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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">===========================================<br>
L O W L A N D S - L - 26 January 2009 - Volume 05<span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><br>
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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);"><a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a></span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "History" 2009.01.25 (02) [E]<br>
<br>
</span>from Heather Rendall <a href="mailto:heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk" target="_blank">heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">On the former East Germans'
isolation question</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">In 1967 I travelled by
train from Göttingen to Tübingen: we stopped at the border stop to take on East
German passengers - mostly Rentner/innen. One - a lady aged late 70s I would
think) got into our carriage and the West German passengers immemdiately
started offering her chocolate and bananas and soft drinks etc etc. She got most
upset and told them in no uncertain terms to stop patronising her! She gave us
all a 'tirade' on how she didn't miss such items because she had never known
them and that luxuries once they became commonplace were no longer luxuries!
That life in the East was in many respects better and healthier because there
were few excessive food stuffs and that the basics were in full supply and
cheaper. She quoted meat prices, I remember, to back up her argument, showing
just how much a better bargain she had there than in the West.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">I forget more of the
details nowadays but do recall being very struck by her spirited defence. Some
people tried to turn the discussion round to personal freedom etc but even
there she came out guns blazing and asked if the West was really as free as it
liked to think itself.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">It was a very salutary
experience especially after my trip to Berlin
the day after the killing of Benno Ohnesorg, when we stood on the Ku-damm in
the evening and heard the students argue for a non-armed police force.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">We went over to the East
several times in the week we were there as my German friend had friends whose
1st child was born the morning we arrived. I have never forgotten the appalling
state of the building they lived in with a single toilet every 2 floors, most
without doors and the smell....! However walking into their tiny two room flat
was a revelation of neatness and cosiness. He was a non card carrying doctor
and so came last in the pecking order for accommodation etc.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Heather</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">----------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
From: <span class="ep8xu"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Luc Hellinckx</span></span><span class="hccdpe"> </span><span class="ldacoc"><<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Subject: <span class="hccdpe">LL-L "History"<br>
<br>
</span>Beste Ron,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">On
26/01/09, at 2:39, Lowlands-L List wrote:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Hey, Luc!
What's going on, bud?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Nothing in
particular. Just curious and trying to set the record straight. Would love to
hear how Hannelore experienced the DDR. From a cultural point of view for
example. Or linguistically. Did they have some sort of Missingsch for example?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
Thanks for that link.<br>
<br>
All that stuff looks "nice" in theory. But look at paragraphs 14 and
15 which essentially say that exit visa applications "may" be refused
"if this is necessary for the protection of public order or other state
interests of the German Democratic Republic" (my translation). As far as I
am aware, this conveniently vague statement served as a catch-all provision for
denial. In fact, the vast majority of citizens had a snowball's chance in hell
to get an exit visa to travel to any country other than Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Mongolia, North
Korea, Romania
and the USSR,
similarly guarded countries with which there were mutual extradition
agreements.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Poland</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> too I believe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
And even that was a long shot if there were no "real" purpose and
travel "companions". People knew this full well and few that were not
retired (and were thus dispensable) would even bother applying, not only
because it was a waste of time but also because it would have put them on the
state's (Stasi's) sh*t list, which meant that their careers and social lives
were pretty much over, and it would have affected the lives of their relatives
and possibly friends as well. Many if not most East German citizens had
relatives in Western Germany and other
countries with whom they could have gotten together in any country (including
the ones mentioned above). That in itself was considered a threat to the
interests of the state, leave alone not returning home. And there was the
blanket exclusion of a sizable population section from <i>any</i> official
right to leave the country: "Permission can be refused if the applicant
has yet to rendered active military service [...] and has not yet completed his
26th year [...]" (my translation). A few of them would leave as members of
closely guarded sports teams or performance troupes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Ok, guess
it may have been harder for "them" to visit "us" than the
other way round. Wonder if that also means that "they" knew less
about us, than "we" did about "them"?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">By the way,
was almost unable myself to get a visa for Turkmenistan last year. Nigh
impossible. But I did get one in the end. Journalists don't. Worse than embedded
journalism? *s* </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Unfortunately,
even today, there's still loooads of people all over the world, who will never
be able to travel abroad.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Kind
greetings,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);">Luc
Hellinckx</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">PS: Having
problems the last few days getting umlauts in Lowlands
post. No matter what encoding I choose, they're not coming through.</span></p>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><br>
----------<br>
<br>
From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>
Subject: History<br>
<br>
Quite right, Heather. Easterners tended to be patronized and tended to resent it, especially
the so-called political "hundred-percenters". However, this usually did not
stop most of them from guzzling down gallons and gallons of coffee while
visiting the West in retirement. This resentment carried over to the Post-Mural
(!!!) era. (How about this creation?) Easterners resented being treated as the
poor liberated relations, and their shock at the perceived ugliness of capitalist
competition as well as the fact that pretty much all the older ones among them
lost their jobs didn't exactly help matters, not to mention Western "vultures"
picking through the debris of their vanquished state and smirking at their dashed utopian dreams.<br>
<br>
Yes, Luc, I forgot to mention Poland
in the enumeration.<br>
<br>
To get this back on the Lowlands track, I wonder if my assessment is correct,
namely that Low Saxon studies and language support were treated similarly in
the East to the way they were in the West prior to official recognition. I did
locate quite a few Eastern linguistic and folkloristic studies of the era, some of them
with official political line twists (such as "rural songs expressing socialist
sentiments"). I understand that Hanne, too, was involved in some studies of Mecklenburg traditions. She has sent me a lot of
relevant stuff that I will eventually add to our Traditions presentation (<a href="http://lowlands-l.net/traditions/">http://lowlands-l.net/traditions/</a>).
As in the West, the language was treated as a group of German dialects, though
some language activism seems to have been tolerated as long as it did not
contravene the official central political line.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Reinhard/Ron</span>
•
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