Not everything was bad in the GDR

The GDR was a dictatorship where people were spied on and oppressed. But the country also had many positive things. This video shows a few to start with.
Thanks to Paul Webster for his help.
The books I used and shown (5:52) are:
' Wie wir lebten, wer wir waren' by several authors; more info: amzn.to/4hFR7a1
'…und es war doch nicht alles schlecht…' by Helga Quasdorf;
Pictures:
Kinder im „Erntekindergarten“ der LPG Schenkenberg 1972 - Von Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L0818-0006 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
Kinderkrippe in Ingersleben im Mai 1958 - Von Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-53169-0011 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
Krippenkinder beim Essen - Von Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-0407-015 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
POS in Erfurt, 1972 - Von Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L0901-0021 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
Ferienlager „Magnus Poser“ des VEB Carl Zeiss Jena 1951 in Saalfeld - Von Deutsche Fotothek‎, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
Borna, neues Krankenhaus Zentralbild Leipzig 1.4.57

[@rutaloot]

A relative of mine from Latin America spent time in East Germany along with some other Warsaw Pact nations in the 1970s. He said one of the positives that really stood out to him was the social cohesion that you mention. The way people interacted with one another and seemed to genuinely care for the well being of one another rather than just for the individual was something that really stood out.

[@gordonspicer]

not mentioned here the amount of snitching & denouncing? This was the "hidden" side of life and never sure of the affiliation of your family members, friends or associates

[@rutaloot]

@@gordonspicer I'm sure most people are aware of the negatives of a place like East Germany. We are from a country in Latin America that was for a time dubbed "the perfect dictatorship" so I am sure my relative was no stranger to those elements of East Germany. My comment was simply trying to add to the overall theme of the video that there were perhaps things about East Germany that to a foreigner or outsider did seem positive or admirable.

[@karlthemarxist6806]

@@gordonspicer Right-wing death squads in Latin America: not an attribute of a socialist society.

[@gordonspicer]

@@rutaloot I am not so sure if those outside East and Germany as a whole appreciate how pervasive & pernicious the STASI were. You may, but that is not to overlook what is was really like living under such conditions. To omit is entirely in this video does a disservice

[@Clarkchapin]

I’m an American who lived in West Berlin before and after the Wall. In 1990 I had the pleasure of working with East German subcontractors at Flughafen Tempelhof. These men were all highly skilled, immensely competent and imminently decent people. In fact I came to view them as the most diligent, conscientious and equanimous men in the Ramp Services department and when it came time for a revamp of the department structure I chose three of these men to act as the Schichtführer of our three shifts and while this caused great consternation and upset among most of the Western employees I never came to regret my choice. All that said, these three men all shared one habit that impressed me as emblematic of East Germans I came to know and that is an eagerness to take their families camping and boating, which they would do at any weekend or vacation when the weather permitted.

[@lornarettig3215]

I loved this comment and my experience is identical. I treasure my modest, highly-educated, hard-working ‘East German’ colleagues.

[@elnick1000]

I am sure they were decent people. But they were not stupid either. they saw that things were going to become a little bit more difficult despite the new freedoms that they had. I had an uncle who worked at a hospital in east Berlin. When my mother mentioned to someone that he worked very hard, the guy kind of laughed and stated, WEll he is one of the few, in some of those factories, many of these workers spend more time playing cards then doing there job at work. In Poland, my father being from there, I read that guys who used to call in sick a lot, now were so eagar and ready to work hard.

[@Clarkchapin]

​@@elnick1000 The funny thing is that Berliner-Lufthansa Gesellschaft signed a handling contract with our company, Checkpoint Bravo Airport Services for aircraft handling at Tempelhof, but when the main runway at Schönefeld in the East collapsed Lufthansa suddenly had all of these East German shift workers with no airplanes to handle, so they moved against us to try to force us out of our handling contract. They maintained a ghost-shift at Tempelhof, always one man larger than our shift, and all they did was sit in a ready room that Lufthansa claimed by the apron. They would keep tabs on us, monitor our handling and lay low until a Lufthansa pilot would complain about our servicing and the entire Schönefeld crew would rush out and compete with us over the aircraft and equipment. It was madness and it was all because Lufthansa moved way too fast on expanding into and taking over all aircraft servicing in Berlin in 1990 - this after Lufthansa had been banned from direct flights into Berlin since WWII. My understanding was that they signed contracts they couldn't break with the Schönefeld ramp agents and so they sought to weaponize them against us, telling them that we were taking their jobs, that we were foreigners, lazy, did terrible work and shouldn't be allowed to continue doing the work. Meanwhile we had a department heavily mixed with East Germans and with East Germans in lower management positions, something Lufthansa did not have. Instead in the Lufthansa ready room it was all top down West German managers misinforming East German workers. That Lufthansa crew was the only set of East Germans I ever saw sit around playing cards and that was because West Germans ordered them to be there with nothing to do.

[@halitosis75]

I lived there at the same time, an Aussie. I loved Berlin 1989. Happiest time of my life.

[@tdb7992]

This is a great comment, thank you for sharing your experiences. Living in West Berlin in that era must’ve been an incredible experience. As someone who loves camping and hiking (albeit here in Australia) I can appreciate how you appreciated that about their character.

[@kuchenblechmafiagmbh1381]

I'm too young for a first-hand experience of the GDR but I admire an aspect that was caused by that shortage economy: It made repairs often more viable than replacements and even in the west back then electronic things like stereo amplifiers and TV sets came shipped not just with the manual but already with the schematics, so even if you weren't into repairing these you could just give these and the device to the repair technician, so he/she didn't have to source the specific schematics. And also with other things because not the right parts were available the people got creative to get it back working anyways "Not macht erfinderisch". And that's what I'd like to have these days more, less throwaway mentality because a repair isn't economically viable...

[@johnbailey1168]

You have a point there 🤔👍

[@robenglish416]

And very good quality, maybe not the latest technology but robust!

[@simonh6371]

Totally agree with you on that! Some of the repairs not being economically viable is something which is deliberately engineered to make us buy more, or spend more on repairs on vehicles which can only be done by the manufacturers rather than small independent mechanics. Look at phones, a few years ago they had removable batteries so you didn't have to replace the phone when the battery died. Also you could just buy another battery and carry that with you instead of a powerbank in case your first battery started to get low! Phones are terrible really nowadays, with their ''planned obsolescence''.

[@johnbailey1168]

@ You got that right 👍

[@EdgyNumber1]

That was the case in the West as well as the east but the reason throwaway became more prevalent was because of the rise of China. When a resistor cost a penny here it was a big deal, especially as other components could be more expensive. But when an equally comparable component can cost less than a tenth of a penny from China, the culture of throwaway comes to the fore as the price of the overall product comes down. Throwaway is a trained behaviour. Because of that, Apple took advantage, often making repair costs and methods deliberately more prohibitive. And as Apple did it as leader of the pack, everyone else decided to do it - even those in other industries. Cars are now going this way too.

[@CurtisCT]

Years ago I had a co-worker from East Germany who surprised me one day by saying how much she missed living in the GDR. According to her, life was simpler back then. You lived a modest lifestyle, you got "exotic" fruits like bananas and pineapples from Cuba, and every year her family went on vacation to places in Yugoslavia or Bulgaria. According to her, everyone had a job and you didn't have to worry about things like utility bills. As a matter of fact, it was illegal to be unemployed. Now she lives in a "free" capitalist society, where she was unemployed for the first time in her life, and although she earns a good salary, most of it goes to pay bills, so there's no money for vacations or "exotic" fruits. The paradox: when she was "unfree", she was able to go on vacation, now she's "free" but too broke to go anywhere.

[@jordanxfile]

It is ironic indeed. I never lived in such a country, but I was a child in those years and remember the fall or the Berlin Wall. For some reason I can feel the longing for those times.

[@Ulf-qg1vd]

GDR was a great country! I worked there in 1987. Best time of my life. Have hundereds of things from there like flags, glas, pins, passports, synths, effects, drum machines, microphone etc.....

[@MezeiEugen]

Either she lies or is senile. For sure she did not make Urlaub in Yugoslavia as from there it was only a jump to the West, the Stasi did know that too. Also she saw pineapple in the dollar shop, not where he could buy it with her aluminium Mark.

[@MezeiEugen]

@ It was great if you came from Albania.

[@Ulf-qg1vd]

@@MezeiEugen No it was superior to capitalism!

[@rogerthomson9461]

East Germany turned Vietnam in to a major coffee producing nation which is impressive.

[@boink800]

Sadly the GDR ceased to exist before the GDR could profit from their coffee investment in Vietnam.

[@simonh6371]

That's true but unfortunately the first harvest wasn't until 1990, by which time the the GDR had already collapsed. So the Ossis had to continue drinking Kaffee Mix and Ronda until the bitter (well sour) end, unless they could get Jakobs Kroenung from relatives in the west, or had enough money to buy it in Intershops where it was exhorbitantly expensive, something like 30 Ostmarks a pack in the 80s. I don't know if you understand German but there's a great MDR documentary about the problems with coffee in the GDR, ''Mahlzeit DDR'', it's here on you tube.

[@boink800]

@@simonh6371 The Intershop only used the DM. What could around 10 DM in the Intershop, like 500g of Jakobs, would have been round 50 DDR-Mark (or more, depending on the local black market rates).

[@simonh6371]

@@boink800 I'd forgotten about that tbh, it's a long time since I watched a documentary about the Intershop. That made it even more difficult for your average DDR citizen I guess, they could only look and dream at the Jakobs pack. Kommst du aus Deutschland? Ich habe bis vor kurzem hier in England Jakobs gekauft, war immer ziemlich billig hier weil es kaum jemand kennt, aber die letzen Monaten schmeckt es nicht mehr so lecker! Dasselbe auch mit Tschibo Family. Auch Dalmayr Prodomo, ich habe es ab und zu bei Amazon gekauft aber es schmeckt auch nicht mehr wie frueher. Sogar Lavazzo heutzutage schmeckt a Bisserl beschissen.

[@ver939]

Did they ever do something good for Germans?

[@chrismannion3418]

This channel is fantastic, so well researched, filmed and presented.

[@lornarettig3215]

Same! I love this channel.

[@mardiffv.8775]

Not bad for a Dutchman (the presenter).

[@MJW60777]

My friend Sebastian grew up in Burg East Germany. His mother had a high-level position in the GDR, she was in charge of the industrial cranes for all construction. Back in the mid 90's I remember my parents telling me how impressive it was that she held that title and position. Now "Dr Basti" is a heart specialist in Germany

[@MezeiEugen]

The problem is, we will never know if she was the best specialist for that job or somebody else was better but was overjumped for not being on the ideological line. This we experience today too, unfortunately. Only the ideology changed, apparently.

[@lornarettig3215]

Thank you for this video. I’m from the 80s and the west, and I know many people from ‘former’ Eastern Europe. They are unanimous that their lives were not some sort of awful nightmare. Good education, housing, and healthcare are a very good basis for a happy life, and plenty of people in ‘rich’ and ‘free’ countries can’t achieve those three basics today.

[@galanthuman2157]

The same could be said for another dictatorship in Germany. As long as you were not in the opposition or did not belong to the undesired group.

[@pierpaoloparisi2049]

There's an aspect of social equality or levelling. "Happiness" often depends on relativised social positioning. Even if one has little, it everyone has little, it's not as bad as having little when everyone else has a lot. So a more egalitarian society should be a happier one. Although happiness of course is a personal matter, and the right to be an individual, the right to be one's self, is essential for happiness. Today some places have executives with massive remuneration packages, for doing little, and youth unemployment through the roof.

[@notyetsilenced9746]

Those who adapt to Communism willingly are slaves.

[@galanthuman2157]

@ Yeah, lets go. Lets lower the standard of everyone to the lowest level (Except for the ones who are more equal than others). That would make everyone happy. Brilliant Idea.

[@docBZA]

@@galanthuman2157yeah we should raise the least fortunate up, and give everyone mindfulness training to help encourage gratitude for life itself. We inherently will never have equal outcomes for each person, but should strive for similar possibilities for each individual to find some semblance of efficiency and purpose in their life. If everyone can find some purpose and have gratitude, we will have a happy society

[@tdb7992]

Fantastic video my friend. I’m so glad someone is making high quality content about the GDR for us English speakers. You can really see why a lot of people are nostalgic for those times.

[@sandrinowitschM]

Regarding social cohesion: that was one of the first things to disappear. I was too young at the time to remember but my older siblings where already 16 and 19 at the time if reunification. They say it was "everyone fend for themselves" basically overnight. It was skin deep and only lasted as long as it was absolutely necessary.

[@mathewkelly9968]

So welcome to Capitalism basically

[@MrWick-el4wk]

@@mathewkelly9968 was it fault for capitalism or was it fault coz "social cohesion" was built on gains rather than friendship? aka so called cohesion was shallow materlistic one

[@brianheflin15]

fascinating comment, thank you for sharing. I suppose there is a deeper human reality of survival that is always present no matter the country or time.

[@sandrinowitschM]

@@MrWick-el4wk well to be fair the population suddenly had to deal with sleazy business practices that were previously unheard of so they had to adapt quickly or be scammed out of their newly acquired Deutschmark. So unfiltered capitalism did play a role in teaching people that you can't trust anyone anymore.

[@AnotherTruth]

@@MrWick-el4wk this is a good point. It never really insured true equity equality in and putting people in a desperate position, things to go are the things that keep people together out of love, but then it’s out of dire necessity.

[@cthoadmin7458]

I worked with a former East German who always said she had a very happy childhood in the GDR, and that the thing the west never really understood about socialism was its most important aspect: social solidarity.

[@PySimpleGUI]

I've not watched this video yet, but I've watched ALL of your other videos and they're excellent! Felt like it was way past the time to thank you. ♥

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you very much. Much appreciated!

[@eustab.anas-mann9510]

​@@eastgermanyinvestigatedAre you sure foreign language teaching was bad? I've heard from multiple sources Russian language teaching was of excellent quality.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

@@eustab.anas-mann9510 I think you are right. Maybe I should have been a bit more specific.

[@petermcfarlane6749]

Really interesting video. It's good to see a balanced view. When talking about the GDR, most commentators focus mainly on the Berlin Wall, Stasi etc...

[@peppigue]

the rest of this channel shows problems, there were plenty to choose from. i think he felt the need to contribute to a more balanced information space, which is always good

[@petermcfarlane6749]

@peppigue I totally agree with you. 👍🏻

[@Waterflux]

Stereotyping and mislabeling play a big part it contributing to rather skewed images of "communist" countries. Guilt by association can easily be seen when many folks talk about "communist" countries in public discourse. They will most likely to single out undesirable features from a country like North Korea, then eagerly assume that they also apply to other "communist" countries. You see this sort of bullshit most frequently in countries still experiencing the Cold War-era mentality hangover like the US and South Korea. A side-note: Personally, I do not even like the label "communist" as "communist" countries are actually not "communist" in the honest sense of the term. Take China as an example. Is it really a "communist" country? Beijing only pays lip service to communism, while it is actually running state capitalism.

[@petermcfarlane6749]

@Waterflux That's an excellent point. Our images of so-called Communist countries have been shaped by Western propaganda. In the UK, the Eastern Bloc states were, by and large, portrayed as cold and grey. I'm not defending the regimes, but it appears that many people living in these countries led happy lives.

[@docBZA]

@@Waterfluxyeah that’s true, but I’m also not entirely sure of your thesis. Overgeneralizing, an under-informed/misinformed populace, and a sense of “we are the good ones, others bad” seems to be, unfortunately, a near-universal aspect of human nations.

[@ugetsu2093]

I remember travelling by train to West Berlin quite a few times in the 1970’s & 80’s. I took trains to Vienna, Hanover & Copenhagen. The rail lines sped past lists of small lakes. There were lots of recreational boats everywhere-more than I saw in West Germany actually. It struck me at the time that, though people had a lower standard of living, many were able to enjoy the recreational activities that having a small boat afforded one.

[@elnick1000]

Well yes, but my uncle I don;'t beleive had a small boat to go out on.

[@prieten49]

Spending a leisurely day at the nearest pond or lake was a favorite activity in both Germanies. The East Germans had a reputation for nude sunbathing, too. This was tolerated and was one of the few ways East Germans could feel really "free."

[@MezeiEugen]

Well, seeing the lakes of the prominencia means not that every worker and peasant had a boat in the proletarian and peasant paradise.

[@ugetsu2093]

@ My comment was made in the context of the video. I knew people who had refused to return to the GDR when they got the rare chance to travel. It was no workers’ paradise. But it wasn’t unremitting hell either, which was what the video was about & which sparked my recollection Thirty years later it is still poorer. But from my more recent travels in Germany just before COVID, I saw fewer rundown areas than I saw in Hannover & Frankfurt. ‘Ostalgie’ seems misplaced, but so is the reverse.

[@bethechange2024]

Thank you for another top-notch video. Genuinely speaking your channel is my favourite by far. When my cousin was in middle school, she decided to research and offer a presentation to her classmates on the day-care system in the GDR. We had the option of studying three languages in my high school, of wbich I chose French (our second official language) and German. This was from 1977 to 1980. I vividly recall our teacher, Fräulein Bubnikovitz, talking to me about receiving a rail-pass allowing her unrestricted travel in the GDR, although she never provided more details other than one ticket attendant being shocked to see this pass which was unique to him. I regret never asking further about it. I used to listen to DW and RBI on shortwave.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you!

[@TheMotz55]

Unser Sandmännchen, and how well it was produced, deserves an episode describing its impact on children growing up in the GDR.

[@Balthorium]

I love the song. Very nice.

[@brianheflin15]

Such a complex question, I think you have a great channel. And thank you for introducing me to the book 'Beyond the Wall' by Katja Hoyer. Watching the video had 3 conflicting feelings, on one hand the triumph of the human spirit to carve out a life for yourself no matter the social/political situation. Also the human tragedy of those who sincerely tried to do good and had those good intentions lost in the cruelty, authoritarian rule, corruption. And the tragedy of the post-unification how a whole world, identity, memory was lost overnight and the cruelty of how their lives in the East seems like it was thrown away, that is a blind spot in history I think of how the East was treated post unification. Just from an anthropological view to have a whole world lost is a profound thought that hasn't been explored enough, although very different I wonder if there are parallels to the lost worldview and memory of Native American tribes. Almost like being amputated and losing an arm or a leg psychologically, the trauma of having a part of you that doesn't exist anymore. Thank you for your efforts in making the video and appreciate your sensitive treatment of complex topics. Cheers!

[@pierpaoloparisi2049]

It's different. DDR was a State under military occupation, like FRG. WW2 in Europe was unfinished business, until 1989, arguably things like the holocaust and massive loss of the cream of German youth will shape the social situation forever. It's harder now to forget barbarism, even after 100 years, because it is documented better. This however was an extremely cultured population. You had Hitler, but you also had Goethe and a long tradition of learning, music, arts, etc.

[@andreroy55]

I moved to the DDR in 1961 when I was six years old, and returned to Canada when I was 11. The summer camps were an interesting memory for me. I remember going to three of them. The first one was with my parents in some hotel/resort in the south. There was at least one ski-jump facility there, that was actually in use, in the summer! The second one was at some large hotel. I don't remember much of it, but my sister and I (she's one year younger than me) shared a room in this hotel. It was somewhere in the south, also. The third one was at some summer camp near the Czechoslovak border. Close enough that one could cross the border in the forest. There we lived in cabins and had group tents we had to maintain and decorate. One thing about day care, there was afternoon daycare for students in elementary school (Grundschule) whose parents worked. My sister and I went to this Hort every day after school for the first three years we were there. For the next two years, we went to a different school and were on our own after school. We had an U-Bahn pass, so we could get around pretty well. :) I'm not in contact with any of the people I went to the schools with, and only in occasional contact with one boy, my age, who was also Canadian, and is also now living back in the other end of Canada.

[@stephenringlee9739]

We did a bicycle trip through eastern parts of the old GDR two years ago. In our conversations with people we met along the way, we noted a pervasive sense of loss and disappointment in what had happened in the past thirty years. One waitress noted that her daughter had moved to the UK and had no intention of returning to rural Eastern Germany...no opportunities, fewer young people, and no vitality. In Eisenhuttenstadt, the job losses at the steel works have left much of the town abandoned as an architectural museum. It reminded us of some of our encounters in rural areas in the US where globalization and urbanization had taken away the young and ambitious, leaving older people unmoored. We can imagine that memories of the good parts of the old GDR linger as part of this longing.

[@lipingrahman6648]

Why would anyone we want to live in a rural area anyway. The country side is for the weak and stupid. A place of extraction not to live.

[@mardiffv.8775]

Yes, I visited the empty north-east of Germany (between Berlin and the Baltic Coast). A lot of elderly people. they looked not happy, more out of place. Also many streets had comble stone surface, quite a bone shaker.

[@Flies2FLL]

These days people in the eastern part of Germany are electing....Neo-Nazis~ And Elonia Musk is helping.

[@pierpaoloparisi2049]

It's as bad if not worse in south Italy, with the declining birth rate an added problem. Italy has some protected ancient languages reflecting its history, eg Griko, but they are dying out.

[@mardiffv.8775]

@@pierpaoloparisi2049 Thank you.

[@GhyuRtyu]

I'm African lived in East Germany in the city of Karl Marx Stadt in the 1970s my country was African cummonist state and my country sent me to East Germany to study it was amazing time it was the best country in the world

[@ionpopescu3167]

What did you study?

[@GhyuRtyu]

@ionpopescu3167 engineering in karl marx stadt city

[@GhyuRtyu]

@ionpopescu3167 Engineering In karl marx stadt

[@MCSkiure]

@@GhyuRtyu that's a crazy story man... there was a TV show called 'russian doll' where an african woman studies in east germany in much the same way and finds out her german friends are planning to escape to the west

[@elnick1000]

@@MCSkiure Would kive to see that.

[@ianbrailsford5843]

I used to live in East Berlin in 2000-2002. One thing all the former GDR citizens I knew said was "it wasn't all bad".

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

Ostalgie.

[@IGMD80]

yeah, in Karl-Marx-Allee you still see plenty of the GDR Aristocracy drinking their sekts and remembering the good old times. But capitals are always like that, quality of life was much better than the average. Like Moscow or else.

[@AuntieTrichome]

Just like in the West, even now, not everything is all good. 🤷‍♀️

[@AuntieTrichome]

@@AlfaGiuliaQV I bet they weren’t nostalgic about the spying by the Stasi and the lack of freedom of speech.

[@donovandownes5064]

people still say it.

[@gwheregwhizz]

GDR products sold in the UK were well regarded compared to other countries behind the Iron Curtain, especially optical, photographic, and office equipment.

[@simonh6371]

True. My Dad had a Praktika camera, they were very reasonably priced but high quality.

[@MrUltranuman]

Agreed. Cameras were great as were the typewriters. My old man knew people with Wartburgs and said they were a good little car. Some Robotron printers were sold in the west and indeed, Robotron components were also used in Commodore printers in the west.

[@simonh6371]

@@MrUltranuman Actually some West German manufacturers used to subcontract to manufacturers in the GDR due to lower labour costs, obviously both sides kept quiet about it as they were the ''Klassenfeind''. But it makes me wonder which products labelled as ''Made in West Germany'' were completely or partly made in the GDR.

[@annehersey9895]

@@simonh6371great question!

[@annehersey9895]

As an American, I’m shocked that the UK had trade with the GDR. I was born in 1950 and until reading your comment, I’ve been under the impression that there was absolutely nothing trade, people, entertainment etc that crossed the Iron Curtain either way. Admittedly, I was never really into reading labels so maybe the US like Britain did do trade behind the Curtain but I just never knew. Thanks for giving me something new to ponder! Cheers friend!

[@halitosis75]

I ❤your videos. Fascinating. Great work

[@mojzivotjenovival7789]

Thank you for your new video, I really like your channel! I'm living now in the Czech Republic, and I'm planning a East - Germany trip in this summer with Dresden - Chemnitz - Suhl - Eisenhüttenstadt - Leipzig - Rostock.

[@robplazzman6049]

I lived in West Berlin 1980-83. Visited east Berlin a few times and travelled through East Germany. It was grim !

[@gordonspicer]

strangely and never quite understood there was (for me at least) a pervasive smell which lingered only on the DDR side of Berlin

[@tariqkhader6196]

My German Teacher at College was from Niedersachsen. She told us that members of her family and friends moved to the GDR because they favoured that system.

[@elnick1000]

Sounds like they had the opportunity then to move back and forth if they wanted to, something many people did not have. members of her family and friends sound like a bunch of elites or just stupid.

[@tariqkhader6196]

@elnick1000 it was a completely different and confusing time. The Post war period was tumultuous and uncertain. The seemingly organised and regimented ethos of the GDR provided what felt like a safety blanket for some people.

[@elnick1000]

@@tariqkhader6196 I am sure the elites of East Germany found it a good safety blanket.

[@Jean-rg4sp]

*When I was staying with a family for a holiday in Saxony in 1972, the local butcher was able to let the mother of the house have some extra meat from under the counter when he heard that she had a visitor from the West.*

[@sharoncalladine4046]

As always - wonderful video - thank you very much.

[@liliya_aseeva]

Yeah. The fact that pre-school system is now privatised and almost abandoned almost destroyed the family-building in all of East Europe, not only DDR. Here in exUSSR for example also many people worry to have children not because of money (and no amount of direct money injections would persuade them) but because they have nowhere to put children when they are at work. Not everyone has good relationships with grandmas :D

[@mrvictorian4004]

The fact that the raising of Children was done by the state and not by the mother, was extremely deadly to family-building in itself.

[@williemherbert1456]

​​​ The fact that expecting the mother alone to bear all of responsibility to rear and take care childrens are just absolutely insane. Actually extremely become the main reason of home-wrecking since parents are all too beefed up against each other on the matter of how to divide household obligations while neglecting their own children with expensed energy. Though it's insisting to have some alternative option through privatized daycare which only affordable to those with expendable income, now you have population collapse to responsible with. Since it needs whole village to contribute in rearing each of the children, and you guys ruined it all because this kind of thought that actually attempt to push away the responsibility of raising childrens from the whole society but keep expecting them to come out in big charted number as cheap labors.

[@docBZA]

@@williemherbert1456yeah it has to be some sort of combination of affordable childcare as well as family caring for the children at home. A successful society needs families to have at least 2 children, or else have mass immigration. To fail this is to achieve slow societal collapse, see Russia or China in a decade

[@karlthemarxist6806]

@@mrvictorian4004 That's speculation and a-historical. The individualization of people has led to the breakdown of the family. Add to that the commodification of life, so that just about every family member in an advanced Capitalist economy have their own mobile phones, people retreat into their own individualized personal space and watch their own, no doubt cheap to produce and therefore profitable, shows. Unlike sharing a common TV in a living room and watching it as a family. And no, it is not because of a moral failure of people. It's the result of Capitalist relationships between individuals. It's an affront to human nature.

[@ianxyoutube]

One of the great paradoxes of the GDR was that though the Stasi completely destroyed trust between individuals, the social cohesion born of shared needs and grievances was, I think, stronger than in the BRD. The worst thing about the obliteration of the GDR was the obliteration of the childhoods of most of 17 million people. All those childhoods were deemed to be just worthless decades of suffering, and it just wasn't like that. I think the citizens of the GDR made a huge mistake in allowing themselves to be annexed wholesale, and their society simply obliterated, by the BRD. Other options were available, such as a division like the breakup of the CSSR into the Czech and Slovak republics.

[@christopheryim6618]

Very insightful and informative video! Please keep on with your good efforts!!!

[@helge000]

Thanks for talking about this topic! The one point I would disagree with is Ferienlager - for my part I disliked them. For boys they were quite paramilitary as well. If you need some anecdotal insight into the school system (from a kid's point of view - I was 13 when it ended) feel free to contact me, looking forward to your next video

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you and thanks for sharing your opinion on the Ferienlager. Feel free to drop me an email, so that I can contact you when I start working on the education video.

[@displacedyankee7819]

From the one time I visited East Berlin in 1987, what was bad was the cola. Had one for lunch. I thought I was drinking battery acid. I had an encounter with the police and they were surprisingly polite.

[@TheRichardSpearman]

Surprisingly polite? Good that the Volkspolizei you encountered were polite and friendly; the many I met 1981 - 1990 were the same.

[@elnick1000]

If you had gone through Check Point Charlie in 1968, they were not polite at all My mother and I each time we drove to see my Uncle had to change our liscense plate. they though did try to be polite to me, as I was only 11 years old. But to others, my mother mentioned tjhey were not. Things got better after establishment of dip[omatic relations. When we were returning from Poland by train in 1972, my uncle came to visit us at the train station. We said hi, and a soldier I suppose came by and was rude. When we objected, he actually nearly poiited his gun towards us. I do remember with my Uncle, maybe 72, 94 74, we looked acorss at West Berlin, he came along and told us to move, but he was polite.

[@ugetsu2093]

@@displacedyankee7819 You could be describing all cola. I hate the stuff. East German beer was OK when I tried it.

[@emikoussi14]

Very similar conditions existed in socialist Hungary (I am Hungarian). Even the social cohesion was the same. Now it is absolutely over. :(

[@edwinhof2090]

@@emikoussi14 Hungary was very liberal and open if you compare it with the GDR. I have travelled to both countries and I noticed the difference. Hungary was almost like Yugoslavia, only behind the Iron curtain. Budapest was a great place to visit!

[@NormanF62]

Hungary was a case where the Communist elite after 1956, pursued a policy of no revenge and sought to improve life in the country. The Hungarian Revolution changed everyone’s attitudes about the national path during the Cold War and how to deal with conflicts. That was a wake up call and a much needed one after the Stalinist repression of the first Communist regime.

[@edwinhof2090]

@NormanF62 Who is not against us, is with us! I have always considered Janos Kadar a very complicated and interesting historical figure. A very modest man.

[@garymacdonald7165]

East Germany v Scotland (Nov 15th 1983) The East German fans were the friendliest international football fans I've ever met!

[@johnphillips3475]

Thank you for this - it's rare to hear about the positives of GDR life. People always focus on the death strip, the Stasi, and the repression, so it is always interesting to hear about the other side of life in the GDR

[@None_of_your_business666]

Vielen lieben DANK für dieses Video!

[@andrewliberman7694]

Thanks!

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you!

[@Hasselroeder]

I liked the concept of people living together in "Plattenbauten" (prefabricated buildings) wether they were a worker in construction, a tailor or a doctor. Also that many things were accessable in no time! Like supermarkets, schools or kindergartens. I had all my friends there and it was safe!

[@Hasselroeder]

@@UCLAfilm01 That's what YOU said...😉 But yes, i have no trust in some "cultures"... luckily I live in a small city in east germany so it's not that bad here!

[@Derek032789]

It was safe until the Stasi came knocking.

[@RaimoHöft]

​@@UCLAfilm01Well, we had Vietnamese... and it worked. It's a cultural thing.

[@polygonalfortress]

@@Derek032789 If you were stirring up trouble, then it was deserved lmao. You want to demonize the Stasi, look at the NSA and FBI's surveillance of their own citizenry.

[@krzysztofj1993]

I was on vacation at Jugendlager in Arendsee in mid 80s. I'm Polish and I was learning German and a group of us was rewarded with a holiday in DDR. I remember flag ceremonies: they tried to make us shout: "Für die Sozialismus seit bereit" but we kept on remaining silent after the first day. They gave up and we, as probably the only group at the camp, were asked not to show up on the following days. Greetings from what used to be the Peoples Republic of Poland 😊. Thank you for a great vlog. I do enjoy it 👍.

[@prieten49]

Yes, East Germany always claimed to be the most successful of the socialist countries in the East Bloc. The propaganda signs always talked of "Das realexistierende Sozialismus." The accomplishments shown in this video were real. Exotic food was hard to find but some staples were plentiful and, like the apartment rents, kept at very low prices. The breakfast roll or "Brötchen" (Schrippe, Weck, there were many names) was kept at such a low price that some farmers bought them to feed to their pigs. Guaranteed full employment was another very desirable feature of the GDR. As we watch the USA descend into dog-eat-dog capitalism where many are exploited in low paying gig work, many are priced out of rental apartments, the cost of medical care causes many family bankruptcies, and university students graduate with crushing student loan debt, life in the GDR begins to look very desirable indeed. The GDR eventually became just another failed state. I have always wondered whether a few more sophisticated computers could have made the GDR economy a success or at least survive.

[@mixererunio1757]

No they wouldn't. The same was in Poland. Great industry, a lot of cars, same as in Germany pretty modern computers, chemical plants were quite moden as well. And it all collapsed the moment it was switched to free market economy.

[@nemousama4637]

They needed a wall, and to hold the entire population at gunpoint, and to enact a massive surveillance state just to keep the whole thing from falling apart. This video describes a few small reprieves from the misery, and is being exceedingly generous at that. Even these few "positives" of the DDR were overshadowed by the prosperity of the west, despite receiving massive subsidies and favorable trade deals from both West Germany and the USSR. The modest improvements in living standards in the DDR totally collapsed in the 80s once the Soviets cut off the supply of cheap oil that the East Germans were re-exporting to the west.

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Are there other countries you can point to other than the United States for examples of failed capitalism?

[@darkgalaxy5548]

The cost of controlling the people became too great a burden on the economy.

[@AryanKumar-fz2dm]

For some reason, I feel Czechoslovakia was the best of the Eastern bloc countries.

[@MordekaiNox777]

Back in 1989 i was 12 when i saw the Berlin wall fall. As a dutch laddy it sparked my interest in East Germany and everything that had to do with it. I couldn't imagine how life there would be. I am still interested in how life was in the GDR

[@mardiffv.8775]

I talked to many East Germans and they were not happy to talk about their time in GDR. The lack of freedom of speech (keeping your mouth shut) was harsh. Another East German I asked how it was in the GDR, his answered he had lived (but nothing more).

[@MordekaiNox777]

@mardiffv.8775 i know. The Stasi was watching your every move

[@southcalder]

Fascinating video as always.

[@CA999]

Thank you for (finally) making a positive video about East Germany. Sure, lots of scary things about East Germany, but this should have been done much earlier in your channel about when you started it. It's an important reference point and helps understand the present day divisions in Germany. Looking for more detail in future parts.

[@sal-z3q]

Bad things about the DDR are often exaggerated by videos

[@benbrown2292]

Growing up as a kid in the west I was always fascinated with the GDR soccer team. It would be nice to see a video of it's history

[@juan_ubieta]

That was a short, but great video. I grew up in New York during the Cold War, and remember the GDR as a teenager in the 1980s. Back then the media gave you the impression that you needed permission to breathe in the GDR. It sounds ridiculous these days. For me, the greatest positive impression of the GDR came during the winter Olympics of 1988 when champion figure skater Katarina Witt electrified all of us during her historic performance in Calgary. When she added her rendition of Michael Jackson's "Bad" it was sheer pandemonium. You can see it here in KZbin. It was truly a memorable performance. My mom, a figure skating fan, and my whole family were watching this live performance ecstatically. Witt was beautiful, talented and charismatic and still is today. She said something that made of all us think. She explained that the discipline of figure skating is actually very expensive and that if it hadn't been for the GDR government supporting and sponsoring her, there was no way she would've ever become such an international star because her family could simply not afford it. She was grateful and honest about it. To me she is an example of the positive side of the GDR.

[@pierpaoloparisi2049]

Real chicken and egg problem. You can only do things because the State supports you, but you are coerced into needing State support to begin with. I remember the 1980s, and the Olympics. No matter how beautiful a bird, it is harmed by being put into a cage. Freedom is a universal value.

[@NormanF62]

There was also pride in being German, which was a point of contrast with its eastern neighbours and its advanced standard of living and developed economy. For most of its existence, the DDR’s prosperity and stability was a result of hard work and the feeling that things would get better with time. All of this went south in the 1980s, when economic stagnation and a loss of social ideals contributed to the eventual downfall of the country. It was not only not living up to what it was, the gap between the ideals and the deteriorating economic and social situation was stark and became too much to overcome. The DDR’s successes blinded its leaders to the need to address its shortcomings and the once happier times never did return.

[@sarahrosenberg1789]

i rleally like your channel and your way of delivering pieced input about a state that sometimes seems to be forgotten or even hidden. not taken seriously in any way - of course also not the terror some people were put into also.

[@flarp671]

We need a second video! I almost died laughing because the good things about the DDR is one of your shortest videos.

[@rogerwhittemore9950]

Always enjoy your videos.

[@johntamlyn6383]

Interesting as always, many thanks.

[@tomrubis4208]

I've read somewhere that 57% of those Germans who experienced GDR want it back!

[@annehersey9895]

I’d love a second video!

[@TheHoveHeretic]

Another superb video. Once again, thank you. Interesting to see how many comments (on *all* this channel's videos) are clearly from those of us who never knew the DDR first hand (or the BRD for that matter) and work from impressions garnered somewhere along the way. A fairly pervasive notion that a country can be known purely from the contemporary media of another country is .... (Ooh, let's be tactful) .... curious. I grew up during the height of the Cold War and the amount we simply were never told, or was outright misrepresented has become ever more evident over many years. Given the current trajectories of several nation states, one wonders at the consistency of viewpoints concerning more than a few aspects of various socio economic matters.

[@travelvideos]

I don't understand how women in the BRD could not work. I am just looking at different countries, and whether women are in or out of the workforce kind of depends on economic success. I have listened to those records too when growing up in communism. I think they were sold by sailors and then distributed further from hand to hand. At that time, there was no radio to listen to foreign pop songs. Anyway thank you, merchant marines, for uniting cultures around the world!

[@drillerkiller9]

what do you mean? rn, it would seem that in countries that are economically successful, women are also a part of the workforce

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

In the 70´s and 80´s there was still more of a conservative class society here in the west, a transitional period you might say, that meant families where the husband had a higher position and a good salary didn´t necessarily mean both parents had to work equally. Often wives had part time jobs or reduced working hours which goes into the statistics as more hours of "not work" for females. Wealthier families also had room for the housewife role, which meant a stay-at-home mom and a well paid husband.

[@galanthuman2157]

@@AlfaGiuliaQV with conservative you "refere to women not working"? I never meet more conservative Germans the than in GDR. Which also can be seen in todays politics. ll blue in the east.

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

@@galanthuman2157 I mean it in a sense where the division of household work was so that the man was expected to have a full time job and it was still sen as fairly normal for the woman to take care of the household chores alone.

[@galanthuman2157]

@ That is a very limited view of "conservative". But OK

[@youtubesketches110]

In 1994 I was an American grad student. I remember my classmates from Leipzig. They were incredibly kind to me--maybe it was because I helped them practice English. I remembered that they were joyful.

[@nelizmastr]

These videos are so interesting. I've become interested in the history of the GDR ever since we watched Das Leben der Anderen in German lessons in high school.

[@damonbond5315]

Danke fur dieses Video

[@AndreaPick]

Great video, thank you.

[@timdavis7845]

I visited the GDR in 1980 and found it a very interesting experience. Most of the people I met were quite friendly and the prices were very low. The beer was excellent and insanely cheap. In the GDR, the prices were the same in large cities like East Berlin, Dresden, Halberstadt and Magdeburg - as they were in Gotha, Erfurt and Wernigerode. I also spent some time in the beautiful Harz Mountains and Saxon Switzerland. 😊

[@olivierwurmser7175]

Getting the education system right was almost compulsory provided most prominent engineers and mangers had left what would be the SBZ in the last months of WWII or right after. Regarding the social system, its funding became increasingly difficult from the early 70s as most plans to fund it thanks to hard currency earned abroad fell through (electronic and optic devices, refined oil from Schwedt, furniture, agriculture). Most bets failed and the economy was ultimately strangled by its dependence on UdSSR crude oil which prices soared hugely by the late 70s (contract prices were set on the average of world prices during the past 5 years).

[@NicholasKuqali]

At 5:06 that is the Art in the hospital in Eisenhüttenstadt. It depicts cigarette smoking by the staff, which I find to be very real, but also very interesting that it is displayed. It almost serves as a cautionary tale and I respect that.

[@127dot0dot0dot1]

That would be interesting to see more now vs then comparisons.

[@briantarigan7685]

Sir , i just found your channel and watch many your videos, pretty sure i am addicted to your channel that can satiate my curiousity for GDR, if i many suggest your video for the future, can you talk more about volksmarine? I know you already touch some side about volksmarine in your NVA video, but i and i'm sure many viewers here are very curious about the least talked about navy on the eastern bloc My personal interest about this topic in particular is because my country Indonesia basically buy almost their entire remaining navy in 1994, with the remaining ships being scraped by united Germany at that time, we buy a relatively new fleet at what is basically garage sale price, i know how Indonesian government and public reacted to this, but i wonder how the german public and ex volksmarine reacted to this, the ships are still in Indonesian services btw, their numerous upgrades and refurbishment already make them suitable for this day and age

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thank you, an interesting suggestion. I've put it on the list.

[@A-Name-101]

Fantastic and interesting video as always! I would be interested in a bookshelf tour of your recommended books 📚 hopefully available to buy in English too! 😂 👍

[@danielrudolf5441]

The things you mentioned were true to (at least most of) the other Eastern Bloc countries as well. No surprise that here in Hungary many older people feel nostalgic for the communist era when János Kádár led the country and think they had a much happier life in those years than they have today.

[@stephenkearney8589]

Well said. I first visited East Berlin in 1980. I had heard so may stories over the years backed up by relentless western propaganda that the GDR was a truly dreadful place, that I was looking forward to experiencing hell on earth with the luxury of knowing I could easily escape the place. I entered the crossing point eagerly expecting that very hell on earth that I had been promised but instead I found the cleanest city I have ever seen in my life, cleaner even than the then clean West Berlin. At first I was disappointed at being "sold a pup" and then I changed to liking the place. I kept on liking it on subsequent visits over the next few years. There were some anomalies of course - like the pedestrian at the Ampelmann waiting for it to turn green without even a car in sight, not even a parked one or the casual avoidance of eye contact. The latter was noticed by my Irish traveling companion, and, once he informed me, I started checking. It was true. No eye contact. I did, though meet some young East Berliners over several visits, though few spoke English (in contrast to the west) we managed to communicate through my ultra limited German. They were staggered at London rents (early 80s remember) and this was not an exchange rate issue; it was percentage of income. They reckoned about 5% of their income went on rent - for many in London today that would be 50% of their income. On the other hand, we were astonished at how much they were prepared for a pair of branded jeans - far more than in the west. Well, we all need a roof but we don't need big brand jeans. One thing all the young people wanted was to be able to travel to the West. When I asked why they couldn't one said in English ""because they think they think we won't come back". "But" he protested, "we would!" How about this for contrasts. On my first visit my German speaking traveling companion explained to a group of young people that one of the things he liked about East Berlin was the lack of advertising. They, on the other had, wished there was a lot more of it. "Bright lights, big city"? Yes, in my teens I used to envy far-away London with its big neon-lit Coca-Cola sign in Piccadilly Circus. There were other anomalies too, such as the trinkets of status. I love motorcycles so I visited the East Berlin MZ shop and got talking to the manager who spoke excellent English. His own 250 (MZ's biggest) as he pointed out, had a front disc brake (Scheibenbremse ), strictly confined to export models only because this fitting had to be bought in from Italy. When I asked him how he had managed to obtain this forbidden luxury, he gave a one word answer "corruption". When I visited the shop the next day, the young woman attendant explained that the manager was out but let me know (in German) that he had an MZ250 with a disc front brake! I still have fond memories of those visits to the GDR. I felt absolutely safe wandering around the clean streets, even if I found some of the functional apartment blocks somewhat, well, block-like. But at least they provided housing at a very affordable price, something that seems beyond an increasing number of western governments today. I believe the system that can establish a truly sustainable future will look, in outline, a little like the GDR (without the Stasi): basics very cheap, including housing and luxuries very expensive. Well done again on a very balanced presentation.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Fascinating comment. Thank you.

[@AlfaGiuliaQV]

There is still a country for you my friend: Cuba. Or North korea, no advertising whatsoever, and no jeans!

[@stephenkearney8589]

@ Great!

[@Ph34rNoB33r]

There were things that were more sustainable (lack of resources meant that things had to be durable and repairable), but that whole corruption, oppression (also with the Soviets in mind who could have intervened like in 1968 regarding the Prague Spring), ... People living in East Berlin were privileged when you consider rare goods, though. Not sure whether they wanted to satisfy those seeing the ads on the other side of the wall, or whether they wanted to present a better world to visitors from West Berlin, or whether that was actually for the politicians residing in Berlin. But there were things you only got in the capital (and that's not just the smuggled goods). Also some industrial regions got more bananas and oranges, so maybe it's for multiple reasons.

[@JOHNWHlTE]

I enjoy fair documentaries. Unfortunately, whenever there’s a video discussing some of the successful policies of authoritarian regimes, you can always count on the apologists to come out of the woodwork in the comments trying to white wash totalitarian regimes and it’s gross. By 1980 East Germany was crumbling. I don’t know what East Germany you visited. I guess you see what you want to see. While I agree there was less trash on the ground due to the GDR mandating full employment. There were lots of people with nothing to do but pick up trash all day. But it’s strange you didn’t notice all the buildings and landscapes which were dirty and crumbling? How about the horrible pollution in the GDR from the lignite coal and 2 stroke Trabis? Missed that too? I mean don’t take my word for it. All you have to do is KZbin or Google East Germany and compare the streets back then to the same streets today in the German Federal Republic and see how clean and modern everything is in the capitalist West compared to communist East.

[@Jesus-Histler]

Sounds better than my life now!😮

[@davidbarrett590]

Fascinating. Quite a lot of positives here at least in relation to normal life. It seems to me that if one kept to a normal, low-key life or was a Party loyalist this was by no means a bad life - perhaps it is surpring that there was so much opposition to the regime. Equally, not surprising that many Ostis seem to regret the passing of the GDR.

[@karthikkamathp]

What about the microelectronics/ semiconductor scene? As I see today, Dresden was very much the center of activities back then as well. 'Silicon Saxony' as it is touted nowadays. Would love to see the history behind the developments especially when they were denied access to Western parts/materials.

[@scottscottsdale7868]

My wife and in laws are from Madagascar. Her father was in education ministry. He travelled to DDR and thought it was so great. I remember the first time Inmet him he asked me about the Marx dialectic. Luckily Inhad read Marx some 35 years earlier so Inhad something to say. Ha. In Madagascar today, it is very very poor but for kids it is great. I imagine it was great in DDR for most people.

[@Derek032789]

It was great until the Stasi knocked on your door.

[@stretch9952]

I had wondered about this topic for some time. Thank you for covering it. I live in the US and strongly support lowering the cost of education, healthcare and housing, though it is not likely to happen under the newly elected "regime".

[@fviannaval]

Finally a more positive video, I’m glad.

[@briangronland]

As a child growing up in post war London my positive experience of the GDR came from the BBC broadcast of "Das Singende Klingende Baumchen" as part of their tales from Europe series. Transmitted in German but with an English voice over explaining the story. Any government that produced such a film can't be all bad.

[@CA999]

If you want a sub-topic on this theme, there was virtually no such thing as homelessness is the GDR. Similarly true in many of the socialist style countries. A significant point i think you might agree?

[@Ralphieboy]

Nearly every town, no matter how small, had a community center that offered activities, weekend films, discos, concerts, etc. Those all closed down after the reunification and left the people in these areas without anywhere to go. Often that social gap was filled by nationalist and populist parties, who offered family picknics and outings to spread their political agenda. Also, if you pursued many sports or sport or hobbies, it was often difficult or impossible to obtain equipment or find facilities unless you joined a canoeing club or a glider club or a photography club: they had access to scarce resources and again provided a sense of belonging in society.

[@HFD96SD99]

I could be on board with many of the programs that made the GDR positive: Universal healthcare to prevent disease, not respond to it. Education for all where students actually learned. Childcare for families with small children. And the summer camps, which I went to here in the US were great. Rent caps would be nice too, especially today. However, the prices should reflect closer to market value, so the Government isn’t completely supporting people.

[@lornarettig3215]

Exactly - good education, housing, and healthcare are three staples that plenty of people in ‘rich’ and ‘free’ countries don’t have today.

[@motivase]

@@lornarettig3215 well western Germany had all of these.

[@Sid4president]

I can't agree with your points about cheap housing and childcare. In October 1989, an internal analysis from the East German Politburo estimated that to pay existing interest, stop sinking deeper into debt, and to avoid bankruptcy, the GDR would need to cut the standard of living by 25-30%. It just so happened that 25% of public spending went to subsidize food, rent, transport, energy, and children's clothes (in 1970 it has been 19%). Please remember, in 1983-84, West German bailed the GDR with a loan worth 2 Billion DM (almost £500 million). (At the time, 1 DM was worth 8 East German Marks on the black market). Even more lucrative, the sale of 33,755 political prisoners to the west in exchange for 3.4 Billion DM. These payments put the cost of reunification into perspective: the 'social transfers' from West to East were not some new departure but instead a greater continuation of decades of subsidies. Thus, the GDR simply does not deserve full credit for cheap housing and nurseries. HOWEVER, I agree with your broader message. It is undeniable that the GDR did achieve that baseline of prosperity, whatever purposes or compromises are revealed when you pull up the economic rug to see what's underneath. Within the "New Economic System" reforms of the 1960s and the "Actually Existing Socialism" (real existierender Sozialismus) of the 1970s and 1980s, East Germany developed a consumer economy of no mean size or merit. Service literally from cradle to grave: conception, crèches, schooling, university, employment, housing, vacations, pensions, health insurance, and life insurance were all publicly provisioned or subsidized. If there was no excess or diversity of consumer goods, there was also no famine. If there was widespread decay or disuse of urban housing stock, there was virtually no homelessness. And if there was no job market to speak of, there was also no unemployment. Ownership of durable consumer goods like cars, televisions, and refrigerators grew, though it lagged far behind Western standards. (The nature of that growth is sometimes uneven and difficult to understand. Consider that in 1990, there were approximately 300 cars per 1,000 GDR citizens, but only about 110 telephones.) The cost in debt, fraud, and environmental damage that accompanied this baseline of modest prosperity would, of course, only become fully apparent after reunification.

[@antikoerper256]

Been a huge fan of your channel. Perhaps because Im bulgarian and not only was my country socialist until 1989 but also - we were much more influenced by Germany prior to WW2. So in a sense Bulgaria was like the GDR. Here in Bulgaria even to this day I live in Plattenbau and being born in 1990 I very well remember the sensations I had as a kid of the early post-socialist after-taste of society. I even live meters away from a technical highschool (in bulgarian we call them "technikum") which was named after Wilhelm Piek. Socialism had its hypothetical pros. It just had more order and structure, specifically for Bulgaria, or so do some people of the elder generations say - but - and I want to stress this HEAVILY - at a very HEFTY price we keep on paying 34+ years later. Evolution always beats revolution.

[@williamcarlson5405]

From WC USA, I was in the USAF stationed in Regensburg (West) Germany. One of my fellow Airmen and I had the opportunity to travel to West Berlin. First we had to drive to Frankfurt, and then take a train to West Berlin. As I remember we had to travel by night, maybe so we couldn’t see the East German country side?! West Berlin was modern and full of lights! We had the opportunity to take a tourist ride through East Berlin. No photographs except at Russian memorials or other specific places. As we traveled along these streets we could look down side streets but only briefly and it looked like war damage was still visible! This was in 1962 or 63 as I remember! This was 17 or 18 years after WW 2 ended! So the East Germans may have had “Enough “ but it was no where near what the “West” Germans were allowed to achieve the maximum that they could to rebuild and then move on to building their future!

[@elnick1000]

It was not much different in 1968. I think 72 it was better.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks for sharing your memories.

[@efnissien]

There are a great many in eastern Germany now who look back fondly on their lives in East Germany to the point they believe they were better off. There's even a name for it 'Ostalgia'.

[@osamaal-jundi2186]

Can you make a video about foreigners living in the GDR

[@KapiteinKrentebol]

Seems like a paradise compared to many western 'democracies'/autocracies/kleptocracies/oligarchies today.

[@godfreyzilla8608]

As an American what I miss most about those days is Senta Berger!!

[@jamesm7505]

In 1967 I crossed through check point Charlie with a permit issued by the GDR rep ,..the Swedish embassy...in west Berlin. Then a permit was issued on the east side to leave east Berlin and fly to Leipzig.....I was ultimately going to Eisenberg ( not invluded in my permit) outside the district of Leipzig.. What should I do? I nervously asked the clerk.... DON'T TELL ANYONE SHE REPLIED.

[@jonglewongle3438]

During the folding of the Soviet Bloc, as stage-managed as that was by the powers that be, it was that both the West Germans and East Germans were intensely keen to exchange the best and preferred aspects of the two separate States with each other. How that panned was probably incomplete or imperfect.

[@Ailasher]

The GDR's preventive medicine was a copy of Soviet Semashko's system. It was the first medical system in history of mankind that was completely centralized at all stages of a person's life and attempted to prevent disease, or at least detect it at an early stage, through an annual system of medical examinations, tests and vaccinations. Because in the fee-for-service medical system, when a person seeks help, it may already be too late. A person does not have medical competence and as a rule cannot detect a dangerous disease at an early stage due to certain symptoms. And even if he/she has full medical insurance, going for tests and check-ups is a waste of time in ordinary life, which could be spent to earn more money or to relax and spend time with loved ones. Well, in this case, the Semashko system came to work - because it was the socialist employer who was responsible to the state for allocating time for medical checkups. Which is impossible when medicine is decentralized and commercialized. Countries like the GDR or the USSR can be rightfully proud that they implemented such a system, which in my opinion is more advanced and valuable than space technology.

[@bobdobalina838]

Dankuwel!

[@maidere]

Not only rents.Program of building apartement houses in a massive scale. It was a good thing in DDR and other socialist states. We still live in those houses. Good designed, cheap and surrounded by parks, kitas and shops. Unlike the western blocks, usually they are not dengerous places to live. And maybe this is the reason, why in Berlin rents are still not so crazy high like in London or Paris.

[@kerlyenai]

Great video. I also heard that many manufactured products, including electronics, were of good quality and lasted ages.

[@gordonspicer]

are you talking about their Wartzburg car? It was sold in the UK in very small numbers. Rugged it was for sure

[@kerlyenai]

@@gordonspicer I was thinking more of things like cameras or basic electric appliances.

[@nathanlurie2602]

Very good video! 💯

[@NandiCollector]

*This is a great video showcasing the positives from Socialist countries. I would've loved if you do something similar for communist Albania. I was born in 1984 and until the fall of communism in 1992, I din't exactly understood the political or economical implications in our daily life but I can't forget the big social cohesion we had at that time. Everyone was social/ friendly/ interactive and very modest in their daily lives.*

[@reddykilowatt]

Yes modesty is pretty much the norm when there is nothing nice to buy. 😂

[@NumberSixBeSeeingYou]

Does anyone know how well the healthcare system worked in the GDR? How quickly could ordinary people get to see a GP, dentist , etc? Were there waiting lists for surgery or other procedures? What was the standard of care like in hospitals? Does anyone have knowledge from parents or even first hand?

[@evelynstarshine8561]

Could you talk about homosexuality in the GDR? I knew former east-germans who left because things 'went backwards' for gay men when reunification happened as GDR was more tolerant, or atleast blind-eye-turning to gay people than west germany and they had groups, bars, even films and etc in east Berlin that never could ahve happened in west Berlin

[@showbizsam4440]

True. No culturally incompatible immigration. No records by David Haselhoff, Freiheit or the Scorpions in the shops. Also entirely free of blame for Rudi Voller. Not much that East Germany could be praised for, but there's a good side to almost everything. Even the Austrian painter got the autobahns right.

[@seanshepard2000]

I'm American, but my favorite music group of ALL time is the German band, Die Prinzen - they were from the DDR originally - they have a great song on one of their newer albums, "Es war nicht alles schlecht" :) - it kinda tells it well - could just be "ostalgie", but seems like lots of things are missed now ... not glorifying anything, but my (Lithuanian) wife shares a similar sentiment with some of the old, Soviet things that she now misses. de groeten uit Amerika van een amerikaan die heel veel interesse heeft in de DDR en die ook (heel toevalig) nederlands spreekt! :)

[@raulsimon2218]

Great video! Please make one about education in the RDA. I'm tired of seeing the Eastern bloc countries being lambasted as dictatorships, etc. I have always thought that they should have something good, also. "Ostalgia" is not gratuitous.

[@pierpaoloparisi2049]

There was a very high suicide rate. South Korea has this too, so it is not a question of politics. South Europe is poorer, relatively, but the rates are lower, so it's not about money. It's complex.

[@mistahsusan2650]

has SK redefined suicide so that it falls under the same category as murder? in an attempt to bury the figures?

[@notyetsilenced9746]

There is a movie "The Legends of Rita" that explores the brief life of a 1970s Communist terrorist named Rita Vogt. The most fascinating part of the movie for me were the scenes where she went undercover under an assumed identity in East Germany. Vogt was a dedicated Communist who could not understand why her fellow East Germans did not embrace socialism and turned to alcoholism and moral depravity to escape their depression, cynicism and hopelessness. By the end of the movie, Vogt's character simply wanted a normal life. She wanted to fall in love, marry, have a family, and simply live. The collapse of Communism and the reunification of Germany ended that possibility, and Vogt was killed by a border guard trying to escape to Poland. My point is that although most people find a way to coexist with any social/political system, the brightest and most aware realize that they are living the lives of slaves under Communism, and would leave everything for freedom if they only could.

[@davidroth7138]

Great video!