I mean it was a grey and sad soceity without personal freedom and did in not so few ways resemble Nazi-Germany. Where the swastika had been replaced my Hammer and Sickel. Stasi for instance was build by former Gestapo officer's and so on.
So why do some people continue to idealize the GDR??
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East Germany did not in any way resemble Nazi Germany.
The Nazi Party was indigenous and elected to power. The GDR had a Soviet imposed Communist regime. They were as subservient to Russia, as the people of the East were subservient to the GDR government.
Hitler's regime was dictatorial, but still a legitimate [and elected] government, with majority popular support. The GDR government was entirely illegitimate, and imposed from without by force.
Finally though the Nazi regime was not exactly liberal or democratic, it did not operate as a totalitarian regime - there was no pervasive secret police. The GDR Stasi, following the Soviet model, used vast numbers of informers and very thoroughly gathered intelligence on its people. There was no equivalent in Nazi Germany.
The Nazi German regime had more in common with the modern American state, than it had with the GDR.
The GDR had a Soviet imposed Communist regime. They were as subservient to Russia, as the people of the East were subservient to the GDR government.After the passing of the Enabling Act, all that became irrelevant. There were legitimate elections in East Germany in 1946 and 1949. The SEP captured about 50% of the vote. Thus, they were legitimately elected. There were no elections after 1949, from which point the government became increasingly authoritarian.
Hitler's regime was dictatorial, but still a legitimate [and elected] government, with majority popular support.
The GDR government was entirely illegitimate, and imposed from without by force.This is something less than a truthful claim, as shown earlier.
Finally though the Nazi regime was not exactly liberal or democratic, it did not operate as a totalitarian regime - there was no pervasive secret police.What a load of rubbish. What planet do you live on? Have you never heard of the Gestapo? (abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, "Secret State Police"). Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state in every sense of the word from the Army oath to Nazi schools to the League of German Maidens. It controlled all aspects of German life. The entire state was totally subservient to Hitler and history is replete with examples of what happened to those who spoke out of turn or refused to toe the line. The concentration camps were originally built to imprison the Nazi's political enemies. This is standard fare in utopian ideology.
The Nazi German regime had more in common with the modern American state, than it had with the GDR.Only the truly historically illiterate can believe something this ridiculous. Come back when you've had some semblance of an historical education. share
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I was in and out of the region for the UN in the 80s and 90s, and unquestionably the GDR was of all the countries the most closed and grim, with Czechoslovakia and Rumania next, while Poland and Hungary and parts of Yugoslavia were chomping at the bit.
In the movie "Bridge of Spies" you can see how East Germany was more hard-line than the Russians at the time. When East Germany DID open up there was considerable shock in the west at how backward it really was.
That said, the unification of Germany was a horribly managed affair. Pretty brutal in fact. GDR citizens really lost out when the two deutschmarks were overnight made as one instead of being phased together over years.
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/germancurrency.htm
http://www.dw.com/en/german-german-monetary-union-caused-economic-shockwaves/a-5769854
The GDR economy almost instantly tanked. That rendered almost everyone in eastern Germany close to the poverty level in a short time. Savings all disappeared.
Meanwhile voracious investors from the west grabbed numerous businesses and properties at firesale prices and came out on top. Millions of East Germans suddenly had often-intolerant bosses from the west.
There was a body created in Berlin to manage the transition called Treuhand which helped the west out. Note especially the last para here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt
The Treuhand was responsible for more than just the 8500 state-owned enterprises. It also took over around 2.4 million hectares of agricultural land and forests; the property of the former Stasi; large parts of the property of the former National People's Army, large-scale public housing property, as well as the property of the state pharmacy network.
On the day of the German reunification, 3 October 1990, it also took over the property of the political parties and the mass organisations of the German Democratic Republic.
Its operations drew criticism from some quarters for unnecessarily closing allegedly profitable businesses, misuse and waste of funds and layoffs that were claimed to be unnecessary. It also drew substantial protests from the workforces affected, as 2.5 million employees in state-owned enterprises (out of 4m in total) were laid off in the early 1990s.
On 1 April 1991 the chairman of the Treuhand, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, was shot dead by an unknown assassin (possibly the Red Army Faction)