General Category > Introduce Yourself
Greetings from Germany!
Ambiorix:
--- Quote from: Nora on December 30, 2007, 10:49:06 AM ---
--- Quote from: Ambiorix on December 30, 2007, 09:52:45 AM ---Do average East-Germans think they had a better live under DDR?
I thought that they were happy the DDR collapsed?
--- End quote ---
They were happy until they discovered that West Germans have to actually WORK for their prosperity.
As I said, according to them, EVERYTHING was better in the DDR. They pretended to work and the state pretended to pay them. They had to work ten years for a lousy car and if they told their minds they were could end up in the death cell but everything was ***screech*** just wonderful.
Apropos lousy car. In the city of Zwickau they celebrated the 50th birthday of the Trabant earlier this year with a big exhibition, including dummies in uniform, banners, flags, DDR-nationality markings, hammer and sickle, the lot. Now imagine the same for the Volkswagen, including Nazi-uniforms, flags with the swastika and all the trimmings. Unthinkable! (And rightfully so!) But WHAT makes nostalgia for another ugly dictatorship permissable, even likeable, for people would swoon at the sight of a swastika is beyond me. The hypocrisy drives me up the wall.
As I said, too, the people are kind and friendly here and I can't affort to alienate all my contacts, but I sometimes just want to scream.
--- End quote ---
What do the East-Germans think about blacks/muslims/aliens?
Ultra Requete:
We have the same kind of people in Poland they will tell you that comunism was better but try to ask them what was precisly the good; they'll shut up; although in comparison to other "demoluds" (all east block countries were oficialy "popular" and/or "democratic" republics) we had (after 1956) more cultural freedoms (Rock'N"Roll and pepsi ;)), farmlands in hands of pesants not state, small private buisneseses and craftmen and catholic church as alternative to comunist party. But the lack of noble class is showing itself especialy in politics which lack the class and coherent direction. about blck/muslims The East Gemans propably still condier them as aliens the multiculturalism is very shalow concept here. Welcome Nora on our forum. :)
MassuhDGoodName:
Re: "...according to them, EVERYTHING was better in the DDR..."
It is a fact of human nature, that when we look backwards we tend to remember only the positive aspects of our lives; we subconsciously repress memories of unpleasantness.
Add to that fact the terrible culture shock experienced, when slaves who from cradle to grave have had every aspect of their lives controlled and decided for them by others, are suddenly made free; expected to now function normally as individuals, not only in an unstable society where competition determines one's socio-economic status, but also in an unplanned economy in which one must make personal choices and decisions from amongst an almost endless array of market and career possibilities which present tremendous challenges, and for which they are unprepared.
Nora:
Well, what about the xenophobia of the "Ossies"? Of course we have to differentiate between the politically correct elites and the people. The latter tend to beat strange looking foreigners up, to the hypocritical dismay of the latter, who adamantly refuse to see any connection between that specific sort of violence and that specific dictatorship, which ended, after all, only 18 years ago and may have something to do with the "no go" areas for coloureds in East Germany. But as it is, it's all "Neo-Nazi violence" a violence that came out of the blue, Neo-Nazi violence nobody dares to call post-Communist violence.
That we don't see even more of it is due to the fact that there are very few Muslims or Blacks in East Germany at all because, historically, the former GDR was friendly with the Communist countries from South East Asia, so you see a lot of East Asians here. They are hard-working (shops with horrible, cheap stuff and countless diners come to mind) and keep themselves to themselves. They are inoffensive and reasonably friendly and I have never found that people here are giving them much thought.
Another reason is that Muslims have a huge, thriving infrastructure in West Germany, so why bother with the East?
Yes, all that is sad and what is even sadder is the fact that there are places in West Germany -- no go areas -- where ethnic Germans better don't go. Places, where an unattended ethic German woman or girl better doesn't go. Places, where elderly ethnic Germans better don't go -- AND NO GERMAN MEDIUM EVER GIVES A DAMN. But here I digress from your question what East Germans think about foreigners/Muslims.
I guess the non-violent majority of Germans here just can't fathom what life in a Muslim-ruled town, city or neighbourhood is like, so they won't find them the threat they clearly are. It's not much of a topic here anyway.
To be honest, I personally, find the absence of Muslims maybe THE most redeeming quality here.
Nora:
--- Quote from: Ultra Requete on December 30, 2007, 11:33:32 AM ---We have the same kind of people in Poland they will tell you that comunism was better but try to ask them what was precisly the good; they'll shut up; although in comparison to other "demoluds" (all east block countries were oficialy "popular" and/or "democratic" republics) we had (after 1956) more cultural freedoms (Rock'N"Roll and pepsi ;)), farmlands in hands of pesants not state, small private buisneseses and craftmen and catholic church as alternative to comunist party. But the lack of noble class is showing itself especialy in politics which lack the class and coherent direction. about blck/muslims The East Gemans propably still condier them as aliens the multiculturalism is very shalow concept here. Welcome Nora on our forum. :)
--- End quote ---
UltraR, hi! I guess the Catholic Church, in spite of the many faults it may have, was able to give some focus to the people of Poland.
I am not quite sure whether I understand your term 'noble class' correctly. Do you mean a class that could potentially bring... well, "class" into politics? Style? Conservative values? That is certainly something we don't have in Germany either. And look what happened to Britain. Did the dismantling of the House of Lords help? Not a bit! They are the saddest, most dhimmified bunch in the whole of Europe.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version