Born in the GDR: Living in the Shadow of the Wall

194 Pages·2014·3.65 MB·English

by  Hester Vaizey

BORN IN THE GDR
Born
IN THEL IGVIDNGR IN THE SHADOW
OF THE WALL
Hester Vaizey
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the people who have helped me to write this book. The
East Germans I interviewed were extremely generous with their time and their
stories. Without them, this book would not have been possible. William Cavert,
Mark Fenemore, Jan Hennings, Catherine Orme, Matthew Stibbe, and David
Tinnion read early drafts of the manuscript and provided insightful feedback.
Angela Abmeier gave me a roof over my head in Berlin while I was conducting
my research. Clare College, Cambridge, provided funding for this project. My
agent, Peter Robinson, was instrumental in helping this book to see the light of
day. And Matthew Cotton and Luciana O’Flaherty at Oxford University Press
were most helpful in the final stages of getting the manuscript ready. My family,
Margaret, Russell, and George Vaizey, gave me their unstinting support as ever.
Above all, though, it is my husband, David Tinnion, who has lived and breathed
this book with me every step of the way. This book is dedicated to him.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Glossary
Preface
Introduction
1. Petra ~ Shaping the Change
2. Carola ~ Seeing the Contradictions
3. Lisa ~ Accepting the Circumstances
4. Mario ~ Feeling the Regime’s Wrath
5. Katharina ~ Believing in God under Pressure
6. Robert ~ Supporting the Idea of Socialism
7. Mirko ~ Rejecting the Party Line
8. Peggy ~ Feeling Safe and Secure
Interpreting the End of East Germany
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
1 Divided Germany, 1949–1989
2 Thousands of people rushed to the Berlin Wall in the days after it opened
3 Petra Bläss as a delegate of the Independent Women’s Association on the East German Electoral
Commission in 1990
4 Carola’s GDR passport
5 Carola’s passport, showing her tourist visa to visit West Germany
6 Extract from Carola’s diary, on 22nd November 1988
7 Carola’s draft application to leave the GDR for good
8 Carola’s last school report from 5th July 1986
9 East Germans are welcomed as they drive their Trabant into West Berlin on the morning of 10th
November 1989
10 ‘Wall woodpeckers’, 12th November 1989
11 Sixteen-year-old Mario on holiday in 1984
12 Photograph of Mario on his arrival at the Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen, Berlin on 3rd July 1987
13 An interrogation room at the Stasi prison in Berlin Hohenschönhausen, Berlin
14 Free at last! Mario standing in front of the Berlin Wall in Kreuzberg, West Berlin in March 1988
15 Mario on holiday in Sweden, August 2010
16 Katharina and Gilbert at the registry office in Prenzlauer Berg, East Berlin, on their wedding day,
23rd October 1987
17 Katharina and Gilbert on holiday in 1987 on Rügen, an island off East Germany in the Baltic Sea
18 Robert’s membership card to the socialist Young Pioneers Organization (Pionierausweiss)
19 Robert’s ticket to an alternative rock concert organized by the FDJ in the summer of 1989
20 Robert as a teenager, on the day of his Jugendweihe in 1988
21 Postcard from the Young Pioneers’ holiday camp ‘M. I. Kalinin’ near Berlin in the 1980s
22 Robert’s passport bearing the stamp of his first visit to West Berlin on 12th November 1989
23 GDR refugees on the train leaving Prague for West Germany in the autumn of 1989
24 Mirko as a teenager on his first solo visits to East Berlin: (above) aged 16; (below) aged 15
25 ‘……and it [the Wall] will still be standing in a hundred years.’: Erich Honecker speaking in Berlin
on 19th January 1989
26 Extract from Mirko’s exercise book. Sketch of the GDR flag scribbled out to emphasize its demise
27 ‘But I love you all ……’: Erick Mielke addressing the Volkskammer on 13th November 1989
28 Claudia’s school report from 1989
29 Smell samples collected from political ‘enemies’ by the Stasi
30 Traffic light men (Ampelmänner) in East Berlin
31 A Trabant outside the Brandenberg Gate, Berlin, 1984
Glossary
DTA Deutsches Tagebucharchiv (German Diary Archive)
FDJ Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth Organi-zation)
FRG Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Ostalgie Nostalgia for the former East Germany
PDS Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (Party of
Democratic Socialism)
SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (German
Socialist Unity Party), the East German the Communist
Party in the GDR
SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social
Democratic Party)
Staatsbürgekunde Citizenship lessons
Wende This literally means ‘change’, and is a term used to describe
the period of transition following the fall of the Berlin Wall