Opinions on DDR

[Rosso]

North Korea, China, Socialistic Romania.. all are/were self proclaimed socialist countries. Now many socialist don't acknowledge them as socialist societies. In many of them the living standard was not to good but if I ask around what the best place would be to live under in one of those states I mostly hear the German Democratic Republic as answer. Now I've been several times in East Berlin (even visiting the DDR-Museum) and read many things about it but mostly it are stories about the Wall, corrupt politicians and other negative things though there are still a serious amount of ex-DDR citizens who miss their old country and have so called 'Ostalgie'. Now I was wondering what people on revleft think about the DDR, so please tell me your opinion!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I thought we were talking about "dance dance revolution", and I was gonna say that people look silly doing it.

I think the DDR had a lot of things which were admirable about it from the point of view of its citizens including social benefits which were better than those of other eastern block countries, but at heart it was still a Statist system which spied on its people in a way that few governments have historically been able to do. If you hate CCTV, you probably wouldn't like hanging out with a bunch of people who could be hidden Stasi agents either.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It was a classic welfare-ist social democracy. From what I have read, the essential 'contract' underscoring political relations was that, in exchange for strong welfare, full employment etc., the people would put up with the dictatorship of Honecker, Mielke et al. Of course, i'm sure the East German people weren't aware fully of what Mielke and the Stasi were up to.

If you want to think of a society where people are genuinely freed of their chains then, in many ways, the DDR was the polar opposite. People were bound to employment by the state, were bound to loyalty to the state, and were spied on by the state, and indeed by extra-state figures such as family and friends. I find it a bit bizarre. Add in the wall and you have something of a dystopian society.

However, to counter that, the standard of living was undoubtedly better than if the eastern part of Germany had remained in western hands. It did recover well from the horrific bombing of the first world war and, it must be said, throughout the GDRs brief existence, there was the usual welfare system employed in 'state socialist' countries of universally free access to education and healthcare, full employment, no homelessness, poverty or destitution.

It was economic welfare and social dystopia, with political dictatorship at its root.

[tuwix]

North Korea, China, Socialistic Romania.. all are/were self proclaimed socialist countries. Now many socialist don't acknowledge them as socialist societies. In many of them the living standard was not to good but if I ask around what the best place would be to live under in one of those states I mostly hear the German Democratic Republic as answer. Now I've been several times in East Berlin (even visiting the DDR-Museum) and read many things about it but mostly it are stories about the Wall, corrupt politicians and other negative things though there are still a serious amount of ex-DDR citizens who miss their old country and have so called 'Ostalgie'. Now I was wondering what people on revleft think about the DDR, so please tell me your opinion!

It was the best working so-called socialist state. The most atonishing effects the have in sports. As a 17 mln nation they were able to be better than USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Summer_Olympics_medal_table .

IMHO if their objective were the highest standard of living in the planet, they'd achieve that.
However, I woudn't like to live there. It was another dictatorship having nothing to do with the DotP.

[HoboHomesteader]

Dance Dance Revolution is ok....

But seriously... I don't think too much about the DDR. What I have heard is a significant number of folks who lived in both the DDR and now unified germany is that the economic conditions were much better.

They also have some pretty sharp looking luftenients (sp?) jackets