This Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I’m brought back to my first visit to Berlin, a divided city then.
Crossing from West to East Berlin, we had to exchange 25 Mark (about 20 USD) into 25 Ostmark (East Mark). We could not bring East German currency out of the country – at least not legally. When leaving, any remaining Ostmark had to be handed over at the East German border post. You could not exchange it back, but you could ask for a receipt and collect the money if you returned within a year. Of course, you would then have to exchange another 25 Mark to enter anew.
Trouble was, it was difficult to spend 25 Mark in East Berlin. After a solid meal and several beers, you’d still have plenty left. The shops we saw were mostly filled with basic food stuffs – milk, flour, pickles and the like – and not exactly fashionable clothes, seen through the eyes of spoilt 1980s kids (this was, after all, the golden age of consumerism in the west.)
Alexanderplatz, East Berlin, East Germany
Es ist besser im Westen…
Ambling about Alexanderplatz that August day more than 25 years ago, we are approached by a middle-aged couple, eager to chat to us foreigners. As they wander on, the woman turns to us and says: Es ist besser im Westen – it’s better in the west. A few years later, in the early days of November 1989, almost one million people gathered on Alexanderplatz, demanding democratic reform.
- Bürgerrechte nicht nur auf Papier (Civil rights not just on paper)
- Unabhängige Gewerkschaft! (Independent trade unions!)
- Privilegien für alle (Privileges for everyone)
- Sozialismus ja, Egon nein. (‘Socialism yes, Egon no’, referring to then East German leader, Egon Krenz)
These were just a few of the slogans from those November days 25 years ago. You can see many of the banners at The German Historical Museum in Berlin.
Is it better?
Sometimes, I think about this woman. I wonder if she still thinks the west is better. All over the former eastern bloc, I’ve met people who long for old times. In Germany, it’s called Ostalgie: nostalgia for the east, for everyday life in East Germany. In the Balkans, they call it Jugonostalgija. Somewhat ironically, businesses have latched on to this phenomenon: old state-run TV-programmes are issued on DVD, Trabant cars take visitors around the city, and some of the old brands of food that had to yield to western brands are again available.
But it seems to go deeper than just a longing for the daily life of old. In the republics of the former Yugoslavia, I’ve heard numerous people express admiration for Tito. A few years ago, I talked with a young Macedonian, worried about his future, and that of his baby son. ‘I was born in 1977,’ he said. ‘My childhood was good. Now life is hard and the future… I don’t know. We are many who want a Tito.’
Others are tired of their past being marginalised.
Freedom of speech is good. But you can’t eat it.
When arguing freedom of speech, I’m often met with weary looks, sighs. It can be a question of survival. ‘Freedom of speech is good,’ a Russian mother said to me. ‘But you can’t eat it, can’t clothe your children in it during harsh Siberian winters. Before, everyone had jobs, a place to live and food on the table, education for our children, all our basic needs covered. Not anymore.’
In some western countries, freedom is often associated with a low degree of government interference in their lives. For others, freedom means not having to struggle to stay alive, not having to worry about the future.
For the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Der Spiegel – Germany’s largest news magazine – published an article with the headline Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism (in English here).
‘What about the freedom of being able to walk the streets without being mugged,’ another Russian asked me. During the communist regime, Moscow was one of the safest cities on earth. Not anymore.
We wanted democracy, not capitalism
When I ask people what they miss the most, many fondly reminisce about a simple stress-free life and a sense of community, of real friendships and solidarity, of having time for each other. Others talk about fairness and equality, incompatible with a brutal competitive economy, in their view. Most often, I’ve heard this sentiment: We wanted democracy, not capitalism.
“Freedom of speech is good. But you can’t eat it.” Perfect saying! Goes for many countries including the USA!
Surely, society is advanced enough that we can have both…
This is a very interesting topic. It seems to me that some people idealise a past when they didn’t have many worries. I’m sure they did have problems but of a different kind. I’ve always thought that Communist regimes treated their people like children and now these children have to face life as adults. A bit like having growing pains.
You may be right about it being like growing pains – will be interesting to hear the next generation.
Loved reading this. Really interesting…and all the time I was reading it, I was thinking about it. Then the quote you showed made sense; “We wanted democracy, not capitalism.” Not saying I agree with the quote (too much to think about, here! 🙂 ) but it does make sense.
Julia
It is indeed a lot to think about. And something we’ve not really had to think about much in the west.
In Denmark we have discussed freedom of speech to Dan Park and ad nauseum. Hard to find the right balance between personal freedom rights and respect for the rights of others.
I hadn’t heard about Dan Park. Must admit I’m curious to see his work.
Freedom to be whatever you choose, to move around at your own will, and to express a political opinion without being detained or otherwise penalized by the state. That’s freedom for me.
Important freedoms, for sure. Sadly, to be whatever you choose isn’t a realistic option for everyone, even in democracies.
This post is very interesting. And controversial at the same time. I lived under a communist regime for almost 10 years and all I remember was how hard it was. My childhood was grey, everything was ugly, no vivid colors just grey everywhere. My parents were worried all the time how to get food on our table, how to exchange vodka and cigarets for food. As some of you know it was not only the money but we all got a controlled by the government small sheets of paper to buy anything. How can anyone miss time when one person could only eat 120 grammes of salami a month? As kids we were trained to wait for hours in a queue to get 1kg of sugar of coffee. How cool is that? Instead of learning languages or geography our life was all about survival, hunting for scarce goodies all over the city. And how about our grandfathers who fought bravely in WWII and were later killed by the communist regime? Equality you say. Where, I would ask. There was no such thing as equality: people from the government had everything and all others like me and my family had nothing.
And I think that people have a hilarious tendency to twist their memories. I can’t remember equality. All I can remember was the we ALL were EQUALLY POOR but how good is that? There was not enough food nor money for everybody and this is simply a lie that we were not worried about the future.
True: democracy and freedom did not resolve every problem we had. In fact, we got plenty of new ones we haven’t expected. But at least the freedom of speech, of travel and many other civil rights give us a possibility to choose. And this is priceless.
Excellent, Agata. I was hoping to hear from someone who has lived through it. No one can better compare the different ways of life. So interesting to hear about your experiences, challenging as they must have been. I’ve mostly spoken with people in Russia and former East Germany and I wonder if this is perceived differently from country to country, and if so, why? Perhaps some countries have tackled the transition better than others… And, of course, maybe the various communist regimes varied, too.
I do think you’re right; we do have a tendency to paint the past – even the troubles of the past – in a rosy glow. Thanks for commenting – and I would love to hear more some time. Maybe at a TBEX or something… 🙂
A thoughtful post, Sophie, and interesting to read Agata’s comments too. I had a similar experience to you, albeit in the late ’70s. We changed our marks into East German marks before we crossed the border and got a ridiculous amount of money for it. It was like all our Christmases had come at once … except we could find very little to spend it on. What’s more, we had officially only changed a small amount of money at the border so we couldn’t return laden with goods. So we lashed out on fancy meals – as fancy as you could get in East Berlin in the 1970s – and we still had loads of money leftover!
Great memories, aren’t they, Christine 🙂
Very interesting post and discussion indeed. I agree freedom of speech is good, but you can’t eat it so true. Nevertheless I would never want to live in a country where everything is grey and poor and where you have to stand in line for everything and that does not allow you to travel freely.
I only visited East Berlin after the fall of the Wall but I do remember once watching with my family from the West over the Wall to the East and I thought it all looked very depressing. I agree times are hard but that does not mean living like that was better but then again everybody has his/her own opinion I guess and I cannot compare.
Thanks for your comment, Freya. I remember East Berlin look drab, at least to our eyes.
I didn’t get to Berlin until 1991, but I’ve been back there several times. I can’t speak for the old days there, I suspect it depends on how your individual family was doing then and now. I know there was a lot of difficulty in East Germany for a while, and apparently most of the Eastern part is still poorer than the Western part. On the other hand, they had things like universal child care in East Germany which no longer exist.
In any case I find Berlin fascinating, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to discover its Cold War heritage before it disappears.