Even 22 years after the reunification of Germany, there are still significant differences between the eastern and western parts of the unified country. "Ossi" (as the population of the former GDR is called here) and "Vessi" (inhabitants of the western part) in many respects perceive each other as strangers and compose fables about each other. True, there is a theme that unites them.
On the anniversary of German unity, celebrated on October 3, the German tabloid Bild published the results of the survey. Strikingly, those who grew up in East Germany are often more open to the West than West Germans to the East, journalists from Bild begin their article. The survey, which was conducted from September 28 to October 1, 2012, involved 1005 citizens of East and West Germany.
One in five West Germans (21 percent) has never been to East Germany. Only 9 percent of East Germans have never been to the West. 67% of West Germans could marry people from the former GDR. Against - 17 percent. Among the East Germans surveyed, 78 percent could enter into such marriages, 11 percent refused. Three-quarters of all Germans (74 percent) see the reason in the "difference in mentality" between the population of the old and new (ie the former GDR) federal states, highlighting certain qualities inherent in the "Ossi" and "Wessi".
Thirty-six per cent of all respondents consider “money orientation” as a typical West German quality, and 17 per cent as a typical characteristic of East Germans. "Arrogance", judging by the survey, is more characteristic of West Germans, at least 23 percent of respondents believe so, and only 17 percent called such behavior typical of residents of the eastern regions.
On the other hand, Eastern Germans are most often called eternally grumbling and "dissatisfied" (37 percent of all respondents). And only 17 percent are sure that this character trait is inherent in their western neighbors. What is there to say! "Dependence on superiors," according to 29 percent of respondents, is more characteristic of the inhabitants of the former GDR than the Germans of the western lands (12 percent). And further, in full accordance with the cliché: "envy" is an indispensable quality of the "ossi". 30 percent of those polled are sure of this, and only 13 percent think that West Germans also have it.
As for problems contemporary politics, then on this issue there seems to be practically no disagreement between East and West Germans. 64 percent of respondents, both in the East and in the West, are indifferent to federal president Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Recall that both politicians who have reached the highest state posts come from East Germany. Nearly one-third of the Ossies (36 percent) and almost as many of the Wessies (37 percent) said they believe the ex-GDR Stasi's security service "still continues to influence society." The opposite point of view is also held by an almost equal number of East and West Germans surveyed. For some reason, "Bild" did not provide exact data on this matter.
In the very first comment, one of the bloggers rhetorically asks: "What about the difference in mentality between the inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria?" The irony is quite appropriate, since there is also a difference between Bavaria lying in the south and the northern lands of Schleswig-Holstein. The Bavarians even have their own special dialect German language- Bairisch, which is the most distant from the literary German language (the so-called Standarddeutsch or Hochdeutsch). There are other differences in lifestyle, dislike for the "military" Prussians (Prussia has traditionally supplied men to the German officer corps), etc. It seems, however, that the difference according to the "north-south" principle - due to historical reasons - is less striking, than between the west and east of the country. This is in neighboring Italy a striking contrast between the industrial North and the agrarian South, while in Germany the division occurred along a different geographical parameter.
“I’ve never heard such nonsense,” an anonymous blogger is indignant. “Every “Wessy” wants to know everything about East Germans, but has not the slightest idea about them.” Another visitor under the nickname Siegfried Bauer comments: "A large international guide strongly warns against visiting the GDR. That, in fact, says it all."
Crowded demonstrations passed by the Soviet garrison, and people walking with candles in their hands chanted: "Gorby! Gorby!" Love for the Soviet leader, who later "gave" his trusted allies to his new Western friends, was soon replaced by a different mood. In the autumn of 1989, the slogan Wir sind ein Volk ("We are the people"), inspired by the Soviet "perestroika", was heard for the first time in Dresden, Berlin and Leipzig, from which Wir sind das Volk ("We are one people") was quickly born. Both parts of Germany rushed towards unification. Each side had its own reasons. The “money orientation” mentioned in the latest poll has indeed proved to be an effective incentive for the “vessies”. On the territory of the former GDR, they quickly bungled the "Trust Office" - Treuhand, which instantly turned into the world's largest entrepreneur, controlling more than nine thousand former state enterprises, about two million hectares of land and two million hectares of forest land.
The national or, as they used to say "people's" property before our eyes was leaving at knock-down market prices, turning the "Aussies" into second-class Germans. East Germans, no less than their greedy brethren, strove for the reunification of the two halves of Germany. The author of these lines, living in the German Democratic Republic, asked with interest East Germans who had been in West Germany: "Tell me in one word, what struck you most abroad?"
I don’t remember the GDR at all, although as my mother told me, I was born in a military town north of Berlin, where my father, a Soviet officer, served at that time.
I became an independent person quite early and, having left my parents, I never took long heart-to-heart talks seriously, considering them dense conservatives.
Now, of course, I understand that I was wrong and now, of course, I have a lot of questions for them, but alas ... I can’t get an answer.
What do I remember about the GDR?
I don’t remember the GDR at all, although I spent some time there. But not being an independent traveler, but a baby doll with a pussy in the foreground - judging by the b / w old photos
Already at a thinking age “from some to school” I remember a beautiful accordion - dark red and with mother-of-pearl.
I remember German songs from a reel-to-reel tape recorder (Accord?), which my father liked to listen to and therefore I suspected him of sympathies for the Nazis and shared my suspicions with my mother.
And there was also the Madonna service, which the parents were very proud of.
Seeing no reason for pride, I just looked with curiosity at the fleshy half-naked aunts depicted on cups and saucers.
By the way, I just remembered that my milk tooth was stored in the milk jug (it was not used in the family). Some of…
And there was also a Leipzig store on Leninsky, where they sold the most beautiful toys and there was a toy railway - the ultimate dream of that time
And there was a TV program on the box “Mom dad and I are a sports family”
In general, it is clear that I did not know about the GDR and was not there
Therefore, it was interesting for me to visit those places where perhaps I was taken in a stroller
Where do the accordion songs I heard as a child come from?
And it turned out very well and almost according to tradition already: on my birthday to go traveling on lakes and canals to Europe. This time to the land of a thousand lakes - Mecklenburg, Vorpommern
It's north of Berlin, no more than 100 km
Why wrote this?
A review, but in fact an online report, I wrote during our trip:
And in this note I want to write about my impressions of people in this part of Germany. We travel more and more in Bavaria, because from there it is closer to the Alps, to the place of skiing
Well, now, while checking key phrases for search engines, I came across some nonsense written in the Russian media about how badly the former GDR people live and how they want to live behind the iron curtain with the brotherly people in an embrace again.
What surprised and moved
The first thing that surprised me in people was the complete, almost complete lack of knowledge in the English language.
How well he is known in the villages and towns of Bavaria, so they don’t know him and don’t want to know him in Vorpommern
How to communicate with the Germans here?
And here is the second surprise: many people remember Russian. Many - almost all
Remember - does not mean that they speak fluently. No. But they are trying - it is clear that they are digging into the closets of their memory and give out with pride: Hello! Please!
And understand even better
I don’t know how it was in the GDR before reunification, but now I don’t see the difference between a village in eastern Germany and western Germany
The same houses, beautiful flowers in a flowerpot and small fences
Soviet “Khrushchevs” look somewhat dissonant against the backdrop of a pastoral picture of calm and serenity, but even they are in perfect order: neatly painted, windows replaced with double-glazed windows, flowers, flower beds, flowers in front of the entrances
East Germans are dressed the same as West Germans or Poles or Lithuanians
Cars ... ordinary German, Korean, French cars - globalization ... But wait a minute:
It’s a pity - I didn’t have a camera with me - in one of the towns where we stopped I saw in the parking lot near the cherry-colored Zhiguli 2103 house.
Treshka, as they called her. With chrome grille.
Clean, well-groomed, without any flashing sykalok and red mud flaps ... Well, these are Germans! - I said
How do they treat Russians?
How do they treat Russians?
Friendly and a little naive: at one place I ordered a beer. The owner learned from a mixture of English, Polish, Russian and Hyundai Hoch that I from Russia immediately took a bottle of Putinoff vodka from the refrigerator and poured me a stopar of vodka to accompany my beer.
Those who barely remember the Russian language are happy to practice reproducing it
And in one small town, in the very center of it, I discovered a cemetery - that was a long-standing (still World War 1) burial of German soldiers, local residents and right there the graves of Soviet soldiers and a monument with Russian inscriptions.
Clean and well-maintained graves, although the tombstones themselves have already faded and it is difficult to make out what is written on them
MOSCOW, April 1 - RIA Novosti, Anton Lisitsyn. The Bundeswehr received a directive - what examples from the military past should German soldiers be proud of. With regard to the army of the GDR, only those who "revolted against the rule of the SED or have special merit in the struggle for German unity" are supposed to be honored. In a unified Germany, two peoples of different cultures live - from the FRG and the GDR. Why the citizens of the former German Democratic Republic feel "ostalgia" in the days of "totalitarianism" - in the material of RIA Novosti.
"They want to show how their parents lived"
Ostalgie Kantine - buffet "Ostalgia" is located in Saxony-Anhalt on the territory of the former GDR. Buffet is a relative name. Rather, it is a park of the socialist period. Here are the interiors of those times, exhibitions of Soviet military equipment and cars of "people's democracy", including the legendary "Wartburg" and "Trabant", shelves with toys.
Manager Mike Szilabecki says that 80 percent of visitors are former citizens of the GDR. “They often come with their children to show them what the GDR was like, how their parents lived. Schoolchildren are brought in classes to history lessons,” he explains.
Silabecki believes that the socialist park is popular because many of the former GDR "have good memories of those times, of socialism and the USSR."
From the same Saxony-Anhalt, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports disturbing news. In the town of Byerde, the local museum of the times of the GDR is closed. The building, which houses a collection of artifacts from the times of socialism, is being demolished.
East is east, west is west
Germany reunified in 1990. Legally, it looked like this: in August, the parliament of the German Democratic Republic adopted a decision (already agreed upon by East Berlin, Bonn and the powers concerned) to join the Federal Republic of Germany. On October 3, all the organs of power of the GDR and its armed forces were abolished. The German constitution of 1949 came into effect throughout the country. That is, the GDR was disbanded, its lands included in West Germany.
The united Germans called each other diminutives - "Ossi" and "Wessi", from the German words ost and west, "east" and "west", respectively. Soon the term "ostalgia" arose - longing for the times of "people's democracy".
In terms of economic development, the GDR lagged behind the FRG; nevertheless, East Germany in the 1980s was in sixth place in terms of industrial production in Europe. Such enterprises as Robotron, ORWO worked in the republic, trucks, wagons, locomotives, cranes exported abroad were produced. Most of The industrial potential of "people's democracy" was destroyed in the 1990s. The Vessey business behaved like a winner in the annexed lands.
The GDR lasted only 41 years, but, as it turned out, left a deep mark on the collective German conscious and unconscious.
One of the Russian bloggers interviewed the Aussie in 2015, and he described the economic realities of a united Germany to him. the problem of subsidies? - the former citizen of the GDR was surprised.
How much does German unity cost?
In 2014, Germany decided to calculate how much the reunification of the country cost. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the association, Welt am Sonntag published the results of a study by experts from the Institute of Economics: "Two and twelve zeros - German unity is currently worth two trillion euros."
"According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the five eastern states and their populations have consumed about 1.5 trillion euros more than they have produced since the unification," the journalists continued.
Gorbachev: the USSR did the right thing in the issue of unification of the FRG and the GDRAccording to Mikhail Gorbachev, everyone in the Politburo spoke in favor of the unification of the FRG and the GDR. Various forms of unification have been proposed, including a confederation, he said.Two years later, the situation has not changed much. In 2017, Berlin officially admitted that the lands of the former East Germany still lag behind West Germany in terms of socio-economic development. The government expressed fears that the gap between the former GDR and the FRG would widen rather than narrow. The volume of the gross domestic product per capita in the east does not exceed 70 percent of the West German. And, which is extremely significant, 30 companies - the flagships of the German economy, included in the main German stock index DAX are not headquartered in the east.
"Everyday Racism"
In the German segment of the Web, tests "Who are you - Wessy or Ossi?" are popular. Sociologists record the negative attitude of the citizens of the former GDR and the FRG towards each other. So, in 2012, it turned out that East Germans consider their Western compatriots to be arrogant, overly greedy, prone to formalism. And many Wessies characterize the Ossies as perpetually disgruntled, suspicious and fearful.
How seriously this problem is being considered in Germany can be judged by the title of a sociological article - "Wessy against the Ossi: everyday racism?". Common stereotypes are also cited there - “Wessies just use Aussies”, “Yes, these Aussies are simply not capable of anything!”.
“According to German politicians, in 1990 they hoped that they would be able to “digest” the east in five years, well, not in five, but in ten, not in ten, so in fifteen. However, twenty-eight years have passed, and politicians recognize: the difference between the two parts of the country remains.One spoke directly: we still, in fact, live in two countries, says the host Researcher Department of European Political Studies, IMEMO RAS, Candidate of Historical Sciences Alexander Kokeev. And this, of course, applies to politics. For example, in the former GDR, right-wing populist parties such as the Alternative for Germany enjoy greater support.
At the same time, as the expert emphasizes, this problem is not as acute now as immediately after the reunification. Berlin solves it and treats it with all care. “There is a so-called ostalgia, but it is largely irrational. The standard of living of East Germans has increased significantly, it’s just that many people compare it with higher rates in the western part of the country, and, naturally, this causes dissatisfaction among some. In addition, some former citizens The GDR, mostly elderly, feel like second-class people who were put up on the stairs from their apartment and at the same time they are still taught how to live properly," sums up Kokeev.
GDR - German Democratic Republic. New generations probably do not know such a country anymore. History corrected its mistakes, and the best part of the socialist bloc mediocrely dissolved in the powerful FRG, along with its economy.
But what did we Soviet people know about this country? For us, the last Soviet generation, the GDR was remembered by the pseudo-Hollywood westerns of the DEFA film company with the inflated, bronze German-Yugoslav Gojko Mitic in the role of the always fair and oppressed Indian, by good household electric hair dryers, by unknown to us and so tasty European-smelling foams for baths, and, of course, children's toys.
There was nothing better than airy, bright, glowing in the dark and extremely fragile German glass Christmas decorations!
The dream of every Soviet boy was to have a real electric railway, and girls - a “croaking” blonde doll.
Pseudo-Hollywood production of the DEFA film company and a homemade coffee grinder made in the GDR, 1980s. According to the Internet.
The main consumers of German consumer goods were Soviet women and children. Very many, at least all Muscovites, had items made in the GDR in their intimate wardrobe. Almost everything that a woman could put on her naked body was produced in the GDR and exported to the USSR. Soviet citizens loved and bought German linen, it was comfortable, beautiful and prestigious, there were queues behind it, they were speculated and sent in parcels to the national outskirts Soviet Union. But there was another item of ladies' toiletry that left an unforgettable mark on Soviet history.
Products of the knitting industry of the GDR, 1980s. According to the Internet.
... Nylon stockings. Oddly enough, this, in general, utilitarian thing, like nothing else, has played its great aesthetic and moral significance in the history of mankind. Without going into the depths of the issue here, about which treatises and entire books have been written, I would like to remind the reader that this item of ladies' toiletry has historically been inaccessible to Soviet working women. It is easier to say that, starting from the famine after the war, a small crispy bag with the specified product has always been a welcome gift for any woman. However, time passed, and the bourgeois-despicable goods were brought to the vast expanses of the USSR only by speculators and diplomats in their immense suitcases. And then the fraternal Germans came to the rescue. From the beginning of the 1970s, the dream became a reality, and Soviet stores began to be supplied with plenty of hosiery made in the GDR. The price was biting, however, women made numerous sacrifices and flaunted in their prestigious capron both in winter and in summer, and which was hopelessly thin and torn. Historically, stockings have been supplanted by more comfortable tights, but again, the primacy on the Soviet shelves remained with East German goods. It is necessary to pay attention to a small propaganda detail. The achievement of the advanced East German chemical industry - nylon fiber, could not be called the accursed American "nylon" or "kapron", it was called very patriotically - Dederon, from country name DDR.
Soviet people from German imports left the impression of something bright, light and, in general, unreliable in a European way. Later, in the GSVG, to our pleasure, we found simply an abundance of good-quality and beautiful clothes and shoes, of quite Western quality. Even more surprisingly, we never found the famous German toys, which, under the conditions of socialist integration, were inaccessible to ordinary Germans in the GDR. Condescendingly ordered from the Soviet Union, we searched for a travel hair dryer in the GSVG for half a year, because. reality and the idea of possibilities do not always coincide.
"Made in GDR", the brand has historically not been very well known in the world. "Made in the GDR" - a brand familiar to Soviet consumers; produced by "im DDR" became familiar to us in the GSVG. Only once did I see the rarest mark "Made in Eastern Germany", by analogy with "Made in Western Germany". Obviously, the comparison with powerful and high-quality imports from the FRG was not in favor of East German producers, and exports were directed mainly to the USSR and the countries of the social bloc. Be that as it may, it seemed to all of us that the GDR products were quite up to world standards, and the assortment was somewhat more serious than Hungarian pickled cucumbers or Bulgarian eggplant caviar.
Camera "Practice" MTL50 and hair dryer produced by the GDR were recognized by consumers not only in the USSR. Late 1980s According to the Internet.
The top of the consumer basket is a car - an inaccessible luxury for most Soviet people. Car producing countries - good countries, countries producing good cars are very good countries. The GDR produced automobiles, but the size and appearance of the famous Trabant suggested that Hitler's good idea of a "people's car" had been misunderstood. Like it or not, Volkswagen never got to the point of trying to make their car popular. A plastic semi-toy model, weighing 200 kg, rumbled funny with a motorcycle engine, emitting blue smoke. Not caring about the "stars" of security, the East Germans famously drove their cars, cramming into them 5 people at a time.
Souvenir set of fruit knives and labels of popular soft drinks produced in the GDR, worth about 50 pfeniigs per bottle, 1980s. According to the Internet.
In the winter of 1988, proudly moving in Dresden on winter ice along frozen fields on the famous Progress-30 military bus, manufactured by the Red Star tank repair plant in Leipzig, we witnessed how the German Trabant skidded on a slippery road just flew. The car tumbled at high speed, landing on different planes of plastic skin, which easily separated with each impact on the ground. In the end, the Trabant landed on wheels in the form of a lightweight frame and four lanky, discouraged Germans climbed out of it, surrounded by drivers who came to the rescue from passing cars. Unfortunately, the Trabants were too small, and were often crushed by Soviet military vehicles on the roads, in as a result of which the Germans often maimed and died.
With the general omnivorousness of the GSVG population, I don’t remember a case when any of the Soviet people bought a Trabant for driving. Later, describing the bacchanalia of the plundering of the country in the field of 1990, I was told that the ensigns sent Trabants to the Union in ordinary containers, placing them vertically, because. they stood abandoned on the street, and the Soviet people had absolutely nothing to steal in the units.
Interestingly, all East Germans at the end of their socialist period already had an income that easily allowed them to have a Trabant car worth 6500 East German marks. However, there were many more people who wanted to buy than the cars themselves, and the Germans lined up for the Trabant at the age of 16, at the same time handing over for a driver's license. The queue grew and approached in about 5-6 years, according to calculations for 1997. Later, I met the German Wartburg, which was no better than the Soviet Zhiguli, which were very expensive and prestigious in the GDR. In 1989, the queue for the German Wartburg was about 13 years old. The third popular passenger car in Merseburg was the Czech Skoda.
The Trabant car, the Trabi, popular in the GDR, became a derisive symbol of East Germany after German reunification. 1980s. According to the Internet.
There was, of course, a good scientific and technical potential in people's Germany, the best after the USSR, which was used to develop technologies, not very noticeable to an ordinary buyer. In the GDR, science, mechanical engineering, and the production of assembly and production machines were developed, which no one saw if they did not get inside the factories. There was an advanced chemical industry, which produced beautiful and diverse plastics and fibers, and there was a mysterious computer industry that was gaining momentum. Good and expensive Praktica SLRs were the pride of German exports. Residents of the GSVG often bought these cameras, although I never saw super high-quality pictures from anyone. In German stores there were various stereo equipment and TV sets of a completely Soviet-looking local company RFT, which did not disturb the imagination with their quality. The record company AMIGA was rumored to release good records, however, in the GDR I somehow did not come across them. As in the Soviet Union, the GDR made armored vehicles, road equipment, electric locomotives, our favorite sleeping cars, and very good ankle-length IFA trucks that still roll on the difficult roads of Asia and Africa. Even in the GDR they produced weapons, reliable and of German quality. East Germany was one of the countries of the Eastern Bloc that for years made Kalashnikovs under a Soviet license to the delight of all the hot regions of the world. Socialist Germany also produced more delicate orders for the defense needs of the Eastern Bloc, however, this part of the industry was known only to specialists.
Living in Merseburg, we had the unlimited happiness of enjoying the "fruits" of economic progress. Two chemical plants - in the villages of Buna and Leina, north and south of the city, often gave us unforgettable aromas. It must be admitted that the factories built after the First World War were wisely located, and the dominant westerly winds carried the poisonous stench away from the city. However, when the wind changed, we could pinpoint exactly where the wind was blowing from. The chemical industry was active and productive, of that we could be sure!
I have always been zealously interested in the question - why can't we in the USSR do this? Can't produce good goods, raw materials?? What is the secret of success? When I managed to drive past our neighboring chemical plant, I was surprised to find a spacious, fenced European parking lot full of West German trucks. Many of these were tankers carrying chemical dangerous goods. All this made me think that the secret of the success of the GDR chemistry lies in the massive supply of Western ingredients, raw materials, and, perhaps, advanced technologies that were not available in the Soviet Union. Later, I learned that trade with the FRG was active, that the export-import of the two countries was very far from the usual assortment of socialist countries, and in general, ties with the “damned West” were very extensive, which did not really correspond to our Soviet idea of \u200b\u200bconfronting systems.
"Greetings from the GDR" - a collection of postcards from East Germany, published in Germany after the reunification of the country. According to the Internet.
HOUSING PROBLEM
The housing problem did not embitter the Soviet people in Merseburg. With limited living space, everyone was settled approximately equally, traditionally taking into account the ranks and composition of families. Everyone understood that life in the GSVG was temporary, and therefore one could be patient and make room. The housing issue did not reach hysterical scenes with unbalanced wives, the involvement of high command and bribes, no one went on the attack on the commander with a baby at the ready, which often happened in garrisons in the vastness of the USSR. Most of the officers of the regiment lived in communal apartments in old German DOS houses. German apartments were convenient for communal living - they had a corridor system with a shared kitchen, which made it possible to organize quite tolerable coexistence of families. The standard Soviet block-slotted five-story buildings around the Merseburg military camp were mainly inhabited by the families of pilots from the flight regiment. Later, I was very grateful to the opportunity that we had the opportunity to live in a real German house that had not seen repairs since the American air raids.
In the park near the castle and the regimental dos, in which my wife and I lived for almost the best three years of our lives in 1987-1990, Merseburg, GDR. Photo of the author.
My placement was temporarily fixed, but I did not count on a quick improvement. However, everything happened quickly enough. The service went on as usual, and in the second week of my German epic, some short guy, in civilian clothes, who looked like a young freestyler, ran up to me on the street. It turned out that he was one of the elusive shmekers "on assignment", a two-year-old officer who, after a provincial foreign language, was serving his two years in the army. It was strange to see an officer of the regiment in civilian clothes during working hours, however, I had already heard about the “special mission” of gentlemen Schmeckers abound. The rumor that a new translator had arrived in the regiment reached him late, and he, delighted, ran to get acquainted when he finally saw me. I had to disappoint the "cardinal's guard" by confessing that I was not a two-year Schmecker, but a career officer, and that I did not know German at all. By that time, I was already used to the reaction of people in the GSVG who refused to understand what a translator in Germany could do without the German language??! Schmecker obviously lost interest in me, but showed unexpected professional solidarity when he learned that I was a graduate of the Military Institute, about which he knew something. In response to my accommodation, the young schmecker burst into a florid tirade using not quite normative vocabulary. In his opinion, it turned out that, to put it mildly, the command of the regiment was not quite worthy people, sometimes making not quite the right decisions. With a twist of my soul, I reluctantly agreed with him, with all my appearance showing resignation to an ungrateful fate. However, my new acquaintance clearly had something else in mind, he clarified my location and surname, saying that I just had to stay in his room, because. he's leaving soon for a replacement. All that remained for me was to thank him for his unexpected participation, shrug my shoulders, and retire on my way, thinking about the strange proposal.
The building of the aluminum smelter in Merseburg, the GDR, was the place of constant work of the soldiers of the regiment until 1987. The soldiers were happy to go to any work where no one particularly forced them and they were well fed. This was the only opportunity for the rank and file to see Germany. The plant paid off the command of the regiment with substandard rolls of aluminum wallpaper, fashionable in the early 1980s. According to the Internet.
Later, of course, I made inquiries and found out that the mentioned room in the communal apartment was in good standing in the house next to the checkpoint. The head of the rear of the regiment met my joyful offer with a decisive refusal, since the housing of the substitutes is not distributed among those who wish, and I realized that it was useless for me to break through further. However, chance soon brought me back to the young schmecker, when I happened to see him already in the uniform of a lieutenant near headquarters a few days later. I considered it my duty to remind myself, to which the schmecker made a weary grimace, however, he promised to help. For myself, I specified the exact date of his departure, knowing for sure that the housing issue is strictly tied to the place and time according to the principle “Who did not have time, he was late!”. Now it’s hard to remember how many days have passed, but everything went well, and I received the keys to my new house quite officially, moving into one room of a three-room communal apartment, where at that time the valiant platoon commander Lieutenant K. lived with his wife and first child. Then I learned that there were several applicants for this dwelling, but under the pressure of the authority of the honored tenant, I got it, for which people unfairly attributed to me non-existent thieves' connections with the command of the regiment, which I did not try to dissuade them.
Old regimental dos, rebuilt after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Merseburg, Germany, 2000s. According to the Internet.
The room was really big. High ceilings, two windows, the walls are covered with scarce aluminum wallpaper in wild checkerboard colors, the style and pride of a real shmeker. In the corner of the room stood a green tiled, two meters high, massive coal stove, giving the dwelling a strange prehistoric look. The charms of coal heating were yet to come, but it turned out that our new apartment had its own special value.
Hot water in DOSs was heated by geysers, which were connected to gas meter, common in all European countries. In contrast to the generous waste of gas in the USSR, in the GDR, gas was expensive and well accounted for. It is not known since when the silently ticking gas meter in the corridor was broken. The massive, reminiscent of an electric meter was skillfully broken by craftsmen long before our arrival and did not show real consumption. The German state gas service, of course, knew about such a puncture and repeatedly sent repairmen to the address. But it was not there! According to the legend, for a long time, the German gas masters were not allowed to enter the door of our apartment by disheveled Russian women, stubbornly pronouncing the magic phrase in the GDR: "Nicht Fershtein!". As a result of an insurmountable language barrier, the Germans abandoned their attempts to repair the pump and put things in order, and with the tacit assistance of the rear command, our apartment was put on the average fixed gas payment. In other words, we burned as much gas as we wanted, bathed in the bath at our pleasure for the standard payment, while some officer families were severely economical and bathed in the same bath one after another without changing the water.
So, unexpectedly for ourselves, we ourselves became the heroes of numerous jokes about "Sema from Brighton", who remade the meter, and now the electric company owes him money! The Soviet person is the same everywhere, whether he is Russian, whether he is a Jew, or whether he is a simple officer of the Soviet Army.
TERRAINCOGNITA
DDR - Deutsche Demokratische Republik. The German Democratic Republic, which existed for 40 years, was and remains unknown to the Soviet people. Until 1987, the GDR was for me, as well as for most honest Soviet people, known for some imported goods, for the mean two-minute reports of the Vremya program about the successes of the socialist countries, and for the much-desired, rare, late-night music programs of Soviet TV - " Foreign Stage.
GDR, 1988. According to the Internet.
Everyone knew that the GDR - good friend USSR, although the old people in the Soviet Union were somewhat cautious about such a brotherhood, recalling the war. The political picture of the prosperous fraternal period of our friendship usually showed a small, dry old man in a gray suit - comrade. Erich Honecker, the permanent pro-Soviet leader of the GDR from 1976-1990. Time has changed, and the most famous image of the old leader of Germany was the political kiss of Honecker and Brezhnev, depicted on the Berlin Wall. Sketched by the artist from a real photograph of a political meeting of leaders in Moscow, today this propaganda kiss looks like a snarky caricature. I think that Honecker himself at that time simply sincerely wanted to please friendly Moscow, and the immortalized Asian-homosexual kisses of the two elders were nothing more than a diplomatic desire to adapt to the Russian savagery and the senile Brezhnev. As you know, even a handshake is the subject of diplomatic regulations, and, of course, the "monogamous" comrade Honecker did not kiss anyone in public anymore. To be honest, I was a little offended that, in general, the prosperous period of relations between the two countries did not leave anything more material in Europe, except for the destroyed Berlin Wall with a replicated portrait of senile leaders.
The famous kiss of the leaders, brought to a caricature on the Berlin Wall. According to the Internet.
The propaganda machine of socialism was happy to show the GDR as the vanguard of socialist science and technology, modern laboratories, bright, sparkling workshops and incomprehensible products of scientific achievements flashed on the screen. Television reports about the life of the German country were limited to displaying many red and national banners, under which the faces of athletic-looking German youth shone in bright uniforms with stripes of the Free German Youth Union - FDJ. It is quite understandable why the abbreviation FDJ was never translated in the USSR. "Deutsche Jugend" strongly looked like the notorious Hitler Youth since the war, and the concept of "free youth" raised an internal question - free from what? Or in what??
Symbol of East German sports, Olympic champion in figure skating Katarina Witt and the GDR team at the Winter Games. According to the Internet.
Even in the GDR there was sport, big, Olympic, state. Now, in the new capitalist time, no one needs to be explained that sport is a big and expensive political and economic event. In other words, no money - no sport. Now the Russian sports bureaucrats do not need to register modern athletes for fictitious work in order to obtain a work book, they do not need to accept them into the Armed Forces and assign them early officer ranks for an Olympic medal. In East Germany there were good athletes and they were well paid, not really caring about the image of an "amateur" sport. Swimmers and track and field athletes, figure skaters and heavyweights were quite up to world standards, and East German sports diplomacy worked as it should. They knew about the country, others envied its sporting achievements. During perestroika, the scandalous details of the impressive records of German athletes somewhat spoiled the image of the sport of the GDR. It became known about the widespread use of the most advanced doping with the blessing of the sports authorities of Berlin and the use of forced pregnancy of German athletes to improve sports performance in a short period of time. However, no one has rewritten history, and the names of famous athletes and their records have remained forever.
Even in East Germany there was cinema. Germany can be quite proud of its cinematography. In the pre-war time, the Germans made high-quality black-and-white films with the participation of stars such as Dietrich and Rekk, filmed excellent funny comedies, absolutely unknown in the Soviet Union. In the late 1980s, East German television showed a wonderful retrospective of old German films, and even with my very limited knowledge of German, it was nice to see good, quite worthy of pre-war Hollywood, German films made without any hint of the political leanings of the Nazi leaders.
Goiko Mitic, fearless "cinema" Indian, favorite of boys in the GDR and the USSR. According to the Internet.
An export product of the Berlin film studio DEFA was German westerns with the German-Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitic. Like the Italian spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, little known to us, the Berlin Westerns differed from the Hollywood originals in their political sound, and were aptly nicknamed "Osterns" in Germany, from the German East - East. In such well-known films as "Die Soehne der grossen Baerin", the Indians have always been oppressed by bad white colonizers. In the GDR, fenced off from the large West German Turkish community, a beefy, exotically swarthy southerner Goiko Mitich became a favorite of the German public for a long time, and in his old age in the 1990s he visited real Indians in the United States, where he received the honorary title of leader of the Sioux tribe for his special contribution, however, at the same time, the Indians had to show all the Berlin film production, shaking off the dust of times from it.
Over the course of three years, I glimpsed many German films of various times and genres shown on TV. However, nothing remained in the memory, it obviously affected that the language barrier for serious viewing is an insurmountable thing. From a certain time, the favorite hero of Soviet propaganda appeared on the German screen - a strange American with a Hollywood appearance, a political refugee - Dean Reed. The story of his escape from the USA at the invitation of the Soviet Union (?), life and unexpected death in Berlin for the Soviet admirers of the new American actor and singer remained a mystery.
The name of the American singer and actor Dean Reed was known to the Soviet public, however, his main creative activity was in the GDR, where the American lived happily in "exile". According to the Internet.
There was another special export product of the GDR. Ever since Soviet times, in rare programs "Foreign Stage", somewhere after the eternal Karel Gott, performances of the "GDR Television Ballet" or "Friedrich-stadt-palast" were shown. Shows on the level of Broadway or Las Vegas with breathtaking dancers in feathers amazed the fragile minds of Soviet viewers. The strictly dosed TV show was remembered for a long time, and, having arrived in the GDR, the homeland of an attractive ballet, I soon figured out that the “GDR Television Ballet” was more accessible to be shown on TV, the Germans showed it quite often. Friedrichstadt-palast was almost never shown on TV, the fully commercial export show was at the level of the Moulin Rouge, and beauties in topless outfits were the highlight of the programs, as in Paris. The show is still running safely and open to all in its prominent building near the center of East Berlin.
Otherwise, the life of people in the GDR was unknown to us. We did not know their tastes, political preferences, traditions and moods. The language barrier was everywhere, in all areas of our life together in the GSVG. Communication with the Germans was usually limited to simple purchases, which was mainly entertainment. Soviet women. For an ordinary officer of the GSVG, communication with the Germans began with the German border guards, (if you were lucky), on the train from the Union, and ended at the box office at the railway station. There were no more private contacts out of necessity.
"GDR Television Ballet", 1980s. According to the Internet.
The Soviet command did not encourage and strictly limited any contacts with the population of the GDR. Any "friendly", informal ties were the subject of close attention, and the capital, the city of Berlin, was generally closed to the free entry of Soviet people. There were unlikely rumors that somewhere in the outback someone had become related by legal marriage to a German woman, but it looked more like a legend. I have repeatedly heard about the mythical union of a Soviet officer with the mistress of a real gasht, however, I took it for a beautiful fairy tale of people who dreamed of a free drink, which, in conditions of total poverty in the GSVG, sounded especially tempting. The notorious annual drunkenness under the flag of German-Soviet friendship, known as the "Freunschaft", was more of a formality, in which the Germans simply gave the Russians a drink, having a good time themselves, and excellently writing off the allocated state money. There was a feeling that if the GSVG had existed longer, the free restriction of the movement of officers on the territory of the GDR would have become a reality. The first timid movements in the political life of East Germany in sleepy Merseburg appeared in 1989 in the form of the first political posters. I never saw any demonstrations or speeches in the GDR. The revolution, aptly dubbed "banana" by Western critics, passed quietly, gently and without any noisy Slavic clashes. Neither in the behavior of people, nor in the comments of the television of the GDR, we did not see any changes when, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell quietly and rather ingloriously - a symbol of communist totalitarianism in the West and, as it turned out, a weak bulwark of the gains of socialism on German soil.
David Hasselhoff in 1989 suddenly turned from a beach lifeguard into a savior of German democracy. According to the Internet.
In 1989, the general mood of the Soviet people in the GSVG was resentment. It's just a resentment that the Germans, who are happily living or simply snickering, have chosen the western path. Traditionally believing that socialism is good for everyone, realistically evaluating the successes of the GDR based on free resources from the USSR, the Soviet people had the moral right to be offended. The political betrayal of a 40-year friendship by the leaders of the country was unexpected and rather vile, at a time when the USSR still existed. However, we were all hostages of socialist propaganda, false and politically one-sided. If we had the opportunity to freely communicate with the Germans, if we knew their moods and desires, then the natural, morally ripe geo-political unification of the German lands would seem to us a success of common sense, and we, too, with our Euro-Asian emotionality, would joyfully gallop on the Berlin wall in 1989 to the incendiary songs about the freedom of an American with German roots, David Hasselhoff. Moreover, he turned out to be his own boyfriend, and he drinks vodka no worse than a Russian!
In the era of advanced electronics, the Internet and computers, it is at least incorrect to compare the standard of living of countries twenty-five years ago. Human memory conveniently discarded the negative impressions of the past, and even our, modestly speaking, uncomplicated life in the USSR from afar seems very good to many.
However, as a living witness who lived in the GDR for three years, I can testify that life in East Germany was much better.
Free European education, excellent free medicine, rich pensions and full stores, guaranteed employment and a very visible democracy (contrary to popular Western propaganda) were not available to us in the Union.
"Showcase of socialism" was well supplied and enjoyed all the benefits provided by the fraternal countries.
Even Czechoslovakia, so popular among Russians now, did not reach the level of German democrats, remaining a second-rate state in Eastern Europe.
A little more, and the GDR, with its scientific and production potential, would become a leader in electronics and computers, to the envy of all Western Europe.
But, almost the unforeseen happened - the Germans were ruined by ... greed.
As you know, in the critical year 1918, Germany was saved from inevitable socialism by a simple burgher who, out of habit, like three hundred years ago, sat in a pub with his mug and sausages. To the legendary German, the plots of the suspicious Marxists seemed dubious, and the whole country turned in the other direction, following its petty-bourgeois instinct. Forty years later, due to Hitler's stubbornness, socialism again came to German soil, where it reigned for another 40 years, however, now the Germans received much more workers and peasants from the state. When a person has everything, he needs more, and the philistine nature of the Germans again led them to trouble. Questionable material claims to power in the 1980s were the right to bring used cars from abroad and to have free exit from the country. Without really waiting for a response from the government in 1989, the Germans carried out a peaceful revolution, and, taking advantage of the carelessness of the GDR authorities, practically took the most important step towards the unification of Germany.
The loss of citizens of the GDR was terrible. The euphoria of change that the Soviet people enjoyed in the chaos of the 1990s did not last long, and very soon they bitterly regretted what they had done. Immediately after the unification of the country in the former GDR, free education, medical care were canceled, social pensions were reduced, kindergartens were closed, and, most importantly, the Germans lost their jobs. In Merseburg, in the mid-2000s, unemployment reached 35%, which means a complete collapse. Unemployment, poverty, social housing, benefits, crime and drug addiction have become a reality of yesterday's still prosperous country. Unaccepted immigrants, Turks, Arabs, Negroes poured into the Eastern Lands from the FRG in such numbers that entire districts of East Berlin now no longer speak German. The good legacy of the GDR has been denigrated by West German propaganda, which continues to portray East Germans as unlucky fools in a small plastic Trabant. However, people have their own memory, and the phenomenon of the German “ostalgia” (from the German “ost” - east), to preserve everything connected with the GDR, speaks for itself. A powerful social movement has united millions of people in modern Germany, and in terms of activity, mass character and invested funds cannot be compared with the miserable Russian sobs for the lost USSR. Museums, exhibitions, collections, clubs and processions, festivals and entire shops filled with old Gedder goods and products continue to attract people and their German euros. The Germans persistently discuss the historical mistakes of "unification" at numerous conferences and forums of political, social and religious orientation. Who among us then could have imagined that in the 2000s, on the territory of the repaired headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Group of Forces and the headquarters of the Group of Forces, the Germans would arrange costumed performances under the slogan "the life of the Russian headquarters", and put on Soviet military uniforms in accordance with all the rules of instructions and charter? !
Parade of enthusiasts of the "Museum of the GDR" in the military uniform of the People's Army of the GDR. Pirna, Germany, 2000s. According to the Internet.
...There is an opinion that the well-being of a country can be assessed in relation to the elderly, the attitude towards pets and the state of public toilets. I dare say that according to these peculiar indicators, the GDR was far ahead! In three years I had not seen a single homeless or hungry animal, and the gloomiest station toilet in the country was clean and smelled quite civilized. On Sundays in Merseburg, near the liquor-vodka “window”, the usual old drunkards that exist in any country gathered. When I saw their snow-white lace shirts and beige, cream-colored suits issued by the social service, their leisurely conversations in puffs of cigarette smoke and touching courtesy in line to hand over empty vodka scales, I realized with bitterness that we in the USSR would never live like this. ...
A dramatization of the life of East Germany in the "Museum of the GDR". Germany, 2000s. According to the Internet.
The euphoria is over: the slight crack that separated the West and East Germans has finally turned into an abyss. Surprisingly, many now want to ... return the wall back
When Rolf goes out for a walk, he puts on a T-shirt: a yellow-red coat of arms made of ears of corn, a hammer and a compass, at the bottom the signature is “Born in the GDR”. When Rolf was born 14 years ago, there was no longer any GDR, and his hometown of Karl-Marx-Stadt was renamed Chemnitz.
“So what,” says Rolf stubbornly. “My father and mother were born in the GDR, which means I am also a member of the GDR.” He hardly sees his parents: both left to work in West Germany, like half of the inhabitants of the former Karl-Marx-Stadt, the teenager is brought up by his grandmother Greta. The main industrial center of East Germany has been turned into a cemetery of empty factories: glass is broken in the windows, graffiti is painted on the walls, crows nest on the roof. In 1989, 250,000 people lived in Chemnitz, now half that number - not finding work, people move to the West.
When it gets dark, the city looks like a ghost: the streets are empty, without a single person - only at the monument to Karl Marx, which is called "head" (it is made in the form of a bronze head), a group of young people listens to "Rammstein". “I hate West Germans,” says Rolf, lighting a cigarette like an adult. "They don't know anything about life." “I was in such euphoria when the Berlin Wall collapsed,” grandmother Greta sighs in tune with her grandson. - I thought that heaven would come. In the evenings, I walk through the dead city, watching the wind sweep away scraps of newspapers and beer cans ... Oh, how naive I was. No, I'm glad that Germany is united. But this is not heaven at all - this is the apocalypse.
The Banana Revolution In the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rift between West and East Germans has become an abyss. There was even a special term "ostalgia" - a derivative of Ost (east) and "nostalgia": a symbol of longing for the lost homeland.
According to the latest poll conducted by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, 49% of the "Easterners" believe that life in the GDR was "very good", and 8 percent are completely sure that socialism is "much better". West Germans, of course, are infuriated by this opinion. The federal authorities spend 120 billion euros a year on the improvement of GDR cities, but in the East they insist that they owe nothing to anyone - "Westerners have destroyed our economy, the best among the countries of socialism!" “On November 9, 1989, we believed that from now on we are a single people,” laments Professor Heinrich Mittel from Düsseldorf. - Everyone expected that there would be small frictions, but then, over time, everything will be forgotten.
However, nothing happened. East Germans tell their children legends about a well-fed life under the rule of Honecker, as a result, for a generation that did not see the GDR, this country also became a “promised land”. West Germans are not liked in the East, and they reciprocate.
“GDR people hate to work,” the taxi driver Mikhel, originally from West Berlin, gets excited. - They would only receive benefits for free! I think they also destroyed the Berlin Wall because they wanted to have bananas in stores, everything else in the GDR suited them anyway. “When you get bills for gas and water,” granny Greta complains, “you involuntarily begin to feel nostalgic: under Honecker, everything cost a penny, and everyone had a job. The Berlin Wall came down, but it didn't disappear - it moved into people's heads." This is not so fantastic, given the data of another poll - as many as 25% of West and 12% of East Germans were in favor of ... "rebuilding the wall again"!
"Honecker is a great guy!"
In Berlin itself, the remnants of the formidable Berlin Wall have long turned from a gloomy symbol of totalitarianism into an object of tourist attraction. Now the Berliners themselves do not believe it - was it really different 20 years ago? And barbed wire, and electric current, and the neutral zone at the Brandenburg Gate, and towers with snipers? Arab guest workers dressed as GDR border guards are posing near the rubble of the wall near Potsdamer Platz, and there is a GDR Trabant car (something in the style of our Zaporozhets) - those who wish can take a picture for 1 euro. In any souvenir shop at Checkpoint Charlie (a checkpoint for diplomats where the exchange of spies was carried out) - pebbles from the wall with a certificate (they say they are stamped with might and main in China). Bigger pieces were taken to the West - now they are in the main office of the corporation "Microsoft" and the headquarters of the CIA in Langley. “We have fewer people going to the Pergamon Museum to see the Ishtar Gate from Babylon,” laughs Berlin historian Alex Kell. “Now the symbolism of the ghost country - the GDR brings the city an impressive income from tourists.”
Friedrich (or, as he calls himself, Freddy) Heinzel owns a souvenir shop at the place where the wall passed. His home is in West Berlin, two meters from the border: he remembers how, throwing a rope through a nearby window, people fled to the West. “The Germans expected a pass to nirvana from the fall of the Berlin Wall,” he explains. - Not getting what they want, they are disappointed. In the East they say: “Honecker was a great guy!”, In the West: “We had money to spend without you!” It’s funny, but 20 years ago we understood each other better.” The door slams - Heinzel is distracted, apologizing. Customers came in, looking at T-shirts “Born in the GDR”. They have become more and more popular lately...
Did we do the right thing by handing over the GDR without any benefit to ourselves? What could Russia gain from the fall of the Berlin Wall? Read the continuation of the report in the next issue of Arguments and Facts.
History reference
The construction of the wall separating Berlin began on August 13, 1961 at the initiative of the GDR: with the aim of "protecting citizens from the influence of the West." The Berlin Wall stretched for 155 km, included 302 towers, earthen ditches and an electric fence. For 28 years, when trying to escape to the West, from 192 to 1245 people died, according to various sources. On November 9, 1989, after massive street demonstrations that led to the fall of the regime of Erich Honecker, the GDR authorities ordered the issuance of visas to those wishing to visit the West. On the same night, a triumphant crowd destroyed the wall - standing in the gaps, the East Germans fraternized with the West. TV broadcast this "picture" to the whole world. On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist.
