Marxian
Stasi Hell or Workers' Paradise? by John Green and Bruni de la Motte.
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I was in East Berlin just before the wall fell. Wonderfully and painstakingly restored churches stood side by side with forward looking examples of architectural modernism. Quite simply, it was a great place to be, amidst a population relaxed in the knowledge of equality and an economy of jobs and housing for all. After the protecting wall was breached, the capitalist powers immediately pulled down the symbols of the people’s republic. Eventually the challenging pointers towards a socialist future, the Palasthotel and then the Palace of the People were pulled down. Books describing the achievements of the people’s republic were ruthlessly pulped. And now the statues of Marx and Engels have been pushed out of sight, under the trees at one end of the square they once used to dominate. Only the tall and noble TV Tower stands proud, but to visit this amazing structure is to see a building from which all mention of the GDR has been eradicated. No innocent visitor would ever know that this was one of the finest architectural achievements of socialism. There has been a wholesale airbrushing of history. The German Democratic Republic now exists only in the memories of its former citizens, now ageing. The books and pamphlets published to counter the barrage of lies and abuse from West Germany and its Nato allies are destroyed. That is what makes John Green’s testimony so vitally important. It relates the experiences of one who was there for more than a mere week or two. Green lived and worked for years in the GDR and experienced it first hand. The book will be a revelation to those waking up to the propagandistic brainwashing that they have undergone at the hands of western media and indoctrination centres (schools). It will be especially important for a new generation that knows nothing about the history of the GDR, the state run and managed by the workers for the forty years of its existence. |
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