11/9 In-Class Work: Reunification

I chose to read the second link provided, the one about the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.

• Here are five facts I learned from this article.
• In East Germany, citizens were promised a vote on a new, socialist constitution, but would not get a chance to vote in 40 years.
• Their focus on economic output was on steel and other heavy and chemical industries
• Ulbricht, the leader of the DDR at this time claimed that he had no intention of building a wall, when in actuality, they had, and would start in two weeks.
• Ulbricht was forced to "retire" because of "old age."
• The situation in traveling to East Germany is similar to the situation of traveling to West Germany.
• This article for sure puts a positive light on reunification. It described a lot of horrors that Easterners had to face, especially going into the reasoning behind the wall, description of some Stasi activities, and especially the before/after pictures in the bottom of the article.
• There is still a cultural divide between East and West, mostly in that there is still much less productivity in the East, a general mentality that "West is Best," or more accurately, Besserwessi. Then there is the term Ostalgie, which refers to a nostalgic feeling for life in East Germany. I can sort of see how one would look back fondly on those times. As bad as it was back then, it was still the way many people grew up and learned to live. The sudden change to life similar to how it was in the West would have been very jarring and difficult, especially for the people who had spent 20+ years in the DDR. A desire for things to be familiar again can easily be as strong as wishing you had the things you had as a child or other types of nostalgia.