W The Poznań Publishing home late published a paper entitled “Country Behind the Wall. regular Life in East Germany” by Katja Hoyer. Born in East Germany, she presently lives in Britain.
At work, the past of the German Democratic Republic was presented very accurately, from the beginning of what the russian business region was to the minute erstwhile the German national government absorbed this country. The author does not hide dark pages of East German history, specified as shooting people trying to flee to the West, or widespread public surveillance by safety service – Stasi. However, unlike most books about People's Poland that we have published here, representing our country from that time in dark colors, K. Hoyer besides shows the affirmative side of life in the GDR and, after reading the paper, it seems that these positives outweigh the negative side of East Germany's existence. In summary, K. Hoyer states: “It is time to admit the GDR as what it was – part of German history.”
At work, the author's communicative intertwines with the memories of the inhabitants of B. G. D. and it must be admitted that this connection is very successful.
His communicative K. Hoyer begins in 1945. It shows the hard situation of residents of the russian business zone, which was not only a poorer part of the erstwhile Reich, a smaller, little populous, deprived of natural resources, and besides severely damaged and subjected in the first period of strong exploitation by russian authorities, or even deprived of scientists who were transported to the USSR for a fewer years to work on military projects.
Against the background of the hard beginnings of the accomplishment of this socialist state in the 1960s and 1970s, they must be respectful, especially as the russian zone, unlike the Western zones, was deprived of assistance under the Marshall Plan.
The author notes that even the emergence of the GDR itself was not obvious. Stalin was reluctant to do so for many years, striving to unite Germany. All actions taken in the russian business region were the consequence of actions taken in western zones and so the GDR was only created after the creation of the RFN, and the approval to build the army was given after the start of the remilitarisation of the RFN. The emergence of the GDR did not initially mean that Germany could not be united. The first constitution was akin to West German, the country as its western neighbour was divided into lands, owned a bizbic parliament and identical to the RFN flag. Changes at the reluctant attitude of the USSR, and this mainly under the force of German communists, were gradual. In 1952 the Lands were liquidated, introducing Bezirks (districts), in 1958 a bicameral parliament, in 1960 the office of President. It was not until 1959 that a hammer, a circus and a grain wreath were added to the flag, and the constitution was first changed in 1968.
The breakthrough year for the first attempts to unite Germany was 1952. Then he's German Chancellor. Konrad Adenauer rejected Stalin's proposal, which was afraid about preparations for the remilitarisation of Western Germany, proposed the unification of Germany, subject to its neutrality. According to the author, Stalin's proposal was not a propaganda run but a solid proposal. Rejection of this proposal by the German authorities was immediately utilized by the GDR leader Walter Ulbricht and 9 July 1952 during the 2nd organization legislature announced the beginning of the "building of socialism", to which Stalin reluctantly agreed. At that time, the national strategy was abandoned and a separate German state was consciously built.
As I wrote above, the economical situation of the east part Germany was initially very difficult. According to the author, between 1945 and 1953 the East German state lost 60% of its current production, which it confiscated for its needs of the USSR. However, the citizens of east Germany did not quit their efforts and already in 1950 the production level of 1938 was achieved, despite the fact that the GDR paid 3 times as much reparations as its western counterpart.
As I have already mentioned, the areas that were included in the GDR were practically devoid of natural resources. Practically the only wealth was lignite and about 70% of energy was produced from it. Despite the deficiency of iron ore, the fresh city of Eisenhüttenstadt was built from scratch. It was a model socialist city. Given the hard first conditions, the economical achievements of the GDR were impressive. K Hoyer cites a number of data on this subject and so: in 1960 the washing device was only in 6% of households, 10 years later in just over half. The biggest success of the consumer manufacture of the GDR was advancement in the supply of refrigerators. In 1960 they were only in 6% of households. In 1970, the electrical refrigerator already had 56.4% of households, much more than in West Germany, where it had only 28% of households at the time, and in 1980 these household items were already practically in all home of residents of East Germany. On the another hand, access to telephones was much lower compared to the RFN. In 1970, half of West German farms were connected to the phone, while in East Germany it was only 6%.
As regards the number of cars, according to the author in 1988, just over half of East German households had a car, which is only a small little than in the West Germany and the same as in the UK.
In 1967, working Saturdays were abolished and the word was reduced to 43.75 hours for the same wage. Subsidies of rents, meals, cultural events and public transport made them available to everyone. A movie ticket cost 50 penigs with a minimum wage of 300 marks. A four-person household in West Germany spent around 21% of net income on rents and only 4.4% in East Germany.
In 1968, almost all home had a radio, in 3/4 besides a TV. By the end of the next decade, radios and televisions were already in practically all house. In 1969 and in East Germany and Germany, colour televisions were introduced. This advancement was made, on the 1 hand, thanks to the effort of a hard-working population and, on the another hand, thanks to the supply of inexpensive oil and gas from the USSR. present it is forgotten that the supplies of inexpensive energy resources of the USSR were subsidized by all socialist countries, including Poland.
‘Trabant 601’There was besides tremendous social progress. The author emphasizes that around 1/3 of students of GDR higher education came from working classes in 1967, while in the West Germany it was only 3%. In 1989, the GDR had the highest percent of women's professional activity in the world, almost all of whom had permanent jobs. Only half of the women in Germany worked, and most of them temporarily. For East German women, it became perfectly average to do a career and have children with fewer compromises. Care facilities were many and free. From 6.00 to 6 p.m., they included average working hours, so both parents could work in jobs. Although the West German strategy has been making large advancement since 1950, childcare was inactive considered a individual choice, covered with its own money and requiring parental involvement. K. Hoyer besides states that erstwhile women began serving in the GDR army in the late 1980s, women in the West Germany inactive had no right to service in the military. As a result, in 1990, after the unification of Germany, each of the 2 1000 women serving in the NVA ranks lost her occupation and military degree. Only very fewer joined the Bundeswehr as civilian workers.
The stableness of life resulted in increased political satisfaction. The 1953 events, during which more than 100,000 people went out to the streets in Berlin, in Halle and Leipzig respectively 60 and 40 1000 – together a million people were expected to participate in the protests nationwide – never again. East German society has been divided into 2 groups. little many were profoundly unhappy, felt persecuted, abused and choked by politicizing many aspects of life. However, the vast majority of people came to terms with life in East Germany. Thus, the imagination of East German society presented by K. Hoyer is completely different from the imagination of Polish society, which was supposedly divided into cursed soldiers, opposition on the 1 hand and collaborators on the other. For the sake of judgment, I leave to my readers an assessment of which imagination is more true. It is up to K. Hoyer, however, to respect that she has presented the temper of the East German people so sincerely. Besides, it was a much little oppressive country compared to the 3rd Reich.
The setting of the Berlin Wall inhibited the dramatic flow of people to the West. The author states that by the end of 1961 the GDR had already lost 1.3 million people. The main departures were intellectuals, professionals, skilled workers and erstwhile owners of large farms. According to K Hoyer, until 1961, the GDR lost 7,500 doctors, 1,200 dentists, a 3rd part of scientists and hundreds of thousands of skilled workers.
The author besides notes that alongside interior stability, the designation of GDR on the global phase was increasing. In 1973, together with the German German GDR, she was admitted to the UN, improving relations with the West German neighbour. In 1980, east German embassies and consulates were located in almost 200 countries of the world. East German products were exported even to the United Kingdom and the United States.
The GDR besides began to be highly successful in sports. From the 1972 Winter Olympics to the end of its existence, the GDR held 1 or 2 seats in the medal classification, beating giants specified as the USSR and the US, as well as a West German rival. Although this is improbable to be achieved without cheering, it does not explain all the successes. A tiny state dominated sports tables for decades, its representatives won a full of 755 Olympic medals, including 203 gold.
Very interesting is the presentation by the author of the transcript of the conversation between Helmut Kohl and Erichem Honecker of 1983, during which Kohl assured the East German leader that: “You are talking to a man who will do nothing to harm your position.” The culmination of inter-German relations was Honecker's 1987 visit to Germany, where he was received with the highest honors. And to think that the same Germans 5 years later put a terminally sick Honecker on trial. How the words of Piłsudski stay to this day that the West is rotten.
Erich HoneckerThe author besides points out that denazification in the East was deeper and had a major impact on the economy. Teachers, officials, politicians, and even engineers and policemen were removed from their posts and replaced by inexperienced but more ideologically acceptable people. At that time there were Nazis in the West Germany felt rather well. specified a standard example is the career of the Warsaw executioner Wola, liable for the execution of respective tens of thousands of civilians in August 1944 SS Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth, who after the war became the longtime mayor of Westerland, and was then a associate of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein and was receiving a general retirement.
However, oil crises highlighted the weaknesses of the GDR and its dependence on the russian Union. erstwhile Moscow withdrew from the promised supply of oil and gas, East Germany was no longer able to keep the standard of surviving that their citizens were accustomed to, without exposing the country to bankruptcy. In 1980, the GDR paid $15 equivalent per barrel of crude oil compared to $2-3 in 1972. In addition, GDR exported petroleum products, which accounted for 28% of energy exports to non-socialist countries. In 1981, the USSR broke the agreements that had been signed and reduced oil exports to the GDR by more than 10% from 19 to 17 million tonnes in order to be able to offer more on planet markets and alleviate its own economical problems. This resulted in economical stagnation in the 1980s. The GDR was no longer able to keep pace with its western neighbour's economical development.
In the book, the author besides devotes quite a few space to the effects of German unification, and in fact decently naming a thing by name, the absorption of East Germany. To prove it, K. Hoyer cites words Wolfgang Schäuble, a West German Minister of the Interior, who led the negotiations unification with the East and declared that the change had to come exclusively from the GDR. ‘This is not a union of 2 equal countries" He stressed. "There is simply a constitution and there is simply a West Germany. Let's start by assuming that you've been excluded from both for 40 years. Now you have the right to become part of them.” The direction of the negotiations was not open to discussion. According to the author, the majority of GDR citizens in 1989 did not want to liquidate the state, nor did they want to shortly unite with the West. It was possible to anticipate the GDR to modernise political life. GDR was a society of people well educated and politicized, confident, arrogant of their achievements and desirable changes. 28 November 1989 31 public people, including celebrated writers Like Christa Wolf and Stefan Heym gave the media an appeal entitled “For Our Country”. It called for the preservation of independent GDR, due to the fact that "the alternate was the sale of our material and moral assets and the imminent annexation of GDR by the German national Republic".
In the last part of the work, K. Hoyer presents the dark sides of the “unification” process. The Trust Agency set up by the Parliament of the West Germany, with the task of overseeing the privatisation process of the state economy, began to act rapidly by selling the "people's property" into private hands. As the author writes, the deficiency of experience, supervision and adequate personnel of Treuhand led to chaos and corruption. Many east Germans saw her activities as unworthy of selling their country. many workers arrogant of their profession and earnings now had to prepare machines and vehicles for West German companies that bought powerless companies (often for the symbolic amount of 1 brand). Others were ordered to dismantle their own factories, which in practice meant work which aimed at making themselves redundant. The dismantling of the country frequently gave emergence to a sense of hopelessness that had not passed for decades.
In 2005, all 5th East Germany was unemployed. The temporary work programmes introduced active proposing arrogant and educated workers to work temporarily in cleaning, maintaining public spaces or, worst of all, to a grim task of dismantling factories before selling them. After 1990, many jobs from the times of the GDR simply ceased to exist. Only in the first 20 months after the union, 4,000 companies were liquidated, and all 4th worker of state companies retained the work.
During the first 2 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany, half of the nursery was closed, in order to reduce the highly costly state of energy prosperity. We know these processes from our Polish experience, only that not many people so sincerely describe the degradation processes that our citizens and citizens of the erstwhile GDR, utilized until 1989, did not gotta fear for endurance until the first.
For my part, after the unification, the population of east lands fell by 16% – to the level of 12.4 million people. We besides announcement a akin phenomenon in Poland. This results in any disappointment from West German politicians. The author states that in 2021 the national Commissioner for east Lands Marco Wanderwitz stated that "Some East Germany did not join our democracy even after 30 years". Another aspect of the process of unification that concerns many Western Germans is the fact that East Germany does not want to forget the GDR.
In the prince there is no deficiency of this description of stories having an anecdotic taste. For example, Honecker's efforts to bring back the remains of Frederick the large and his father to Potsdam were described in 1987. To this end, Honecker's peculiar envoy made contact with Louis Ferdinand – head of the Hohenzoller dynasty, grandson of Emperor Wilhelm II. In exchange for agreeing to bring the remains of rulers to Potsdam, the GDR authorities were prepared to offer to the prince the restoration of the right to reside in Cecilienhof, a palace in which the PPA conference took place in 1945. The prince hesitated, and in the meantime the GDR fell. yet the remains of both Prussian kings returned to Potsdam in 1991.
In conclusion, we have received a very valuable position on the past of the GDR, including written in accessible language. We would like to receive an equally reliable past of the People's Poland, with the analogous conclusion that the past of the Polish People's Republic is an integral part of the past of Poland alternatively than a black hole. The words of appreciation besides belong to the translator Jan Szkudliński for the very good translation of the book from English to Polish (the work was written in English), which is not common lately. I have already met with specified translations, that the resulting content is completely incomprehensible.
Jacek Marczyński
Katja Hoyer “Country Behind the Wall. regular Life in East Germany”, Poznań Wyd., Poznań 2025, p. 525
Think Poland, No. 45-46 (9-16.11.2025)
