Germany Has Learned The WRONG Lessons Of History | Prof. Dan Bednarz

[Part 2 of 2] Today I’ve got Dan Bednarz with me who wrote a very interesting book titled, “East German Intellectuals and the Unification of Germany”: An Ethnographic View.
This book is quite cool for four reasons: First, usually it’s the Europeans who go out into the world and then do ethnographic and anthropological studies of the non-whites to understand how they function and what they do. And here we haven an American who does this to the Germans, so it is an outsider view of East and West German society, trying to understand these groups.
Secondly, the book does something you don’t read or see often in German publishing landscape; it takes the East German experience serious. Especially that of intellectuals, who witnessed what was happening to “their” Germany during the re-unification process in the 1990s very ambivalently.
Third, it is also a very interesting long term study, because Dan first observed Germany right before the wall fell, then talked to these East German intellectuals, and then came back in 2014 to follow up with them 24 years later.
And finally, the book links-up with today where we clearly see different electoral preferences in Germany where the AfD is most strong in East Germany, and East-Germans seem to me also to be way, more critical of media narratives.

[@Pecteu]

In this video, the observation of cognitive dissonance as a driving force to avoid the discussion about Russia and Gaza, also applies to the discussion about Corona. I lived in Berlin at that time, and I experienced the exact same reactions as now with Russia and Gaza, only now from a different political angle. It does not surprise me that the AfD has become so big, partly due to former left-oriented voters. Fortunately, Sahra Wagenknecht's party offers a very good alternative.

[@g.h.1442]

Leider wird S. Wagenknechts BSW nicht den in sie gesetzten Hoffnungen gerecht. Es sind ehemalige Linke, die hoffen ihren Sitz im Bundestag und ihre finanzielle Versorgung zu behalten durch "rechtzeitigen" Absprung. Sie können unsere Krisen nicht lösen. Frau Wagenknecht versucht weiter everybodies darling der Mainstream-Medien zu sein, ist halbherzig bei ihren Themen und wird daher im Osten kaum Erfolg haben. The left side is actually "dead" in my opinion.

[@dabrack9350]

Big surprise that the intellectuals who benefited from the communist government miss their entitled lives. The stories out of the former East Germany by 1995 included the breakdown of the sewage systems due to a lack of people to flush toilets.

[@doroparker1702]

Wenn du glaubst, daß Wagenknecht deine Interessen vertritt, schau mal an wie sie die letzten drei Jahre abgestimmt hat. Meistens war sie nicht anwesend oder sie enthielt sich der Stimme. Sagen und tun sind zwei verschiedene Dinge bei ihr. Bei Kubicki genauso. Die beiden reden ganz tolle Sachen und dann gehen sie nicht zur Abstimmung. In der letzten Abstimmung wo es um die Kriminalität der Zuwanderung geht, ist sie und ihre Partei der gleichen Meinung wie die Grünen. Schau dir diese Frau sehr genau an. Sie ist blitzgescheit, keine Frage. Sie ist mit dem wesentlich älteren Oskar Lafontaine verheiratet oder verpartnert. Er kann mit ihr um ganz viele Ecken denken, er ist pensionierte Politiker und hat viel Zeit. Kinder haben sie keine, also denken sie nicht 30 Jahre voraus. Für die Zukunft ihrer Kinder tun leider sehr wenige Politiker etwas sinnvolles.

[@katjaeichner7323]

I as the German make the same experience. There is a big difference between my western and my eastern friends. With the most west-Germans you can’t talk about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. If you want to take a critical view!There are no normal discussions and argumentations possible! With many east-Germans you can at least discuss these subjects!

[@alexeymaksakov9047]

Hah. for Gaza it's very simple - they do the wrongspeak -they go to jail, at least according to the law. For another topic it also can happen. Basically you're not allowed to express certain opinions by the laws, so "western" point of view is enforced on everyone. It's not smart to mess with the law in Germany, at least for now. How is it different from "horrors" told about DDR opinion enforcement - I don't know.

[@gregwang8628]

That means the western Germany is more ideological than the eastern part.

[@isamkamel]

Because west Germans believe a lot of trash are are bombarded with in the media believing they are in good hands of the system. It is Einbildung of freedom...

[@alexeymaksakov9047]

@@gregwang8628 Not only idelogical, but also enforces ideology by the law. Also YT and Alphabet erase uncinvenient comments.

[@Bobomaisse]

The Eastern germans just see how west Germany is turning into something they already know. The sed 2.0,the uniparty

[@akap_987]

People who cannot have a conversation that tests their assumptions lack intellectual courage

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

And moral integrity.

[@louise_rose]

Perfectly put, and this is very typical of think-tank culture. Think-tanks /political PR groups and their alumni have taken over a great deal of public debate in the media over the last thirty years, and ousted the old-style free intellectuals, historians and academic researchers from the scene.

[@akap_987]

@@Khayyam-vg9fw 100%

[@giselapfeifer4666]

They don't want to face the truth..

[@Olegstuff21986]

Reminds me of a certain person in my family, unfortunately. The reactions to anything that challenges their assumptions are: anger, insults, lashing out.

[@brankajosilo-perry8889]

Asset stripping and liquidation of companies has happened all over Eastern Europe. The West moved in closed down local factories and companies and brought in their own.

[@louise_rose]

The plan in the 1990s was to do the same thing in Russia, using the financial shock and enforced sale /marketization of state-run companies to stage a progressive but fast takeover of most of business life, mining, banking etc. With most of industry and finance under western control, low taxes and a weakened government forced to abide by western standards, the Russian government would find itself with its hands tied behind its back, much like in a Central American country. Russia, however. would have none of that and after some very tough years fought back, reasserting its control over its own assets and its future. NATO has never forgiven them, of course.

[@pavel-chemist]

@@louise_rose Only that while the assets were not transferred to the western powers, but a small group of well-placed Russians, mostly originating from former soviet nomenclature, which became so-called "oligarchs". And all they did was to exploit the formerly state assets for personal enrichment, and they stored their riches in the West nevertheless. Comparing to european countries from former Warsaw pact, the wealth in Russia became much more concentrated, and most of population (especially outside Moscow and St Petersburg) is still living in abject poverty.

[@louise_rose]

@@pavel-chemist That's the neo-con narrative. It is in countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria or Lithuania that the people have been pecked clean and stripped of any real support from the state or public funding. Russia still has a solid public educational system, free or low-priced healthcare by state subsidizing, upkeep of roads and railways etc, while those have been allowed to rot in Ukraine and you can't get anything done there without offering bribes or, often enough, buying it from a private provider, Ukraine is the Kingdom of the Oligarchs and their western buddies.

[@tonyv5202]

​@@pavel-chemistI think the oligarchs were western puppets. Putin has been getting rid of them.

[@user-rm8ec2uo9o]

​@@pavel-chemist you never know who is the real beneficiary of the company if the comany is registered in Seychelles...

[@DaeViZ0n3]

My grandpa, to this day calls the reunification of Germany „Wiedervereinnahmung“. I was born in the GDR and brought up in Eastern Germany. I still exactly understand what Dan is talking about and I can very much relate to how he is describing things. It is fascinating to hear that a foreigner would come to such conclusions. I miss the way that the world around me worked when I was little. People who lived in the GDR, it appears to me have a can do mentality, while West Germans oftentimes have a completely different way of thinking.

[@ThvonS]

I am deeply sorry to what Germany has turned into. I am norwegian with german anchestors

[@jacobpast5437]

Dr. Bednarz is quite right. The closest translation of "Abwicklung" in the sense it was used after the unification is "liquidation" (as in e.g. "the liquidation of a bankrupt company"). Here is a telling quote from the article of the German Wikipedia on the "Treuhandanstalt", the agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to privatise East German enterprises: "Der Journalist Tim Rahmann wirft der Behörde vor, dass westdeutsche Betriebe die *_Abwicklung_* der ostdeutschen GmbHs (von Rahmann als VEB-Betriebe bezeichnet) nutzten, um potenzielle Konkurrenten auszuschlachten." "Journalist Tim Rahmann accuses the agency [of the fact] that West German companies are using the *_liquidation_* of East German GmbHs (referred to by Rahmann as VEB companies) to gut potential competitors."

[@parmykumar8592]

I knew a German friend in Berlin who wrote about this 20 years back & he even coded the words they used! 😂

[@neovxr]

You are lucky for now, while my words about the matter have been censored. There's a lot to learn from the sad fate of certain managers. point the people to that one again, in real life. There is the weapon of fear. But it tells you also that there is no appeasement. In the other direction, namely.

[@nicholaswright9197]

It’s “winding up”. A gentler term than liquidation but means the end of a project or activity.

[@uncle_Samssubjects]

​@@nicholaswright9197hostile takeover always end with liquidation. They use the drug dealer formula of "shutting the competition down".

[@Mr.Heller]

They have dissonance because they know they're wrong, but they don't want to belive it. For "intellectuals", choosing *not to think* on something is shameful, which makes them double down on avoiding these topics altogether.

[@louise_rose]

Germany is not a fully sovereign state, they are bound up both to Washington and to Brussels (the EU top brass in turn being America's mid-level managers, more or less). For a long time those bonds may have looked like useful safety belts - we all know why most of Europe doesn't want a strong, assertive Germany - but with the US on a slow decline, Germany too is feeling the pull of American policy adventures sharper than before.

[@dieterbarkhoff1328]

@@louise_rose Um, are we not allowed to use the term 'Blackmailed by Israel', or, Voltaire-like, is that something we are not allowed to say or question?

[@louise_rose]

@@dieterbarkhoff1328 I was thinking more of Germany's uneasy position regarding the Ukraine war, but Israel has certainly been working hard as well, to make some things look like "you can't put it like that!"

[@eyeofchorus6313]

It makes me think of how poor American Southerners are portrayed; backward.

[@peetsnort]

Exactly. Pride before the fall

[@Robynahillpaints]

These comments by Europeans are very interesting. As an American I appreciate hearing these perspectives.

[@uncle_Samssubjects]

As a lifelong Philadelphian with a interest in history and JUSTICE this has been blatantly obvious my whole life since I could understand Common Sense, and the concept of LIBERTY.

[@manin-progress3752]

5:00 : a historical annotation : rohwedder as the first boss of the treuhand, tasked with the liquidation / abwicklung of the GDR was NOT killed by like random east german citizens angry about the politics of the treuhand (which it sounds a bit like, as you are telling it) i studied rohwedder a bit in connection with the other political asssassinations in germany in the 90es, which were all officially attributed to the RAF and/or StaSi rohwedder had a good reputation as salvator of companies, not a destroyer; his plan for the abwicklung was actually quite moderate in comparison to what happened after his assasination and replacement by a hardliner: he wanted to keep as many east german companes alive as possible, preferably put them into the hands of the workers instead of dismantling them or hand them over to western 'investors' he aimed at an 'abwicklung' that didnt make the east loose face and didnt humiliate them gorbatchev met him personally ca a year before german 'reunification'; rohwedder as head of the transformation process of east germany might even have been an important part of the negotiations to get gorbatchevs approval for the reunification of germany in the weeks before the assassination, the family rohwedder perceived signs of threat, asked for police protection - and were DENIED it - the headd of the counterterrorism department of german police BKA expressed in surprisingly direct words, that he was angry about the state NOT WANTING to protect rohwedder (although he was officially number 1 on the list of probable assassination victims) to me it looks much like, rohwedder had a different approach to the abwicklung of GDR, but was needed to get the whole thing going; then, when the point of no return hadd been reached, he was pressured to radicalize his course, and when he refused, he was assassinated in accordance with WESTERN ECONOMIC and POLITICAL INTERESTS, (by 'the usual suspects' possibly instrumentalizing some StaSi-leftovers as useful idiots, not simply by 'angry east germans') remarkably he was replaced by an absolut hardliner, who pursued a path diametrically opposite to rohwedders plan - and then the destruction and humiliation of east germany began for real otherwise : great content shedding light on something, that is elsewhere totally tabooed !!

[@conceptualclarity]

That was very irresponsible for the interviewee and thank you for this rejoinder comment

[@conceptualclarity]

However it does sound like the evidence against the RAF was very strong

[@walthaus]

Interesting conversation. As a West German born in the mid 60s who left Deutschland in 1990 in part because I saw and still see reunification and the allowing of such by Gorbachev as a historic error I do have to wonder why nobody points to what seems obvious to me regarding west german-east german relations which is the following: After causing WW II, the worst catastrophe in modern history the inhabitants of West Germany were relatively soon enjoying rapid economic success in exchange for a sweet deal , agreeing to have their territory and their culture colonized by the United States while the inhabitants of East Germany had to deal with the fallout of WW II on a daily basis in the form of a repressive social and economic regime supported and controlled tightly by the USSR under which they nonetheless achieved significant economic success during the 70s. Then, after the GDR collapsed they got the short end of the stick again being treated as 2nd class Germans and their economy being wound down as "Konkursmasse", no wonder there's division to this day with westerners continuously whining about having done so much for the "Ossis" without a clue of what actually happened. Maybe I'm wrong about this because I didn't "live it" but that's my impression.

[@ernstraedecker6174]

"Besserwessies"

[@dieterbarkhoff1328]

So WW2 had nothing to do with the injustices of Versailles and the aim of totally destroying the German people? yeah, sure, Brittania rules and must rule the waves.

[@yaoliang1580]

You are very right. I am a frequent visitor to Germany n has lots of German friends, so i khow a bit of the German psyche

[@bjolie78]

Why exactly do you see the reunification as historical error, that shouldn't have been allowed by Gorbachev? Are you a west German communist, and where did you go?

[@louise_rose]

@Letsthinkaboutit-mb7nn Correct - after the end of the Cold War (and the end of East Germany, the Soviet Union etc) it became very easy for western politicians, think-tanks etc to just wave their hands and say "Yeah, everything that is not geared to blanket free-market economics and neo-liberal privatized economy will just lead to impoverished Bolshevik societies, Gulag etc!". The absence of an alternative to the neo-lib globalization plus the supposed "victory of the US" (the US only?) turned the field into a match on one goal only. I'm from Sweden which famously used to be a "mixed economy" country with a great deal of public/state investment but also a powerful private industry sector, yet after 1990 the political buzz was that this model had become outdated (in effect, it was sacrificed for the sake of entering the EU and increasing immigration from the MENA regions). These days, Sweden has a much less powerful industrial sector than we had in the 1980s, a rabid housing crisis, a hopeless school system, and a far less reliable or honest political class, but the media don't want to discuss why these changes have happened.

[@RobertaSirgutz]

American Cold War capture of Europe began with programs like this Marshall plan and financial indebtedness. The role of US policy intended to make it a vassal state of America, in it's quest for worldwide hegemony. There's ONE party. The "Uniparty " that maintains its class interest.

[@louise_rose]

Americans also like to think that the end of the Cold War was *their* doing - they think Reagan and the US, more than anybody else, removed the iron curtain. and that 1989/90 meant the US winning both moral and political stewardship of the entire world, global supremacy. That's a very simplified narrative of course, but the liberal/neo-c@n hegemony since then has made it difficult to hold up powerful alternatives to it in the mass media. The way history is told is important, and it can be used to hide part of what is going on. Churchill knew, after the end of WW2, that the war had also dealt a mortal blow to the British Empire. He knew that both Roosevelt and Stalin had told him that the empire had to go, that they were not fighting to hand it back to him on a silver platter - and also, that the Japanese had shown to all of Asia that white overlords were not invincible. But he didn't want this to be part of his own story of the war, so in writing his own hugely influential history of WW2, he took care to keep that angle outside of the picture, even though British India had already gone when the first volume of his work went into print (without the possession of India and also with a shrunk-down navy, much of the rest of the BE was fairly meaningless and would have to go too).

[@ralphmumbeck5758]

​@@louise_rose Yes, excellent. The entire narrative that "Churchill made a (quote) _'mistake'_ by calling his 1945 general election opponents Nazis" is most likely a misconception. Churchill knew of the emotional effect of the revealled Holocaust would have, and therefore consciously engineered his own defeat. He simply did not want to be associated with the end of the British Empire, which he had played a large part in enabling, and knew most politically clueless Brits would blame "lefties" for that.

[@annoloki]

Well yes, and it is "class interest" more than it is US interest... the USA is simply the head of the plutocracy that we call "the west", "the democracies", "the free world" etc. If you look at the interventions into Ukraine, Taiwan for example, you find these actually follow money being spent in the US by people from those countries... you might wonder why anyone in Taiwan would be allowing the US to "meddle", considering how well it worked out for Ukraine, but this is reverse thinking. It is the nationalists in Taiwan that are spending the money on lobbying in the USA to shape American policy. It's an open door plutocracy, with the mechanism being the money spent into the information system, either directly through ownership of media apparatus, or indirectly through think tanks, NGOs, PR firms, and political campaign contributions. Of particular importance is controlling the narrative of newspapers that politicians read... you don't need to bribe politicians if you can make all potential politicians be "true believers".

[@wojteks4712]

Wow, so much BS I am shocked. Are you all bots? Where is this coming from?

[@RobertaSirgutz]

@@wojteks4712 Sir/ Madam, do I sound like a "bot"? I am not. Just an informed citizen. Not a Communist plant. Wake up.

[@jfrorn]

It’s also called Privatization

[@meggallucci5300]

Yes, I think privatization is the term we might use. It was the plague that almost destroyed Russia too.

[@frankiewally1891]

yeah, that`s how Poland`s wealth has been sold and plundered by the western corporations and corrupted local ex-communist politicians. Total Schweineright !

[@uncle_Samssubjects]

*Fraud

[@jacobpast5437]

"Ostalgie" is a wordplay (removing the initial "N" from "Nostalgie") referring to nostalgia for the GDR or certain aspects of it. In the literal translation "eastalgia" the pun is kind of lost, so "ostalgia" is usually used. For those interested, there is an article also in the English Wikipedia on "Ostalgie".

[@tmarinelic]

and an east German is an "Osti"

[@jacobpast5437]

@@tmarinelic Usually "Ossi" - also derived from "Ost(en)" (east).

[@user-kf1pf5qw4d]

LOL ... I like it!!! I think Ostalgie is based on the Stockholm Syndrom ... When they miss the DDR ... Stupid ..

[@OZUndead]

@@tmarinelic You don't get to say the O Word, but you can say "Deutscher mit sozialistischem Hintergrund".

[@xaverlustig3581]

@@user-kf1pf5qw4d Ostalgie is mostly non-political, the celebration of East German music, style, consumer goods etc. People who were opposed to the regime may still enjoy it. It's easy to understand, even if you disliked the politics you still lived a large chunk of your life there and have fond memories of things you experienced in your youth.

[@AzizAziz-lc2qk]

If that's what they did to east Germany then what they did to Greece now makes so much more sense!!

[@peetsnort]

Yes .who can forget the haircut

[@marie-laure.]

They also did it to France, but they need France to look the part so that people do not notice...

[@jacobpast5437]

Divide and concquer is the name of the (media) game. I was living in Greece during that time and I remember one Greek friend worrying about getting enough money together to decently feed his kids, another friend about the medication for his aged mother. These were simple people. My German friends on the other hand saw Greeks as lazy cheaters who embezzeled EU funding which was paid for by German tax payers. Character assassination and ad hominems are other tricks up the media's sleeves. My German friends still think Yannis Varoufakis is a garishly clad ego-inflated narcissist on a motorbike who tried to destroy the EU out of spite. That was while at the same time the unaccountable Eurogroup (headed by Schäuble and all impeccably clad) formed policies behind closed doors basically depriving an EU member state of its sovereignty.

[@stavroskarageorgis4804]

Correct!

[@jacobpast5437]

[Second time I post this comment, changing a few words, since it is hidden under the tab "top comments" and only visible under "newest comments"] Divide and concquer is the name of the (media) game. I was living in Greece during that time and I remember one Greek friend worrying about getting enough money together to decently feed his kids, another friend about the medication for his aged mother. These were simple people. My German friends on the other hand saw Greeks as lazy cheaters who embezzeled EU funding which was paid for by German tax payers. Smear campaigns and ad hominems are other tricks up the medias' sleeves. My German friends still think Yannis Varoufakis is a garishly clad ego-inflated narcissist on a motorbike who tried to destroy the EU out of spite. That was while at the same time the unaccountable Eurogroup (headed by Herr Schäu... and all impeccably clad) formed policies behind closed doors basically depriving an EU member state of its sovereignty.

[@r.w.emersonii3501]

Other words pertaining to liquidation that come to me: "gutted", "looted", "stripped".

[@soulsmouls]

Also Germans are very obedient people by nature which makes this very dangerous. They just follow along no questions asked.

[@sinic1978]

Not just the Germans. You look at the West there's no debates whatsoever of what's really going on.

[@dieterbarkhoff1328]

Really/ Like the USA which has been NOT at war for 16 years of its history. Racial stereotypes is absolute nonsense.

[@LordEriolTolkien]

@@dieterbarkhoff1328 Except the classification 'German' is not a Race it is an Ethnicity and Nationality. And such stereotypes are Not nonsense. Stereotypes exist for a reason. They do not always hold true when applied to an individual, and indeed are not meant to, but they DO apply to Groups. Whether you like that or not

[@mikecimerian6913]

East Germany wasn't deGermanized by the the Soviets but restored back to Prussian roots and ethos. The images on this video are eloquent. It was a popular band. Oktoberklub - What should we drink / Oktoberklub - Was wollen wir trinken kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4THqYR9psZ_e8U

[@dieterbarkhoff1328]

@@LordEriolTolkien Stereotypes do exist for a reason: no bout adout that, to coin a phrase. It allows mental midgets to classify Jews, Muslims, Blacks, Asians and all 'untermenschen'. In other words, Stereotypes are the Invention of the Racially Prejudiced. It seems you belong to the Club...

[@KarinAllison]

Mr Bednarz, you're not a typical American. I was born and raised in East Germany and have lived in the states of 25 years now and this interview shows, you're not a typical American.

[@harbinger6562]

elitist mentality is of spoiled children admittance of wrong is harder than Exporting destruction 🤔❤️

[@julianholley2358]

I think that the Germans know / understand who destroyed Nord Stream, but I think that as a furtherance of their postwar atonement attitude for what was done during WW2, they think they're taking one for the team and their resulting pain is somehow righteous

[@wojteks4712]

I think we need to first recognize that NS was.only in Kremlin 's interest, it's a disaster of German politics infiltrated by Russia

[@louise_rose]

No, it's rather that Berlin can't afford to call out Washington over the destruction of a key piece of *German* industrial iinfrastructure. The US has the upper hand both about armament and in controlling the media narrative.

[@briancousins3101]

The most foolish comment I have read for a long time. ​@@wojteks4712

[@user-kf1pf5qw4d]

Nope ... we know when we have proof! Speculation´s are for morons ;)

[@louise_rose]

It's an instance of "you don't get to talk back at your Masters, when they give you a spanking" (NS was a key piece of *German* infrastructure, rather than simply a Russian contraption)

[@Mimicry161]

Fantastic talk.

[@Warkurus]

I believe a healthy culture would have taken the best of both worlds.

[@remicaron3191]

When we fallback to faith we are close to collapse. Faith isn’t a strategy, it’s what you do when you have no plan.

[@kapk]

That's what is done when western interests take over - whether through IMF measures or hostile takeovers.

[@yashaashayeri7055]

Great conversation. Thank you, Pascal.

[@rashmigupta9]

We are forgetting that Germany was occupied by victors of ww2. While East Germany was liberated by USSR when they left, the occupation by US and globalists continues to this day. I assume the n@zi$m was eradicated in East Germany while it was assimilated and adopted subtly in the West and in USA. For these people, ww2 is an unfinished business, which failed to achieve the destruction of Soviets/Russians.

[@marcobsomer5574]

pas la destruction, le vol des ressources et la mise en esclavage du peuple.

[@IJ72]

Every German after WW2 is Nazi seed!

[@marie-laure.]

There is something to this angle, for sure

[@mocki5665]

"We defeated fascism and they (EU) will never forgive us for it" Marshall Georgy Zhukov

[@berndlauert8179]

we germans already succeeded at destroying the Soviets. WW2 is only an unfinished business in the sense that US/NATO still has its presence in Europe, with the current German regime being its puppet. The only way for Europe to be free is for the German people to liberate themselves from this oppression first.

[@knightalexius593]

The story of the president of Treuhand Rohwedder was different. He was killed in way which could be done only by a professional sniper. So, the claim of responsibilty by a left-wing terrorist group was not very credible. Anyway, there were indications that the later generation of left-wing terrorists had been created by Western intelligence services. The reason for his assassination may have been the opposite of what Dan Bednarz thinks, namely his sympathy for the former GDR citizens. The questions was whether returning property to its former owners, who had fled to West-Germany should be given priority. He was against it and his successor (Mrs. Breuel who was related to Germany biggest private bank) was for it. The supports the suspicions about Rohwedder's death.

[@XalphYT]

22:40 "I have a great fears about the oligopolists, the power elite, the 1%, the imperialists: They're not going to give up their power, because they think they should. It has to be taken from them. I hope it can be taken from them non-violently." - Dan Bednarz

[@neovxr]

It ls like the dismantling of a company after it had suffered an unfriendly takeover. The new owners just wanted the assets, tools, and real estate.

[@sikari72kukur]

Dan needs a larger audience his insights are fascinating

[@sgt345]

This was such an interesting interview. Thank you 🙏

[@marcgatto9675]

Thanks for this very interesting conversation.

[@ruskoruskov3086]

Thank you gentlemen for sharing your knowledge

[@NikolaR0]

Please add links between episodes in the description, when doing multi-part interviews. Thanks for the good work!

[@giulianoapostata]

Thank you very much! I took the liberty of suggesting this very interesting interview in a comment on Sarah Wagenknecht's channel, with the best intentions of course. Grazie

[@TheAlexandar711]

So fascinating. I learnt so much about something i personally, didn't knew it still exist. It's shameful to forget. Thank you so much.

[@meggrobi]

Keep up the good work, excellent interview and comments

[@pesez2]

Thank you for this excellent conversation! I wish alle the best for Mr. Bednarz and Mr. Lottaz!

[@x4ms]

Thank you for sharing.

[@eyeofchorus6313]

Is Germany still technically and legally occupied and not a sovereign State?

[@workingproleinc.676]

There is not "technically" they are occupied.

[@foobar201]

That lane of inquiry will get you associated with "Reichsbürger" nutjobs. Wheter by happenstance or design, the topic is poisoned.

[@Bawdale]

All occupiers, Russia, UK, France pulled out except America land of the free.

[@annoloki]

No, Germany is not "occupied". There are US bases there, but the US is not the controlling authority... policing isn't done by the US, or following rules decided by the US. The US obviously has a very high level of influence, but this is not represented in the legal structure... the legal authority is the German Federation, not the United States government, as would be the requirement for it to meet the legal definition of "occupied".

[@dinf8940]

legally no, round 52 us started to wrap up all non covert repression and extermination operations and officially transferred authority to local enforcers in 55, tho large military presence remains to this day so technically pretty much yes, but if you are inclined to split hairs about definitions more proper term would be a puppet state

[@SlavaT]

All of Germany can no longer be saved. but the eastern part can be saved. we need a referendum on the GDR...

[@jamesdean1143]

This is just so interesting and unique.

[@fenlander7114]

Many thanks to both Pascal and Dan - all communities and societies have lessons and insights to offer.

[@djoledjole5007]

West Germany- R1B plus I1 aka GermanoSaxons. Same as AngloSxons came from Jutland., Eastern- R1A Slavs aka Vendes aka Sorabes(Pomerania and Lusatia). Southern Germany- Celtic R1b, Bavarian. Like western Austria and Swiss Helvetica.

[@AL-wn2tt]

Yes and their descendents live in the US.

[@AL-wn2tt]

The Anglo saxons are the same. When was Britain not at war ?

[@jamysmith7891]

The West won the Cold War like a plague of locusts winning an eating contest, This too shall pass

[@carlduplessis31]

The process of the privatisation of enterprises in the DDR after unification has a very interesting history . West German companies got an immediate and captive market . In some ways , particularly in respect to agricultural land , it looks like colonialism.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

Let's not pussyfoot around - it *was* colonialism.

[@carlduplessis31]

@@Khayyam-vg9fw Some of it may look like that . I do not think calling it that will stand up to rigorous analysis.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

@@carlduplessis31 Why not?

[@sdzielinski]

The East German situation is an instance of internal colonialism. Internal colonialism refers to a sovereign state colonizing a part of the area over which it exercises sovereign authority. Thus, East Germany livues on in memory of the Germans but also in the scars that remain from the internal colonial project. Those scars are significant. Each post-communist state confronted unavoidable problems. Those originated in the integration of a one-time command economy in a global market economic system. Some firms couldn't compete in those markets. They even did not know how to compete because they never had to compete for market share. The goods they produced needed to establish their prices in the world system. Hungarian widgets would compete against Japanese widgets. Hungarian laborers would be valued by the Surplus Value realized by Hungarian firms in the world market. This differed greatly from the politically administered prices they had been under a command economy. The Hungarian workers might need to accept wage cuts, suffer job loss, etc. All of this was vary disruptive. I was told by my many East Europen dissdent professors (I live and studied in the United States) that, if I wanted a social revolution, I should make one here. I replied that my pessimism was included in a reasonable conjecture about the future of these economies, not simply by my beliefs about what is just. It could be verified by evidence. One told me that I thought East Europeans are stupid. They didn't care for NY reminding them that capitalism sucks. Today, these countries exist on the periphery of the EU system. I feel vindicated. I believe my professor opponents feel vindicated too. The various national economies integrated in the World Economic System. The difference between the two sides: I consider this integration a serious problem for those countries and my opponents consider integration a part of these countries becoming modern. Europen modernity is now suffering a rationality deficit which it is trying to resolve partially with two imperial wars. Those wars, one in the Ukraine and one a Genocide in Gaza, have only deepened the crisis.

[@carlduplessis31]

@@Khayyam-vg9fw . First there is the issue of a definition for colonialism. Then to apply it to the unification of Germany and see which parts of such definition can be applied . I have not given this much thought but intuitively I feel that it will not satisfy the various elements contained in such a definition. I could be wrong .

[@robertdyson4216]

Excellent insights again.

[@davydacounsellor]

The energy problem in Germany goes like this, a month after the war started, US corporation excel energy signed a 280 billion contract with Finland to store US LNG in their storage facility, which is one of the biggest in the world, do people in Germany honestly believe that the US just produced 60 LNG tankers out of a hat. Cognitive dissonance gone wild, thanks, great talk.

[@barbaraz5251]

The algorithm brought me here. Occasionally, YT actually does something useful. 😊 subscribed 👍

[@skank2906]

I am really glad I stumbled upon this video. I shared and condemned with the situation of East German intellectuals and academia circles when the reunification happened. I, myself, born and raised in South Vietnam. When the North Vietnam completely invaded violently the South Vietnam for what's it called "reunification", the South-Vietnam's academia and intellectuals were all being emptied. Some fled to the western countries for refugees. Some were being forced to "re-education camps". Some had to work in different jobs. The North Vietnam took over and replaced with their people in the South Vietnam's institutions.

[@skank2906]

Despite the difference of political systems in the SVN and East German (SVN was "fragile" US style-democracy and East German was USSR style-socialism), they both shared the same fate in the hand of US hegemony global power. The USA, at that time, through the hand of the infamous 100 years old Kissinger, did help the NVN for its conquer and invasion the SVN by abandoning the SVN and strategically cooperating with Beijing, the most important ally and partner of NVN up until now. The then-Senator Biden (now US president) did kill the Bill and aid package to SVN.

[@honesty_-no9he]

Compared to what the North did to the South in the American Civil War it was tame.

[@alfredkleitsch5363]

Abwicklung: I believe that the best translation would be “a winding up” as in, winding up a company. Similar to folding or folding down.

[@geornavarrete8740]

Refuse to engage, to me. Signify cowardice.

[@stephanrousseau2822]

Excellent!!

[@johnhernlund539]

What a wonderful discussion! Thank you so much for bringing this content for all of us to see!

[@bmujeeb]

I worry the social divisions in West will never be healed and an unsettling disaster will happen sooner than expected.

[@marazucchi2848]

Pascal, just a note. In your channel you can say the G word, but the subtitles don't write it down. It's written "chano side". We are all victims of the élite propaganda. Thank you from Italy.

[@ginob6062]

But, despite the failure of the communist period of rule, there must have been elements in the lives of East Germans, of the socialist project (communitarian, egalitarian, solidarity, social provision, etc.) that were positive but not prized, and neglected in the pursuit of individualism, consumerist values, etc. in West Germany.

[@cdgncgn]

degeneracy

[@peetsnort]

Imagine how hard its going to be for the imperial american to step down a peg or two when you still have gentleman clubs in london who still haven't left the british empire in the history books and bin.

[@Ganymede559]

Why do people like you always think Brits talk about the British empire? The English don't even care about the empire, as it was at it's prime hundreds of years ago.

[@briancousins3101]

Ha ha. So true.

[@user-bx4px7lj4x]

Self righteousness & arrogance is in an individual annoying, truley dangerous in a government.

[@annoloki]

...and even worse in the whole society!

[@harbinger6562]

What there's is still a mental Berlin Wall🤔❤️

[@CountryRoss]

It was the Anschluss 2.0.

[@ish932]

Excellent

[@richardouvrier3078]

I met a woman whose father was Professor of Marxist-Leninism in University of X and got purged. He became a school teacher.

[@myleswalsh6854]

I don’t think humanity will get through this.

[@reggieduquesnoy]

Germany has never been denazified after 1945, except in the Russian zone. The other occupying forces, mainly the Anglo-Saxons, had a great affinity with the nazi regime which they partially helped come to power. In fact the American ruling classes adored Germany even before 1914, and used them to defeat and degrade the Bristish and French Empires, whose resources they coveted. Success all along until they got carried away by hubris, as most Hegemons do.The time of reckoning has finally come. Started well before Fukuyama's idiotic End of History....

[@ninopavkovic9382]

Great comment! I lived and studied many years at west Germany (Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin) and can just confirm your insights. After a brain wash the brain should be clear and sober. In the German case isn't so.

[@berndlauert8179]

Why do you degrade Germany before 1914 as if it wasn't the most progressive, socialist and thriving in the whole of Europe at the time? Regardless, Denazification is just a code word for degermanisation.

[@galek75]

So then how does this explain the AfD's popularity in the east? Very curious.

[@lowersaxon]

What a nonsense. Leftist fantasies and wishful thinking at best. Seems you have not the slightest clue of what happened in 1945 under the „Anglo-Saxons“.

[@user-kf1pf5qw4d]

LOL ... The russian zone was just another terror state after the Nazi´s! Russian´s miss selfreflection ... So they never understand why Germany now gets better along with russia´s neighbours than the self called russian "savior" 😉

[@user-zv3lc1un1q]

Pupets exactly.

[@reyhudson563]

"Abwicklung" would be like "un - devopmented"... not like "undeveloped", but like "de - devolped" = "done away with". The robot in "Short Circuit II" called it, "DIS - assemble?!? NOT disassemble!" My neighbor's mother from down the street call the personalities from "shoot 'em up" shows, on TV the "goody goodies" and the "baddie baddies". It's so much easier to assign some detlimental slogan or label to anything or anybody you don't want the others to listen to or to interact with. This is how propaganda works and has always worked (and IS working as we speak.) What's really strange is that people, today, seem to have more fear of stepping out of line from the proposed politically correct narrative of the month, than people had in the 30's and 40's of being carried away to a gulag or concentration camp. Here's a little poem I memorized once. Lots of labels just don't fit, whether they're thrown at people OR political entities. "Good or Bad" "There's so much good in the worst of us, And so much bad in the BEST of us, It hardly behooves ANY of us, To worry about the REST of us." 😂

[@neilcomley7854]

I find the 'take-over' of East Germany by the Bundesrepublik and the contrast between the old East and West Germany and its manifestation in divergent political views and sensibilities -or 'habitus' to use Bourdieu's term - across Germany to be a fascinating topic. I think that focusing historically on differences between East and West enhances one's understanding of both parts and the whole, and is extremely significant for understanding what's going on in Germany now below the surface. I have family and friends from both parts of the country and the last few years I have sometimes been stunned and surprised by the different reactions and sensibilities to important issues I have witnessed. Pascal - if you read this comment - I would like to recommend and suggest that you interview a person called Victor Grossman. If you haven't heard of him he's a 96 year old US born man who defected to the Soviet Union in 1952 and lived in East Germany working as a journalist, and he still lives in Berlin. Grossman writes very interesting articles and essays about German and eastern bloc history and politics, and imo has fascinating first hand knowledge and insights about the period and place where he has spent most of his life.

[@BartAnderson_writer]

I think I worked with Dan when we were covering peak oil years ago. We seem to be on the same page again. Good work, Dan!

[@jasperknight5781]

Maybe 'stitch up' is the word they are looking for

[@jakeelrich5694]

Out of the Austrian perspective, you can very easily draw parallels to the contemporary "integration" of Austrian economy and institutions into the German labor market for example. Much of the cultural institutions that dont require Austrian citizenship, unlike political functions, are being taken over by German personnel and colleagues. This results in much frustration among Austrians that have really no say in whats shown in the local theaters, museums, and taught at the universities (faculties like art history and history staffed with mainly West German professors, teaching history of GDR oddly enough or the Weimar Republic while for example the Wiener Schule of Kunstgeschichte is fading out of existence due to lack of professors with an Austrian background). Plus many bemoan in secret the disappearance of the Austrian high German, which most Germans wont even perceive as an existing variation of the German tongue. But in our current framework it is hard to broach this issue because of the shared common European market and any remark on this cultural and economic annexation is mostly met with frowning as the real annexation of Austria (der Anschluss) is a historical artefact of 1938, and no question about that. On the other hand its many Austrians (especially the younger generation) who do not care one bit about their culture turning more nordic. To them it seems rather weird if not proto-fascist to talk in terms of national and cultural boarders (this stretches even into the German/US American tandem which is perceived as natural and where all cultural and exceedingly linguistic differences are being blurred)

[@johnintime]

Lucky you! If you were Scandinavian, you would have been cancelled, silenced or even disappeared from the radar screen.

[@tomtoss2463]

There are two ways to liquidate. Sell it to the workers. Sell it to the elite. Which do you think happened?

[@g.h.1442]

Herr Bednarz, Sie haben das sehr gut analysiert.

[@TIATAC]

Interesting.

[@KarinAllison]

Abwicklung is a noun that conveys a merely procedural but smooth running down of a process according to protocol with no regard of the inner or outer situation of those involved.

[@dellawrence4323]

The fall of the USSR is the worst thing that ever happened to Europe, it allowed Germany to re-unite and take up their old hobby of European domination again, as an Englishman the reaction of Germans when I tell them I voted to leave the EUSSR tells me all I need to know. After the war Germany should have been broken up into what existed before 1872 and forbidden from ever re-uniting.

[@nicholaswright9197]

It’s not liquidation, it’s not unwinding, it’s “winding up”. You were almost there. In English you can wind up a business, an activity, a day’s work, a project is the most common context.

[@KlausRiede]

Sehr interessant! Gibt es 1 deutsche Uebersetzung des Buches?

[@danbednarz3752]

Leider gibt es keine

[@EatRawGarlic]

A very interesting discussion in two parts. Die Wende itself and the events leading up to it, have been discussed extensively in school and in the media. However, I've hardly ever heard anyone talk about the consequences for the DDR academic elite. An interesting point of focus, deserving a documentary if you'd ask me. Although largely unrelated to this topic, I would've liked to hear you talk more about that particular "G" word. I keep hearing people make the claim that there's one going on. However, when I read the 1948 convention, I don't get how people arrive at that conclusion.

[@neovxr]

Pascal, I have no words about how much I value your work. But here I have a hint or a question. What is the relationship between the Davos people and the Neocons? Because the former have some understanding how to run an empire, and run it with satraps everywhere, but the latter feel totally entitled to lead the world, and have no clue whatsoever about running an empire - it is totally outside of their petty culture.

[@rolandvoss3600]

~min 5:30 -> The director of the Treuhand, Detlev Rohwedder, was not assassinated by an angry East-German but by a sniper of the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion), a West-German leftist terror group that had a long tradition of committing murders since the 1970s. The identity of that sniper is still unknown. Sahra Wagenknecht, who receives a couple of favourable words here, joined the SED (ruling party in East-Germany) in the 1980s and is well known for holding commmunist and stalinist beliefs throughout her life.

[@isamkamel]

22:50 "Power has to be taken from them..."

[@folterknecht1768]

The phenomen Mr. Bednarz mentions aound the 3 min mark, happend all over over east germany. 2 nd and 3rd grade westerners were put into posotion of power in eastern germany so they could show east germans the proper way - politics, academia, (public) administration, economics you name it. We got the personal that had reached the end of their abilities in west germany and were now promoted ... you can guess the result.

[@florianmeier3186]

Yes, but what was the alternative? The best of the elite were often unwilling suddenly to move into a country many just left due to its deficiencies. And the locals were not familliar with Western law and often part of old elite who fighted the West till the day before. There was also no time to elaborate things carefully. GDR dissolved less than a year after the iron curtain came down. and there was few long term planning as the West was to some extend surprised.

[@folterknecht1768]

@@florianmeier3186 As a german you will probably know, that there were two options in the GG (Grundgesetzt): 1) GDR joins FRG (that shit happend) and the old GG remains. That joke of a constitution is a main culprit for the trouble germany is in today. Not the only reason but a main contributor (no real freedom of speech, no clear seperation between several parts of the state, "Listenwahlrecht" making sure that nearly all political power remains in the party centrals and not with the voter and so on. 2) 2nd option was to form areal union with a new constitution (and the old powers in the FRG might come out of it with less political power). Kohl&Co. were fast and acted right away to stear the eastern population in the "right direction". Everyone who calls the election of March 1990 free is running around with blinders. It was financed and directed from west germany. Regarding the economy - even the commies in China knew the concept of special economic zones.

[@marcosduarte8809]

Germany must throw away the sentiment of guilty it carries and start to think big, about their owm interests and assume the role of leader in Europe, towards peace

[@florianmeier3186]

No, Germany cannot become leader in Europe. It is just not strong enough and France, UK, Russia and Poland will never accept it and they are big enough to prevent it. That is the old German dilemma. Germany has to stay modest and balance its interest with the one of its neighbours. That is also what EU is mostly about. It is by construction a difficult often not efficient institution, but better than the alternatives.

[@barryscott6222]

Sorry I couldn't give you a dozen up-thumbs for this interview.

[@neovxr]

The purge of the intellectual, creative class was another example that was not really understood. It should have been much more alarming. You cannot reprogram a country intellectually, and then hope in a few years they will fall in line. Temptation is a powerful tool, to some extent it has worked with countries like Poland, but there may be a strong swing back. Think of Sikorsky. What did he say after NS2? Right? Can you have such a guy in a European government at all? That's behavior by satraps.

[@lollydoodles-ej2qx]

Yesterday I talked about isr/pal and the debunked rape, babies beheadings etc The very bright daughter and ex looked at me like i have lost my mind. Tbh, quite surprised i haven t loat the plot. Discourse is shut down immediately.

[@justingoretoy1628]

Why? What a strange phenomenon. Even in propaganda kitchen central, US, you'll have people shouting opposing opinions at each other. It only gets censored on TV, the Internet, classrooms, not in person to person conversations.

[@briancousins3101]

I have the same reaction in Canada. In truth I believe neoliberalism is now taking on the traits of neofascism. Popular western political thought has become indoctrinated, compromised, and dangerous. I believe my commitment to democratic socialism (not to impotent parties like those of Scholz & Starmer) is as valid as ever.

[@neovxr]

Everyone knows what happened in re-born Russia with their voucher-privatization. Assets ended up accumulated in the hands of a few oligarchs. Now, no one thinks about the "Abwicklung" in Magdeburg etc. It was very similar. Where did all that privatized stuff end up? There is a clear connection, but in Russia it finally went well, and in Germany and Ukraine it went wrong. They got kind of colonized, virtually by hedge funds.

[@neovxr]

Africa has understood that, and you see how Niger and Mali are reacting in smart ways.

[@ferrantepallas]

A fascinating conversation that reveals so much of what is sorry and sordid about human relations -- when Bednarz reported that the East Germans said they would do to the West Germans what had been done to them, I cringed. The powerful will not give up their power except by strenuous opposition.

[@JosipRadnik1]

Russia had 3 revolutions. France had 2 revolutions and numerous big revolts. Even England had a revolution in its history. In Germany, every uprising was put down brutally and effectively from the peasant revolts in the 16th century over to the Raeterepublik in 1919. Every improvement towards freedom had to be gracefully given to them from above just like their democracy in 1949. Even Schiller moaned about the unwillingness of the "good german" to question authorities. Freedom is valued by the amount of fight you put in it in order to gain it. Freedom that is given to you by the grace of your master can easily be taken again by him.

[@florianmeier3186]

Germany had also quite some revolutions, but many failed and some just happened in parts of the country as it was for long time very heterogenous. The obeying has lot's to do with the fact that there was for long time no national state but some local king, Duke etc. who took care of his people to be protected you had to serve for this guy and his small territory. Germans often fighted each other and there were big regional differences: The south west was for some time influenced by France: Republic of Mainz for example or uprise in Baden (Häckerlied). Prussia became a rather strong and big territory, but was also mostly dominated by agriculture with rich noblesse and almost slave kind farmers. the central part had lots of wealthy and rather independent cities or consisted of small weak territories who invested in theaters and art to compensate their irrelevance. Kingdom of Saxonia was closer linked to Poland. In the North the old Hanse cities with their harbours were the biggest factors.

[@figgettit]

abwiklung in this context means capitulation

[@fredwu6000]

In your comparison with North taking over South Vietnam, in fact, North Vietnam initially adapted a lot of capitalistic practices of the South. Only recently, they have found out the many intrinsic and systemic faults e.g. corruptions etc. Same with Russia and China. I think some in Germany is beggining to see the same. Capitalism as is now is not sustainable, just as Communism as was then was not sustainable. Something else or something in between has to come about. My view.

[@buildersandinteriorexperts]

I lived in the East in the Early Nineties and remember problems dealing with anyone official and occasionally waitress's etc... As an Irishman I later found it refreshing to see West Germans getting the same treatment. ,

[@harbinger6562]

I agree We can do it Peacefully for the People not for government images that they messed up themselves ❤️🇩🇪🇨🇭🦾😇

[@harbinger6562]

Good afternoon ❤️🇩🇪🇨🇭🦾😇👋

[@minhng7208]

4.50. correction: there is no violent takeover in South Vietnam. Many of south Vietnamese are communists and pro communist militia forces fighting against the US occupation. Only a minority of the military forces from the South Vietnam government was in trouble. Hanoi desperately looked for professionals to fulfill civil positions, after the reunification, due to propaganda by the US and the West, some South Vietnamese left the country. I am from Vietnam, living in South Vietnam before migrating to the West.

[@rdh67dh]

Finalization is the most close English word.

[@jacobpast5437]

No, Dr. Bednarz is quite right. The closest translation of "Abwicklung" in the sense it was used after the unification is "liquidation" - as in "the liquidation of a bankrupt company". Here is a telling quote from the article of the German Wikipedia on the "Treuhandanstalt", the agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to privatise East German enterprises: "Der Journalist Tim Rahmann wirft der Behörde vor, dass westdeutsche Betriebe die Abwicklung der ostdeutschen GmbHs (von Rahmann als VEB-Betriebe bezeichnet) nutzten, um potenzielle Konkurrenten auszuschlachten." "Journalist Tim Rahmann accuses the agency [of the fact that] West German companies are using the liquidation of East German GmbHs (referred to by Rahmann as VEB companies) to gut potential competitors."

[@jillfryer6699]

🤠

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

A word in English but not really an English word. The Anglo-Normans were great coiners of these abstract nouns, which, being vague, are little understood (if at all) by most English-speakers.

[@bobguy3939]

13:13 could some one tell me who is being referred to here?

[@vulpo]

I think you were seeking the Latin expression: fait accompli Or as we would say in English: a done deal

[@zeppo3508]

Todd's book the defeat of the west is an important work which explains much