The Ideal World of Dictatorship: Daily Life and Party Rule in the GDR, 1971-89

Alltag und Herrschaft in der DDR #1

by Stefan Wolle

Life in the German Democratic Republic was a permanent balancing act between conformity and revolt. Political pressure and an economy of scarcity coexisted alongside the more pleasant and seemingly idyllic aspects of everyday life. Stefan Wolle takes these contradictory images of a now defunct world and weaves them into a coherent picture. He shows that the meticulously kept death strip at the border and lovingly tended allotment gardens were two sides of the same coin, that dictatorship and daily life necessarily went hand in hand.
Wolle tells the history of the last two decades of the GDR from the inside out, as the collective biography of its inhabitants. The result is a thoroughly researched and ambitious scholarly work that doesn't shy away from radical subjectivity. He describes the attempts of East German citizens to create a modicum of intellectual and spiritual freedom, takes stock of the shattered dream of a human, democratic socialism, and reclaims the multifaceted lives of those who lived under Communist Party rule.
Originally published in 1998, this seminal history of everyday life in East Germany is now available for the first time in English.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Germany

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1998

Reviews

[Wujianan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a highly comprehensive and detailed general history covering East Germany (the GDR) from the 1970s through the late 1980s. Although written by a German author—and thus not entirely free of "bourgeois bias"—the vast majority of the content feels grounded in fact. Reading it served to somewhat demystify the GDR for me. The overall impression I was left with is this:

The GDR was rife with hypocrisy and sanctimony. Many of the virtues touted in GDR propaganda were, on one hand, not quite as admirable as claimed; and on the other, while genuinely positive in themselves, came at an exorbitant cost. The relationship between officials and the masses—as well as that between the Party and the people—was far worse than I had imagined.
Moreover, the regime committed a great many misdeeds. For instance, it engaged in trade with its arch-nemesis, West Germany—importing waste products in exchange for substantial financial payments from the West. It also called upon citizens to donate blood voluntarily and without compensation, only to turn around and sell massive quantities of blood products to West Germany. Not to mention the colossal environmental pollution: despite possessing abundant reserves of lignite coal, the GDR paid virtually no heed to environmental protection; its sulfur dioxide emissions were actually one-third higher than those of West Germany. Furthermore, public discussion of environmental issues was strictly forbidden; anyone who dared to speak up was arrested and charged with "sabotaging production."
Additionally, in an effort to boost economic growth and modernize technology, the regime borrowed heavily from West Germany and other Western nations—ostensibly to manufacture superior export goods and generate foreign currency, with the intention of repaying the debts in the late 1970s. However, the systemic inefficiencies were so severe that repayment proved impossible, forcing the country into a vicious cycle of borrowing new funds merely to service old debts. By the late 1980s, labor productivity had actually plummeted significantly compared to the mid-1970s.

All in all, among the nations of the Eastern Bloc, the GDR offers the most valuable lessons—specifically as a cautionary tale—for China; one could say it managed to stumble into every conceivable pitfall:
1. "Seeking welfare before wealth": In a context of insufficient production capacity, and driven by a desire to demonstrate ideological superiority while placating public discontent, the regime was compelled to pour massive fiscal resources into maintaining an unsustainably high level of social welfare benefits. (In contrast, China adopted a model of "high accumulation, low consumption.")

2. Extreme economic dependency: The country’s energy supply and market access were heavily reliant on the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), while its technological advancement and R&D funding were contingent upon loans from Western nations. (In contrast, China prioritized "independence and self-reliance," later adopting a "NEP-like" model—following the Reform and Opening-up era—that strategically utilized foreign capital.)

3. An extremely tense and adversarial relationship between officials and the masses, as well as between the Party and the people. (As for China... well, admittedly, we face this very same problem ourselves.)

[Willem · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book to get insight into life in the former GDR. However, there is more emphasis on political matters than everyday life but Stefan Wolle manages to keep the reader's interest with good and succinct inputs on a great variety of topics. I worked in Berlin from 1996-2000 and during many discussions I gained the impression that some people were quite content with life in the former GDR. This could of course be ascribed to Ostalgie but I do believe some were fairly happy with the Communist dispensation as it provided a good deal of security and comfort although it must have been clear that this was not comparable to life in the West and particularly West Germany. In this regard it was clear that the social contract between the Communist leadership and the people was a failure and that there was no constructive interaction between people and government and therefore not much of a democratic dispensation despite the claim made in the name of the country. Communism failed because a planned economy just does not function efficiently and the constant desire of the Honecker leadership to control all aspects of life in the GDR at the cost of almost all independent expression of ideas contrary to that of the SED clearly brought about great resentment. The more or less constant exposure of people in the GDR to especially West German television and radio in my opinion brought about a completely distorted picture of life in the West. The disillusion after the fall of the Berlin Wall was therefore significant. The romanticised version of the capitalist world did not exists and many East Germans complained bitterly about the so-called "Ellenbogengesellschaft"of the West where egoism, self promotion, material gain and status anxiety were the order of the day. This stood in contrast with the former Communist dispensation where solidarity within the community was necessary for self-preservation. Apparently Mikhail Gorbachev said that although communism ended in failure capitalism would also come unstuck. With so much wealth concentrated in the hands of so few in the modern world and with such a big gap between rich and poor countries we most definitely do not live in an ideal world. Therefore if you ask me, life in the GDR was definitely not something to be idealised but there were some aspects to it which brought comfort although the ever-present influence of the state and party was never far away. This book makes you think about the Cold War, capitalism and communism, and where we are going. It comes highly recommended.

[Youssef El Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in the original German, and I must say — even though I am not a native German speaker — that this was an especially light, and oftentimes funny, read. The author comprehensively describes the daily world, state and politics in the GDR in its last decades while staying on-topic and without overly-long treatises.

I appreciated this book for giving this light but comprehensive overview of the structural deficits of a state built on repression and economic non-viability. The book makes it easy draw parallels between these deficits and other problems we see in the world today, and makes one realize that there are essentially two reasons for these failed (or at best unsustainble) states and systems: bad (or lack of) governance and abuse of power.

The reason I was interested to read this book is because I couldn’t help but make parallels between the GDR and my “own” state — Lebanon. The book confirmed what I had in mind, corroborating the reasons behind and the development of a more contemporary equivalent example, of a state perhaps unraveling (in the Lebanese case). History should be a lesson for people(s) to recognize where bad governance and abuse of power lead.

The only thing I missed in the book was a more convincing / insightful explanation of the reasons why the socialist party chose not to escalate its repression on/after October 9th 1989. It would have been highly informative to know the reasons behind this. Had the party went ahead with its initial repression, history would have been written very differently (as more sinister examples like Syria show).

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das Buch ist sehr kompakt. Wolle schreibt keine seitenlangen unverständlichen Abhandlungen, sondern hält sich kurz und prägnant. Mein Eindruck ist, dass das Wichtigste enthalten ist. Ich habe noch kaum so ein gut lesbares Geschichtsbuch gesehen, das noch dazu mit so viel Witz geschrieben ist.

[Jeb Inge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had lots of great history and information, though the non-linear narrative style was a little distracting. It talks much more about party rule than it does about daily life.