A country that does not exist: why East Germans are nostalgic for the GDR. Travel to the GDR

Residents of the former GDR: the USSR abandoned us, and the West Germans robbed us and turned us into a colony

KP special correspondent Daria Aslamova visited Germany and was surprised to discover that 27 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country remains divided...

– You can tell us later what life is like there in East Germany...

I'm sitting in a Berlin beer hall with my German colleagues, Peter and Kat, and I can't believe my ears:

- Are you joking?! Dresden is two hours away by car. Have you really never been to the former GDR?

My friends look at each other in confusion:

- Never. You know, for some reason I don’t want to. We are typical “Wessi” (West Germans), and between “ Vassy" And " Ossie"(East Germans) there is always an invisible line. We're just different.

– But the Berlin Wall was destroyed more than a quarter of a century ago! – I exclaim in confusion.

“She hasn’t gone anywhere.” It stands as it stood. People just have bad eyesight.

This is how the ancestors of the Germans looked menacing (sculpture in Dresden)

Rising from the Ashes

All my life I have avoided meeting with Dresden. Well, I didn't want to. “There in the ground there are tons of human bones crushed into dust” (Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse-Five"). My half-German mother-in-law was nine years old in 1945 and survived the night of February 13-14 when the full might of British and American air power fell on Dresden. She survived only because her grandmother managed to drag her into the corn fields.

She lay with the other children, who were frozen in the grass like rabbits, and looked at the bombs falling on the city: “They seemed terribly beautiful to us and looked like Christmas trees. That's what we called them. And then the whole city burst into flames. And all my life I was forbidden to talk about what I saw. Just forget."

The city was hit overnight 650 tons incendiary bombs and 1500 tons high explosive The result of such a massive bombing was a fire tornado that covered an area four times larger than the destruction of Nagasaki. The temperature in Dresden reached 1500 degrees.

People flared up like living torches and melted along with the asphalt. It is absolutely impossible to calculate the number of deaths. The USSR insisted on 135 thousands of people, the British held on to the figure in 30 thousand. Only corpses pulled out from under destroyed buildings and basements were counted. But who can weigh human ashes?

One of the most luxurious and ancient cities in Europe, "Florence on the Elbe", was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth. The goal of the British (namely, they insisted on destroying the historical center of Dresden) was not only the moral destruction of the Germans, but also the desire to show the Russians what the aviation of the so-called “allies” was capable of, who were already preparing an attack on the war-weary USSR (Operation “Unthinkable” ").

Afterwards, I heard many times how stubborn, die-hard Germans stubbornly collected ancient, charred stones, how they carried out unprecedented construction work for more than forty years and restored Dresden, but I just shrugged my shoulders. I don't need props. I don’t like, for example, the toy center of the restored Warsaw, which looks like a Lego construction.

But Dresden shamed my unbelief. These German pedants achieved the impossible. Dresden has once again become the most beautiful of European cities. Two contradictory feelings possess me: admiration for the Saxon industriousness, their passionate love for their land and... fury at the thought of our stupid Russian generosity.

Once, looking at a portrait of some Saxon elector in the Dresden gallery, I compared it with the face of a museum guard and involuntarily burst out laughing. Well, just twins: the same pink, plump cheeks, double chin, slightly bulging blue eyes, arrogant look. Nothing has changed in three hundred years!

Famous Dresden porcelain

There aren't many people here. Even in Dresden, where you've never heard of traffic jams. And beyond Dresden, closer to the Polish border, you can drive tens of kilometers and not see not only people, but even cars. But the cleanliness everywhere is like in an operating room! There is nowhere to throw the bull. Everything seems to have been licked by the tongue. This is not Cologne, spit on by migrants, or the same Frankfurt.

The green geometry of the fields, vigorous, tall hops, from which such excellent beer is then made, earing wheat, rich peasant lands with strong outbuildings, sleek, trimmed, washed land. A real holiday of labor and order!

Trees grow like soldiers, flowers are brought up under strict discipline. But where are these stubborn farmers themselves? Where are their tracks on the neat gravel paths? Nobody!

I even developed a theory that at night little green men descend from the sky onto beautiful Saxony, cultivate the fields, cut the grass, clean the roads, and at dawn disappear like ghosts. There are simply no other explanations.

But later I realized where people from eastern Germany disappeared.

GDR: a country that has disappeared from the map

We know well what happened BEFORE the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it is almost unknown what happened AFTER. We know nothing about the tragedy experienced by the “socialist” Germans, who so enthusiastically broke down the wall and opened their arms to their “capitalist brothers.” They could not even imagine that their country would disappear within a year, that there would be no equal unification agreement, that they would lose most of their civil rights. An ordinary Anschluss will occur: capture West Germany and East Germany and the complete absorption of the latter.

“The events of 1989 were very reminiscent of the Ukrainian Maidan,” recalls historian Brigitte Quek. – The world media broadcast live how thousands of young Germans broke the wall and applauded them. But no one asked, what does a country of 18 million people want? Residents of the GDR dreamed of freedom of movement and "better socialism". They had a hard time imagining what capitalism looked like.

But there was no referendum, as for example, here in Crimea, which means that the “Anschluss” was absolutely not legitimate!

Merkel in Nazi uniform

“After the start of perestroika and Gorbachev’s rise to power, it became clear what kind of end awaited the GDR without the support of the Soviet Union, but the funeral could be worthy,” says Dr. Wolfgang Schelike, Chairman of the German-Russian Institute of Culture. – United Germany was born as a result of a hasty and unsuccessful birth. Helmut Kohl, Federal Chancellor of Germany, did not want to delay, fearing that Gorbachev would be removed. His slogans were: no experiments, Germany is stronger and has proven with its history that it better GDR. Although the intelligentsia understood that if all West German laws were poured into another country overnight, it would cause a long-term conflict.

On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist. The Federal Republic of Germany created a special humiliating Office of Guardianship over the former GDR, as if the East Germans were backward and unreasonable children. In essence, East Germany simply capitulated. In just a year, almost two and a half million people lost their jobs, out of a total workforce of 8.3 million.

“All government officials were kicked out first,” says Peter Steglich, former GDR ambassador to Sweden. – We, at the Foreign Ministry, received a letter: you are free, the GDR no longer exists. I, unemployed, was saved by my Spanish wife, who was left to work as a translator. I had a few years left before retirement, but for young diplomats who had received an excellent education, this was a tragedy. They wrote applications to the German Foreign Ministry, but not a single one of them was hired. Then they destroyed the fleet and army, the second most powerful in the Warsaw Pact countries. All the officers were fired, many with pitiful pensions, or even no pensions at all. Only technical specialists who knew how to handle Soviet weapons were left.

Important people arrived from the West gentlemen administrators, the purpose of which was to dismantle the old system, introduce a new one, compile “black” lists of unwanted and suspicious people, and carry out thorough purges. Special "qualification commissions" to identify all “ideologically” unstable workers. “Democratic” Germany decided to brutally deal with the “totalitarian GDR”. In politics Only the vanquished are wrong.

Daria and a German are holding a flag, half German, half Russian

On January 1, 1991, all employees of the Berlin legal services were dismissed as unfit to ensure democratic order. On the same day at the University. Humboldt (the main university of the GDR) liquidated the history, law, philosophy and pedagogical faculties and expelled all professors and teachers without retaining their seniority.

In addition, all teachers, professors, scientific, technical and administrative staff in educational institutions of the former GDR were ordered to fill out questionnaires and provide details of their political views and party affiliation. In case of refusal or concealment of information, they were subject to immediate dismissal.

“Purges” have begun in schools. Old textbooks, considered “ideologically harmful,” were thrown into a landfill. But the Gedar education system was considered one of the best in the world. Finland, for example, borrowed its experience.

“First of all, they fired the directors, members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany that ruled in the GDR,” recalls Dr. Wolfgang Schelicke. “Many humanities teachers have lost their jobs. The rest had to survive, and fear came to them. The teachers did not go underground, but they stopped discussing and expressing their point of view. But this affects the upbringing of children! Russian language teachers were also fired. English became a compulsory foreign language.

Russian, like Czech or Polish, can now be learned at will, as a third language. As a result, East Germans forgot Russian and did not learn English. The atmosphere everywhere has completely changed. I had to work with my elbows. The concepts of solidarity and mutual assistance have disappeared. At work you are more not a colleague, but a competitor. Those who have a job work their butts off. They have no time to go to the cinema or the theater, as was the case in the GDR. And the unemployed fell into degradation.

Many people lost their homes. And for what an ugly reason. Many East Germans lived in private houses that were badly damaged during the war (West Germany suffered much less damage than East Germany). Construction materials were in great short supply. Over the course of forty years, the owners of the houses restored them, collected them literally stone by stone and could now be proud of their beautiful villas.

But after the wall fell, beloved relatives who used to send Christmas cards came from the West and claimed a share in the houses. Come on, pay it off! Where did the former GDR member get his savings? He received a good salary, had social guarantees, but he was not a capitalist. Oh, no money? We don't care. Sell ​​your house and pay our share. These were real tragedies.

But the most important thing is there was a complete change of elites. The Germans, who were not very successful there, poured in from the West and immediately seized all the high-paying positions in the former GDR. They were considered trustworthy. Still in Leipzig 70% administrations are "vessi". Yes, there is no mercy for the powerless. Virtually all control over the former republic fell into the hands of the new colonial administration.

Russian flag and poster “Friendship with Russia” at a rally in Dresden

– The USSR abandoned the GDR just like that, without even leaving any agreement between the owners of Germany and the GDR,” says former diplomat Peter Steglich bitterly. – Smart, statesmanlike people foresaw conflicts over property and the Anschluss of the GDR instead of the unification of the two Germanys on equal rights. But there is a statement from Gorbachev: let the Germans figure it out themselves. This meant: the strong take what they want. And the West Germans were strong. The real one has begun colonization of the GDR. Having removed local patriots from power, denigrated and humiliated them, the Western colonialists proceeded to the most “delicious” part of the program: full privatization state assets of the GDR. One system intended to completely devour the other.

The ability to “clean” other people’s pockets

At the state level, one must rob skillfully, gracefully, with white gloves and very quickly, before the victim comes to his senses. The GDR was the most successful country of the Warsaw Pact. Such a fatty piece had to be swallowed immediately, without hesitation.

First, it was necessary to show future victims a gesture of generosity by establishing a one-to-one exchange rate between East and West marks for GDR citizens. All West German newspapers shouted loudly about this! In fact, it turned out that you can only exchange 4000 marks. Above this, the exchange rate was two eastern marks for one western. All state-owned enterprises of the GDR and small businesses could exchange their accounts only on the basis of two to one.

Poster “We want a free Germany: without the euro, without the EU, without NATO and with real democracy”

Therefore, they are at once lost half of their capital! At the same time, their debts were recalculated at the exchange rate 1:1 . You don’t have to be a businessman to understand that such measures led to the complete ruin of the industry of the GDR! In the fall of 1990, production volume in the GDR dropped by more than half!

Now Western "brothers" could talk condescendingly about the unviability of socialist industry and its immediate privatization “on fair and open terms.”

But what the hell are fair conditions if the citizens of the GDR had no capital?! Oh, no money? It's a pity. And 85% of the country’s entire industry fell into the hands of the West Germans, who actively led it to bankruptcy. Why give a chance to competitors? 10% went to foreigners. But only 5% were able to buy the true owners of the land, the East Germans.

- Were you robbed? - I ask the former general director of the metallurgical plant in the city of Eisenhüttenstadt, Professor Karl Döring.

- Certainly. The residents of the GDR had no money, and all property fell into Western hands. And we don't forget who sold us. Gorbachev. Yes, there were demonstrations for freedom of movement and nothing more, but no one demanded that the GDR disappear from the world map. I emphasize this. For this, a corresponding position was needed from Gorbachev, a man who failed the test of history. No one can take this “glory” away from him. What is the result? East Germans are much poorer than West Germans. Many studies show that we are “second class” Germans.

What was important to Western industrialists? A new market is nearby where you can dump your goods. This was the fundamental idea. They got so carried away destroying our industry that they finally discovered that the unemployed could not buy their goods! If you do not preserve at least the remnants of industry in the East, people will simply flee to the West in search of work, and the lands will become empty.

That’s when I managed to save at least part of our plant, thanks to the Russians. We increased our exports to Russia, selling 300-350 thousand tons of cold-rolled steel sheets in 1992-93 for your automotive industry, for agricultural machinery. Then the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, one of the largest in Russia, wanted to buy our shares, but Western politicians did not like this idea. And she was rejected.

“Yes, this looks like “fair privatization,” I note with irony.

Poster "Merkel must go"

– Now the remains of the plant have gone to the Indian billionaire monopolist. I'm glad that the plant at least didn't die.

Professor Karl Dering is very proud of his small steelworking town of Eisenhüttenstadt (formerly Stalinstadt), which is only 60 years old. The first socialist city on ancient German soil, built from scratch with the help of Soviet specialists. The dream of justice and equal rights for all. An exemplary showcase of socialism. The creation of a new man: a worker with the face of an intellectual who reads Karl Marx, Lenin and Tolstoy after his work shift.

“It was a new organization of public life,” the professor tells me with slight excitement as I walk along the completely deserted streets of the city. – After the factory, the theater was the first to be built! Can you imagine? After all, what was the main thing? Kindergartens, cultural centers, sculptures and fountains, cinemas, good clinics. The main thing was the man.

We walk along a wide avenue with restored houses of Stalinist architecture. The neatly trimmed lawns are wonderfully green. But in the spacious courtyards where the flowers are fragrant, you can’t hear children’s laughter. It’s so quiet that we can hear the sounds of our own steps. The emptiness has a depressing effect on me. It was as if all the inhabitants were suddenly blown away by the wind of the past. Suddenly a married couple with a dog comes out of the entrance and in surprise I shout: “Look! People, people!

“Yes, there are not enough people here,” says Professor Dering dryly. – Previously, 53 thousand people lived here. Almost half left. There are no children here. Girls are more determined than guys. As soon as they grow up, they immediately pack their things and head west. Unemployment. The birth rate is low. Four schools and three kindergartens were closed because there were no children. And without children, this city has no future.

Sculpture of mother and child in Eisenhüttenstadt (formerly Stalinstadt), in a city where there are no more children

Women had the hardest time

With Marianne, a waitress from a cafe in Dresden, we first had a fight, and then became friends. A tired woman of about fifty threw a plate of wonderful pork knee onto my table with such force that the fat splashed onto the tablecloth. I was indignant first in English, and then in Russian. Her face suddenly brightened.

- You are Russian?! Sorry,” she said in heavily accented Russian. – I used to teach Russian at school, but now you can see for yourself what I’m doing.

I invited her for an evening cup of coffee. She came in an elegant dress, with lipstick on her lips, suddenly looking younger.

“It’s terribly nice to speak Russian after so many years,” Marianna told me. She smoked cigarette after cigarette, telling her story, the same as that of thousands of women from the former GDR.

– When the “Wessies” arrived, I was immediately thrown out of work as a party member and a Russian teacher. We were all suspected of having connections with the Stasi. And about the Stasi, the Wessies have now created a whole legend - they say that animals worked there. As if the CIA were better! If we had good intelligence, the GDR would still exist.

My husband was also laid off - he was then working at a mine in the town of Hoyerswerda (we lived there before). He couldn't stand it. I drank myself, like many others. For Germans, work is everything. Prestige, status, self-esteem. We divorced and he moved west. I was left alone with my little daughter. I didn’t yet know that this was only the beginning of all the troubles.

In the West, women hardly worked at that time. Not because of laziness. They did not have a system of kindergartens and nurseries. To get a job, I had to pay an expensive nanny, which practically ate up all my earnings. But if you sit at home with a child for five or six years, you lose your qualifications. Who needs you after this?

Everything was fine in the GDR: it was possible to go back to work six months after pregnancy. And we liked it. We're not homebodies. The children were looked after reliably and responsibly, and their early education was provided.

The "Wessies" came and abolished the entire system, closed most of the kindergartens, and in the remaining ones they introduced such a fee that the majority could not afford it. I was saved by my parents, who were forced into retirement. They could sit with my daughter, and I rushed around looking for work. But I was labeled as an “unreliable communist.” With my university education, I even worked as a cleaner.

Empty Stalinist courtyards in the former Stalinstadt

– But weren’t you paid unemployment benefits?

- Ha! "Vassie" then introduced a new rule that benefits should be paid only to those women who lost their jobs with children who can prove that they are able to provide day care for the children. And at that time my parents and husband still worked part-time. There was no one to sit with the child. And I never received the benefits. In general, I became a waitress. Sorry for throwing the plate. Life just seems so hopeless sometimes. My daughter grew up and moved to the west, working there as a nurse. I hardly see her. A lonely old age lies ahead. I hate those who broke the Berlin Wall! They were just fools.

Why don't I go west? Don't want. They invited all this terrorist trash to join them. One and a half million idle refugees, when Germany itself is full of unemployed! I'll stay here because we are the real Germany. The people here are patriots. Have you seen? All the houses here have German flags on them. But in the west you won't see them. This, they say, may offend the feelings of foreigners. I go to a rally every Monday "Pegids"– a party that opposes the Islamization of Europe.

Come and you will see real Germans.

“Putin is in my heart!”

Monday. The center of Dresden, surrounded by many police cars. Musicians in folk costumes play folk songs, middle-aged women and men sing along with them, happily stamping their feet. There are also quite a few young men with a defiant expression on their faces. What I see makes me tetanus. Everywhere Russian flags flutter proudly. One flag is simply amazing: half German, half Russian.

The standard bearer tries to explain to me in bad Russian that his flag symbolizes the unity of Russians and Germans. Lots of guys wearing T-shirts with a portrait of Putin. Posters with Putin and Merkel next to them with pig ears. Or Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a euro sign resembling a swastika. Posters of Muslim women in burkas with a cross through them. Calls for " friendship with Russia" And " war with NATO" People, where am I? Is this Germany?

Many protesters are carrying stuffed pigs. A good, fat pig is a symbol of a well-fed, Christian Germany. No halal food! " Long live Russia!- they shout around me. Some enthusiastic elderly woman repeats to me: “Putin is in my heart.” My head is spinning.

Protester wearing a Putin T-shirt

A young man named Michael clarifies the situation.

– Why do you believe Putin so much? – I’m surprised.

“He is the only strong leader who fights terrorism. And who to believe? This pro-American puppet Merkel, who opened the borders to strangers? They rape our women, kill our men, eat our bread, hate our religion and want to build a caliphate in Germany.

“But here in East Germany I hardly see any foreigners.”

No women in burkas!

“And we will do everything so that you don’t see them.” We are not racists. But everyone who comes to this country must work and respect its laws.

I tell Michael about what I saw in January in Munich. Young hysterical fools shouting “Munich should be colored!”, “We love you, refugees!” I remember how five thousand liberals were eager to beat up a hundred sane people who came out with the only slogan “No to the Islamization of Germany!” Only the police saved them from the massacre, clearing the way for the “fascists” with their batons.

“So this is “Wessie,” says Michael with indescribable contempt. “They believe everything their stupid newspapers write.” A we were born in the GDR. We are different and we are not easily fooled.

People carry stuffed pigs to a rally as a symbol of protest against halal food

Immunity to propaganda

This is how we are alike! We both agreed on this expression! Me and a deputy from the Alternative for Germany party Jörg Urban:

– Yes, we are distrustful, East Germans and Russians, and we hate everything that even remotely resembles propaganda. And this saves us from illusions. West Germany, as a showcase of ideal capitalism, lived without problems for 50 years. They grew up in the spirit that nothing could happen to them. "Vassies" are not realistic and are unable to look at what is happening rationally.

People in the GDR clearly knew that lying was a necessary part of life, for various reasons. They were often lied to, and they knew that they were being lied to. This, oddly enough, did not interfere with life. I was a happy young man, an excellent student, received a scholarship and was planning to supplement my education at the expense of the state abroad. I had confidence that everything would be fine tomorrow.

And then everything collapsed. It’s easier for young people, they are flexible. Now imagine adults who worked all their lives, and then they were told that no one needs you, your socialism was nonsense. They lost their jobs and, in a moral sense, got punched in the face. It was a difficult time, a collapse of illusions.

But these people got up and started their business from scratch. They know that life is not heaven, success is not a gift, and any enterprise can go down the drain right now. The fact that we happily became a united Germany, hang out flags and are ready to fight for our country is not nationalism. This secret of survival. The easiest people to understand us are the Russians, who suddenly lost their identity during perestroika and are regaining it now.

The "Wessies", the West Germans, have lived in a guaranteed paradise for so many years that they are unable to fight. Their culture is Conchita Wurst. Such a person is not capable of fighting for his country. But we can.

I sigh heavily:

– But you understand that Germany is not only part of NATO, but also territory occupied by the United States. Secret agreements...

“I don’t want to know about them,” says Mr. Jörg Urban with a distinctly ironic smile. – There are rumors about a secret pact to subjugate Germany to the United States. Do I really care? The entire history of the world has proven hundreds of times that treaties are just pieces of paper. When a wave of popular anger rises, it sweeps away everything.

Before our eyes, the collapse of the USSR, Yugoslavia, the GDR, and the Warsaw Pact took place. The same could happen with NATO or the EU. When an idea matures and takes hold of minds, any legal act becomes insignificant. If Germany again becomes a strong, independent power defending its interests, the secret pacts will become mere dust in the archives.

The State Duma proposes to consider the unification of Germany as annexation of the GDR

When Rolf goes out for a walk, he puts on a T-shirt: a yellow-red coat of arms of ears of corn, a hammer and a compass, with the signature at the bottom - “Born in the GDR.” When Rolf was born 14 years ago, there was no trace of the 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 GDR member.” He hardly sees his parents: both went to work in West Germany, like half of the residents of the former Karl-Marx-Stadt - the teenager is being raised 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 build nests 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 “Bashka” (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 so euphoric 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 a dead city, watching how the wind sweeps away scraps of newspapers and beer cans... Oh, how naive I was. No, I'm glad Germany united. But this is not heaven at all - this is an apocalypse.”

The Banana Revolution In the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fissure between West and East Germans has become a chasm. There was even a special term “ostalgia” - a derivative of Ost (east) and “nostalgia”: a symbol of the GDR members’ longing for their lost homeland.

According to the latest survey conducted by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, 49% of “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 the GDR cities, but in the East they insist that they owe nothing to anyone - “the Westerners destroyed our economy, the best among socialist countries!” “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 a little friction, but then, over time, everything would 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 the 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.

“The GDR people hate working,” says taxi driver Michel, originally from West Berlin. - They should just receive benefits for free! I think they even destroyed the Berlin Wall because they wanted to have bananas in stores; everything else in the GDR suited them anyway.” “When you receive bills for gas and water,” Grandma Greta complains, “you inevitably begin to feel nostalgic: under Honecker, everything cost a penny, and everyone had a job. The Berlin Wall collapsed, but did not disappear - it moved into people's heads." This is not so fantastic, given the data of another survey - as many as 25% of Western and 12% of East Germans were in favor of ... “rebuilding the wall again”!

“Honecker is a great guy!”

In Berlin itself, the remains of the formidable Berlin Wall have long since turned from a gloomy symbol of totalitarianism into an object of tourist attraction. Now the Berliners themselves don’t believe it - was it really possible that everything was different 20 years ago? And barbed wire, and electric current, and the neutral zone at the Brandenburg Gate, and towers with snipers? Arab migrant workers dressed in the uniform of GDR border guards are posing near the ruins 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 photo for 1 euro. In any souvenir shop at Checkpoint Charlie (the checkpoint for diplomats where spies were exchanged) there are stones from the wall with a certificate (they say they are stamped with all their might in China). The more substantial pieces were taken to the West - now they stand at the headquarters of the Microsoft Corporation and the CIA headquarters in Langley. “We have fewer people going to the Pergamon Museum to see the Gates of Ishtar from Babylon,” laughs Berlin historian Alex Kell. “Now the symbols of a ghost country - the GDR - bring the city impressive income from tourists.”

Friedrich (or, as he calls himself, Freddy) Heinzel owns a gift shop on the site where the wall was. His home is in West Berlin, two meters from the border: he remembers how, throwing a rope through a nearby window, people escaped to the West. “The Germans expected the fall of the Berlin Wall to be their ticket to nirvana,” 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 nowhere to spend money without you!” It’s funny, but 20 years ago we understood each other better.” The door slams - Heinzel is distracted, apologizing. Customers came in and looked at “Born in the GDR” T-shirts. Lately they have become more and more popular...

Did we do the right thing by giving away the GDR without any benefit for 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.

Historical reference

The construction of the wall dividing Berlin began on August 13, 1961 at the initiative of the GDR: with the goal of “protecting citizens from Western influence.” The Berlin Wall stretched for 155 km and included 302 towers, earthen ditches and an electric fence. Over 28 years, trying to escape to the West, according to various sources, from 192 to 1245 people died. On November 9, 1989, after massive street demonstrations that led to the fall of Erich Honecker's regime, the GDR authorities ordered the issuance of visas to those wishing to visit the West. That same night, a triumphant crowd destroyed the wall - standing in the gaps, East Germans fraternized with Western ones. TV broadcast this “picture” to the whole world. On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist.

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 conversations 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 b/w old photos
Already at a thinking age, “from how old 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 (Chord?), which my father loved to listen to and therefore I suspected him of sympathizing with the Nazis and shared my suspicions with my mother.

There was also a Madonna set, which my parents were very proud of.
Seeing no reason for pride, I simply looked with curiosity at the fleshy half-naked women depicted on the cups and saucers
By the way, I now remembered that my baby tooth was kept in a milk jug (it was not used in the family). Some of...

There was also a Leipzig store on Leninsky, where the most beautiful toys were sold 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, I was interested in visiting those places where I might have been carried 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: on my birthday I went to travel along lakes and canals in Europe. This time to the land of a thousand lakes - Mecklenburg, Vorpommern
It is north of Berlin, no more than 100 km

Why did you write this?

I wrote a review, and in fact an online report, during our journey:
And in this note I want to write about my impressions of the people in this part of Germany. We are traveling more and more in Bavaria, since from there it is closer to the Alps, to the skiing area
Well, now, while checking key phrases for search engines, I came across some nonsense written in the Russian media about how poorly former GDR members live and how they want to live again behind the Iron Curtain with their brotherly people in an embrace.

What surprised and touched

The first thing that surprised me about people was their complete, almost complete lack of knowledge of the English language.
As well as he is known in the villages and towns of Bavaria, they do not know him and do not 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 they speak fluently. No. But they are trying - it’s clear that they are delving into the closets of their memory and proudly saying: Hello! Please!
And they understand even better

I don’t know what it was like 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 pots and small fences
Soviet “Khrushchev” buildings look somewhat dissonant against the backdrop of a pastoral picture of calm and serenity, but even they are in complete order: neatly painted, windows replaced with double-glazed windows, flowers, flower beds, flowers in front of the entrances

East Germans dress 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 a cherry-colored Zhiguli 2103 in the parking lot near a house.
Treshka, as it was called. With chrome radiator grille.
Clean, well-groomed, without any flashing lights or red mudguards... Well, these are the Germans! - I said

How do they treat Russians?

How do they treat Russians?
Friendly and a little naive: in one place I ordered beer. The owner learned from a mixture of English, Polish, Russian and Hyundai that I was from Russia and immediately took a bottle of Putinoff vodka from the refrigerator and poured a stopar of vodka for my beer.
Those who barely remember the Russian language enjoy practicing its reproduction
And in one small town, in the very center of it, I discovered a cemetery - it was a long-standing (from World War 1) burial place of German soldiers, local residents, and right there the graves of Soviet soldiers and a monument with Russian inscriptions.
Clean and well-kept graves, although the tombstones themselves have already faded and it is difficult to make out what is written on them

How the Germans lived during the Berlin Wall (part 4)

Part 4 (conclusion)

Why did the population try to leave the GDR? This question interested me most. I wanted to hear an answer from someone who lived here at the time. And Uwe answered me quite clearly without giving examples of statistics, income of the population of that time, and other facts already described quite a lot on the pages of books and the Internet.

Why did the Germans leave the GDR?

First of all, it was, of course, the standard of living. West Germany (FRG) was distinguished by the abundance of food products in stores. Household appliances (refrigerators, televisions, etc.) were available for free sale. At that time, the population of East Germany experienced a shortage of household appliances.

The difference in the average salary, for example, of an ordinary school teacher was significant. A teacher in the Federal Republic of Germany received several times more than a specialist with similar education and experience in the Republic of the GDR. GDR enterprises operated at full capacity, but workers received the bare minimum. Everything that was produced in the GDR was exported to the former republics of the USSR.

Shopping in Moscow

At that time, a large factory producing electric water pumps was operating in the city of Oschersleben. Half of the city's working population worked at the plant. But it was impossible to buy a pump for your own needs; they were not sold in the GDR. Residents of the young republic purchased pumps of their own production in stores in Moscow.

USSR ruble

Most people went to major cities in the Soviet Union for shopping. Once a year, any resident was allowed to travel to the USSR after completing the necessary documents. But there was a problem with the export and exchange of money, (GDR) marks for rubles. The maximum amount for exchange was limited to 30 Soviet rubles. The exchange rate of the Soviet ruble at that time was equal to about 2.5 marks (GDR).

Stamps of the GDR

Positive moments of the GDR times

After the story, my interlocutor suddenly fell silent for several minutes. He looked at me, smiled and after a short pause said quietly, and you know, we lived worse than now, but it was a wonderful time. It may not have been what it is now, but there was an atmosphere of friendship.

The East Germans were more friendly, which cannot be said about the West Germans. They knew their neighbors well, spent holidays together and communicated. For residents of Germany, on the contrary, communication with a neighbor is nothing more than a short greeting.

And in conclusion, I would like to add that most Germans speak very well of Russian people. The Germans who left the territory of the GDR return back after the construction of the Berlin Wall.