Life in GDR?

[dream_labyrinth]

cleverusername2 comment to my last post basically is the reason for this one.
This is going to be completely, utterly biased. It is just my personal view, my experiences. And I don't remember much anyway, so I'm going to fill in with stories my family has told me. The basic topic is life in GDR.
First of all, let me make one thing sure. I am no expert on that. I was born much too late to really see much of it and remember. And my family was not very typical for GDR measures. My Mom's family has a white-collar background, about as white as you can get. My father's parents come from farming families. So while one side of my family was the "good guys" in the "Farmer and Worker State", the other side wasn't. Not at all. Also, my mother's family managed to get into all kinds of situations you shouldn't be in as a good GDR citizen. More of that later, only one more general thing. My family is Christian. Not very popular thing to be in GDR, resistance brewed a lot in the ranks of Christians, especially with the so-called "Junge Gemeinde", the people after confirmation, in their last years of school or in university.
First two little stories about how my mom's family's home almost got searched by the Stasi (kind of the internal secret service) two times. One time was when an organization of university professors, to which my grandfather belonged, was forbidden. They had discussed in their meetings about many topics the government didn't like. For some reason, even though it was no secret organization, the university was too stupid to find out who was a member. So even though my Grandparents were careful to get rid of any incriminating materials (including, to my Mom's grief, the Micky Mouse comics some well-meaning west German relative had smuggled to them), the Stasi didn't come.
The second time was when my uncle had been camping at the Baltic Sea. Friends came one evening, coming from Prague, and telling quite interesting stories about how the Red Army dealt with any kind of expression of the free will of citizens (Of course, it was just some mean capitalist subjects starting the demonstrations...) The two boys were gone the next morning. And all their friends, when they were back home, were asked to an interview with a friendly man from an unnamed agency. Fortunately, my uncle got out of it.
But now to some more recent stories, and starting with some positive things. I really liked living in the GDR. At 6 or 7, you don't display much political interest. And there were a lot of fun things going on. We had the Jungpioniere (kind of like Scouts, but without the scouting). We would meet after school on certain days, if I remember correctly, and sing songs or do some crafts. We had uniforms with white blouses and dark blue skirts (pants for the boys) and blue neckkerchiefs that were tied in a certain way (a way I never grasped). That was fun. It also was a little bit of political indoctrination, but it didn't feel like it. And it was far away from any brain washing, I think.
We got free milk in school, coming from a family with more than three kids. You could play in the streets, and there weren't all these cars that are there now. (Great for kids, but not so great if you wanted to go anywhere.) Things were cheaper in shops than after reunification, and some tasted a lot better, rolls for example. If you never had a banana, you don't miss it. And lets be serious, it is possible to live without bananas.
Living in the GDR as a kid, I didn't realize any bad things. I was too young to see that as the demonstrations in 1989 went on, my parents stopped taking my older siblings with them. They stopped to go both at the same time, as they feared the person who went might not come back.
After reunification, I was confronted with a large number of relatives I had nevr seen before. I didn't know that was because they were not allowed to visit, and my mom was not allowed to go see them. Not even when her aunt had to have serious surgery and it was feared she might not survive. My Mom wanted to go alone for a short visit, leaving her three (at that point she was pregnant with my little brother) kids at home. She wasn't allowed to. My Grandmother was not allowed to go to her mother-in-law's funeral. As a teacher, she couldn't travel to capitalistic foreign countries.
My mother got mark one in all her subjects at school. Even though she had to have an oral exam in Marxism/Leninism as it was feared her political ideas might not agree with that of the govrenment. Which of course they didn't, but she managed to hide that to get her degree. But she wasn't able to study what she wanted. There had been applicants better than her, she was told. That was simply not possible. But hey, who cares. With one sister in West Germany and a father with arguable political views, the only reason she could study at all was a weird contract my Grandfather had with the government, made back when the state was founded and wanted to keep scientist in the country. Basically, for promising they would stay in GDR, the scientists could ask whatever they wanted. My Grandfather wanted all his kids to have the education they were entitled to and able to handle. If it hadn't been for that, my mother would not have been able to study.
When my parents were in school, officials would come and ask the kids questions to find out what TV programmes were watched at the homes. They'd ask whether the clock behind the guy on the news had numbers or just dots, whether it was square or round, how the melody sounded that announced the news.
They didn't do that anymore when I was a kid. That is another reason why I can't really say how it was to live in GDR. I went to a Christian kindergarten, and when I came to school, things were already changing.
Both of my parents have files about them, information gathered about them by the Stasi (that stands for Staatssicherheit - state security, by the way). They never went to look at them, because they don't want to know who reported about them. There are all kinds of stories about family members reporting about each other, and I know that they are true, because a marriage among friends of ours broke up when he found out she had reported every single conversation they had. Including conversations they had in bed.
In Berlin, kids from West Germany could play at the river that formed the border. If they fell into the water and somebody tried to get in to save them, East German soldiers would shoot at them. I don't care what f**king order they followed, this is just plain wrong. No matter what you political ideas are, if you let a kid die you deserve to rot in prison for it.
I know there are many people who say it wasn't all bad in GDR, and who don't like to hear these stories. They say it gives a wrong impression about the state.
I think these stories show what the state really was about. Breeding a bunch of spineless people who'd follow blindly and believe anything the rulers said. (Wait, didn't Germany just had that before?) Fortunately, it didn't work out.
Everytime I see pictures of the demonstrations, of people climbing over the fence into the west German embassy in Hungaria, of people from both sides of Germany sitting on the Wall, I have to cry. I'm not proud of a lot of things I didn't have anything to do with, but I'm proud to belong to this people.
Sorry for becoming all emotional in the end, but this is an emotional topic for me.

Comments

[mimosa-branch.livejournal.com]

i found you on chickbrarian's journal.

your writing interests me.

mind if i add you?

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Not at all, go right ahead. I like to meet new people.

[mimosa-branch.livejournal.com]

awesome. added.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

The Boy Scouts of America are the same way.
I think the Boy Scouts are a pretty good idea. Maybe that early indoctrination did work after all. *gg*
No, seriously, I think the boy scouts are a pretty good way of bringing kids together and teaching them things. Also, the rules they should live by make a lot of sense to me. As I've only had contact with them when living with two of them for over 6 months, I don't think I know much about the downsides of the organization, though.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

When I was in Maine, there was this discussion going on about a guy, I think he was around 18 and just became an Eagle Scout, who publicly stated tto be an atheist. They kicked him out of Boy Scouts and he complained about that, saying that it was discriminating him because of religion (or lack thereof). I don't know what it came to, but I thought that was an interesting problem. Even though, as the BoyScouts define religion as a basic for membership, and are (I think) a private organization, they have the right to kick the kid out.
I even have a pin with the Boy Scout oath on the back, and I know it by heart. I've lived with one adult and an Eagle Scout, I guess that leaves some marks.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

It is a matter of definition, I suppose. "Reverend" can mean just accepting the religious beliefs, or any beliefs, of others, no matter what a person believes himself.
And here's the pin. I didn't scan the backside, where the oath is, because that is written really tiny and wouldn't show up very well.

Wow, fancinating...

[cleverusername2.livejournal.com]

I got all teary when I saw the two Koreas marching in the Olympic Parade of Nations. South wore blue blazers and the few from the North wore red, and a woman from either nation carried their flag. It was glorious. I am sure any german could relate.

Re: Wow, fancinating...

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was quite a sight. I had seen it four years ago, too. But I think what touched me even more was the group from Taiwan. In Sydney, they came in white clothes with no flag at all, at least this time they were allowed to call themselves by a name, even though they still can't come in there saying that they are Taiwan, and display their flag and play their anthem.
This kind of fight against the opression deserves true respect.