How can the compound word “ostalgia” be understood?

As early as 1992, a cabaret artist from Saxony shaped the suitcase word “Ostalgie”. In fact, a reconsideration or revival of products, culture and supposedly typical mentalities from the East began early on. This development initially also a reaction to the self-inflicted circumstance that after the monetary union almost all products from the East disappeared from the shelveswere: Nobody wanted to buy East products for Westgeld. That wasn’t particularly clever, because many people made their own East products. The economic restructuring brought with it massive disillusionment, given the devastating social consequences. And then something happened that often happens in times of change: People looked back and realized that some things used to be better andwas clearer; They felt safer in the past. But it not only set in nostalgia, but also an incessant transfiguration and partly glorification of the GDR.

The idealized GDR: myths and media representation

It is true that only a small, hardly relevant minority wanted the GDR back as it was. Nevertheless, the GDR were repeatedly attributed to properties that had little to do with historical reality. Uwe Johnson’s children did him all the credit. A Honecker-GDR was created that never existed – especially one that was obviously not a real dictatorship, as did Katja Hoyerstried to convey bestsellers very successfully. The boom continues to this day. A first peak was reached back in 2002/03, when this wave of ostalgies also flowed through the mass media and sometimes brought grotesque highlights: Figure skating star Katarina Witt appeared smiling in a pioneer blouse with a blue pioneer scarf in a TV show. Hardly anything remained unaffected by this Ostalgie wave.

Causes and reasons: Nostalgia in response to change

The problem was never this ahistorical recollection – let’s do it. At the same time, however, this was an expression of an ever-increasing departure from the West. It was not just about memory and nostalgia, but about an alternative that many now seemed more desirable to be. It was not about the GDR itself, but about the alleged possibilities that the GDR is said to have offered andwhich the “FRG” could never offer. Only in contrast did the fun of Ostalgia become a political issue, since a not inconsiderable group of Ostalgikers had long since arrived in the West contemptuous camp. This group grew steadily, but was never to be located as a political unit, as it was far too heterogeneous.

Ostalgia as a protest: multi-layered backgrounds

Politically, Ostalgie was partly an expression of a protest. This was diffuse and multi-layered. On the one hand, national Bolsheviks such as Sahra Wagenknecht, who glorified Stalin, Walter Ulbricht and real communism were standing. The West is associated with an unfulfilled present and a lack of optimistic prospects for the future. Here shows aAncient problem of global migration history: You leave a place without ever really arriving. Sometimes this is also called “Odysseus syndrome”. It refers to the odysseus’s odyssey, as described by Homer in the 8th/7th century BC.

Distance to democracy: many remain skeptical

Many East Germans were not actively involved in the revolution. Many did not suffer from the SED dictatorship. Although about three quarters voted for a rapid restoration of German unity, many remained at a distance. In the early years, this group stabilized in about a quarter of society – that was not a little back then. In addition, this group is growing continuouslyNext to: The more the economic decline progresses, the larger this group becomes. In addition, more and more laws are appearing that not only restrict freedom, but also strongly remind of earlier laws from the GDR era.

Decreasing agreement on democracy in East Germany

At the same time, the group of those who saw representative democracy as the best form of government shrank. And it’s still the case today: Less and fewer are convinced that the Federal Republic of Germany embodies the democracy that a majority in East Germany has chosen.

Self-awareness and social division

Of course, this also has to do with the self-imposed ideologies that want to suggest that you can gather everyone under one umbrella – which is impossible. However, anyone who publicly expresses this is generally burned as a party official.

feeling of alienation: Between origin and present

Nevertheless, there is a system-threatening distance from around 40 to 60 percent to the German state. As much as they are happy today to be away from where they came from, so little they ever wanted to get to where they are today. In the history of migration, there is one aspect that is difficult to describe but remains of central importance: Many people do not leave their place of originbecause of poverty, hunger or war – i.e. for existential reasons – but for other motives and reject their hometown; However, this does not necessarily mean that you would long for your arrival point. New problems often arise here, which, however, do not replace all old ones, but rather complement them. The production of German unity has covered this: the going awayFor economic reasons of an entire society, it was misunderstood as everyone’s wish for arrival right there – in the German reality.

Ostalgia as an alternative: knowledge of the existence of alternatives

Nevertheless, they have something ahead of the West Germans – for which they mostly cannot do anything: You (or your parents) have experienced a different state and social system and therefore – no matter how imperfect this other may have been – know that there are always alternatives; Nothing is without alternative. This is exactly where Ostalgie comes into play: as a diverse alternative to the present. long agoDoes this naive ostalgia of the 1990s and 2000s no longer exist in its original form; Nevertheless, it remains – but now almost always as a place of remembrance, which many seems like an alternative behind a frosted glass pane. For some, this pane of frosted glass hides the historical reality; Therefore, apply layer by layer of transparent adhesive tape – therebyIf the frosted glass pane itself becomes transparent and allows a view of what it should hide.