East Germany

History

De: iMinds

Narrado por: Hamish Hughes

Learn about East Germany with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. In East Germany, it was not uncommon to hear of secret police patrolling the streets dressed as civilians. It was not unusual to find hidden cameras lying in garbage cans. Artistic expression often led to a prison sentence, while learning about the outside world came only through censored films. Though East Germany was also known for its music and athletes, police brutality and economic depression dominated the international news. Fear and scarcity were daily realities for the people of the East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic; and this despite the great cultural achievements of the country and the immense Soviet power behind it.

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, known as the “SED,” controlled almost every aspect of East Germany’s economy and culture after 1949. Although this government allowed different parties to exist, it was essentially a one-party system that combined the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany. Elections were held in an open manner in East Germany. Yet democracy was virtually non-existent. Voters were given a choice of approving or rejecting “unity lists” which served as opinion polls. On these lists, approval ratings of the Socialist Unity Party were around 90%, due to unregulated counting and corruption.

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Strange Exposé on East Germany

This supposedly factual short listen on East Germany is lacking on substance and is historically missing much. Listed under the "history" category, it is misleading as it gives little of note, and even goes as far as to say that there was significant contributions to the arts and culture which came out of East Germany. It names composer and musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in Germany in 1685 and died in 1750 (NOT East Germany which did not exist until 1949), and the Brothers Grimm, born in Hanau, (West) Germany, whose fairy tales are known the world over. Supposedly the East Germans made films of the Grimm fairy tales which were well known. There is no mention of the date that East Germany began (1949) or its end (1990), which was an historic, world changing event. And the tales of Soviet rule, for the years of its existence, in East Germany were watered down, in my opinion. Although mention was made of secret spies, rigged elections and cameras hidden on corner streets, the horror and deprivation of life in East Germany is not clearly spelled out, the sudden separation from family and friends, seizure of home and lands for the "state" not clear. My family LIVED in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, and had opportunity to drive into East Germany soon afterward in 1990. What is described in this eight minute listen is NOT what we saw . . . dilapidated buildings, smoke stained, potholed streets, and a people who appeared to have lived in a different age, a different world.