Welt Online: "America Built the Wall - Kohl is from the East"

Many Young Berliners Ignorant of Totalitarian Past...

Welt Online published a fascinating and frightening article on the attitudes of Berlin's youth towards the communist dictatorship that was East Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Most telling are results of a poll of 15-17 year old students, documented in the article and translated here:

• "The DDR (GDR - East Germany) was not a dictatorship - the people just had to conform like anywhere else." 24.6% of all students agreed with this statement, 21.1% in West-Berlin and 28.1% in East-Berlin. 54.1% of all students rejected the statement, 60.5% from West-Berlin and 48.6% in East-Berlin. The remainder (21.3% total, 18.4% in West-Berlin and 23.2% in East-Berlin) selected "neutral".
  

  

• "The Stasi (Ministry for State Security of the DDR) was an intelligence agency, just like any other state would have." 31.1% of all students agreed with this statement, 24.4% in West-Berlin and 38.8% in East-Berlin. 49.6% of all students rejected the statement, 56.2% in West-Berlin and 44.7% in East-Berlin. The remainder (19.3% of all students, 19.5% in West-Berlin and 16.5% in East-Berlin) selected "neutral".



• "I find it good that in the DDR the state took care of all citizens, even though, as a result, individual citizens had less freedom."  26.4% of all students agreed, 17.2% from West-Berlin and 36.3% from East-Berlin. 44.5% of all students rejected the statement, 55% from West-Berlin and 32.9% from East-Berlin . The remainder (29.1% of all students, 27.8% from West-Berlin and 30.8% from East-Berlin) selected "neutral".
• "The command economy in the DDR was not better or worse than the market economy in West Germany, just different." 20.1% of all students agreed with this statement, 13.9% from West-Berlin and 26.7% from East-Berlin. 43.9% rejected this statement, 51.5% from West-Berlin and 36.3% from East-Berlin. The remainder (36% of all students, 34.6% in West-Berlin and 37% in East-Berlin) selected "neutral".
• "When was the Berlin Wall built?" 57.6% answered correctly with 1961, 42.4% gave an incorrect answer and named years between 1945 and 1968. There were few East-West differences here.
• "The Berlin Wall was built by...?" 13.6% of all Berlin students (12.4% West and 14.3% East) answered that it was the Allies, 1.9% (1.6% West and 2.2% East) said it was the USA, 46% answered the Soviet Union (47.2% West and 44.8% East), 4.5% said it was West Germany (3.9% West and 5.3% East) and only 34.9% answered correctly with the DDR (34.9% West and 33.4% East).
• Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl was identified with the DDR by 13.5% of all students (10.1% West and 16.2% East). 81.6% of all students identified him with West Germany (84.9% West and 80.5% East).
• DDR Head of State Erich Honecker was identified with West Germany by 8.2% of the students (10.1% West and 6.1% East).

Most unsettling are the positive or neutral responses by a majority of East-Berlin students polled (and sizable minorities of West-Berlin students) to the propositions that the DDR was not a dictatorship and that the Stasi was just an intelligence agency like any other. This represents a dangerous ignorance of one's own national history as well as a frightening willingness to condone or overlook the crimes of the former East German regime.

Unfortunately, this willingness to overlook the misdeeds of dictators is something that I have experienced firsthand with young Germans. When I asked a young woman protesting the Iraq war and chanting anti-American slogans whether the crimes of Saddam Hussein bothered her - she replied: "Saddam Hussein - what has he ever done to anyone?" Needless to say - her attitudes are closely shared by many young Germans with similar political persuasions.

Considering Germany's foreign policy, it is not difficult to conclude that such attitudes - (combined with Germany's reflexive historic pacifism and hyper-sensitivity to casualties) - strongly influence German reactions and responses to the threats posed by present day totalitarians. We have grown accustomed to the common refrain: Downplay the threat posed by the world's most vicious regimes and avoid military engagement at any cost.

Note to readers: Special thanks to Karin Quade for bringing this to our attention. Be sure to check out her blog and posting on this. She currently has an interesting piece on how Gerhard Schroeder continues to serve as an apologist for and appeaser of absolutists - this time in China.

Also, our creative pause is at an end. As I said earlier - "I'll be back" and now I am - refreshed and stronger than ever - with David Harnasch to back me up. Thank you for your patience and welcome back.

Comments

[ian in hamburg]

And your point is...?

[ian in hamburg]

Oh right! Blame the German media. You left that out.

[George M]

Two words: Amerikanische Verhaeltnisse (American Conditions)

Sounds like Jay Leno should do a "Jaywalking" piece on the streets of Berlin!

[Buckeye Abroad]

Welcome back!

"This represents a dangerous ignorance of one's own national history as well as a frightening willingness to condone or overlook the crimes of the former East German regime."

About 10 years ago I had a chat with a nice "Osi" who was about my age at a local shop who told me that what she regretted most about living in former DDR was that everything historically what she was taught was a lie and she had to relearn the past. She want on to say that when she was 9 a stranger wandered into her family's house and she screamed to her mother... not realizing it was her older brother who was just released after being locked up by the Stasi for the last 7 years. He still didn't know why he was held after all those years. She then turned to me and said, "I know in America they do the same thing." "What makes you say that", I asked? Her reply, "because I JUST know they do!" Hmmmm.
I met alot of "Osis" over the last decade, nice people, and I can only recall one devout "red pioneer" who went of his way to attack me personally. Big lover of Fidel, as well, if I recall correctly.

"When I asked a young woman protesting the Iraq war and chanting anti-American slogans whether the crimes of Saddam Hussein bothered her - she replied: "Saddam Hussein - what has he ever done to anyone?" Needless to say - her attitudes are closely shared by many young Germans with similar political persuasions."

No worries. Most American youth don't know that Saddam mass murdered 1 million of his own people during his reign, let alone attack two neighboring countries. (For the record: US did give aid to Iraq during the Iran war, just below what Denmark gave. No weapons, just materials. Acutally the last I read was that the biggest contribution we ever gave him were Iranian troop movements from US satellite flyovers).

"We have grown accustomed to the common refrain: Downplay the threat posed by the world's most vicious regimes and avoid military engagement at any cost."

True. German acquaintances have told me they viewed the US soliders (during the cold war) in Germany as a bit of a joke, but I always pointed out that despite their jovial attitude, we were training to use your parents house as an OP/LP when the reds came. Reagan didn't keep 250k US troops around for your amusement.

[playertwo]

modern euros or liberals anywhere arent concerned with right or wrong. they care most to have their way and not be made a fool of. as a conservative you get yourself trapped into thinking that everyone else thinks in right or wrong. how inconvenient when you could be thinking right/ wrong/whatever like the the modern idiot.
it doesnt matter to these products of unionized education wether or not the stasi murdered people. what matters is that you think theyre stupid and for that youre a bad parent figure.
this third way of thinking was shown to me by a dj for wone of berlins biggest radio stations whom I met once while over there on holiday. when the world cup came around and he could finally freely travel to the west, his main focus of concern was the economic disparity of the foreigners coming into to town to take all the tickets away from the locals at jacked up prices. I tried to inform him that that is why they call it the WORLD CUP but that kind of thinking didnt even dent his science.
Socialists by nature want to have their cake and eat it too which is just part of their insistence on always taking the pathof least resistance. the elites that are running the show know all about hoenecker and the wolf but why should they ruin the party and make it cool to have a brain? they'll still get paid for half the bother by just going along with the dipshit voters and keeping their jobs. why make waves?
isnt it more interesting to hear about the italians attacking the police over soccer respect?!!!

[commonsense]

Welcome back.

Three days ago the German ZDF broadcast a report about the fall of the Wall and about the fact that the German unity has come "of age" because it was 18 years ago. Even though the results of the above mentioned study where out already they got no mention in the ZDF news.

The lack of knowledge about the historical reality only supports the hidden agenda of those people in the German media, who completed their "long march through the institutions" and now are working on the re-education of the people.