LL-L "History" 2009.01.26 (05) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 26 January 2009 - Volume 05
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From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2009.01.25 (02) [E]

from Heather Rendall  heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk

On the former East Germans' isolation question

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.

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.

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.

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.

Heather

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "History"

Beste Ron,



On 26/01/09, at 2:39, Lowlands-L List wrote:



Hey, Luc! What's going on, bud?



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?


Thanks for that link.

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.



Poland too I believe.


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 *any* 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.



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"?



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*



Unfortunately, even today, there's still loooads of people all over the
world, who will never be able to travel abroad.



Kind greetings,



Luc Hellinckx



PS: Having problems the last few days getting umlauts in Lowlands post. No
matter what encoding I choose, they're not coming through.

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: History

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.

Yes, Luc, I forgot to mention Poland in the enumeration.

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 (http://lowlands-l.net/traditions/). 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.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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