| Page 2 of 2 < |
In unified Germany, split over the past
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
For years, Ludwig urged many locals to donate school textbooks, consumer goods, propaganda posters -- anything that could help explain the era to future generations. The museum now has 150,000 items in its collection.
Many Germans in the west accuse easterners of romanticizing communist life and forgetting the oppression, lack of freedom and economic deprivation. But Ludwig said the nostalgia is more a way to draw attention to shortcomings in unified Germany.
"When people say things were better in the GDR, the politicians get angry. They say, 'It can't be, it was a dictatorship,' " Ludwig said. "They don't realize that it's just a critique of their job."
But Klaus Schroeder, a political science professor at the Free University of Berlin, said his research has shown that even east German teenagers born since 1989 hold a sanitized view of life under communism, thanks to their parents and teachers, who gloss over the bad parts.
"It is interesting that many young people in the east want the GDR back, but it is not the real GDR that they want," Schroeder said. "Young people know very little about the real GDR. It is not taught in schools, so they craft their own version with nostalgic, positive aspects."
Growing disillusionment
Overall, east Germans are happier with the end of communism than their neighbors behind the old Iron Curtain, according to a poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center. About 85 percent of east Germans approve of the change to market capitalism, while 82 percent favor the transition to multiparty democracy -- higher marks than in any of the eight other ex-communist countries surveyed.
At the same time, some rosy assumptions have sharply faded.
For example, 97 percent of east Germans in 1991 expected that their standards of living would match those in the west within two decades, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center's forerunner, the Times Mirror Center. Today, however, only 12 percent of east Germans feel that living standards have equalized, the Pew survey found.
Wolfgang Anton, 73, a former school director from Eisenhuettenstadt, said disillusionment took root among many residents in the early 1990s, after the state-owned factories were closed or privatized.
"Many people lost a lot of their sense of self-worth," he said. "Today, those are the people who like to remember all the nice memories from the GDR, all the parades and good things."
Anton recalled how he sat glued to the television set for days in early November 1989, watching the Wall come down. "I get goose bumps every time I think about it," he said. "It was an utterly great day."
So how will he mark the 20th anniversary on Monday? He paused, then admitted he has no plans.
"For me, the anniversary is just not a particularly special day," he said. "It's good we're not in a dictatorship. And yes, I'm very happy to be in freedom. But I don't feel the need to talk about it all the time."
Special correspondent Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.
