Thursday, September 24, 2009

communism was more elegently done in Germany

The survallence equiptmen at the Stasi Museum seemed slightly ridiculous to me. Large bulky cameras were hidden in tree-stumps, garbage cans and other very day things, as if trying too hard to be sneaky. Never the less, they were survallence where massive amounts of data were collected for each citizen of the GDR. I decided to start my research here by asking the guide some questions regarding German perception of Soviet communism and the GDR era.

Q: It appears to me that communism here in Germany is regarded almost less negatively, with GDR memorabilia everywhere and nostalgia for Eat Germany. Why do you think that is?

A: Hmmm… I’m not sure… I think that perhaps communism was done more elegantly here in Germany. I think theSoviet communists did a good job infiltrating the society, Germans felt that their government was their own, German, instead of feelling like an outside regime like the Soveit Union was ruling the system.

Could it be that the oppression and cruelty of the communist regime was hidden under the elegance so well that when former GDR citizens reminisce, they can easily overlook the bad parts of life?

No comments:

Post a Comment