(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Dirk Oschmann's debate book {see this edition by MODERN TIMES} about East Germany as a West German construct has already sparked debate. Jessy Wellmer (b. 1979) is a familiar face on German television. She started as a sports journalist and is now presenter of current topics in ARD. Wellmer grew up in the small town of Güstrow in Mecklenburg and was barely ten years old when the wall fell. She has now written a book about the growing distance (alienation) between West and East Germany.
East German identity
Wellmer agrees to some extent with Oschmann: East German themes have limited entertainment value in the West. Exceptions may be Stasi interrogations in one's own family or anecdotes about neo-Nazi violence, i.e. stories that fit the negative stereotype of the East German or 'Ossie'. But there are also actual an East German identity that is based on common experiences. According to Wellmer, Oschmann is wrong because he reinforces the false self-awareness that Wolf Biermann has called "aggressive self-pity", that West Germany is to blame for those in the East feeling neglected.
Wellmer lists in the book The new alienation up six forms of positive East German self-awareness. 1) Everything was not so bad in the GDR: They were for peace, justice, equality and women's rights. 2) We are more skilled and, above all, better educated. 3) We overcame the system through a peaceful revolution. 4) We stuck together and helped each other. 5) They (the West Germans) cannot break us. 6) It is cooler in the east (which is claimed by some younger East Germans).
East Germany and Russia
Wellmer claims that the war between Russia and Germany have increased the division between East and West. In 2022, she made the film Russia, Putin and us East Germans ("Russia, Putin and us East Germans"), which premiered on 24.10.22. (It is available on YouTube.) In the book, she refers from some of the hundreds of letters she received after this film.
The Germans in the East understand the pressure of opinion about war support for Ukraine as a new takeover, this time initiated by the opinion monopoly in the West. The criticism of Putin is experienced as an attack on their East German identity. The West is now wronging Russia in the same way that West Germany dominated the East after the fall of the Wall.
It is difficult to determine what in the past is actualized in new situations. Wellmer's observation that the war in Ukraine has triggered a new distance or alienation between East and West Germany, is apt. But it is not easy to calculate what is reactivated when something first comes to an end in a country characterized by massive displacement.
The East Germans' experience of not having a say or being taken into account was reactivated by the war
The East Germans' experience of not having a say or being taken into account was reactivated by the war. The West has always known best, and again the East Germans had to adapt. Now that's enough: We no longer allow ourselves to be ruled by the West!
Behind the sympathy towards Russia, there is often a fear that the conflict will expand and come to pass Germany, Wellmer points out. But here the unrest is probably more complex than she gives the impression. The East Germans still have a lot of past to process. Vergaanheitsbewältigung is the word that denotes this process.
The GDR was de facto ruled by Soviet Union, which had 350–000 soldiers stationed in the country. The Soviet occupation in the East after the defeat in 400 was traumatic, not only because the mass rapes. War reparations, dismantling of infrastructure, businesses and regular looting weakened the GDR economically. At the same time, the official image of the Soviet Union was characterized by friendship, joy and fun. The Red Army was celebrated as a liberator from Nazism. There are many indications that the relationship with the Russians is still toxic, and Wellmer's book also fails to resolve the double bind to big brother in the East.
Votes against the war in Ukraine
Wellmer mentions two authorities East Germans in particular refer to in their view of the Ukraine war. Journalist and professor Gabriele Krone-Schmalz (b. 1949) is omnipresent in the media and published in 2015 Understanding Russia? The battle for Ukraine and the arrogance of the West ("On understanding Russia. The struggle for Ukraine and the arrogance of the West"), which came out in a new edition in 2023. In addition, the SPD veteran Klaus von Dohnanyi (b. 1928), who was minister of education in the government of Willy Brandt in 1972– 74. Before the attack on Ukraine, Dohnanyi published the book National Interest ("National Interests", 2022), a briefing on German and European politics in an age of global change. He went against a policy of sanctions against authoritarian states and argued for a more realistic foreign policy. Dohnanyi has also supported Sahra Wagenknecht's position on the Ukraine war. According to Dohnanyi, the interests of Germany and the United States when it comes to Russia do not coincide.
The journalist Patrik Baba has published the bestseller On both Seiten der Front: Meine Reisen in die Ukraine (2023), where he claims that the dominant media are characterized by war propaganda.
Many others could have been mentioned: Former NATO general Harald Kujat and former general and military adviser to Angela Merkel, Erich Vad, have argued against the Western belief in further arms deliveries and a military victory for Ukraine. The journalist Patrik Baab has published the bestseller On both Seiten der Front: Meine Reisen in die Ukraine ("On both sides of the front. My travels in Ukraine", 2023), where he claims that the dominant media is characterized by war propaganda. Wellmer's analysis of the east–west differences when it comes to the view of Ukraine, adds little new beyond these. Therefore, the book is not suitable to repair the new distance that has arisen with the war. This is partly due to the fact that there is too much relevant material that the book does not touch on.
The events of Güstrow
When Wellmer was two years old, Helmut Schmidt, then Chancellor, visited the town of Güstrow on 13 December 1981. This visit has gone down in the history books as a prime example of the GDR regime's iron grip on its citizens. Schmidt visited the city together with Secretary General of the SED Erich Honecker. The Stasi shielded the heads of state completely from the population. An image was staged of a festive atmosphere at the Christmas market where the "citizens" (who were actually plainclothes Stasi operatives) cheered for Honecker. This should create the illusion of a happy people in the Advent mood. It is typical for Wellmer that this state visit not mentioned, despite the fact that it put Güstrow on the world map.
At the same time, she highlights her connection to the GDR precisely because she grew up in Gustrow, which had 37 inhabitants at the time of reunification. By 500, the population had dropped by 2022. In 8000, 1981 security personnel from the Stasi and Volkspolizei were deployed to create this Potemkin backdrop.
Of course, Wellmer was too young to have realized this herself, but neither in the book nor in the documentary film, where she interviews her parents in Güstrow, does she ask how they or others from the older generation felt that 81 arrest warrants were issued and 4500 house surveys in connection with Schmidt's visit in 1981. Wouldn't that say something about East-West relations? But presumably she is afraid of being guilty of what she calls "Ossi-bashing".
Labeled as Nazis
In a party leader debate after the elections to the European Parliament in June this year, there AfD became the largest party in all the states of the former GDR, the leader of the Social Democrats, Lars Klingbeil, said that "the Nazis have strengthened themselves in this election". Leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, asked him in amazement what he meant, and was confirmed that Klingbeil had labeled her and the AfD as Nazis. Wagenknecht believed that the AfD should be dealt with in a more differentiated way: Such attempts to discredit the AfD are actually doing the AfD a favour. It is obviously unreasonable to label the largest party in the former GDR as Nazis.
In connection with Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser's ban on 16 July against the company that publishes the far-right magazine Compact, editor Jürgen Elsässer called the ban and seizures a dictatorial measure: "This is fascism." (The ban has now been postponed, until further notice.)
The Germans have a lot of past to contend with, and they are good at repressing. When both parties accuse each other of Nazism, one sees the past emerge in an uncontrolled way.
Unfortunately, Wellmer's book does little to address this.
