratic UA-camr Three Arrows does like Risen from the Ruins.
I've mostly considered myself an anarchist but as I learn more I'm starting to lean more ML. My only thing is (and do correct me if I'm wrong, I want to learn) is the ultimate end goal still a stateless communist society eventually? It's just that MLs think a state with a vanguard party is a necessary transitionary period to get there whereas anarchists... I can't say I know how anarchists plan to get there, that's kind of why I've started leaning ML. My concern is, what's keeping the state from slipping back into neoliberalism? Don't the leaders, the vanguard or whoever, since they're the ones in power, don't they get to decide when the time is right to move towards true communism? What incentive does a person in power have to give that power up? It would seem to me that the ML states are the ones that actually get into power at all as opposed to the anarchists, but it's only because they replicate the existing power structures and end up returning to neoliberalism while the leaders tell the people it's only pragmatic that they slip further back into a system that just so happens to keep them in power.
Definitely, the end goal of every ML is the abolition of the state. Just as MLs, we believe we need a transitionary workers state, as you said, whilst capitalism still exists in the world and threatens the existence of socialism. It’s almost impossible to build communism whilst under this pressure from imperialism as they’re almost always better armed and have influence over most of the world. But yeah, it’s a very real concern that these states can degenerate and fall. This certainly happened with the USSR and Gorbachev. That’s why there needs to be checks and balances, where workers are involved in politics at every level. We saw this in the Lenin and Stalin era USSR with the Soviet system, and the GDR with its popular democracy. I could recommend some reading if you’d like for ML theory on the state? It’s great to hear you’re an anarchist with an open mind to other tendencies on the left :)
@@SocialistSwann Definitely, that was going to be my follow up question; what are some books you recommend. I've only read Conquest of Bread. And thank you for answering my questions, I'm really trying to learn more about this stuff.
No worries mate, first of all I’d definitely recommend Lenin’s “state and revolution.” Explores the historical role of the state and what a workers state would look like, also the importance of revolutionary politics. It’s written by Lenin so it’s really approachable and actually funny. Everyone remembers the first time they read it! Secondly, Michael Parenti’s “black shirts and reds.” Really easy to read and basically covers everything, fascism, capitalism, socialism and the phenomenon of ‘left anti communism.’ Finally, Stalin’s ‘foundations of Leninism.’ Obviously sounds scary but worth reading, helps to consolidate Leninist theory and his writing style is designed to be read by ordinary people. Reckon that’s the best starting point for you :) if you need anything else I’m always here!
@@SocialistSwann Hey! So I've read Blackshirts and the Reds and State and Revolution and have some more Lenin and some Che books ordered. This stuff has been a real eye opener and I think I can safely say I'm ML now.
Nice one! Can't wait for the next episode.
Thank you! I’ll aim for about 2 weeks :)