Guys! Peace and Prosperity, John Maus music fits into this video, like a fist into my blue eye. Tune some music on the background and just layback and think how big changes happend in those days in the early 90's. Go Gorbi, GO! ;)
The GDR; strongest Union in the World, model basket-case, lifetime membership. Dues? everything you own and everything you'll ever be. The price of "forced" egality and fraternity.
XD I still laugh at you, I have manners. I'm not coming on here to just say "fuck America" because if anything that is rude my good friend
I too have met people from Russia, I have also met people from britian who say different plus they look down at people like you. XD I laugh at you sir and most of Europe will probably agree. Because you make them look like asswhole which they arn't. But It is sad to know there are those like you out there. Oh well what can you do
XD It's funny because we own you guys! britian's economy depends on us and our depends on Chinas :D So hey maybe we will be communist and if we do you wont last a second comrade! I bet you feel so strong at yell at people on line but if we were face to face your probably just another mother ufcker who is scared of a fight. Your so retarded that you think that being yank is a religon! XD maybe you should learn your shit! Long live the USSR Long Live AMERICA Long Live The ALLIES!
These pictures are taken pretty long after the wall dropped. There are many places already been renewed or started renewing. East Berlin and actually the whole GDR looked much worse in Nov '89 ....
Well, it is the matter of today´s propaganda according to which everything WEST is good and everything EAST is bad. I do not like communists but I really do not want follow the lifestyle of this bullshit called USA.
I went to Berlin a few years ago and stayed in the former eastern part where I found striking remarks from the DDR-era.Trabants are still widely used aswell as huge russian military heating pipes along roads, I even found a russian grocerystore next to Landsberger Allé.
There's a BBC documentary called "The Lost World of Communism". The first episode covers East Germany and the reunification that followed. The people they interviewed had mixed emotions. Many hated communism but also missed some of the things it brought, like guaranteed employment. Still, the place and the system looks pretty grim to me.
It was one of the best countries in the east block. Perhaps Yugoslavia was better then east Germany but it still does not mean people would tolerate it for much longer.
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people! also almost no tourists!!!
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people!
@DeLorean4 That's how you could tell a DDR leader or Party official; they had the nice things. For those who say communist was great ask this: would Honecker drive a Trabant? Hell no....
I graduated high school in 1987. I was planning a trip to Germany in 1989 to see the DDR before the fall of the wall. Due to illness I never made it. Now the DDR is all gone and I still have not made it to Germany. And I most likely wont make it anytime soon.
i remember the boarder in Slovakia. There was 3m fence with barb wire on the top. On both sides of the fence there was 2m of fine gravel and with a tower every 300m.
I used to drive to Poland as a Truck Driver through this check point every 3-4 days. It was the biggest scam used by the DDR to make foreign currency. They issued a "transit" visa for 10 DM on every trip. Then there was the rest stops along the way to Berlin that sold western goods only for western currency. A complete farce of what communism was about. It was like the mafia running a country under the pretense that it was for the people.
In east germany or in communist system general it was very dark depressing and limiting for highly productive minority of a society. But very nurturing and freeloading for non productive ineffecient majority. That is the main reason how east collapsed right under neath of blood sucking capitalist west.
It looks like somewhere I wouldn't mind living. The pace of life and the way the people move about -- it just seems very calm and a bit slower and less rushed.
was east and west germany a whole country before ww2? were they all as a whole and then they got cemented in? it has always wondered me on the matter? they were like imprisoned for their sins?
It sems that life in the Eastern Bloc was dull and quite. They didn't have the freedoms and wealth of the Westerners, although they weren't like the Third World. Nevetheless they had greater equality on matters like wages and maybe there was no or little crime.
What did you expect???? I can't beleive the ignorance of some and unwillingness to research and educate themselves. Instead they go on with their own theories and opinions. NO WE DIDN'T LIVE IN CAVES IN COMMUNISM. AND ALSO IF I MEET SOMEONE THAT WILL THINK OF ME AS AN INFERIOR BEING or PITY ME FOR LIVING IN COMMUNISM ... well i don't know what i would do. it wouldn't be pretty though.
I don't believe this video represents the GDR. It was shot around reunificatoin when freedom and rebuilding had begun. The buildings look cleaned-up and most of the cars are western.
@juxtn Communist countries generally have a higher standard of living than Third World countries, but there is essentially no political freedom. Also, lines and shortages occur in many sectors of the economy (from grocery stores to clothes shopping to housing, etc.) because of the extremely subsidized (artificial) prices.
A lot of propaganda from the West came in, Western saboteurs, it was brokered from abroad. Gorbachev's treason further pushed it.
Even after the collapse, people wanted unification and a welfare state, not capitalism. This is what those in the West ignore, the fact that people were not against socialism. They wanted unification and some reforms.
It looks like either the East Germans kept or rebuilt some Baraque architecture buildings. Some of those yellow buildings with the Baraque collumns look like buildings you'd see in Vienna.
Wait a minute! The Cold War has ended? The Iron Curtain has been torn down? According to my Fox News sponsored 'Guide to Europe in 2009" the wall is still up and the red menace is still trying to undermine our societies in the West.
FernandoAlonsodotcom - I was there this summer, & they still have one of the propaganda walls left, to serve as a reminder. Really scary painting actually.
sure m8, ever been to the DDR? my parents lived there, and they are anti-communist , but according to them IT WASNT BAD AT ALL. maybe if your country didnt put an economical block on the DDR and the USSR they could have lived more free
@celsdon3000 very fasicnating video footage I just did a train trip around the former DDR on old DR railway lines of course now all DB staying in what was just beyond the two borders at one time in a town called Wernegerode but it was fascinating to see the contrast still in 2009 of the old east Germany and West Germany east is still run down alot and west is so modern
@celsdon3000 How was it there were people spending money like in the west? Were you driving a 190E mercedes? How did you get permission to pass? It is very hard to find footage like this. Thank ytou
lol, you blame US for communist oppression? how do you explain the story's of all those who risked thier lives to escape? do you think all of the tens-of-thousands who fled where lying?
including a girl who lives upstairs from me who tells me about the bleakness and fear her parents described (before she was born)
forgive me for being skeptical, but you don't build wall to keep people in if they like the place
listen, theres a wall between the usa and mexico, theres a wall between israel and gaza, your point? i have polish neighbours who tell diferent storys, no-ones life was the same behind the wall, people always flee, sometimes its called imigration, so your point?
I've heard a lot of negative stuff about East Germany, and it doesn't look remotely nice at all here. Dilapidated old buildings, poor road surfaces, obsolete Soviet trams and almost all of the cars are Eastern Bloc Trabants, Ladas, Skodas, ZAZ etc. The weather here also doesn't help things.
Outside of the dilapidated old towns were masses of grey concrete Soviet apartment blocks.
As nasty as the place looks though, it's a very interesting video and of great historical value.
I totally agree, the DDR was pressured into collapse by capitalist European countries backed by the USA. The idea behind it was good but it never got a chance, we always seem to forget that capitalism isn't all that great either.
I made a couple of trips to the GDR in 1988 and 1989 , jusr before. The pressure you speak of WAS there, the people mostly wanted democracy and most of all freedom to travel. It was no paradise but many of the things we in the west stress our whole lifes sorting out - health and education and crime - were not a problem.
The pressure I speak of WAS always there from the moment of the DDR's creation. However the point you've made is exactly the point that I was making, no system is perfect so we don't have to act like socialism is something evil, look at the state we're in now because of (American) capitalist greed. The only difference now is there's no wall to jump over with an (imaginary) paradise waiting on the other side.
Ulbricht was a mean spirited greedy old man who ended up sitting in his own piss at the end!
Honnecker on the other hand only cared about keeping his hands on his KoKo slush funds while the majority of East Germans starved, suffered interminable bureaucratic nightmares, and were habitually spied on by the Stasi.
Or are you saying that the 2.5million of East German population who left, were smuggled out by the capitalist western people smugglers?
Furthermore how could West Germany "pressure" the DDR?
Don't you read history or do you just make it up in your tiny brains?
The DDR never paid the West anything, East Germany only survived economically on the *credits* paid to it by Bonn in return for concessions on exports, transfers of political prisoners, aid etc.
By 1988 the DDR was broke, as it had already spent up the succeeding 5 years of credits from the FDR.
The DDR was broke because it had to pay reperations to the Soviet Union amongst many other things! and what about the millions of us now who are spied on by our own governments? The whole point of my comment was that no society is perfect and we don't need to pretend to have the moral high ground because we live in a capitalist society. The failure of any system is always the human element because we are greedy and power hungry.
it is true that East Germans had used the West German funds and there were fanatics in Stasi , but on the other hand all Socialist countries after war had a significant economic growth for years . Neverheless, the best thing is to follow the medium way in society, neither the soviet state system nor the system of free capitalistic market without any laws as the Americans tend to do (nowdays 1% of their population has 40-50% of their national wealth)
@vangelisdenaxas Communist countries did surpass the West for a while after the war, but their economies began to stagnate in the 1960s. In America, we do not live in a purely capitalistic market. There are thousands and thousands of pages of regulations at the federal level alone. When you consider ALL federal, state, and local taxes, the average American pays about 1/3 of his/her income to the government, and that percentage is much higher for wealthy people.
@celsdon3000 I can't agree more. They had the Stasi; the most devious, evil organisation after the Gestapo and Stalin's secret police. It makes me laugh when people today say 'we live in a Big Brother society. No we don't. We live in paradise compared to what the East Germans had to tolerate.
@celsdon3000 sir, you were born in USA. people from USA think that life behind iron curtain was miserable, while people from the east dont think so. life wasnt bad at all
which county is this?????????
EowynGeorgia 2 months ago
@EowynGeorgia Germany, (east Germany) right after the wall came down.
Germany became united. some people have the illusion that this will happen with
other countries the same way without war.
How did they do it? im Not sure but a united & free Germany or any country is always a Good thing.
MetalHeart8787 1 month ago
@EowynGeorgia that would be RUSSIA (ussr)
bathalax 1 week ago
Lovely , thanks for this nice view from early 90´s!
Many cars from way ago, and an overview which is not present anymore nowadays!
gti505 4 months ago
I liked that little 2-tone car at 5:43.
hebneh 4 months ago
hahahahahah Mungo jerry plaing on the radio
11maoriboii 4 months ago
Guys! Peace and Prosperity, John Maus music fits into this video, like a fist into my blue eye. Tune some music on the background and just layback and think how big changes happend in those days in the early 90's. Go Gorbi, GO! ;)
apasource 4 months ago
The GDR; strongest Union in the World, model basket-case, lifetime membership. Dues? everything you own and everything you'll ever be. The price of "forced" egality and fraternity.
chickenwretch 5 months ago
Why are people arguing about America and Europe and communism and the economy here? I really don't see why this is a battleground for that.
ChrisNahrgang 5 months ago
Yeah.. no homo's, no coloured, no grafity and so on.. so what is YOUR point?
PanHustej 6 months ago
@baleariclife89
XD I still laugh at you, I have manners. I'm not coming on here to just say "fuck America" because if anything that is rude my good friend
I too have met people from Russia, I have also met people from britian who say different plus they look down at people like you. XD I laugh at you sir and most of Europe will probably agree. Because you make them look like asswhole which they arn't. But It is sad to know there are those like you out there. Oh well what can you do
PKBChaz 7 months ago
@baleariclife89
XD It's funny because we own you guys! britian's economy depends on us and our depends on Chinas :D So hey maybe we will be communist and if we do you wont last a second comrade! I bet you feel so strong at yell at people on line but if we were face to face your probably just another mother ufcker who is scared of a fight. Your so retarded that you think that being yank is a religon! XD maybe you should learn your shit! Long live the USSR Long Live AMERICA Long Live The ALLIES!
PKBChaz 7 months ago
@baleariclife89
I'm guessing your British
Well after world war 2 you guys had nothing!
Infact what you did have was American stuff :D
The Soviets would of invaded all of Europe and your flag would of bruned as a Hammer and Sickle replaced
But what do I know
I'm just a yank who supports the Soviet Union
but just remember that if it wasn't for the yanks you'd probably be speaking Russian you dumb fuck
PKBChaz 7 months ago
@PKBChaz indeed if Europe was ruled with our flag the future of the US would look grim as they'd be even more outmatched.
pzdontsaystupidreply 7 months ago
@pzdontsaystupidreply
That is very true
Infact if Europe Fell, America would of had no chance against the Union
It's why I support both XD
Because When Europe falls the world falls
PKBChaz 7 months ago
These pictures are taken pretty long after the wall dropped. There are many places already been renewed or started renewing. East Berlin and actually the whole GDR looked much worse in Nov '89 ....
brezelschnezelkuh 8 months ago
Woman at 2:22's like "Arghh! The Stasi are filmi..... oh wait, it's cool."
u01mph 8 months ago
Well, it is the matter of today´s propaganda according to which everything WEST is good and everything EAST is bad. I do not like communists but I really do not want follow the lifestyle of this bullshit called USA.
Daaaalibor 8 months ago
I went to Berlin a few years ago and stayed in the former eastern part where I found striking remarks from the DDR-era.Trabants are still widely used aswell as huge russian military heating pipes along roads, I even found a russian grocerystore next to Landsberger Allé.
volunteerz 9 months ago
@volunteerz
Yeah, despite the efforts of some BRD politicians, DDR culture still exists in this world.
Sismiques 8 months ago
There's a BBC documentary called "The Lost World of Communism". The first episode covers East Germany and the reunification that followed. The people they interviewed had mixed emotions. Many hated communism but also missed some of the things it brought, like guaranteed employment. Still, the place and the system looks pretty grim to me.
lumabi25 9 months ago
It was one of the best countries in the east block. Perhaps Yugoslavia was better then east Germany but it still does not mean people would tolerate it for much longer.
tony232cool 9 months ago
for a country that has suffered the loss of two world wars, invasion and division i think it the communist era was the best it has had.
TheBenbarton 10 months ago
It looks like england, with crap cars :L
TheBenbarton 10 months ago
Easy Germany never would have agreed to a smooth unification if it thought party members were going to be tried for war crimes.
poodtang1 11 months ago
Wow, look at all the East German cars. :o
LucindaMorde 11 months ago
East germany looked far better than contemporary south east asia.
Scorpitarios 1 year ago
Starts to look just like belfast round the 6 min mark..
ConCon75 1 year ago
@LORDMCHUGH Yeah, cause it was German.
PeterPoserWobber 1 year ago
this is not 1990...it is 1984
archiebunkerfan 1 year ago
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people! also almost no tourists!!!
benjiradell1988 1 year ago
Awesome video! Brings back memories! I was in Schwerin last year and I loved it! Stayed in the East for a month!! I think that it's nicer and quieter than the west. Very nice people!
benjiradell1988 1 year ago
It's strange seeing the occasional Volvo, Mercedes and SAAB sneak their way into the East German carscape.
DeLorean4 1 year ago
@DeLorean4 among the Ladas, Skodas and Trabants. I love those cars (and yes, I own a Lada).
DeLorean4 1 year ago
@DeLorean4 That's how you could tell a DDR leader or Party official; they had the nice things. For those who say communist was great ask this: would Honecker drive a Trabant? Hell no....
PhatFarm60 1 year ago
I graduated high school in 1987. I was planning a trip to Germany in 1989 to see the DDR before the fall of the wall. Due to illness I never made it. Now the DDR is all gone and I still have not made it to Germany. And I most likely wont make it anytime soon.
busdriver254 1 year ago
Love the music and cars hehe
MrsSarb 1 year ago
Anyway, DDR was beautiful!
Veter23 1 year ago
Twenty years has made a big difference
volfire1 1 year ago
i remember the boarder in Slovakia. There was 3m fence with barb wire on the top. On both sides of the fence there was 2m of fine gravel and with a tower every 300m.
Karletto555 1 year ago
Amazing video, I'm sooooo jealous....I wish I had traveled to the DDR too
Well done
juan141171 1 year ago
I used to drive to Poland as a Truck Driver through this check point every 3-4 days. It was the biggest scam used by the DDR to make foreign currency. They issued a "transit" visa for 10 DM on every trip. Then there was the rest stops along the way to Berlin that sold western goods only for western currency. A complete farce of what communism was about. It was like the mafia running a country under the pretense that it was for the people.
Spartan540 1 year ago
Driving a Merc into East Germany would make any DDR citizen want to live in the free world.
The DDR looked like it was stuck in the 60's while you guys were driving the future through the dark ages.
GodBotherer1 1 year ago
Great video... a very valuable piece of history.
fivestarmichael 1 year ago
Driving a Merc around what was a communist country a year prior - subtle!
uzaiyaro 1 year ago 5
@uzaiyaro Mercedes are almost as common as Fiats in Mexico.... They're robust cars.
AManNamedCM2 4 months ago
In east germany or in communist system general it was very dark depressing and limiting for highly productive minority of a society. But very nurturing and freeloading for non productive ineffecient majority. That is the main reason how east collapsed right under neath of blood sucking capitalist west.
videouzleg 1 year ago
It looks like somewhere I wouldn't mind living. The pace of life and the way the people move about -- it just seems very calm and a bit slower and less rushed.
MrRedFredSaid 1 year ago
@MrRedFredSaid you can try rural romania!
calatis4u 1 year ago
@calatis4u - I'd quite like to do just that! If I could do it legally and with an income there.
MrRedFredSaid 1 year ago
the city in the video is schwerin, the capital of mecklenburg-western pomerania which is today even much more beautiful and worth a visit.
DoubtControl 2 years ago
was east and west germany a whole country before ww2? were they all as a whole and then they got cemented in? it has always wondered me on the matter? they were like imprisoned for their sins?
knutfheifer 2 years ago
@knutfheifer yes
DuMonbasDeLaValterie 2 years ago
very good enjoyed
jaleelnabikhan 2 years ago
Is this taped in Dresden???
Germany is so beautifull
Ialocin85 2 years ago
It sems that life in the Eastern Bloc was dull and quite. They didn't have the freedoms and wealth of the Westerners, although they weren't like the Third World. Nevetheless they had greater equality on matters like wages and maybe there was no or little crime.
vangelisdenaxas 2 years ago 2
@vangelisdenaxas And the Stasi! Ja!
Antiks72 2 years ago
hahaha!!! No I am not fond of Stasi. It is well known that Stasi and KGB repelled civil freedoms and this is not real communism and sosialism...
vangelisdenaxas 2 years ago
@vangelisdenaxas Agreed. Erick was paranoid.
Antiks72 2 years ago
Yes, totally...
vangelisdenaxas 2 years ago
@vangelisdenaxas it was not an equality in DDR, or Communism, it was exploitation of the fittest, smartest and hard working people.
But if DDR adopted Chinese model, it would become an economic miracle, with immigrants coming from west germany.
SerbViking 2 years ago
@vangelisdenaxas in the ussr 1.5% lived in poverty
BOBODEKAT 1 year ago
What did you expect???? I can't beleive the ignorance of some and unwillingness to research and educate themselves. Instead they go on with their own theories and opinions. NO WE DIDN'T LIVE IN CAVES IN COMMUNISM. AND ALSO IF I MEET SOMEONE THAT WILL THINK OF ME AS AN INFERIOR BEING or PITY ME FOR LIVING IN COMMUNISM ... well i don't know what i would do. it wouldn't be pretty though.
And i piss on communism if you need to know.
J. from ex Yugoslavia
radeqster 2 years ago
I don't believe this video represents the GDR. It was shot around reunificatoin when freedom and rebuilding had begun. The buildings look cleaned-up and most of the cars are western.
pchoc111 2 years ago
I live in the united states, and what i see here does not look like an impoverished and horrible place to live. It looks quite adequate.
juxtn 2 years ago
@juxtn Communist countries generally have a higher standard of living than Third World countries, but there is essentially no political freedom. Also, lines and shortages occur in many sectors of the economy (from grocery stores to clothes shopping to housing, etc.) because of the extremely subsidized (artificial) prices.
scottiebobson 1 year ago
A lot of propaganda from the West came in, Western saboteurs, it was brokered from abroad. Gorbachev's treason further pushed it.
Even after the collapse, people wanted unification and a welfare state, not capitalism. This is what those in the West ignore, the fact that people were not against socialism. They wanted unification and some reforms.
SEFARAD2K4 2 years ago
This must be the city of Schwerin, out on the A24 motorway, back on the road nationwide B5 (F5). Fortunately this past spitting .
piaklara 2 years ago 2
It looks like either the East Germans kept or rebuilt some Baraque architecture buildings. Some of those yellow buildings with the Baraque collumns look like buildings you'd see in Vienna.
rainer1980 2 years ago 2
One thing they did very well was consaervation .
cullyvan 2 years ago
Wait a minute! The Cold War has ended? The Iron Curtain has been torn down? According to my Fox News sponsored 'Guide to Europe in 2009" the wall is still up and the red menace is still trying to undermine our societies in the West.
james50000 2 years ago
precious!! thx a lot for the footage! :)
Havord06 2 years ago
i notice the lack of commercial advertisements defacing everything.
it's kind of neat. realy, do we need signs on every streetcorner and lamppost telling us to buy more crap ?
dieper2dieper 2 years ago 2
wonderful! Great piece of history.
jscharpf 2 years ago 2
nice footage.
plumlove1995 3 years ago
I had 12 in 1990, 'n I went to dresden to visit...It was so fucking COMMUNIST, with Soviet propaganda still on streets!!
FernandoAlonsodotcom 3 years ago 8
FernandoAlonsodotcom - I was there this summer, & they still have one of the propaganda walls left, to serve as a reminder. Really scary painting actually.
nuniruro1515 6 months ago
wow i wonder how the food and drinks were at 4:00
Moonshine418 3 years ago
I can only imagine what East German's thought when the Wall came down.. and they were finally allowed to hear music such as "Hungry Eyes". haha. =]
no1cp 3 years ago
I'd hate to seem narrow-minded but East Germany then didn't seem so bad at all.
Kellerharius 3 years ago 11
It was pretty grim actually - very dark and depressing. The video makes it look nicer than it was.
celsdon3000 3 years ago 3
sure m8, ever been to the DDR? my parents lived there, and they are anti-communist , but according to them IT WASNT BAD AT ALL. maybe if your country didnt put an economical block on the DDR and the USSR they could have lived more free
Hakkur123 3 years ago 13
I was the one that shot the video.
celsdon3000 3 years ago 5
after the wall fell
Hakkur123 3 years ago
@celsdon3000 very fasicnating video footage I just did a train trip around the former DDR on old DR railway lines of course now all DB staying in what was just beyond the two borders at one time in a town called Wernegerode but it was fascinating to see the contrast still in 2009 of the old east Germany and West Germany east is still run down alot and west is so modern
gaycowboy31 1 year ago
@celsdon3000 How was it there were people spending money like in the west? Were you driving a 190E mercedes? How did you get permission to pass? It is very hard to find footage like this. Thank ytou
meronmotors 9 months ago
@celsdon3000 mate out of curiousity, what month in 1990 was this? Just curious how soon after the wall came down you went to the GDR. Cheers!
u01mph 6 months ago
lol, you blame US for communist oppression? how do you explain the story's of all those who risked thier lives to escape? do you think all of the tens-of-thousands who fled where lying?
including a girl who lives upstairs from me who tells me about the bleakness and fear her parents described (before she was born)
forgive me for being skeptical, but you don't build wall to keep people in if they like the place
pushups2345 3 years ago 2
listen, theres a wall between the usa and mexico, theres a wall between israel and gaza, your point? i have polish neighbours who tell diferent storys, no-ones life was the same behind the wall, people always flee, sometimes its called imigration, so your point?
Hakkur123 3 years ago 3
there is a difference between walls to keep people out, and walls that keep people in
i guess i just toke your "economic block" comment the wrong way...
pushups2345 3 years ago
I've heard a lot of negative stuff about East Germany, and it doesn't look remotely nice at all here. Dilapidated old buildings, poor road surfaces, obsolete Soviet trams and almost all of the cars are Eastern Bloc Trabants, Ladas, Skodas, ZAZ etc. The weather here also doesn't help things.
Outside of the dilapidated old towns were masses of grey concrete Soviet apartment blocks.
As nasty as the place looks though, it's a very interesting video and of great historical value.
AlgerianBanjo 3 years ago
I totally agree, the DDR was pressured into collapse by capitalist European countries backed by the USA. The idea behind it was good but it never got a chance, we always seem to forget that capitalism isn't all that great either.
jmccooe 2 years ago
I made a couple of trips to the GDR in 1988 and 1989 , jusr before. The pressure you speak of WAS there, the people mostly wanted democracy and most of all freedom to travel. It was no paradise but many of the things we in the west stress our whole lifes sorting out - health and education and crime - were not a problem.
cullyvan 2 years ago
The pressure I speak of WAS always there from the moment of the DDR's creation. However the point you've made is exactly the point that I was making, no system is perfect so we don't have to act like socialism is something evil, look at the state we're in now because of (American) capitalist greed. The only difference now is there's no wall to jump over with an (imaginary) paradise waiting on the other side.
jmccooe 2 years ago
what a load of crap!
Ulbricht was a mean spirited greedy old man who ended up sitting in his own piss at the end!
Honnecker on the other hand only cared about keeping his hands on his KoKo slush funds while the majority of East Germans starved, suffered interminable bureaucratic nightmares, and were habitually spied on by the Stasi.
Or are you saying that the 2.5million of East German population who left, were smuggled out by the capitalist western people smugglers?
Sad delusional bollocks
iwamuro 2 years ago
Furthermore how could West Germany "pressure" the DDR?
Don't you read history or do you just make it up in your tiny brains?
The DDR never paid the West anything, East Germany only survived economically on the *credits* paid to it by Bonn in return for concessions on exports, transfers of political prisoners, aid etc.
By 1988 the DDR was broke, as it had already spent up the succeeding 5 years of credits from the FDR.
17% of its GDP went on it the Vopos!!
Come on pull your heads out your asses!
iwamuro 2 years ago
The DDR was broke because it had to pay reperations to the Soviet Union amongst many other things! and what about the millions of us now who are spied on by our own governments? The whole point of my comment was that no society is perfect and we don't need to pretend to have the moral high ground because we live in a capitalist society. The failure of any system is always the human element because we are greedy and power hungry.
jmccooe 2 years ago
it is true that East Germans had used the West German funds and there were fanatics in Stasi , but on the other hand all Socialist countries after war had a significant economic growth for years . Neverheless, the best thing is to follow the medium way in society, neither the soviet state system nor the system of free capitalistic market without any laws as the Americans tend to do (nowdays 1% of their population has 40-50% of their national wealth)
vangelisdenaxas 2 years ago
Soviet state,haha Communism and the state are opposed!
Sismiques 2 years ago
@vangelisdenaxas Communist countries did surpass the West for a while after the war, but their economies began to stagnate in the 1960s. In America, we do not live in a purely capitalistic market. There are thousands and thousands of pages of regulations at the federal level alone. When you consider ALL federal, state, and local taxes, the average American pays about 1/3 of his/her income to the government, and that percentage is much higher for wealthy people.
scottiebobson 1 year ago
@Hakkur123 Same kind of thing with cuba, life is basic but the people are happy. if the economic block was lifted.
TheBenbarton 10 months ago
@celsdon3000 I can't agree more. They had the Stasi; the most devious, evil organisation after the Gestapo and Stalin's secret police. It makes me laugh when people today say 'we live in a Big Brother society. No we don't. We live in paradise compared to what the East Germans had to tolerate.
Great video by the way. Thanks for uploading it.
sailbeyondthesunset 1 year ago
@sailbeyondthesunset
OH I wouldn't laugh too hard. Some Stasi offficials went to work in the CIA or NSA after the wall came down.
summer20105707 6 months ago
@sailbeyondthesunset
As a matter of fact Markus Wolf was hired by homeland security.
summer20105707 6 months ago
@celsdon3000 i if i dont mind asking its this bonn? thank you
tonyravens 1 year ago
@tonyravens No its a place called Schwerin in former East Germany!
PersonalPMO 1 year ago
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@tonyravens No its a place called Schwerin in former East Germany!
PersonalPMO 1 year ago
@celsdon3000 sir, you were born in USA. people from USA think that life behind iron curtain was miserable, while people from the east dont think so. life wasnt bad at all
uzickimajmunac 7 months ago
@Kellerharius Dumb ass. It was a fucking shit hole. Try living there, not just watching a 10 minute video.
drunkenstooge 1 year ago
so schoen war sie, die gute, alte DDR!
trabant601k 3 years ago
Great video. Just look at all the Trabis in a row !
paulpembroke 3 years ago
Was the guy with the Mercedes your guide? The one who keeps talking throughout the vid. Very interesting video, BTW. :)
eccIefechan 3 years ago
It was a friend of mine, a West German who was staying in the same hotel I was. His name is Jurgen Koppen. Great guy.
celsdon3000 3 years ago
If I remember correctly, it was Schweringen, northern part of Germany.
celsdon3000 3 years ago
Where in East Germany was this?
subsub 3 years ago 2