The DDR is a personal fascination of mine - I love learning all about it and looking at footage of it, and just trying to imagine this important part of history that's really being laid to the side, forgotten about. Germany, after all, spent more time communist than it did fascist. There is, unfortunately, so much misinformation and propaganda about the DDR, where it is portrayed as a literal hell on earth, and anyone nostalgic about a time when they didn't have to worry about work or death, as either brainwashed or forgetful
Aye you speak to the message of this series! There’s so much misinformation and lies out there. I hope this plays a small part in setting the historical record straight :) Good to hear there’s people out there with a passion for the DDR
@@SocialistSwann So many lies! We didn't even learn about the reparations or the generally lower development. And they acted as though Ossis were only nostalgic about prosecco and pickles, and just sort of forgot all their lived experiences, that an anti-communist from a different country and a different time would know better
Hey guys, I grew up in the West and we only hear horrific stories about the DDR and Honecker being a brutal dictator and that's what we learn in school as well. After I moved to China, I can see how the West has demonize China and communism in general. I'm not politically affiliated to any parties but I would like to know the truth. I've never been to the DDR but my sister used to live in West Berlin and when my brother visited her he had to drive through the DDR and the contrast of West and East is day and night. I'm not entirely sold on communism but I do believe in a meritocratic system to elect competent people to run a good socialist system to serves the well being of their citizen.
@@djuradjuric7161 books are just theories. You can study all your life but reality is very different. I may not be as informed as Mike Pompeo about China, but I live in China and the reality is very different from Mike Pompeo's narrative. A little bit foundation won't hurt.
I’m from South America. Socialist efforts here were hampered by severe US interventions... I hope one day socialism flourishes once again, we already saw it with the Pink Tide at the beginning of the century with remarkable leaders such as Chávez or Rafael Correa... they were then revoked and cancelled by the economic elites
Ah more of blame the USA for your failures. Latin America has an extremely low average IQ and is the most violent continent on the planet. You are to blame for your problems not the USA.
I feel that point about having the "freedom" to go places, but no prospect of ever affording it. The only foreign travel I've done was to the US -- from Canada -- for my dad's funeral, after he died of a cocaine overdose. Even that was only because my mom called in a favour from her employer's travel agent, to get cheap flights to and from Salt Lake City.
@@SocialistSwann I forgot to add that my "freedom" was in fact also conditional on the...er, grace, let's call it, of Amerikkka. I have a criminal record, so I had to apply to US Customs for an exemption to be able to cross the border.
Socialist Swann This capitalist system is what allows you to have the modern standard of living you take for granted and allows for hard working, intelligent people to get the salary they deserve. The true reason why the west has a lot of “poor” people is because of rampant financial ineptitude. It not and never has been because of the system, but people’s own stupidity. A single person can live off $5.00 an hour in the US if they are financially and personally responsible. Im so sick and tired of people railing against “the system” when in reality it’s almost always their own fault.
These achievements are especially amazing when you consider that East Germany was so much smaller in geographic area than West Germany and had fewer resources to draw on, something explained by East German resident and US exile Victor Grossman.
For sure! A lot of the GDR’s shortcomings can be explained by looking at the context of US pressure and fewer resources. I often wonder how much more it could have achieved if its circumstances were more favourable
As someone living in the ex. DDR, I can definitely say that a lot of people I have talked about how life was back then could almost always agree to the fact, that while Life in the DDR was not as luxurious as in the BRD, people actually cared for each other and the feeling of being together was way more present! Some liked it, some don't but those were the same people who prefer the BRD over the DDR. The only thing I don't like about the DDR is the Stasi and its methods, which would be a very interesting topic for a Video!
Aye I believe that community spirit really stands out, everyone looked out for each other and that’s something that’s really been lost in our age of “individualism” sadly. Thanks for your personal insight :) I’ll certainly be talking about the Stasi, but not for a while. I feel the Stasi is the thing most people know about when it comes to the DDR, it’s really the only thing that gets talked about in English circles anyway. They’re definitely important but I’d like to discuss other topics first to shed more light on wider society if that makes sense?
@@SocialistSwann Yes please! I think the Stasi is talked about so often is because it is the biggest Flaw in the GDR, whithout it, they couldn't say other bad things about the GDR other then the usual missing of Luxury.
I think that this better social infrastructure was at least partially a function of the system being repressive. People helped each other because they didn't trust the government. There are a lot of things that people in the DDR complained about while it existed, but now it seems they prefer to remember the good parts of it (which certainly existed). Some examples for the bad things: * No freedom of speech * No freedom of travel * Access to consumer goods was very limited (you could say this is a good thing, but would you really want to wait 10 years for a car?) * Free childcare had also its downsides; women that worked in shifts often had to give their kids into week-long child care, i.e. babies were torn from their mothers for the whole work week.
@@SocialistSwann No it doesn't make sense because once you realize that people were under constant surveillance by a massive state machinery that employed a significant fraction of the population, talking about "wider society" in a positive way is meaningless. Could I have gone to the main square in Berlin and protest against the security apparatus? NO. Than that society is a living HELL.
Unappreciated in the US, the US owed it's a transcendence to the fact that it was isolated from the wars of Europe and was thus able to get by with a minimal military for decades while it was also able to pour its resources into its infrastructure. OTHO, the Soviets were always plagued with having to pour their resources into their military at the expense of their infrastructure. Ironically, it is now the US that is being dragged down by over-investment into the military while its infrastructure is being neglected. Just take a train trip in the US......
No it happened, my father actually witnessed 2 people killed trying to cross (My father is from former East Germany). People did escape, and many disliked living in the GDR, but not everyone did. Most were content. Forcing your citizens to stay and limiting travel rights is what my dad said was the biggest cause. If they allowed people to visit the West, people would not have tried to escape as much. Imprisoning someone if more likely to make them want to leave than not.
As an Anarcho Communist, I do see the Marxist Leninist way not going far enough, but I can appreciate how well they did with the state. I’ll take Marxist Leninist over Capitalism any day
The state is absolutely necessary until the class conflict has been definitively won and the experience of Anarcho-Communist experiments proves this. The anarchist militias were always crushed by more powerful, more organized states. By contrast, Marxist red armies were able to secure and defend the revolution against capitalist imperialists and fascists. Imagine "Free Ukraine" trying to repel the Nazis without the mass industrialization and organized red army of Stalin. Once capitalist imperialism is wiped of the face of the ENTIRE Earth, we can start talking about the state withering away.
i like how you went into detail on how the workplace democracy actually functioned, i've found it difficult to find analysis of how socialist governments actually worked and this really helped me!
I’m glad this video helped :) It’s so easy to dispel the myth of workers having no say in the GDR. We have to discuss the huge range of channels that workers had to express themselves and aim to bring these systems back in the future
I live in East Germany and many of my coworkers also worked under the DDR regime, there was no democratic process at the workplace whatsoever, none of this was put into praxis.
What about breadlines? Not being allowed to travel? Restrictions of press and religion? What about the people shot trying to cross to West Berlin? Why is East Germany to this day far poorer with a far lower standard of living then the west? Why was the Berlin Wall built?
What about the Great Depression or the Irish Potato famine? Those aren’t blamed on capitalism, are they? Hmm idk, maybe there are other factors that contributed to that, not too mention that those restrictions also experienced in the west. Please read more.
What about sanctions from the west? They were allowed to travel to other communist countries, just like how westerm countries didn't allow people to travel to the eastern bloc
What about the black race? What about gun violence? What about prices and working conditions? What about millions and millions of people in the "non-civilized" world killed for the sake of the civilized one?
As someone with family from both sides of the wall, this reads like what how the SED publicly aspired to build the system, rather than the system's actual material conditions. Yes, workers were technically free, but in practice, workers groups had little actual power over their workplace, as everything was organized by the party, over which individuals had little power-the voting structure meant that leadership was more or less decided by internal squabbles between SED bigwigs, rather than leadership from below (a good example being when Ulbricht was replaced by Honecker, the latter more or less banished him from the party and from the public, being so petty as to even remove his name from streets). The army was actually conscripted, which makes sense given the proximity to the West, and while the SED claimed descendence from the KPD of the 30s, the practical reality was that half of all KPD members were in fact slaughtered under Stalin (the other half by Hitler, of course) and the Antifa groups that sprouted up in both East and West Germany to remove former Nazis from political office after the war were quickly squashed by their respective sides. I apologize if any of this critique was mentioned in other videos, this is the first I have seen in my feed.
I am sympathetic to Marxism and left leaning but hearing this kind of blind appraisal always makes me instantly question the validity of what is being said. My parents are from the USSR and they have mixed views but mostly positive things to say about socialism but definitely not like this.
@@danielk3919 Yeah, I think we need to do a better job of differentiating between the theory of socialism in the Eastern Bloc versus its practical reality - there are important lessons to be drawn, but not from the theory, only from the actual political reality, and in that respect I think the modern Left needs to understand that Leftist movements sprouting from authoritarian regimes (Tsarist Russia, post-Nazi Germany, Nationalist/imperialized China, etc) are mostly failed programs with little practical implication for us today. Violent revolutionary theory has failed to bring about the expansion of freedom promised by MLism.
@@vojislavl6665 I was talking specifically about the DDR but generally, my family hated both sides because they saw the Americans and Soviets as escalating a war for which they would be the front line. They came from Berlin and the area around Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. I don't find their critiques especially useful, because obviously it is tainted by personal experiences, which is why much of my understanding comes from books, especially Social POlicy in the Third Reich by Tim Mason (British Marxist historian) and Creating German Communism by Eric Weitz, who I see to be a fairly reputable source, despite his Western background (he did his thesis on socialist politics in the Ruhr valley, for instance).
@@marcuscornelius3521 but can you mention their positive and negative views then of the DDR? My family came from Yugoslavia, and in the case of my dad, he is very Yugo nostalgic, and quite a communist himself. Yugoslavs had a falling out with Stalin and it is believed that the standard of living and freedom was greater there than in the USSR. Hence why the period is more popular among people who lived during it, than from people in other eastern bloc countries
Look at pictures of streets and buildings in 1980's they were still bombed out from WW2 . A car was a 2 stroke engine that took 12 years for delivery after it was bought. 1/8 of the population were in the secret police . This was totally awesome place to live
Although I was still a child when the wall fell, I only have the best memories of the GDR. I'd rather live in such a construct than to struggle for bare survival as it is now.
i think that’s what most capitalism simps look over. if you have problems in a country it’s better to have your material needs met than be starving on the streets
The fact that GDR was the most destroyed country and USSR even confiscated some factories and still they became the biggest economy in the COMECON and best living conditions in the entire eastern block
DDR was the displaw window of communism and all eastern world lead by ussr pumped money in it. But even so it was inneficient and collapsed at the end. After the reunification all DDR industry couldn't compete on the free market and was wipe out instantly. They were very lucky with the western brother who pumped thousand of bilions to sustain the new lands from east. The other eastern block communist countries didn't have such luck.
I worked - for a West German company - most days in East Berlin for many years. - the 1980s. This video puts forward an interesting narrative, but it is naïve in the extreme. There was much that was excellent about East Germany, but at its heart lay the mistaken expectation that the state could - and should - organise life. It couldn't and didn't do all that well when it did. It was not Hell on earth to be there: just different.
A communist Dan Snow perhaps? I’d strongly recommend watching “Das Andere Leben” here on RU-vid. A 3 part documentary series with English subtitles, interviewing Ossis about their experiences. It’s eye opening
@@SkyFoxCode I doubt you'll find many since the word has a negative connotation (always had since before documentaries were invented). So you can't really be pro something that by definition is bad. But I agree, you can find propaganda for anything.
@@SocialistSwann Exactly same thing with Ethiopia we used to have communal cooperatives that on like the kind of Richard Wolf promotes were built on community needs and we’re very sustainable and then when the socialist government crashed they virtually crushed them. Even though they had no actual role in the regime they would see it as a form of socialism popularized at the community level and they knew that in order to drive neoliberal economic policies and keep their “”competition” They would have to crush these community-based organizations
Disturbing to see all the foreigners in the comments fetishize the GDR. 1982: Due to fixed prices, goods always cost the same and to keep the trade afloat, the state subsized the unrealistic prices. In the end the state paid 80% of the product costs which ate up the government budget so there was no money for research and development. Source: Winfried Maier - former minister of prices. The GDR was kept afloat by trade with and loans given to it by West Germany. Now the debt amounted to 25 billion Dmark which realistically couldn't be paid back. Infrastructure? Dresden had 6000 leaking roofs and 12 roofers. Want a car? Wait 20 years or be party member. Want a telephone? That's 12 years. Want exotic fruits? Be party member or a friend of one. The biggest nono was the Stasi or course. Imagine the Gestapo took off their gloves and turned them inside out revealing a red fabric, that was the Stasi. Torture, terror and complete surveillance often by friends and family who were forced to comply. I know many people from the GDR. One was raised by his grandpa who was a high ranking party member. None of them miss the GDR and hate the SED. Why would one build a wall with mine fields, barbed wire, sentry towers and ditches to keep their population from fleeing if their country was so great?
Thank you! Yes I’ll definitely add that in, hadn’t actually crossed my mind weirdly, but I have read some great sources on it a bit back so I have something to refer to. Cheers for raising it :)
If people loved it so much, why weren’t they allowed to leave if they wanted to? Seriously asking. If it was so great, why did they refuse people from leaving, especially after the wall went up.
Just discovered you through comrade Marron. Tankie Tube needs more short-form bits like this; easy to recommend or digest in between tasks on a busy day. Solidarity and thanks, Swann!
I traveled to East Germany and East Berlin with my school a couple years back. We were there three days before we went off to see the Sachsenhausen concentration camps. The East-German, and especially old East-German people I spoke to were some of the nicest people I've met, and I've traveled around a lot and spoken to a lot of people. Even if it was flawed in ways, the DDR sure found out how to make people nice :)
I was born and raised in the GDR and although it was not the hell some believe it was it also was NOT the paradise that this video suggests it was. For religious people it was especially bad as they were shunned from society. Also people who were party members of the SED were much better of than others, not even to mention the settlement Wandlitz where the leading politicians lived in luxury enjoying all the western products normal citizens couldn't get or afford. And in the end the economy couldn't keep up with the capitalistic countries so the imense amount of money needed for the social system which was indeed good could not be earned. So far we have yet to see a country in this world who manages socialism without restricting peoples freedom of opinion, religion and movement. If the Berlin wall had never been built the GDR would have lost all of their most intelligent citizens. Were they too stupid to see how great the GDR was? Probably not. So i think that socialism and communism are not to be implemented with humans. It is just not part of our nature to live like this. Only force can bring us into this and once that is used it does go wrong eventually. Once people have power they tend to abuse it to make their lives better than everyone elses.
I worked with a woman in western Germany and she told me that in the GDR she worked and once got to work a bit late. From that point on her co-workers shunned her and would not talk with her.
I own a car that was built in a VEB! My 1988 VEB Sachsenring Trabant P601s is a very, VERY basic car that does exactly what it was built for, cheap but practical transport for the common people. Yes, it's noisy, smokey, rattley, but it's rare in the UK, and fun to drive! I love it. I even have a large GDR national flag too!
Doctors and other professionals could step across the border into the BRD and become instant citizens. The incentive was that they got more money for selling their skills in the West. Nevermind that such a policy was directly related to the Cold War or that it had nothing to do with helping others in need.
@@greenknitter Shhhh. We aren't allowed to talk about that, and every single other time it was tried and failed, resulting in the misery of whatever subject population was under it.
@SteppenWolff100 By whom? My fiance was born and raised in the GDR and told me so much about life there, both good and bad and I've read quite a bit about it. He couldn't travel outside the brother East Bloc countries, there were other political parties but had no power, it was a single party state and they simply did not have the variety of Western good available in the BRD that he saw on West German TV. If Honecker and the SED had allowed reforms there was a chance the GDR could have survived but they were too hard-line and people got fed up waiting for change to happen. The GDR was great in some respects and my guy is proud East German until he dies but it was authoritarian, a surveillance state and human rights were abused. I've been to the East many times and spoken to his family and friends who also grew up in the GDR. What's your experience with the country and people?
В Советах была обязанность на труд. Каждый гражданин обязан был трудиться, безработные привлекались к уголовной ответственности за тунеядство. Т.е. любой безработный был преступником..
Another informative video, really enjoyed these videos on the GDR so far and look forward to future videos, also congrats on a speedy road to 1k. Red salute from the Land of the White Rose, God's Own County - always nice to know there are comrades round these parts. 🔴✊
Thank you comrade! I’m blown away by the response and there is Certainly more to come. Aye, the people’s republic lives in God’s own county! Red salute o7
The DDR was a mixed bag when it comes to workers and socialism. The guarantee of the right to work and the social benefits (healthcare, childcare) made a great difference; specially in terms of liberating East German women. The fact that these co-existed with an organized workers militia was also impressive. The DDR had one of the highest rates of productivity and technological advancement in the Socialist Bloc. The problem with the Publicly Owned Enterprise (Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB) model though was that it did not include a component of workers management. "managed by the State" marginalised the workers from economic decision making and plannning and empowered bureaucratism. Including the viewpoint of workers in the formulation of five year plans was nice but not enough. Had there been an integral element of workers management in the VEB system; then, in 1989-1990 the workers militia would have risen to defend workers control of management over the means of production. The mass movilisation of armed workers taking over the streets to defend worker managed collectivised property would have spiked and trounced the West German / Imperialist sponsored liberal "monday demonstration" movement, like for example; the mass movilisation of the CDR's in Cuba in July 2021 trounced the Miami sponsored liberal counter-revolution protests.
Advise for converting friends into the revolutionary movement? As I now see it, there are three stages of becoming a communist, first is the rejection of capitalism, second is the learning of the revolutionary theory, and third is the endorsement of the revolutionary movement. Currently three of the ones I am in the process of making revolutionaries out of have shown many signs of the rejection of capitalism. A good use of your effort then would if you could recommend literature for me to give and guide them on. Pretty please?
100% agree with that breakdown there of the stages of becoming a revolutionary. As for advice, I’d *strongly* recommend Lenin’s the state and revolution. The first time anyone who is anti capitalist reads that is eye opening. If they’re still weary about Lenin though and have some liberal perceptions of him, I’d suggest Michael Parenti’s black shirts and reds. In fact I’d recommend that anyway. It is a great primer to ML and discussed fascism, the need for socialism and the strange phenomenon of left anti communism. Anyway, I wish you look comrade, fighting the good fight!
If you're truly, truly serious about this you need to 1. Get into a trade 2. Work HARD and win your coworkers respect. 3. Infiltrate the relevant union or start one and work hard for them without question. 4. Join the largest and most active socialist party/organisation you can and show up to the meetings and work hard for them without question. 5. Campaign hard for any socialist or progressive politician that runs in your area 6. Realise that we are starting from scratch and we will never, ever see the workers revolution. Maybe our children will if they carry on our work, but we never will. But doing any or all of these steps is doing 10000x more than shiting your pants on the internet about Biden/Trump every day.
@@jackcharlton1375 The East German micro-electronics industry was a disaster. It was so badly managed by the Socialists that their output in 12 months was less than a week in Japanese plants.
I traveled to East Berlin through check point Charlie a few times, the city was supposed to be the Capital of East Germany, but it was so ran down, most buildings still had massive bullets holes on them, people looked so so sad, they looked at visitors clothes and shoes and cars as if they have never seen anything descent before and the whole city smelt of burnt car oil because of them imitation little cars , absolutely nothing positive about it.apart from the people at the top,the poverty was equally divided among the ordinary people. Communism never worked, that’s why it collapsed.!!
I'm a newbie to socialism,i'm actually from Vietnam.I doesn't know much but i think my country and the GDR is some of the best example for what a socialist nation should.Most of the other socialist nation falls is because of error in the socialist government system ,it makes the distance between the people and the government further!Also love your content by the way!
My family grew up in USSR and I think people tend to have a misconception of life behind the Iron curtain. Living conditions were definitely not the worst in the world, but I think the biggest issue is the coercion that is fundamental in the system - not unlike prison. One was guaranteed housing and work, which is good, with the caveat that work was mandatory and unemployment (parasitism) was punished often with forced labor - The inability to emigrate/opt-out of the system is what breaks its legitimacy in my eyes even more. Say what you will about the small homeless population % in capitalist countries or unemployment, but people at least have the option to be supported by family and friends, as you are fundamentally free and association is based on voluntary interaction. Some people argue that property rights are inherently coercive, but I seriously don't want to go there because that opens up a huge can of worms.
The precarity of work in capitalist countries (the USA especially) makes it such that work is coercive in much the same way, with the main difference being that there is almost nothing guaranteed to you whereas even under the least charitable views of communism there were ostensible benefits to the system of work. Sure, you can just choose to be unemployed, but the constant downward pressure on wages and lack of social services makes this incredibly difficult as anyone who you could possibly rely on to take care of your needs would experience a significant degree of economic stress doing so, even if they were "wealthy". The staggering amounts of consumer debt in the USA actually paint a pretty depressing picture, in my opinion. Everything is so expensive and wages are so stagnant that the majority of the population is engaged in a borderline feudal relationship with a class of financiers who contribute literally nothing productive beyond propagating more rent seeking behavior, which is far worse than anything I have heard of in Actually Existing Socialism.
@@xXEvangelXx Capitalism isn’t the problem but rather tax and land use policy. Without going into too much detail in this reply, a broadly Georgist economic framework with a UBI component and residential zoning liberalization would alleviate practically every issue you brought up.
The travel restrictions really resonate with me at the moment. I can't even afford the price of a passport right now, much less overseas travel. I make a decent middle class income but the cost of my prescription medication is out of control. Any out of town travel is out of the question. But I have the freedom!
Oh yes. I also have fond memories of stove heating in a damp and mouldy flat, of winters where everything tasted and smellt of lignite. The thought of house books, flag ceremonies at school, of reprimands for lack of class consciousness and a sweater being too American makes me really nostalgic. My eyes get wet when I reminisce about military education at school and university. My longing for this lost country becomes unbearable when I think of those fellow East Germans who as political prisoners were sold for hard currency to the West. The socialist work environment with its shortages of staff, raw materials and the abundance of self important party and trade union secretaries is something all my fellow former East Germans will sorely miss. Rigged elections on all levels, the glaring contrast between improvisation on the shop floor and the official over fulfilment of production quotas makes my heart leap. Yes, the GDR was a wonderful experiment, especially if you attended the right party school, thereby staying clear of the mundane aspects of life. Is it wishful thinking on your part, Socialist Swann, or how do you manage to delude your self about the Worker and Peasant State?
I think a main reason for the romanticizing of the GDR and other Stalinist states from many leftists from the anglo-american sphere is the following: Freedom has two dimensions (as hinted in the video as well): One is the economic dimension, the ability to economically afford what you want to do, and a dimension of civil liberty, i.e. the absence of state repression. People from the UK or the US live in very liberal systems where there's plenty of the latter dimension but little "economic freedom" which is why they mainly focus on their economic hardship while underestimating the value of civil liberties - we must have both, there's no either or.
@@Zomgtforly It is ironic to see the same question asked about our last dictatorship as about the penultimate one: "Do you have sources?" You don't have to dive into the archives. There's a lot of original SED and MFS footage on RU-vid. Try the Keywords 'Walter Ulbricht yeah yeah', 'Kahlschlagplenum', 'Erich Mielke', 'Mauertote', '24:07 HALLE/S.'89-Dokument des Verfalls'. If that's not good enough, go and visit the historic sites in what used to be the GDR. For the moment I assume you are just an ill informed believer, not a complete ignorant.
@@JRHass-mo2uq The only thing that could fit is 11th Plenum, which from what I found is the "loss of the soul" of the GDR. Nothing you stated seems to contradict the sources in the video, nor did you provide evidence to your own personal statements. eastgermancinema.com/2013/08/24/the-11th-plenum/
@@Zomgtforly people vote with their feet! Which side had to kill those attempting to escape? Why did they have to? These are important questions for critical thinking on the matter
I've been trying to find a book that specifically discusses the GDR. As far away from Hitler and the USSR west Germany or the collapse of the Berlin wall but I'm finding it hard. What would you recommend?
I’d strongly recommend “Stasi State or socialist paradise” as general primer about the GDR that aims to tackle the common myths but also recognises it’s clear faults. But if you want something more in depth, Mary Fulbrook’s “the People’s state” is a must :)
Talking about GDR without talking about that other stuff doesn't make much sense. The GDR was occupied by the USSR for 45 years, it was not an independent state.
@@LHFX Obviously all of the eastern block were under the influence of the USSR but every state was different. You cannot ignore the USSR's presence in the GDR but I would like to know more about the state specifically.
@@alexanderlee5669 Sure, just keep in mind that generally speaking sources that completely ignore that context (such as this channel) tend to analyze things from a rosy nationalistic and / or marxist point of view only. Whenever countries tried to build a story of their own it was either crushed (e.g. Czechoslovakia) or it went batshit crazy (my country of Romania).
>East very good, West evil bad and Capitalist Thank you, left-wing man. I surely am convinced about everything that you said about a country from which you're not even from and never lived in.
Have you tried a little thing called reading? I’m sure you have no problem talking about WW2 era Britain or other western nations despite not having lived there at that time. Please open your mind.
Personally as a right winger, for me the DDR is the perfect state since it basically fits my views in almost all ways. Well, except for the soviets occupying it. The DDR’s policies would’ve been good in other nations in the modern era and during their time. Excellent video.
Socialism with a strong military and national service is the best way. This new socialism today where pacifists, the sissification of youth, and entitlement is what turns me off. I look at what socialism was back in the 20th century, that's what I wish still existed. The Stasi and intense surveillance and intimidation of its population would have been nice to not have, but over all, the GDR was the best model of Socialism to this day. (Father grew up in East Germany. Used to love his stories)
2 years after reunification economic production in the east had plummeted by 73 percent from 1989 levels. Western companies mostly didn't expand their production into the east, since it seemed more profitable to expand production in the west, and sell products to the east. The Treuhand, which oversaw privatization of eastern companies was staffed almost exclusively by west-germans.
Can you make a Video on the new Forum? I believe it had the potential in 1989 to reform the GDR, instead of being annexed by BRD. Love your Videos, best wishes from eastern Germany.
@@Koroleva_O_A East Germany was a totalitarian state. This video is a bunch of nonsense. You couldn’t leave the GDR without permission, and a video like this with a pro-capitalist stance created in East Germany would have landed you in jail.
The gdr had big Social Freedom but no political. If you were an political opponent of the SED then you didn’t have the same rights as a normal citizen.
@Hussein hit me with sources, please, I would like to learn more about the GDR. I know most people who left were highly educated, and they lost billions in public investment in education, but I didn't know the FRG payed people to leave the GDR.
The East German micro-electronics industry was a disaster. It was so badly managed by the Socialists that their output in 12 months was less than a week in Japanese plants.
This was great. Concise enough and packed with data instead of opinions and speculation. And you cited your sources! I'm a big reader so that's huge for me. Keep up the good work bro. We need it.
Thank you! Aye I’m a history student so got to use the sources, first to show I have a little credibility but also for people to explore the topics themselves!
@@SocialistSwann Yeah man. That added credibility plus options for doing our own research. So clutch. Maybe you can recommend some other things here. I'm having some trouble finding books that cover China's Great Leap Forward and Proletarian Cultural Revolution that actually use dialectical and historical materialism in their analysis (instead of using those movements solely as fodder for capitalist propaganda). Right now I'm reading 'The Other Side of the River' by Edgar Snow. What else do you recommend?
Certainly, I have a lot of criticisms of the GDR. It fell for a reason after all. I do try to be positive to counteract the overwhelming negative views towards the GDR in English spaces, but I’ll certainly mention problems where relevant. Later I’ll make a video about errors that the GDR made and what we can learn from them
@@SocialistSwann Good stuff. Please continue, this channel might very well become an innovative spot for research into the East German political theory and reality. If the video library's contents become comprehensive enough, maybe you could suggest solutions to the problems that hurt and eventually eliminated the GDR, from a 21st century standpoint.
That’s a great idea. I mean as a socialist my goal is to learn from the past to shape the future. I imagine that better technology and computers would help with the inefficiency of central planning by hand and a lot of the ‘authoritarianism’ can be traced back to the fact it was on the front line of the Cold War and practically under siege. The GDR was the product of its time and its material conditions
Let's not forget that the damage Germany caused was about a million USD back in 1945, and yet the Soviets had to contend with only receiving five thousand USD from both West and East Germany, yet West Germany only paid one thousand USD and left it more economically stagnated neighbor to foot the bill, as well as west Berlin supporting an "experiment" where the orphaned or otherwise abused children were given to confirmed Pedos to try and "rehabilitate them" while the lead scientist was encouraging SA on these kids, if East Germany even tried to do so much as a glance in that direction the west would have made the entire thing public and used it as propaganda, yet because it was West Germany, it's completely okay to encourage the SA of minors as an "experiment".
Unfortunately not and I believe that’s a great error of the GDR and socialist countries in general as it allowed bureaucratisation to occur. But on the other hand there were checks in place to (in theory) lesson their corruption as happened in the USSR in the 30s
@@SocialistSwann Same here. I am for de-centralized planning (since every economist say that it is limited at fulfilling needs) and workplace democracy at co-ops and state firms and no capitalist parties. I would like to inform that most political scientists would not label the DDR (until 1990) since parties cannot oppose the SED and the right to opposition is a necessary characteristic of democracy. I am saying that I label myself as authoritarian. I am interested to talk. What is the film(s) your footage is from?
I’d say the concept of economic planning with computers is an exciting prospect for future socialism. Would really help wipe out the inefficiency of centrally planning by hand. Aye political scientists wouldn’t call the GDR a democracy but I believe that (at least in the early to mid years) the principle of democratic centralism worked well for internal debate and redirecting policy. So officially, no opposition, but inside the parties there was good debate with different opinions allowed. As for the footage, the majority of it is from an East Berlin travel film from the 80s called “Unser Berlin.” The rest of it is parades, speeches and a chunk from a 1950s film about the FDJ
@@SocialistSwann Thank you. I think that my your comment addressing my question regarding lack of workplace democracy should be pinned since you agreed that it was an error but not addressed in the video. Nice change in the thumbnails. On a different note, German social democratic RU-vidr Three Arrows does like Risen from the Ruins.
It all seems nice and idyllic and all, even utopian but people went far to cross over the border, risking severe penalty’s even death. The fence wasn’t meant to keep western kapitalist country’s out but to keep people in. Not many have crossed from west to east to live there. Why would that have been?
My father went once to the GDR, Leipzig. He got acquainted to an fellow worker. So the worker pulled him to a private beer garden in fear of his neighbors snitching him out. And he told my father: "These swines..." He went on, how his work day was made of nothing but standing next to his tools. Everyone, who did not conform to this socialist "work ethos" was at risk, having the Stasi next day in their house. Buying a car, that HE built, could take 10 years - at least. So much for your praised anti bureaucracy of the common worker. Shortly said: the GDR equals a workers paradise.
Mic Eggers it’s basically just ripping stuff off RU-vid, looking for GDR films, parades, propaganda etc. The most useful was a travel documentary for East Berlin in the 80s
I am torn between both systems. These die hard capitalists know that they often fall into a corporatism. Just like socialists and communists usually fall into dictatorships (although not as abusive). I’m not sure. Which one is worse?
Capitalism is by far worse. The media in the West that chastises socialism is controlled by the ruling class, which despise socialism because it would run them out of business and create true equality. Capitalism leads to warfare and unnecessary death. If socialism truly didn’t work, why don’t we just let those nations fail on their own instead of intervening under the guise of “democracy?” In capitalism, everything works only for the benefit of the 1%.
Fascinating! As I watch this video, I feel like a child being read to from a book of fairy tales - but true ones! These tales offer hope and vision; they are comforting, inspiring, and cautionary. I've always believed a better world is achievable. Subscribed! Thank you!
Just discovered this channel, I must say that this is a very interesting concept for a series! I'm Polish myself, so learning more about the Polish people's republic and fellow socialist republics is always very interesting to me, since socialism is extremely vilified here in post-soviet Poland.
Thank you! I’ve had a whole lot of requests to do Poland actually. I personally don’t know a whole lot about socialist Poland, but I would be more than happy to research it and talk about it on the channel. I’ve been to Poland before and I love the country and its rich history!
Imagine what we could achieve if everyone would pull on the same rope and not everyone on his own rope trying to screw the other ones over. No! Imagine we would help each other if someone lacks behind and not just going on, on a selfish trip leaving them behind. Imagine how many wars we could prevent if we would work together for a better life. But everything that holds us back lays deep in the History since the Beginning. Greed, and greed is the fuel of Capitalism.
Could you maybe expand on sport in the GDR, I know there’s a lot of talk about steroids at the Olympics but maybe you could talk about the systems and clubs that helped propel top athletes
I have lived and worked in east Berlin. While many of the basic needs of the people were provided for during the GDR era, it was still a brutal police state. Writers, students, artists, activists were among millions who were monitored on a daily basis by the Stasi (Secret Police) and labeled subversive for the most trivial reasons. These people would be thrown into prison and denied many of the rights we are granted in a healthy robust democracy. The GDR government destroyed lives, divided families and turned the citizenry against one another. They spied on nearly every part of east Germans lives. Following the fall of the Berlin wall, many of the files held by the GDR which contained personal information on citizens were released. About 5.6 million east German citizens had Stasi files. Perhaps the worst part, when these files were released, many discovered that close friends and family members had been spying on them for years, sharing intimate details about their lives with the state. Families and friendships would be destroyed due to this deliberate strategy by the GDR government to turn the people into a weapon to be used against themselves. Is there nostalgia for the GDR among some older Germans? Yes! There's also nostalgia for Tito, Stalin, and Ceausescu. The important question is: Were the years of repression and surveillance, where thousands were imprisoned for expressing a 'subversive' opinion, writing a provocative music lyric etc. worth it? Was the destruction of thousands of families and friendships necessary. Were the years that so many artists and students languished in prison justified in the name of the so called 'Socialist Utopia'? I and most Germans emphatically say: Absolutely not! And the the collective trauma created by such repression continues to be felt across Germany, and profoundly shapes how Germans approach issues like civic engagement and privacy as a means of collectively healing from these wounds.
I've mostly considered myself an anarchist but as I learn more I'm starting to lean more ML. My only thing is (and do correct me if I'm wrong, I want to learn) is the ultimate end goal still a stateless communist society eventually? It's just that MLs think a state with a vanguard party is a necessary transitionary period to get there whereas anarchists... I can't say I know how anarchists plan to get there, that's kind of why I've started leaning ML. My concern is, what's keeping the state from slipping back into neoliberalism? Don't the leaders, the vanguard or whoever, since they're the ones in power, don't they get to decide when the time is right to move towards true communism? What incentive does a person in power have to give that power up? It would seem to me that the ML states are the ones that actually get into power at all as opposed to the anarchists, but it's only because they replicate the existing power structures and end up returning to neoliberalism while the leaders tell the people it's only pragmatic that they slip further back into a system that just so happens to keep them in power.
Definitely, the end goal of every ML is the abolition of the state. Just as MLs, we believe we need a transitionary workers state, as you said, whilst capitalism still exists in the world and threatens the existence of socialism. It’s almost impossible to build communism whilst under this pressure from imperialism as they’re almost always better armed and have influence over most of the world. But yeah, it’s a very real concern that these states can degenerate and fall. This certainly happened with the USSR and Gorbachev. That’s why there needs to be checks and balances, where workers are involved in politics at every level. We saw this in the Lenin and Stalin era USSR with the Soviet system, and the GDR with its popular democracy. I could recommend some reading if you’d like for ML theory on the state? It’s great to hear you’re an anarchist with an open mind to other tendencies on the left :)
@@SocialistSwann Definitely, that was going to be my follow up question; what are some books you recommend. I've only read Conquest of Bread. And thank you for answering my questions, I'm really trying to learn more about this stuff.
No worries mate, first of all I’d definitely recommend Lenin’s “state and revolution.” Explores the historical role of the state and what a workers state would look like, also the importance of revolutionary politics. It’s written by Lenin so it’s really approachable and actually funny. Everyone remembers the first time they read it! Secondly, Michael Parenti’s “black shirts and reds.” Really easy to read and basically covers everything, fascism, capitalism, socialism and the phenomenon of ‘left anti communism.’ Finally, Stalin’s ‘foundations of Leninism.’ Obviously sounds scary but worth reading, helps to consolidate Leninist theory and his writing style is designed to be read by ordinary people. Reckon that’s the best starting point for you :) if you need anything else I’m always here!
@@SocialistSwann Hey! So I've read Blackshirts and the Reds and State and Revolution and have some more Lenin and some Che books ordered. This stuff has been a real eye opener and I think I can safely say I'm ML now.
Yeah, I've gotta say... this feels like the kind of propaganda that's meant to deceive somehow. I've got nothing against propaganda at some level - I consider it value-neutral, or at least deriving its moral value (positive or negative) from whatever ideas or systems it's being produced to promote. But when it's deliberately deceptive, that changes. What I can't tell is whether this is deliberately deceptive, or if it's just rubbing against some capitalist indoctrination that remains internalized within me. And I don't know enough already about the GDR to know quite how to reconcile that. I guess I'll have to research more... and talk to more of the German friends I've made about their perspectives, and those of their parents and such. Anyway, this is interesting. One way or another. And even the fact that I'm having cognitive dissonance, as somebody already pretty anti-capitalist, is still of some interest.
That also had part in the education system. After ww2 Germany (East and west) was responsible for the debt reparations for the war, but west Germany had a large chunk of it forgiven in a London conference. This allowed west Germany to offer higher wages for educated specialists in many fields compared to GDR, so many of them would leave which is detrimental to any nation. That’s one of the reasons border security was tight in the GDR.
This video has a good point. I lived in America all my life I think the schools and society execrate the bad things about East Germany. I think the East German government did more positive things than bad. They did many good things like give people affordable housing, even though its 2022 schools in America are still allowed to physically punish students but in East Germany they got rid of it in schools in the 1970s but in the United Kingdom it was in 1986 under Thatcher much better than America but worse than East Germany, they gave people affordable healthcare, free access to sports related activities, there were many liberal movements like LGBT rights and women's equality, etc. I think they should done somethings better like reunite Germany but let East Germany a automatous region or keep it two countries its like why Sweden and Finland and Estonia and Latvia choose to be different countries. I can see why many people in East Germany think they are treated like second class citizens or they miss East Germany. I still think America is a great country but people need to get another opinion.
Of course there is a bit of propaganda involved in this clip. But the basic facts are absolutely correct. No billionaires, no beggars, excellent education and healthcare systems, good socialization of the people, culture and national heritage for all. Only slight differences in income levels. Of course a doctor got more than a taxi driver. But there was space for all to live. Hope a lot of it will be preserved in the future.
Another great video thanks for showing what benefits the workers received in their free time. Whilst Britain was in despair with general strikes the GDR was prospering with the benefits of socialism. Capitalism chipped away at the GDR now is the time for socialism to chip away at capitalism now is the nest time we’ve had to achieve socialism with imperialism being the weakest it’s ever been In peacetime. Solidarity everybody join your parties and put the work in to achieve the achievable ✊
Not in the GDR, collectivised agriculture was efficient in feeding the people. The only shortages were in exotic fruits like bananas, pineapples etc. This was because West Germany started the “Halstein doctrine” which lasted until 1972 meaning that if any country recognised the GDR, the west would sever diplomatic ties. This meant that the GDR was essentially under an embargo for all the countries outside of the socialist bloc. About famines though, after the collectivisation of agriculture, the USSR never had another famine after 1936 when before that Russia had a famine roughly once every 10 years
I’ll look into in the future :) I don’t know too much about the other nations in the Warsaw Pact other than the basics. Why I started with the DDR because it’s my specialist area I suppose. Speaking the language helps too! But yeah, might make a good research project to further my own understanding of socialism
The author of this video is parroting the exact same garbage our teachers would tell us back then. The day the wall came down they were like "Yeah forget all that nonsense we told you, we had to, sorry."
About the secret police I believe it's primarily because of Berlin because people at the start could enter West Berlin and then from there to East Germany and then from there they can go to any country socialist country pretty much as people were allowed to vacation in Czechoslovakia and Poland And reason why they had a restrictions on letting people leave one of the major reasons is brain drain College educate people specifically were paid way more in the West than in the Socialist countries it was common for people that just carried heavy stuff and done lots of physical labour to be paid more than doctors meanwhile if you went to West Germany a doctor would make three times the amount normal people would make there so the specific demographic of people that left East Germany we're one of the most important people especially doctors which east Germany had a very bad shortage of after World War II because a lot of the doctors were Nazis who fled to West Germany because they would get less or no punishment and a lot of the new doctors post World War II would literally just work in West Germany because there'd be paid way more pretty much every job you need to go to college for weren't very highly paid in socialist countries again you would make less than people who didn't go to college and just do a very physically demanding job if you just cross the border they would pay way more for the college graduates The second reason was just that's just how the Socialist Bloc worked they had restrictions on people leaving to the Western countries east Germany was really the only country that didn't early on but this happened as soon as America decided to make Germany not a neutral place. Neutrality was what the Soviet Union wanted Germany to be the only reason they were opened and there was free movement was because they believed that Germany was supposed to reunite and also the expectation of Neutrality early on but the militarisation of West Germany was the last straw which made East Germany decide to end its freedom of movement and build a big wall
I was supposed to be there now for uni but that obviously got sadly. The west tore down a lot of things to do with the GDR but a few monuments remain. There’s the Marx and Engels statue opposite the Berliner Dom. Alexander platz is nearly unchanged with the Fernsehturm and the world clock. Worth walking down Karl Marx Allee (formerly Stalin Allee) which is in the video thumbnail. The Ernst Thälmann statue is a great one to see and one of the only ones that survived. There’s obviously the remnants of the wall that still stand but other than that, a lot of East German history has been erased. You’ll have a brilliant time though, enjoy yourself :)
