I'm African lived in East Germany in the 1970s my country was African cummonist state and my country sent me to East Germany to study it was amazing time
@@GhyuRtyu that's a crazy story man... there was a TV show called 'russian doll' where an african woman studies in east germany in much the same way and finds out her german friends are planning to escape to the west
I remember travelling by train to West Berlin quite a few times in the 1970’s & 80’s. I took trains to Vienna, Hanover & Copenhagen. The rail lines sped past lists of small lakes. There were lots of recreational boats everywhere-more than I saw in West Germany actually. It struck me at the time that, though people had a lower standard of living, many were able to enjoy the recreational activities that having a small boat afforded one.
Regarding social cohesion: that was one of the first things to disappear. I was too young at the time to remember but my older siblings where already 16 and 19 at the time if reunification. They say it was "everyone fend for themselves" basically overnight. It was skin deep and only lasted as long as it was absolutely necessary.
@@mathewkelly9968 was it fault for capitalism or was it fault coz "social cohesion" was built on gains rather than friendship? aka so called cohesion was shallow materlistic one
fascinating comment, thank you for sharing. I suppose there is a deeper human reality of survival that is always present no matter the country or time.
@@MrWick-el4wk well to be fair the population suddenly had to deal with sleazy business practices that were previously unheard of so they had to adapt quickly or be scammed out of their newly acquired Deutschmark. So unfiltered capitalism did play a role in teaching people that you can't trust anyone anymore.
@@MrWick-el4wk this is a good point. It never really insured true equity equality in and putting people in a desperate position, things to go are the things that keep people together out of love, but then it’s out of dire necessity.
I'm too young for a first-hand experience of the GDR but I admire an aspect that was caused by that shortage economy: It made repairs often more viable than replacements and even in the west back then electronic things like stereo amplifiers and TV sets came shipped not just with the manual but already with the schematics, so even if you weren't into repairing these you could just give these and the device to the repair technician, so he/she didn't have to source the specific schematics. And also with other things because not the right parts were available the people got creative to get it back working anyways "Not macht erfinderisch". And that's what I'd like to have these days more, less throwaway mentality because a repair isn't economically viable...
I’m an American who lived in West Berlin before and after the Wall. In 1990 I had the pleasure of working with East German subcontractors at Flughafen Tempelhof. These men were all highly skilled, immensely competent and imminently decent people. In fact I came to view them as the most diligent, conscientious and equanimous men in the Ramp Services department and when it came time for a revamp of the department structure I chose three of these men to act as the Schichtführer of our three shifts and while this caused great consternation and upset among most of the Western employees I never came to regret my choice. All that said, these three men all shared one habit that impressed me as emblematic of East Germans I came to know and that is an eagerness to take their families camping and boating, which they would do at any weekend or vacation when the weather permitted.
Really interesting video. It's good to see a balanced view. When talking about the GDR, most commentators focus mainly on the Berlin Wall, Stasi etc...
the rest of this channel shows problems, there were plenty to choose from. i think he felt the need to contribute to a more balanced information space, which is always good
yeah, in Karl-Marx-Allee you still see plenty of the GDR Aristocracy drinking their sekts and remembering the good old times. But capitals are always like that, quality of life was much better than the average. Like Moscow or else.
We did a bicycle trip through eastern parts of the old GDR two years ago. In our conversations with people we met along the way, we noted a pervasive sense of loss and disappointment in what had happened in the past thirty years. One waitress noted that her daughter had moved to the UK and had no intention of returning to rural Eastern Germany...no opportunities, fewer young people, and no vitality. In Eisenhuttenstadt, the job losses at the steel works have left much of the town abandoned as an architectural museum. It reminded us of some of our encounters in rural areas in the US where globalization and urbanization had taken away the young and ambitious, leaving older people unmoored. We can imagine that memories of the good parts of the old GDR linger as part of this longing.
*When I was staying with a family for a holiday in Saxony in 1972, the local butcher was able to let the mother of the house have some extra meat from under the counter when he heard that she had a visitor from the West.*
Such a complex question, I think you have a great channel. And thank you for introducing me to the book 'Beyond the Wall' by Katja Hoyer. Watching the video had 3 conflicting feelings, on one hand the triumph of the human spirit to carve out a life for yourself no matter the social/political situation. Also the human tragedy of those who sincerely tried to do good and had those good intentions lost in the cruelty, authoritarian rule, corruption. And the tragedy of the post-unification how a whole world, identity, memory was lost overnight and the cruelty of how their lives in the East seems like it was thrown away, that is a blind spot in history I think of how the East was treated post unification. Just from an anthropological view to have a whole world lost is a profound thought that hasn't been explored enough, although very different I wonder if there are parallels to the lost worldview and memory of Native American tribes. Almost like being amputated and losing an arm or a leg psychologically, the trauma of having a part of you that doesn't exist anymore. Thank you for your efforts in making the video and appreciate your sensitive treatment of complex topics. Cheers!
My friend Sebastian grew up in Burg East Germany. His mother had a high-level position in the GDR, she was in charge of the industrial cranes for all construction. Back in the mid 90's I remember my parents telling me how impressive it was that she held that title and position. Now "Dr Basti" is a heart specialist in Germany
Yeah. The fact that pre-school system is now privatised and almost abandoned almost destroyed the family-building in all of East Europe, not only DDR. Here in exUSSR for example also many people worry to have children not because of money (and no amount of direct money injections would persuade them) but because they have nowhere to put children when they are at work. Not everyone has good relationships with grandmas :D
My German Teacher at College was from Niedersachsen. She told us that members of her family and friends moved to the GDR because they favoured that system.
Thank you for this video. I’m from the 80s and the west, and I know many people from ‘former’ Eastern Europe. They are unanimous that their lives were not some sort of awful nightmare. Good education, housing, and healthcare are a very good basis for a happy life, and plenty of people in ‘rich’ and ‘free’ countries can’t achieve those three basics today.
Thank you for your new video, I really like your channel! I'm living now in the Czech Republic, and I'm planning a East - Germany trip in this summer with Dresden - Chemnitz - Suhl - Eisenhüttenstadt - Leipzig - Rostock.
From the one time I visited East Berlin in 1987, what was bad was the cola. Had one for lunch. I thought I was drinking battery acid. I had an encounter with the police and they were surprisingly polite.
Back in 1989 i was 12 when i saw the Berlin wall fall. As a dutch laddy it sparked my interest in East Germany and everything that had to do with it. I couldn't imagine how life there would be. I am still interested in how life was in the GDR
Another superb video. Once again, thank you. Interesting to see how many comments (on *all* this channel's videos) are clearly from those of us who never knew the DDR first hand (or the BRD for that matter) and work from impressions garnered somewhere along the way. A fairly pervasive notion that a country can be known purely from the contemporary media of another country is .... (Ooh, let's be tactful) .... curious. I grew up during the height of the Cold War and the amount we simply were never told, or was outright misrepresented has become ever more evident over many years. Given the current trajectories of several nation states, one wonders at the consistency of viewpoints concerning more than a few aspects of various socio economic matters.
i rleally like your channel and your way of delivering pieced input about a state that sometimes seems to be forgotten or even hidden. not taken seriously in any way - of course also not the terror some people were put into also.
Thanks for talking about this topic! The one point I would disagree with is Ferienlager - for my part I disliked them. For boys they were quite paramilitary as well. If you need some anecdotal insight into the school system (from a kid's point of view - I was 13 when it ended) feel free to contact me, looking forward to your next video
I liked the concept of people living together in "Plattenbauten" (prefabricated buildings) wether they were a worker in construction, a tailor or a doctor. Also that many things were accessable in no time! Like supermarkets, schools or kindergartens. I had all my friends there and it was safe!
@@UCLAfilm01 That's what YOU said...😉 But yes, i have no trust in some "cultures"... luckily I live in a small city in east germany so it's not that bad here!
Been a huge fan of your channel. Perhaps because Im bulgarian and not only was my country socialist until 1989 but also - we were much more influenced by Germany prior to WW2. So in a sense Bulgaria was like the GDR. Here in Bulgaria even to this day I live in Plattenbau and being born in 1990 I very well remember the sensations I had as a kid of the early post-socialist after-taste of society. I even live meters away from a technical highschool (in bulgarian we call them "technikum") which was named after Wilhelm Piek. Socialism had its hypothetical pros. It just had more order and structure, specifically for Bulgaria, or so do some people of the elder generations say - but - and I want to stress this HEAVILY - at a very HEFTY price we keep on paying 34+ years later. Evolution always beats revolution.
Well said. I first visited East Berlin in 1980. I had heard so may stories over the years backed up by relentless western propaganda that the GDR was a truly dreadful place, that I was looking forward to experiencing hell on earth with the luxury of knowing I could easily escape the place. I entered the crossing point eagerly expecting that very hell on earth that I had been promised but instead I found the cleanest city I have ever seen in my life, cleaner even than the then clean West Berlin. At first I was disappointed at being "sold a pup" and then I changed to liking the place. I kept on liking it on subsequent visits over the next few years. There were some anomalies of course - like the pedestrian at the Ampelmann waiting for it to turn green without even a car in sight, not even a parked one or the casual avoidance of eye contact. The latter was noticed by my Irish traveling companion, and, once he informed me, I started checking. It was true. No eye contact. I did, though meet some young East Berliners over several visits, though few spoke English (in contrast to the west) we managed to communicate through my ultra limited German. They were staggered at London rents (early 80s remember) and this was not an exchange rate issue; it was percentage of income. They reckoned about 5% of their income went on rent - for many in London today that would be 50% of their income. On the other hand, we were astonished at how much they were prepared for a pair of branded jeans - far more than in the west. Well, we all need a roof but we don't need big brand jeans. One thing all the young people wanted was to be able to travel to the West. When I asked why they couldn't one said in English ""because they think they think we won't come back". "But" he protested, "we would!" How about this for contrasts. On my first visit my German speaking traveling companion explained to a group of young people that one of the things he liked about East Berlin was the lack of advertising. They, on the other had, wished there was a lot more of it. "Bright lights, big city"? Yes, in my teens I used to envy far-away London with its big neon-lit Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus. There were other anomalies too, such as the trinkets of status. I love motorcycles so I visited the East Berlin MZ shop and got talking to the manager who spoke excellent English. His own 250 (MZ's biggest) as he pointed out, had a front disc brake (Scheibenbremse ), strictly confined to export models only because this fitting had to be bought in from Italy. When I asked him how he had managed to obtain this forbidden luxury, he gave a one word answer "corruption". When I visited the shop the next day, the young woman attendant explained that the manager was out but let me know (in German) that he had an MZ250 with a disc front brake! I still have fond memories of those visits to the GDR. I felt absolutely safe wandering around the clean streets, even if I found some of the functional apartment blocks somewhat, well, block-like. But at least they provided housing at a very affordable price, something that seems beyond an increasing number of western governments today. I believe the system that can establish a truly sustainable future will look, in outline, a little like the GDR (without the Stasi): basics very cheap, including housing and luxuries very expensive. Well done again on a very balanced presentation.
There were things that were more sustainable (lack of resources meant that things had to be durable and repairable), but that whole corruption, oppression (also with the Soviets in mind who could have intervened like in 1968 regarding the Prague Spring), ... People living in East Berlin were privileged when you consider rare goods, though. Not sure whether they wanted to satisfy those seeing the ads on the other side of the wall, or whether they wanted to present a better world to visitors from West Berlin, or whether that was actually for the politicians residing in Berlin. But there were things you only got in the capital (and that's not just the smuggled goods). Also some industrial regions got more bananas and oranges, so maybe it's for multiple reasons.
I enjoy fair documentaries. Unfortunately, whenever there’s a video discussing some of the successful policies of authoritarian regimes, you can always count on the apologists to come out of the woodwork in the comments trying to white wash totalitarian regimes and it’s gross. By 1980 East Germany was crumbling. I don’t know what East Germany you visited. I guess you see what you want to see. While I agree there was less trash on the ground due to the GDR mandating full employment. There were lots of people with nothing to do but pick up trash all day. But it’s strange you didn’t notice all the buildings and landscapes which were dirty and crumbling? How about the horrible pollution in the GDR from the lignite coal and 2 stroke Trabis? Missed that too? I mean don’t take my word for it. All you have to do is UA-cam or Google East Germany and compare the streets back then to the same streets today in the German Federal Republic and see how clean and modern everything is in the capitalist West compared to communist East.
GDR was paradise if you like waving flags. Every organization, union, club, etc. had a flag. East Berlin had a flag store with an incredible variety of different flags. A lot of American GIs passed through Checkpoint Charlie would include a stop there when they visited the east.
Yes, East Germany always claimed to be the most successful of the socialist countries in the East Bloc. The propaganda signs always talked of "Das realexistierende Sozialismus." The accomplishments shown in this video were real. Exotic food was hard to find but some staples were plentiful and, like the apartment rents, kept at very low prices. The breakfast roll or "Brötchen" (Schrippe, Weck, there were many names) was kept at such a low price that some farmers bought them to feed to their pigs. Guaranteed full employment was another very desirable feature of the GDR. As we watch the USA descend into dog-eat-dog capitalism where many are exploited in low paying gig work, many are priced out of rental apartments, the cost of medical care causes many family bankruptcies, and university students graduate with crushing student loan debt, life in the GDR begins to look very desirable indeed. The GDR eventually became just another failed state. I have always wondered whether a few more sophisticated computers could have made the GDR economy a success or at least survive.
No they wouldn't. The same was in Poland. Great industry, a lot of cars, same as in Germany pretty modern computers, chemical plants were quite moden as well. And it all collapsed the moment it was switched to free market economy.
They needed a wall, and to hold the entire population at gunpoint, and to enact a massive surveillance state just to keep the whole thing from falling apart. This video describes a few small reprieves from the misery, and is being exceedingly generous at that. Even these few "positives" of the DDR were overshadowed by the prosperity of the west, despite receiving massive subsidies and favorable trade deals from both West Germany and the USSR. The modest improvements in living standards in the DDR totally collapsed in the 80s once the Soviets cut off the supply of cheap oil that the East Germans were re-exporting to the west.
As a shortwave radio listener in the late 1970s and early '80s, I wrote to many stations, so I'd get on their mailing lists. Consequently, I'd receive one or maybe two mailings from Radio Netherlands, Swiss Radio International or Japan State Radio, whereas I'd get constant mailings from Soviet bloc stations, including the GDR. I read their English language magazine GDR review, which had lots of warm, cheerful features on construction workers, a 9-year-old pianist, and often Erik Honecker stopping by workplaces where smiling employers paid their respects. Oh, and sometimes an article on something bad done by the big bully West Germany. I knew some of the happiness on East German faces I'd see reflected in these articles was genuine. Today, it is clear from hearing testimonials from Germans in the states of the east that it was. After the wall opened, I strongly hoped they'd gradually blend East and West Germany's health care systems, schools, pensions, and let the full employment and price controls of the East be maintained. But Helmut Kohl and the other conservatives in the west were drunk with zeal and they screwed up reuninfication, laying the groundwork for a rise of fascism. :(
I don't understand how women in the BRD could not work. I am just looking at different countries, and whether women are in or out of the workforce kind of depends on economic success. I have listened to those records too when growing up in communism. I think they were sold by sailors and then distributed further from hand to hand. At that time, there was no radio to listen to foreign pop songs. Anyway thank you, merchant marines, for uniting cultures around the world!
In the 70´s and 80´s there was still more of a conservative class society here in the west, a transitional period you might say, that meant families where the husband had a higher position and a good salary didn´t necessarily mean both parents had to work equally. Often wives had part time jobs or reduced working hours which goes into the statistics as more hours of "not work" for females. Wealthier families also had room for the housewife role, which meant a stay-at-home mom and a well paid husband.
@@AlfaGiuliaQV with conservative you "refere to women not working"? I never meet more conservative Germans the than in GDR. Which also can be seen in todays politics. ll blue in the east.
@@galanthuman2157 I mean it in a sense where the division of household work was so that the man was expected to have a full time job and it was still sen as fairly normal for the woman to take care of the household chores alone.
These videos are so interesting. I've become interested in the history of the GDR ever since we watched Das Leben der Anderen in German lessons in high school.
GDR products sold in the UK were well regarded compared to other countries behind the Iron Curtain, especially optical, photographic, and office equipment.
From WC USA, I was in the USAF stationed in Regensburg (West) Germany. One of my fellow Airmen and I had the opportunity to travel to West Berlin. First we had to drive to Frankfurt, and then take a train to West Berlin. As I remember we had to travel by night, maybe so we couldn’t see the East German country side?! West Berlin was modern and full of lights! We had the opportunity to take a tourist ride through East Berlin. No photographs except at Russian memorials or other specific places. As we traveled along these streets we could look down side streets but only briefly and it looked like war damage was still visible! This was in 1962 or 63 as I remember! This was 17 or 18 years after WW 2 ended! So the East Germans may have had “Enough “ but it was no where near what the “West” Germans were allowed to achieve the maximum that they could to rebuild and then move on to building their future!
Fascinating. Quite a lot of positives here at least in relation to normal life. It seems to me that if one kept to a normal, low-key life or was a Party loyalist this was by no means a bad life - perhaps it is surpring that there was so much opposition to the regime. Equally, not surprising that many Ostis seem to regret the passing of the GDR.
5:56 Talking as someone who was born years after the DDR disappeared, and has never even visited Germany, I'm not sure if it's a good thing that one needed "contacts" to get their hands on construction material, and more "contacts" to actually have it delivered. It was probably good for whoever had control over those resources, and not so much for everyone else!
I visited the GDR in 1987. It seemed clean, safe, and well-organised, if rather poor compared to the the West. The public transport was excellent, and very cheap.
I could be on board with many of the programs that made the GDR positive: Universal healthcare to prevent disease, not respond to it. Education for all where students actually learned. Childcare for families with small children. And the summer camps, which I went to here in the US were great. Rent caps would be nice too, especially today. However, the prices should reflect closer to market value, so the Government isn’t completely supporting people.
Sir , i just found your channel and watch many your videos, pretty sure i am addicted to your channel that can satiate my curiousity for GDR, if i many suggest your video for the future, can you talk more about volksmarine? I know you already touch some side about volksmarine in your NVA video, but i and i'm sure many viewers here are very curious about the least talked about navy on the eastern bloc My personal interest about this topic in particular is because my country Indonesia basically buy almost their entire remaining navy in 1994, with the remaining ships being scraped by united Germany at that time, we buy a relatively new fleet at what is basically garage sale price, i know how Indonesian government and public reacted to this, but i wonder how the german public and ex volksmarine reacted to this, the ships are still in Indonesian services btw, their numerous upgrades and refurbishment already make them suitable for this day and age
Imagine if the GDR's leadership accepted Gorbachev's reform program and practiced a genuinely *democratic* socialism. The GDR would've been on much stronger ground during reunification talks and the modern bundesrepublik would've been more social. I think this would've been a better outcome for everybody.
It was too little too late at that point. Like suddenly opening a pressure cooker, it could only accelerate the inevitable. Now if they'd made changes in the 60s or 70s, it may have been a different story. But that would've needed a way more relaxed USSR or at least a well organized cooperation of all the other eastern bloc states.
Sadly that's the opposite of what would've happened, because you just have to look at Russia itself to see how that played out. The sad truth is that the only way to maintain stability and ensure the survival of the state while improving the economic situation was to do what China did and only reform the economy and open the markets to the West, while still keeping the police state and repression machinery intact.
@@sandrinowitschM I agree with you, the reforms were way too sudden and way too late to work. In my opinion Czechoslovaks were on the right path in 60s, but Soviets were too blind at that time and they made a grave mistake of suppresing them.
It would have been, indeed. But the economy of the GDR was so deeply ruined by the late 80`ies that there was nothing left to negotiate, just a final collapse. And all in all, it is saddening that mankind lost an opportunity to build just society. In west it was lost to the altar of money&profit, in the east to idiotic, dogmatic, senile leaderships and stalin(ism) which totally ignored what people wanted. The result is the current jungle rule society; strongest rule and prosper, the ordinary pay and suffer. Together we would be (and should have been) more.
Fantastic and interesting video as always! I would be interested in a bookshelf tour of your recommended books 📚 hopefully available to buy in English too! 😂 👍
Well, the RG28s is the best Rührgerät (hand mixer) I've ever had. Too bad some of the accessories have elastic parts that become hard over time, but the device itself was user serviceable, replacing the coal brushes not a problem at all. Modern devices often cannot be opened without destroying the case. I definitely don't want back the oppressive regime, we fought enough for free elections.
@Ph34rNoB33r there was a film, that I've had the pleasure of watching, Goodbye Lenin, that talks not just about the cultural differences between East and West, but also some of the things only available in the GDR. For example, Spreewald Gherkins, which the Daniel Brühl character tries to find after the fall of the wall and a shop worker says to him (translated into English) "where have you been boy? We have the D-Mark now,"
@@reddykilowatt Those are mostly young people who havent even lived in the GDR but in the broken society that once was the GDR. Turns out socialism only works while its actually active, when no socialism is present, people live a worse life
Getting the education system right was almost compulsory provided most prominent engineers and mangers had left what would be the SBZ in the last months of WWII or right after. Regarding the social system, its funding became increasingly difficult from the early 70s as most plans to fund it thanks to hard currency earned abroad fell through (electronic and optic devices, refined oil from Schwedt, furniture, agriculture). Most bets failed and the economy was ultimately strangled by its dependence on UdSSR crude oil which prices soared hugely by the late 70s (contract prices were set on the average of world prices during the past 5 years).
There was always up and downsides to everything. GDR had the most dense railways system in all of Europe. It was amazing public transport and every little factory had a rail connection. Sounds great? But that system was also in disrepair and (too) expensive to maintain for all the small side tracks that weren't that much used. Just one example. So what is bad, what is good? (Today Germany has only a crippled skeleton left of its former rail system and its still in disrepair and expensive to maintain.)
Isn't it ironic that Germany tried Communism and did it surprisingly well despite being vertually 1/4 a country, having only 3 of Germany's two dozen most important cities and AFTER being devastated by the world's deadliest war? Marx and Engels would've been so proud of the Germans.
As a child growing up in post war London my positive experience of the GDR came from the BBC broadcast of "Das Singende Klingende Baumchen" as part of their tales from Europe series. Transmitted in German but with an English voice over explaining the story. Any government that produced such a film can't be all bad.
"Any government that produced such a film can't be all bad."...except that they kill and torture millions of innocent people (considering the entire soviet bloc). Communist propaganda is very well-made and attractive, but it is a line of shit.
Nearly every town, no matter how small, had a community center that offered activities, weekend films, discos, concerts, etc. Those all closed down after the reunification and left the people in these areas without anywhere to go. Often that social gap was filled by nationalist and populist parties, who offered family picknics and outings to spread their political agenda. Also, if you pursued many sports or sport or hobbies, it was often difficult or impossible to obtain equipment or find facilities unless you joined a canoeing club or a glider club or a photography club: they had access to scarce resources and again provided a sense of belonging in society.
My wife and in laws are from Madagascar. Her father was in education ministry. He travelled to DDR and thought it was so great. I remember the first time Inmet him he asked me about the Marx dialectic. Luckily Inhad read Marx some 35 years earlier so Inhad something to say. Ha. In Madagascar today, it is very very poor but for kids it is great. I imagine it was great in DDR for most people.
From what I remember in Czechoslovakia, the social cohesion was a negative thing to me. To get anything done, you had to know someone who knows someone. If if you didn't, all you could do is to try to beg and bribe. Plus it was a bragging point when you knew someone, making some very shifty people very influential. It was this bragging mentality that eventually drove me away from my country. I remember it as a big shock when I first went to the West and you could just hire someone without knowing them, or go to the office and get things done.
I always understood that the medical system in East Germany was the most advanced in the world. I had hoped that we would get to that point in the United States because the idea of a solid preventative care system is far more cost-effective, but you also have to look at healthcare equity. In the United States history, many people were experimented on, rely to about their health or or disregarded and still disregarded. Many people suffered under the development of medicine, which only benefited a few, and that’s still the case today in many respects. It would be nice if there was a more equitableeducation system, and healthcare system that is that advanced in the United States, but will never see it. People don’t understand these fundamental things that are so critically important for the survival of a civilization.
*This is a great video showcasing the positives from Socialist countries. I would've loved if you do something similar for communist Albania. I was born in 1984 and until the fall of communism in 1992, I din't exactly understood the political or economical implications in our daily life but I can't forget the big social cohesion we had at that time. Everyone was social/ friendly/ interactive and very modest in their daily lives.*
Women in the workforce and daycare ... these are only desirable when both parents need to be working. What woman in her right mind would prefer to be working for an institution and give the rearing of her children to a third party! The low cost housing on the other hand was something very positive and a sign of a good society.
I remember also in my childhood some people saying that under Hitler not all was bad. As a young adolescent from time to time we read the UZ, newspaper of the west german communist party DKP who intended to convince us that AIDS was a problem of capitalism. Women like anybody else had to work not because of having the same rights but because of the lack of workforce there. Returning from work they mostly had to do all the homework alone. Under Adenauer West Germany lived what in a movie they called Die bleiernde Zeit. And yet many were happy having enough money to progress in life and not to think about the crimes Germany committed under Hitler😮 But at least we had relatively free elections and the GDR was a dictatorship that willingly empoisened thousends people by bad environment conditions in the Bitterfeld region. There are places in East Germany where I don't go with my foreign wife. But I also know wonderful people from there, despite of having grown up there...
That is so true I visited East Germany and the life was not bad if you not interested in Politics ? Much better that in my native Poland ? However Poland under communist government had more freedom ? It was easy in Poland to travel to west or to US ? We had access to western music and lots famous artist come to Poland for concert ? I saw Abba in Poland live ? And on tv we had lots western movies and program especially from America !Also in Poland land was privet own ! The most worse in communist Poland was food shortages !
Some fine old 'provinces' like in Thuringia, and Saxony, however basically just a place where the Soviet Russians coralled in what was left of the Eastern Germans, and told them to like it or else.
Another great video. Recommended balanced reading for your viewers would be A Socialist Defector by Victor Grossman, which depicts his life in the GDR after fleeing political persecution in the USA. There are also a number of videos on UA-cam of his various talks on the subject, which he gave a few years ago. Worth looking at.
One thing about women in the workforce: It's always presented as progressive that more women worked in construction in the GDR but women worked there not because they were free to do so but because they were forced to do so.
Whilst the DDR was absolutely trash on almost all counts, we should still analyse and consider the few things they did get right. Still, I wouldn't trade my Sweden for anything.
Great video! Please make one about education in the RDA. I'm tired of seeing the Eastern bloc countries being lambasted as dictatorships, etc. I have always thought that they should have something good, also. "Ostalgia" is not gratuitous.
Mooie video. Twee vraagjes: 1. Over het grote gehalte aan werkende vrouwen. Was dat vanwege emancipatie of noodzakelijk vanwege een te kort aan arbeiders? Daar zit wel een verschil in; 2. Komt er wellicht een video over de Oostduitse optische industrie??? Die was best wel goed. 👍
undoubtedly DDR did enjoy a lot of support both at home and abroad. It would be good if you could do an episode of Socialist, Communist and Socialist Democrat parties in Europe that supported, frequently visited and had frequent connections with the SED dictatorship. I bet there is a lot to tell about Socialists, in France, Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and elsewhere that supported the socialist one-party state.
The DDR enjoyed so much support at home that people were literally dying to get out and as soon as the DDR held their first real elections in the country’s history the people revolted against the regime and voted capitalist parties in to abolish the state entirely.
The Kindergarten and the Technical Schools were years ahead of anything the West had. In Britain today 50/60% of a couples income can go on child care. Opportunity for further education adult advancement health care a credit to the DDR. I’ve said it before in my opinion Brezhnevs stopping of aid and the Old Grey Men in the SED undermined and wrecked any chance the DDR had of success. In Britain today we have sold the country to foreign nationals we own nothing and are reliant on outside influence to life,that’s the fact. America says Jump and our Government says “How High” 😡😡🏴🏴
I just have to ask. How does an English? man come to deal with the subject of the GDR in such detail? It is a very German topic and I think that many young people no longer know that there were once two German states. I probably won't get an answer to my question but again. How did you come to deal with the subject of the GDR in such detail?
Here they come out of the woodwork like clockwork. A video that speaks fairly of some of the more popular programs of authoritarian regimes and the totalitarian apologists come slithering out throwing nuance to the wind and revising history to say “hey, these regimes weren’t so bad after all” 😂
The gods from afar looks kindly upon a gentle master. Compared to the other communist autocracies the Germans were more gentle with their property than their coreligionists.
There were a few good GDR shows and some of the GDR actors would go on to have big careers in the FRG after 1990. The GDR was the only socialist country to have "competition" in its TV/radio from the West, as most GDR citizens watched and listened to FRG tv/radio.
Well, I guess it's an upside, that if you had a neighbour or colleague you didn't like, one anonymous report of him to the state police usually did the trick. Then again, they could do the same to you...
I traveled to Berlin in 1972 as a young long-hair. It was not a political act, I just wanted to see something outside of Coca-Cola Culture.. I didn't see much of the DDR except the train ride in and the visit to checkpoit charlie. I visited again in December of 1989 and joined in on the celebrations. Now, 25 years later I am asking questions about the Cold War's purpose. Why didn't the corporate capitalist system and the communism able to find any common ground. A loss of solidarity was a complaint. Today the US is declining and with a million homeless, it seems like corporate power is cannibalizing us...
I'm African lived in East Germany in the 1970s my country was African cummonist state and my country sent me to East Germany to study it was amazing time
What did you study?
@ionpopescu3167 engineering in karl marx stadt city
@ionpopescu3167
Engineering In karl marx stadt
@@GhyuRtyu that's a crazy story man... there was a TV show called 'russian doll' where an african woman studies in east germany in much the same way and finds out her german friends are planning to escape to the west
I remember travelling by train to West Berlin quite a few times in the 1970’s & 80’s. I took trains to Vienna, Hanover & Copenhagen. The rail lines sped past lists of small lakes. There were lots of recreational boats everywhere-more than I saw in West Germany actually. It struck me at the time that, though people had a lower standard of living, many were able to enjoy the recreational activities that having a small boat afforded one.
East Germany turned Vietnam in to a major coffee producing nation which is impressive.
Regarding social cohesion: that was one of the first things to disappear.
I was too young at the time to remember but my older siblings where already 16 and 19 at the time if reunification.
They say it was "everyone fend for themselves" basically overnight.
It was skin deep and only lasted as long as it was absolutely necessary.
So welcome to Capitalism basically
@@mathewkelly9968 was it fault for capitalism or was it fault coz "social cohesion" was built on gains rather than friendship? aka so called cohesion was shallow materlistic one
fascinating comment, thank you for sharing. I suppose there is a deeper human reality of survival that is always present no matter the country or time.
@@MrWick-el4wk well to be fair the population suddenly had to deal with sleazy business practices that were previously unheard of so they had to adapt quickly or be scammed out of their newly acquired Deutschmark.
So unfiltered capitalism did play a role in teaching people that you can't trust anyone anymore.
@@MrWick-el4wk this is a good point. It never really insured true equity equality in and putting people in a desperate position, things to go are the things that keep people together out of love, but then it’s out of dire necessity.
I'm too young for a first-hand experience of the GDR but I admire an aspect that was caused by that shortage economy: It made repairs often more viable than replacements and even in the west back then electronic things like stereo amplifiers and TV sets came shipped not just with the manual but already with the schematics, so even if you weren't into repairing these you could just give these and the device to the repair technician, so he/she didn't have to source the specific schematics.
And also with other things because not the right parts were available the people got creative to get it back working anyways "Not macht erfinderisch".
And that's what I'd like to have these days more, less throwaway mentality because a repair isn't economically viable...
You have a point there 🤔👍
And very good quality, maybe not the latest technology but robust!
I’m an American who lived in West Berlin before and after the Wall. In 1990 I had the pleasure of working with East German subcontractors at Flughafen Tempelhof. These men were all highly skilled, immensely competent and imminently decent people. In fact I came to view them as the most diligent, conscientious and equanimous men in the Ramp Services department and when it came time for a revamp of the department structure I chose three of these men to act as the Schichtführer of our three shifts and while this caused great consternation and upset among most of the Western employees I never came to regret my choice. All that said, these three men all shared one habit that impressed me as emblematic of East Germans I came to know and that is an eagerness to take their families camping and boating, which they would do at any weekend or vacation when the weather permitted.
I loved this comment and my experience is identical. I treasure my modest, highly-educated, hard-working ‘East German’ colleagues.
Really interesting video. It's good to see a balanced view. When talking about the GDR, most commentators focus mainly on the Berlin Wall, Stasi etc...
the rest of this channel shows problems, there were plenty to choose from. i think he felt the need to contribute to a more balanced information space, which is always good
This channel is fantastic, so well researched, filmed and presented.
Same! I love this channel.
I used to live in East Berlin in 2000-2002. One thing all the former GDR citizens I knew said was "it wasn't all bad".
Ostalgie.
yeah, in Karl-Marx-Allee you still see plenty of the GDR Aristocracy drinking their sekts and remembering the good old times. But capitals are always like that, quality of life was much better than the average. Like Moscow or else.
Just like in the West, even now, not everything is all good. 🤷♀️
@@AlfaGiuliaQV I bet they weren’t nostalgic about the spying by the Stasi and the lack of freedom of speech.
people still say it.
We did a bicycle trip through eastern parts of the old GDR two years ago. In our conversations with people we met along the way, we noted a pervasive sense of loss and disappointment in what had happened in the past thirty years. One waitress noted that her daughter had moved to the UK and had no intention of returning to rural Eastern Germany...no opportunities, fewer young people, and no vitality. In Eisenhuttenstadt, the job losses at the steel works have left much of the town abandoned as an architectural museum. It reminded us of some of our encounters in rural areas in the US where globalization and urbanization had taken away the young and ambitious, leaving older people unmoored. We can imagine that memories of the good parts of the old GDR linger as part of this longing.
Why would anyone we want to live in a rural area anyway. The country side is for the weak and stupid. A place of extraction not to live.
*When I was staying with a family for a holiday in Saxony in 1972, the local butcher was able to let the mother of the house have some extra meat from under the counter when he heard that she had a visitor from the West.*
Such a complex question, I think you have a great channel. And thank you for introducing me to the book 'Beyond the Wall' by Katja Hoyer. Watching the video had 3 conflicting feelings, on one hand the triumph of the human spirit to carve out a life for yourself no matter the social/political situation. Also the human tragedy of those who sincerely tried to do good and had those good intentions lost in the cruelty, authoritarian rule, corruption. And the tragedy of the post-unification how a whole world, identity, memory was lost overnight and the cruelty of how their lives in the East seems like it was thrown away, that is a blind spot in history I think of how the East was treated post unification. Just from an anthropological view to have a whole world lost is a profound thought that hasn't been explored enough, although very different I wonder if there are parallels to the lost worldview and memory of Native American tribes. Almost like being amputated and losing an arm or a leg psychologically, the trauma of having a part of you that doesn't exist anymore. Thank you for your efforts in making the video and appreciate your sensitive treatment of complex topics. Cheers!
My friend Sebastian grew up in Burg East Germany. His mother had a high-level position in the GDR, she was in charge of the industrial cranes for all construction. Back in the mid 90's I remember my parents telling me how impressive it was that she held that title and position. Now "Dr Basti" is a heart specialist in Germany
Yeah. The fact that pre-school system is now privatised and almost abandoned almost destroyed the family-building in all of East Europe, not only DDR. Here in exUSSR for example also many people worry to have children not because of money (and no amount of direct money injections would persuade them) but because they have nowhere to put children when they are at work. Not everyone has good relationships with grandmas :D
The fact that the raising of Children was done by the state and not by the mother, was extremely deadly to family-building in itself.
My German Teacher at College was from Niedersachsen. She told us that members of her family and friends moved to the GDR because they favoured that system.
Thank you for this video. I’m from the 80s and the west, and I know many people from ‘former’ Eastern Europe. They are unanimous that their lives were not some sort of awful nightmare. Good education, housing, and healthcare are a very good basis for a happy life, and plenty of people in ‘rich’ and ‘free’ countries can’t achieve those three basics today.
Thank you for your new video, I really like your channel! I'm living now in the Czech Republic, and I'm planning a East - Germany trip in this summer with Dresden - Chemnitz - Suhl - Eisenhüttenstadt - Leipzig - Rostock.
From the one time I visited East Berlin in 1987, what was bad was the cola. Had one for lunch. I thought I was drinking battery acid.
I had an encounter with the police and they were surprisingly polite.
Thanks for the history lesson 👍
Back in 1989 i was 12 when i saw the Berlin wall fall. As a dutch laddy it sparked my interest in East Germany and everything that had to do with it. I couldn't imagine how life there would be. I am still interested in how life was in the GDR
I've not watched this video yet, but I've watched ALL of your other videos and they're excellent! Felt like it was way past the time to thank you. ♥
I ❤your videos. Fascinating. Great work
Another superb video. Once again, thank you.
Interesting to see how many comments (on *all* this channel's videos) are clearly from those of us who never knew the DDR first hand (or the BRD for that matter) and work from impressions garnered somewhere along the way.
A fairly pervasive notion that a country can be known purely from the contemporary media of another country is .... (Ooh, let's be tactful) .... curious. I grew up during the height of the Cold War and the amount we simply were never told, or was outright misrepresented has become ever more evident over many years.
Given the current trajectories of several nation states, one wonders at the consistency of viewpoints concerning more than a few aspects of various socio economic matters.
i rleally like your channel and your way of delivering pieced input about a state that sometimes seems to be forgotten or even hidden. not taken seriously in any way - of course also not the terror some people were put into also.
Very similar conditions existed in socialist Hungary (I am Hungarian). Even the social cohesion was the same. Now it is absolutely over. :(
As always - wonderful video - thank you very much.
Vielen lieben DANK für dieses Video!
Thanks for talking about this topic! The one point I would disagree with is Ferienlager - for my part I disliked them. For boys they were quite paramilitary as well. If you need some anecdotal insight into the school system (from a kid's point of view - I was 13 when it ended) feel free to contact me, looking forward to your next video
That would be interesting to see more now vs then comparisons.
I liked the concept of people living together in "Plattenbauten" (prefabricated buildings) wether they were a worker in construction, a tailor or a doctor. Also that many things were accessable in no time! Like supermarkets, schools or kindergartens. I had all my friends there and it was safe!
" I had all my friends there and it was safe!"...because there were no migrants.
@@UCLAfilm01 That's what YOU said...😉 But yes, i have no trust in some "cultures"... luckily I live in a small city in east germany so it's not that bad here!
It was safe until the Stasi came knocking.
@@UCLAfilm01Well, we had Vietnamese... and it worked. It's a cultural thing.
Been a huge fan of your channel. Perhaps because Im bulgarian and not only was my country socialist until 1989 but also - we were much more influenced by Germany prior to WW2. So in a sense Bulgaria was like the GDR. Here in Bulgaria even to this day I live in Plattenbau and being born in 1990 I very well remember the sensations I had as a kid of the early post-socialist after-taste of society. I even live meters away from a technical highschool (in bulgarian we call them "technikum") which was named after Wilhelm Piek. Socialism had its hypothetical pros. It just had more order and structure, specifically for Bulgaria, or so do some people of the elder generations say - but - and I want to stress this HEAVILY - at a very HEFTY price we keep on paying 34+ years later. Evolution always beats revolution.
'A still tongue makes a happy life'
Thanks!
Thank you!
Great video!
Well said. I first visited East Berlin in 1980. I had heard so may stories over the years backed up by relentless western propaganda that the GDR was a truly dreadful place, that I was looking forward to experiencing hell on earth with the luxury of knowing I could easily escape the place. I entered the crossing point eagerly expecting that very hell on earth that I had been promised but instead I found the cleanest city I have ever seen in my life, cleaner even than the then clean West Berlin. At first I was disappointed at being "sold a pup" and then I changed to liking the place. I kept on liking it on subsequent visits over the next few years. There were some anomalies of course - like the pedestrian at the Ampelmann waiting for it to turn green without even a car in sight, not even a parked one or the casual avoidance of eye contact. The latter was noticed by my Irish traveling companion, and, once he informed me, I started checking. It was true. No eye contact. I did, though meet some young East Berliners over several visits, though few spoke English (in contrast to the west) we managed to communicate through my ultra limited German. They were staggered at London rents (early 80s remember) and this was not an exchange rate issue; it was percentage of income. They reckoned about 5% of their income went on rent - for many in London today that would be 50% of their income. On the other hand, we were astonished at how much they were prepared for a pair of branded jeans - far more than in the west. Well, we all need a roof but we don't need big brand jeans. One thing all the young people wanted was to be able to travel to the West. When I asked why they couldn't one said in English ""because they think they think we won't come back". "But" he protested, "we would!"
How about this for contrasts. On my first visit my German speaking traveling companion explained to a group of young people that one of the things he liked about East Berlin was the lack of advertising. They, on the other had, wished there was a lot more of it. "Bright lights, big city"? Yes, in my teens I used to envy far-away London with its big neon-lit Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus.
There were other anomalies too, such as the trinkets of status. I love motorcycles so I visited the East Berlin MZ shop and got talking to the manager who spoke excellent English. His own 250 (MZ's biggest) as he pointed out, had a front disc brake (Scheibenbremse ), strictly confined to export models only because this fitting had to be bought in from Italy. When I asked him how he had managed to obtain this forbidden luxury, he gave a one word answer "corruption". When I visited the shop the next day, the young woman attendant explained that the manager was out but let me know (in German) that he had an MZ250 with a disc front brake!
I still have fond memories of those visits to the GDR. I felt absolutely safe wandering around the clean streets, even if I found some of the functional apartment blocks somewhat, well, block-like. But at least they provided housing at a very affordable price, something that seems beyond an increasing number of western governments today.
I believe the system that can establish a truly sustainable future will look, in outline, a little like the GDR (without the Stasi): basics very cheap, including housing and luxuries very expensive.
Well done again on a very balanced presentation.
Fascinating comment. Thank you.
There is still a country for you my friend: Cuba. Or North korea, no advertising whatsoever, and no jeans!
@ Great!
There were things that were more sustainable (lack of resources meant that things had to be durable and repairable), but that whole corruption, oppression (also with the Soviets in mind who could have intervened like in 1968 regarding the Prague Spring), ...
People living in East Berlin were privileged when you consider rare goods, though. Not sure whether they wanted to satisfy those seeing the ads on the other side of the wall, or whether they wanted to present a better world to visitors from West Berlin, or whether that was actually for the politicians residing in Berlin. But there were things you only got in the capital (and that's not just the smuggled goods). Also some industrial regions got more bananas and oranges, so maybe it's for multiple reasons.
I enjoy fair documentaries. Unfortunately, whenever there’s a video discussing some of the successful policies of authoritarian regimes, you can always count on the apologists to come out of the woodwork in the comments trying to white wash totalitarian regimes and it’s gross.
By 1980 East Germany was crumbling. I don’t know what East Germany you visited. I guess you see what you want to see. While I agree there was less trash on the ground due to the GDR mandating full employment. There were lots of people with nothing to do but pick up trash all day. But it’s strange you didn’t notice all the buildings and landscapes which were dirty and crumbling? How about the horrible pollution in the GDR from the lignite coal and 2 stroke Trabis? Missed that too?
I mean don’t take my word for it. All you have to do is UA-cam or Google East Germany and compare the streets back then to the same streets today in the German Federal Republic and see how clean and modern everything is in the capitalist West compared to communist East.
GDR was paradise if you like waving flags. Every organization, union, club, etc. had a flag. East Berlin had a flag store with an incredible variety of different flags. A lot of American GIs passed through Checkpoint Charlie would include a stop there when they visited the east.
Always enjoy your videos.
Yes, East Germany always claimed to be the most successful of the socialist countries in the East Bloc. The propaganda signs always talked of "Das realexistierende Sozialismus." The accomplishments shown in this video were real. Exotic food was hard to find but some staples were plentiful and, like the apartment rents, kept at very low prices. The breakfast roll or "Brötchen" (Schrippe, Weck, there were many names) was kept at such a low price that some farmers bought them to feed to their pigs. Guaranteed full employment was another very desirable feature of the GDR. As we watch the USA descend into dog-eat-dog capitalism where many are exploited in low paying gig work, many are priced out of rental apartments, the cost of medical care causes many family bankruptcies, and university students graduate with crushing student loan debt, life in the GDR begins to look very desirable indeed. The GDR eventually became just another failed state. I have always wondered whether a few more sophisticated computers could have made the GDR economy a success or at least survive.
No they wouldn't. The same was in Poland. Great industry, a lot of cars, same as in Germany pretty modern computers, chemical plants were quite moden as well. And it all collapsed the moment it was switched to free market economy.
They needed a wall, and to hold the entire population at gunpoint, and to enact a massive surveillance state just to keep the whole thing from falling apart. This video describes a few small reprieves from the misery, and is being exceedingly generous at that.
Even these few "positives" of the DDR were overshadowed by the prosperity of the west, despite receiving massive subsidies and favorable trade deals from both West Germany and the USSR. The modest improvements in living standards in the DDR totally collapsed in the 80s once the Soviets cut off the supply of cheap oil that the East Germans were re-exporting to the west.
Are there other countries you can point to other than the United States for examples of failed capitalism?
The cost of controlling the people became too great a burden on the economy.
For some reason, I feel Czechoslovakia was the best of the Eastern bloc countries.
As a shortwave radio listener in the late 1970s and early '80s, I wrote to many stations, so I'd get on their mailing lists. Consequently, I'd receive one or maybe two mailings from Radio Netherlands, Swiss Radio International or Japan State Radio, whereas I'd get constant mailings from Soviet bloc stations, including the GDR. I read their English language magazine GDR review, which had lots of warm, cheerful features on construction workers, a 9-year-old pianist, and often Erik Honecker stopping by workplaces where smiling employers paid their respects. Oh, and sometimes an article on something bad done by the big bully West Germany. I knew some of the happiness on East German faces I'd see reflected in these articles was genuine. Today, it is clear from hearing testimonials from Germans in the states of the east that it was.
After the wall opened, I strongly hoped they'd gradually blend East and West Germany's health care systems, schools, pensions, and let the full employment and price controls of the East be maintained. But Helmut Kohl and the other conservatives in the west were drunk with zeal and they screwed up reuninfication, laying the groundwork for a rise of fascism. :(
Great video, thank you.
I don't understand how women in the BRD could not work. I am just looking at different countries, and whether women are in or out of the workforce kind of depends on economic success. I have listened to those records too when growing up in communism. I think they were sold by sailors and then distributed further from hand to hand. At that time, there was no radio to listen to foreign pop songs. Anyway thank you, merchant marines, for uniting cultures around the world!
what do you mean? rn, it would seem that in countries that are economically successful, women are also a part of the workforce
In the 70´s and 80´s there was still more of a conservative class society here in the west, a transitional period you might say, that meant families where the husband had a higher position and a good salary didn´t necessarily mean both parents had to work equally. Often wives had part time jobs or reduced working hours which goes into the statistics as more hours of "not work" for females. Wealthier families also had room for the housewife role, which meant a stay-at-home mom and a well paid husband.
@@AlfaGiuliaQV with conservative you "refere to women not working"? I never meet more conservative Germans the than in GDR. Which also can be seen in todays politics. ll blue in the east.
@@galanthuman2157 I mean it in a sense where the division of household work was so that the man was expected to have a full time job and it was still sen as fairly normal for the woman to take care of the household chores alone.
@ That is a very limited view of "conservative". But OK
These videos are so interesting. I've become interested in the history of the GDR ever since we watched Das Leben der Anderen in German lessons in high school.
GDR products sold in the UK were well regarded compared to other countries behind the Iron Curtain, especially optical, photographic, and office equipment.
...made with slave labor. IKEA was caught using East German STASI prison labor. They gave a weak apology and threw some money at it.
Interesting as always, many thanks.
From WC USA, I was in the USAF stationed in Regensburg (West) Germany. One of my fellow Airmen and I had the opportunity to travel to West Berlin. First we had to drive to Frankfurt, and then take a train to West Berlin. As I remember we had to travel by night, maybe so we couldn’t see the East German country side?! West Berlin was modern and full of lights! We had the opportunity to take a tourist ride through East Berlin. No photographs except at Russian memorials or other specific places. As we traveled along these streets we could look down side streets but only briefly and it looked like war damage was still visible! This was in 1962 or 63 as I remember! This was 17 or 18 years after WW 2 ended! So the East Germans may have had “Enough “ but it was no where near what the “West” Germans were allowed to achieve the maximum that they could to rebuild and then move on to building their future!
Fascinating. Quite a lot of positives here at least in relation to normal life. It seems to me that if one kept to a normal, low-key life or was a Party loyalist this was by no means a bad life - perhaps it is surpring that there was so much opposition to the regime. Equally, not surprising that many Ostis seem to regret the passing of the GDR.
5:56 Talking as someone who was born years after the DDR disappeared, and has never even visited Germany, I'm not sure if it's a good thing that one needed "contacts" to get their hands on construction material, and more "contacts" to actually have it delivered. It was probably good for whoever had control over those resources, and not so much for everyone else!
I visited the GDR in 1987. It seemed clean, safe, and well-organised, if rather poor compared to the the West. The public transport was excellent, and very cheap.
Public transport prices were frozen at the levels of 1937. In Berlin there were 20 Pfennig and 30 Pfennig tickets for public transport.
The Germans are an clean, law-abiding, orderly people, regardless of the political system. As long as they KEEP Germany GERMAN, ONLY (HINT!).
I could be on board with many of the programs that made the GDR positive: Universal healthcare to prevent disease, not respond to it. Education for all where students actually learned. Childcare for families with small children. And the summer camps, which I went to here in the US were great. Rent caps would be nice too, especially today. However, the prices should reflect closer to market value, so the Government isn’t completely supporting people.
Exactly - good education, housing, and healthcare are three staples that plenty of people in ‘rich’ and ‘free’ countries don’t have today.
Sir , i just found your channel and watch many your videos, pretty sure i am addicted to your channel that can satiate my curiousity for GDR, if i many suggest your video for the future, can you talk more about volksmarine? I know you already touch some side about volksmarine in your NVA video, but i and i'm sure many viewers here are very curious about the least talked about navy on the eastern bloc
My personal interest about this topic in particular is because my country Indonesia basically buy almost their entire remaining navy in 1994, with the remaining ships being scraped by united Germany at that time, we buy a relatively new fleet at what is basically garage sale price, i know how Indonesian government and public reacted to this, but i wonder how the german public and ex volksmarine reacted to this, the ships are still in Indonesian services btw, their numerous upgrades and refurbishment already make them suitable for this day and age
Imagine if the GDR's leadership accepted Gorbachev's reform program and practiced a genuinely *democratic* socialism. The GDR would've been on much stronger ground during reunification talks and the modern bundesrepublik would've been more social. I think this would've been a better outcome for everybody.
It was too little too late at that point. Like suddenly opening a pressure cooker, it could only accelerate the inevitable.
Now if they'd made changes in the 60s or 70s, it may have been a different story. But that would've needed a way more relaxed USSR or at least a well organized cooperation of all the other eastern bloc states.
Sadly that's the opposite of what would've happened, because you just have to look at Russia itself to see how that played out. The sad truth is that the only way to maintain stability and ensure the survival of the state while improving the economic situation was to do what China did and only reform the economy and open the markets to the West, while still keeping the police state and repression machinery intact.
@@sandrinowitschM I agree with you, the reforms were way too sudden and way too late to work. In my opinion Czechoslovaks were on the right path in 60s, but Soviets were too blind at that time and they made a grave mistake of suppresing them.
It would have been, indeed. But the economy of the GDR was so deeply ruined by the late 80`ies that there was nothing left to negotiate, just a final collapse.
And all in all, it is saddening that mankind lost an opportunity to build just society. In west it was lost to the altar of money&profit, in the east to idiotic, dogmatic, senile leaderships and stalin(ism) which totally ignored what people wanted.
The result is the current jungle rule society; strongest rule and prosper, the ordinary pay and suffer. Together we would be (and should have been) more.
There is no such thing as democratic socialism. These terms are opposite.
Fantastic and interesting video as always!
I would be interested in a bookshelf tour of your recommended books 📚 hopefully available to buy in English too! 😂 👍
This explains part of the reason for some in the former GDR to have "Ostalgia", nostalgia for the "good" things from the GDR
Yes which is why so many support the AfD today. Some people just love a regimented life.
Well, the RG28s is the best Rührgerät (hand mixer) I've ever had. Too bad some of the accessories have elastic parts that become hard over time, but the device itself was user serviceable, replacing the coal brushes not a problem at all. Modern devices often cannot be opened without destroying the case.
I definitely don't want back the oppressive regime, we fought enough for free elections.
@Ph34rNoB33r there was a film, that I've had the pleasure of watching, Goodbye Lenin, that talks not just about the cultural differences between East and West, but also some of the things only available in the GDR. For example, Spreewald Gherkins, which the Daniel Brühl character tries to find after the fall of the wall and a shop worker says to him (translated into English) "where have you been boy? We have the D-Mark now,"
In fact these people were happy in the GDR
@@reddykilowatt Those are mostly young people who havent even lived in the GDR but in the broken society that once was the GDR. Turns out socialism only works while its actually active, when no socialism is present, people live a worse life
Sounds better than my life now!😮
Getting the education system right was almost compulsory provided most prominent engineers and mangers had left what would be the SBZ in the last months of WWII or right after. Regarding the social system, its funding became increasingly difficult from the early 70s as most plans to fund it thanks to hard currency earned abroad fell through (electronic and optic devices, refined oil from Schwedt, furniture, agriculture). Most bets failed and the economy was ultimately strangled by its dependence on UdSSR crude oil which prices soared hugely by the late 70s (contract prices were set on the average of world prices during the past 5 years).
Great video. I also heard that many manufactured products, including electronics, were of good quality and lasted ages.
There was always up and downsides to everything. GDR had the most dense railways system in all of Europe. It was amazing public transport and every little factory had a rail connection.
Sounds great?
But that system was also in disrepair and (too) expensive to maintain for all the small side tracks that weren't that much used.
Just one example. So what is bad, what is good?
(Today Germany has only a crippled skeleton left of its former rail system and its still in disrepair and expensive to maintain.)
Very good video! 💯
Isn't it ironic that Germany tried Communism and did it surprisingly well despite being vertually 1/4 a country, having only 3 of Germany's two dozen most important cities and AFTER being devastated by the world's deadliest war? Marx and Engels would've been so proud of the Germans.
As a child growing up in post war London my positive experience of the GDR came from the BBC broadcast of "Das Singende Klingende Baumchen" as part of their tales from Europe series. Transmitted in German but with an English voice over explaining the story. Any government that produced such a film can't be all bad.
"Any government that produced such a film can't be all bad."...except that they kill and torture millions of innocent people (considering the entire soviet bloc). Communist propaganda is very well-made and attractive, but it is a line of shit.
Nearly every town, no matter how small, had a community center that offered activities, weekend films, discos, concerts, etc. Those all closed down after the reunification and left the people in these areas without anywhere to go. Often that social gap was filled by nationalist and populist parties, who offered family picknics and outings to spread their political agenda.
Also, if you pursued many sports or sport or hobbies, it was often difficult or impossible to obtain equipment or find facilities unless you joined a canoeing club or a glider club or a photography club: they had access to scarce resources and again provided a sense of belonging in society.
My wife and in laws are from Madagascar. Her father was in education ministry. He travelled to DDR and thought it was so great. I remember the first time Inmet him he asked me about the Marx dialectic. Luckily Inhad read Marx some 35 years earlier so Inhad something to say. Ha. In Madagascar today, it is very very poor but for kids it is great. I imagine it was great in DDR for most people.
It was great until the Stasi knocked on your door.
Several times I visited relatives in the DDR and recall that wherever I went I saw only Germans.
However, there were "Gastarbeiter" in the GDR too. I hope that could be a future topic. They were mostly Vietnamese and Cubans.
From what I remember in Czechoslovakia, the social cohesion was a negative thing to me. To get anything done, you had to know someone who knows someone. If if you didn't, all you could do is to try to beg and bribe. Plus it was a bragging point when you knew someone, making some very shifty people very influential. It was this bragging mentality that eventually drove me away from my country. I remember it as a big shock when I first went to the West and you could just hire someone without knowing them, or go to the office and get things done.
thank you for video
Dank je Olaf. Altijd weer leerzaam
I always understood that the medical system in East Germany was the most advanced in the world. I had hoped that we would get to that point in the United States because the idea of a solid preventative care system is far more cost-effective, but you also have to look at healthcare equity. In the United States history, many people were experimented on, rely to about their health or or disregarded and still disregarded. Many people suffered under the development of medicine, which only benefited a few, and that’s still the case today in many respects. It would be nice if there was a more equitableeducation system, and healthcare system that is that advanced in the United States, but will never see it. People don’t understand these fundamental things that are so critically important for the survival of a civilization.
It’s important to keep people healthy in order to have them be productive in serving the state their entire lives.
*This is a great video showcasing the positives from Socialist countries. I would've loved if you do something similar for communist Albania. I was born in 1984 and until the fall of communism in 1992, I din't exactly understood the political or economical implications in our daily life but I can't forget the big social cohesion we had at that time. Everyone was social/ friendly/ interactive and very modest in their daily lives.*
Yes modesty is pretty much the norm when there is nothing nice to buy. 😂
Women in the workforce and daycare ... these are only desirable when both parents need to be working. What woman in her right mind would prefer to be working for an institution and give the rearing of her children to a third party! The low cost housing on the other hand was something very positive and a sign of a good society.
Well, plenty of men don’t seem to mind working for an institution and leaving someone else to raise their children. Why shouldn’t women?
I remember also in my childhood some people saying that under Hitler not all was bad. As a young adolescent from time to time we read the UZ, newspaper of the west german communist party DKP who intended to convince us that AIDS was a problem of capitalism. Women like anybody else had to work not because of having the same rights but because of the lack of workforce there. Returning from work they mostly had to do all the homework alone. Under Adenauer West Germany lived what in a movie they called Die bleiernde Zeit. And yet many were happy having enough money to progress in life and not to think about the crimes Germany committed under Hitler😮 But at least we had relatively free elections and the GDR was a dictatorship that willingly empoisened thousends people by bad environment conditions in the Bitterfeld region. There are places in East Germany where I don't go with my foreign wife. But I also know wonderful people from there, despite of having grown up there...
I mean, if I had to choose between Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia, I would take the mad little Austrian all day 😬
That is so true I visited East Germany and the life was not bad if you not interested in Politics ? Much better that in my native Poland ? However Poland under communist government had more freedom ? It was easy in Poland to travel to west or to US ? We had access to western music and lots famous artist come to Poland for concert ? I saw Abba in Poland live ? And on tv we had lots western movies and program especially from America !Also in Poland land was privet own ! The most worse in communist Poland was food shortages !
Some fine old 'provinces' like in Thuringia, and Saxony, however basically just a place where the Soviet Russians coralled in what was left of the Eastern Germans, and told them to like it or else.
Another great video. Recommended balanced reading for your viewers would be A Socialist Defector by Victor Grossman, which depicts his life in the GDR after fleeing political persecution in the USA. There are also a number of videos on UA-cam of his various talks on the subject, which he gave a few years ago. Worth looking at.
I am so grateful for this guy's videos on the DDR.
It sounds like GDR was like Sweden during the same time. (Except Stasi)
Social cohesion was very strong and I think that, exception made of Berlin, this still shapes East Germans political tendencies
We in the West are sold this idea of freedom, but freedom is rarely free and we end up paying more in the end.
Seems like a paradise compared to many western 'democracies'/autocracies/kleptocracies/oligarchies today.
...only because of our millions of sexually violet migrants.
A Dutchy investigating DDR.
Groen links voter?
1:10
That's a clear yes.
Thank you sir
In 1950, did only half of the women work to rebuild the ruins!?? What did the rest of them do?
"-Dein Oma ist ein Siebenschläfer."
One thing about women in the workforce: It's always presented as progressive that more women worked in construction in the GDR but women worked there not because they were free to do so but because they were forced to do so.
How come the west built more if they had less people working???
The GDR was safe until the Stasi came knocking.
Whilst the DDR was absolutely trash on almost all counts, we should still analyse and consider the few things they did get right.
Still, I wouldn't trade my Sweden for anything.
If you had come from living thru the madness of the 3rd Reich, the security of the socialist aspects of the DDR would've seemed quite appealing.
You're right , I hear their surveillance was pretty darn good
Great video! Please make one about education in the RDA. I'm tired of seeing the Eastern bloc countries being lambasted as dictatorships, etc. I have always thought that they should have something good, also. "Ostalgia" is not gratuitous.
Mooie video. Twee vraagjes:
1. Over het grote gehalte aan werkende vrouwen. Was dat vanwege emancipatie of noodzakelijk vanwege een te kort aan arbeiders? Daar zit wel een verschil in;
2. Komt er wellicht een video over de Oostduitse optische industrie??? Die was best wel goed.
👍
The GDR did not have shortages of workforce, they had shortages of workplaces
Next make one about how it wasn't so bad under the third right
Communists also had women in the army (look at WWII f.i.) while in the west that was a big no-no.
Why did the East German army keep their tradition parade
Thank you for being neutral.
undoubtedly DDR did enjoy a lot of support both at home and abroad. It would be good if you could do an episode of Socialist, Communist and Socialist Democrat parties in Europe that supported, frequently visited and had frequent connections with the SED dictatorship. I bet there is a lot to tell about Socialists, in France, Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and elsewhere that supported the socialist one-party state.
The DDR enjoyed so much support at home that people were literally dying to get out and as soon as the DDR held their first real elections in the country’s history the people revolted against the regime and voted capitalist parties in to abolish the state entirely.
The Kindergarten and the Technical Schools were years ahead of anything the West had. In Britain today 50/60% of a couples income can go on child care. Opportunity for further education adult advancement health care a credit to the DDR. I’ve said it before in my opinion Brezhnevs stopping of aid and the Old Grey Men in the SED undermined and wrecked any chance the DDR had of success. In Britain today we have sold the country to foreign nationals we own nothing and are reliant on outside influence to life,that’s the fact. America says Jump and our Government says “How High” 😡😡🏴🏴
Another banger! Well done
I just have to ask. How does an English? man come to deal with the subject of the GDR in such detail? It is a very German topic and I think that many young people no longer know that there were once two German states. I probably won't get an answer to my question but again. How did you come to deal with the subject of the GDR in such detail?
This man speaks with a German accent to my native-English ears. His English is excellent, but I guess he grew up in DDR.
Seriously, the GDR really wasn’t that bad. The ones who talk the worst about it, are the ones that have never lived in the GDR
Here they come out of the woodwork like clockwork. A video that speaks fairly of some of the more popular programs of authoritarian regimes and the totalitarian apologists come slithering out throwing nuance to the wind and revising history to say “hey, these regimes weren’t so bad after all” 😂
The gods from afar looks kindly upon a gentle master. Compared to the other communist autocracies the Germans were more gentle with their property than their coreligionists.
I’d be interested to know about East German cinema and TV. Was there a spy genre in films like the West had? Was there a DDR sitcom? Etc
There were a few good GDR shows and some of the GDR actors would go on to have big careers in the FRG after 1990. The GDR was the only socialist country to have "competition" in its TV/radio from the West, as most GDR citizens watched and listened to FRG tv/radio.
Well, I guess it's an upside, that if you had a neighbour or colleague you didn't like, one anonymous report of him to the state police usually did the trick. Then again, they could do the same to you...
I traveled to Berlin in 1972 as a young long-hair. It was not a political act, I just wanted to see something outside of Coca-Cola Culture.. I didn't see much of the DDR except the train ride in and the visit to checkpoit charlie. I visited again in December of 1989 and joined in on the celebrations.
Now, 25 years later I am asking questions about the Cold War's purpose. Why didn't the corporate capitalist system and the communism able to find any common ground. A loss of solidarity was a complaint. Today the US is declining and with a million homeless, it seems like corporate power is cannibalizing us...
we are being exterminated by genocidal, third world immigration. That's actually worse than communism.