QUOTE
Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be
Rose-tinted memories of the German Democratic Republic are giving way to a colder appraisal of what life was really like under communism
Sunday, May. 21, 2006
All but a few stretches of the Berlin Wall were torn down in the first heady months after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.). Yet some east Germans still cling to memories of the 40 years they lived under communist rule — memories that have grown more affectionate with time. Speciality shops and some websites offer east German board games, 15-packs of the infamously rough Cabinet cigarettes, Be Ready condoms, even cans of Trabi Duft — fumes from the iconic Trabant car — and the very brand of hair gel preferred by former east German leader Erich Honecker. Young Berliners still gather at "authentic" G.D.R. parties, where guests don the uniforms of state organizations, swill Little Red Riding Hood sparkling wine and dance to ballads like In the East, which sold 300,000 copies a few years ago. This phenomenon of nostalgia for the lost east, dubbed Ostalgie, was neatly encapsulated in the 2003 hit film Goodbye Lenin!, a sweet-tempered comedy about a son who protects the feelings of his ailing mother by pretending the Wall is still standing and the G.D.R. is intact.
That may be an amusing concept for most cinemagoers. For many east Germans, struggling to find their feet in the new realities of a reunited Germany, and missing the rigid certainties of life in a totalitarian state, it struck a deeper chord. In retrospect the G.D.R. really didn't seem all that malign, just a bit comical with its puttering cars, camp displays of military might and empty shelves. But now, it seems, east Germans may finally be ready to take a colder, harder look at their communist past.
Rose-tinted memories of the German Democratic Republic are giving way to a colder appraisal of what life was really like under communism
Sunday, May. 21, 2006
All but a few stretches of the Berlin Wall were torn down in the first heady months after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.). Yet some east Germans still cling to memories of the 40 years they lived under communist rule — memories that have grown more affectionate with time. Speciality shops and some websites offer east German board games, 15-packs of the infamously rough Cabinet cigarettes, Be Ready condoms, even cans of Trabi Duft — fumes from the iconic Trabant car — and the very brand of hair gel preferred by former east German leader Erich Honecker. Young Berliners still gather at "authentic" G.D.R. parties, where guests don the uniforms of state organizations, swill Little Red Riding Hood sparkling wine and dance to ballads like In the East, which sold 300,000 copies a few years ago. This phenomenon of nostalgia for the lost east, dubbed Ostalgie, was neatly encapsulated in the 2003 hit film Goodbye Lenin!, a sweet-tempered comedy about a son who protects the feelings of his ailing mother by pretending the Wall is still standing and the G.D.R. is intact.
That may be an amusing concept for most cinemagoers. For many east Germans, struggling to find their feet in the new realities of a reunited Germany, and missing the rigid certainties of life in a totalitarian state, it struck a deeper chord. In retrospect the G.D.R. really didn't seem all that malign, just a bit comical with its puttering cars, camp displays of military might and empty shelves. But now, it seems, east Germans may finally be ready to take a colder, harder look at their communist past.
Full article available at Time Europe
Related TT discussion on Ostalgie
