Mr. Giant Reacts: Life in East Germany | Animated History(REACTION)

Life in East Germany, how did the people cope, what were their lives like. Was it as bad as the West said it was. Did the people like the government. How and when was the Berlin wall build

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

Big ups for watching the video.

[germaniatv]

With bad law's and good officials, it is quite possible to rule the country.
But if the officials are bad, even the best law's will not help.
- Otto von Bismarck -

[runningfromabear]

I lived in West Germany as a little kid in the 80's, my father served in the British military. My uncle lived in West Berlin and my mother wanted to visit her brother. My father had just gotten a brand new car and I think he wanted to show it off, because he went through allll of the paperwork so that Mum and 3 daughter's could drive through East Germany to West Berlin. Dad was working but would take the train and meet us there.

I remember it being dark by the time we got to the border. Initially it was like a pitstop on the side of the autobahn. Then it became like other borders we crossed driving through Europe from Germany to England all the time. Only the East German guards scared the living crap out of my mother, she was crying by the time we got back in the car. I was born in 1980 in a military hospital, I was used to soldiers and crossing borders but this was different. They wanted to scare us.

The air smelled different, there weren't lights from businesses on the East German side. It felt darker. I learned it smelled different because they burned less efficient coal on the East German side. I don't know what the politics were at the time but we weren't allowed to stop for bathroom breaks. When we met up with Dad, Mum was pissed off. She refused to go back through East Germany with him and bought plane tickets for the 4 of us back to West Germany, very expensive. And Dad had to drive the car back, by himself. We had a great time in Berlin though!

[schattenwolf]

1948: search for an ''provisional'' Capital, as so long Berlin is in Soviet-Zone And then they find ''Bonn''.

1949: ''Government Adenauer'' begin his work in Bonn

1953: at 17th June 1953 Berliners in East-Berlin begin protest to bring down East-Germany. Soviets came with tanks.
The protest failed with agression. The 17th June became the national holiday in West-Germany (Day of Unity) and in West-Berlin named a street: ''Street of 17th June''.

1955: Bonn established the Hallstein-Doctrin (after a politican named Hallstein) who simple said: (1)''Only Bonn, has the right, to speak for the Germans in the GDR!''
(2), , Only the Federal Republic of Germany is the german state!''
(3) a state who begin diplomatic relationship with East-Germany.
Bonn broke the diplomatic connection to this state.

1961 - end of all hopes

1963-1989: Bonn start a secret humanity act. An Deal (planed by Adenauer and Springer) with East-Berlin and pay per month and years more than 95.000 marks (~47.500 Euros) or send ressources to the Government what ever East-Berlin need.
The Deal is, to buy Germans who was lands in East-German Prison, out of this Prison, and East-Berlin sell this humans to Bonn (not bad people, people who will try to escape into freedom)
Bonn's Position 1963-1989:
, ,We buy our Citizens out of This, what self named as ''democratic Germany''. This is an human act!

East-Berlin Position1963-1989:
, ,This is a good economic deal'' (33.755 people arrived the Federal Republic on this way and became free persons in the years from 1963-1989 and 250, 000 families of can be reunited.)

1969: Bonn give up the Hallstein-Doctrin (West-Germany as partner in the arabic world became low, East-Germany became influence)

1970: New west-german Politics-Course: ''East-Politicans'' (give East-Europe the Hand)


1973: Bonn supported East-Germany to became an seat in the UNO (Bonn's plan is since Government Brandt:
(1) accept that the world is divided in East and West
(2) accept there is two german states with two governments
(3) help and give hope to our citizens in East-Germany (Bonn has never forget you)
(4) bring a little peace into East and West with respect and dialogue
(5) step for step East-Germany become more opened and opened, the reunification will come one day)

1974: Bonn and East-Berlin begin diplomatic relationships

1974-1981: First West-German ambassador: ''Günter Gaus'' in East-Berlin signs 17 treaties with the GDR in order to help the people when he can, but first to do everything possible to strengthen the connection between West-Berlin and West-Germany and to keep it going, in order to keep West- Berlin away from communism.

1987: East-Germanys communist leader ''Erich Honecker'' take a state visit to Bonn (Bonn will talk about human rights in East-Germany and fight for the freedom of movement)

1989: more than 10.000 Germans would fleet to West-Germany over Hungary, Prague, Warsaw and Austria - Crisis management in Bonn

11/1989: at the evening the Bonn politican ''Ackermann''opened the door to the minister's-office and said loud: ''THE WALL IS OPEN!''

11/1989 - East-Germany is morality collapsed

11/1989 -, ,Government Kohl'' (West) and, ,Governement Modrow'' (East) work together

12/1989 - Kohl in Dresden, East-Germany said: Only East-Berlin has the right to speak for the Germans in East-Germany, we accept what you vote for the Country.

1989/1990 -, ,Government de Maizieré'' rise, East-Germany became a democratic state

1990: Bonn and East-Berlin begin the first opened dialogue and established the: ''Economy-, Currency- and Socialunion-Treaty'' (a plan how East-Germany became what West-Germany is )

1990: most of East-Germans vote for Reunification with West-Germany

10/1990 - 1st free East-German Government dissolves East-Germany.
There former territory became 5 states of West-Germany

10/1990 - West-German Embassy in Berlin and East-German Embassy in Bonn dissolve

10/1990 - the, ,4 Secretory city Berlin'' dissolves, and join as ''state Berlin'' to Federal Republic of Germany

10/1990 - East-Germanys army-personal (National peoples-army) integrate in the West-German Army (Bundeswehr) (later called as: "Army of Unity'')

3rd October 1990 - Day of German Unity (its since 1990 the official national holiday in all german states)

10/1990 - the ''BStU'' begin his work in Berlin (giving 16 millions former East-German citizens where lived in the years from 1945-1990 her own life-biographies back)

1990: West German manhunt for communists

1990: United Germany arrest Erich Honecker (leader of former East-Germany)

1991 - Allied Powers see their Job as finished.

1991 - Bonn politicians give up Capital Bonn by vote

1991 - established the ''Berlin-Bonn-law'' (Compensation to Bonn for 40 years of service)


1991-1999 - Prepare Berlin for its role (first stay in Bonn, -1999)

1994 - Russian troops leave Germany forever

1999 - ''Government Schröder'' return to ''Federal Capital Berlin''

[lincolnsixecho]

Hello, Mr Giant! As a german watcher of your vids, i'd like to say, that i appreciate your comments very much! Everybody should listen, when you are speaking! You are a calm, friendly and wise commenter of history! Thanks a lot!

We germans have a long, complicated and sometimes very hard history. Some of the bad things, that happened to us and the people around us were our own guilt, but i still hope, at last we learned a bit from
Greetz,
Lincoln

[MichaEl-rhkv]

8:10 That is not completely true. The Ruhr region and Silesia were the regions with the most resources in coal and ores. But ores were also to be found in the ore mountains at the border between the GDR and Czechoslovakia (even most on the GDR side were already exploited), and there were also large traditional industrial regions around Berlin and in Thuringia. But the factories there were either destroyed by the war or dismantled for reparations by the Soviets.
9:10 There were border controls, but they could be evaded. And especially in Berlin, where the border run sometimes in the middle of a street, public transportation systems crossed the border in numerous places, and many people regularly worked in another zone than they lived, it was simple to go West.

[MichaEl-rhkv]

4:00 I think 2 years would be too short. If politicians have good intentions, they need one year to prepare new laws necessary to implement that intentions and another year to put them into effect - and even more if they have to work against a bureaucracy set in place by their predecessors. A better approach is a balance of powers, including a true separation between legislative, judicial and executive powers; but you should also have more than two parties in parliament to avoid a division of political camps which don't talk with each other, but only about each other. You need a third and fourth "camp" which can only accomplish its goals by bridge building.

[kosarkosar]

A distinction must be made between those prisoners who were responsible for the tens of millions of civilians killed during World War II, most in the Soviet Union and those who opposed communism. Many Nazis were also sent for re-education in West Germany. In Yugoslavia, for example, people were allowed to cross the border freely, but not as many people left the country as they do now in democracy. I think the Germans found it harder to accept an alliance with the Slavic peoples because they had always considered them less valuable and were therefore more willing to immigrate. In fact, Yugoslavia would still be socialist and united if the people in power were not as committed as possible to nationalism and the domination of their nation. Everything depends on the economic success of the state and the media if they are independent or under the influence of elites in both socialism and democracy. I think that shortening the mandates of politicians would not change things for the better, because politicians would change in parliament and would not develop their influence in the party, and even more so the party's apparatus and capital that was not elected would have an impact on them. In socialism, politicians were only in power for a long time in the beginning, later they changed regularly, but they were led by the party apparatus, as it does in democracies, especially in the Anglo sphere, because it even has its own continents and because of its size the power to present itself as the elites have wanted for centuries.

[arathperez]

You have experience living in both socialist and capitalist societies, so your view is pretty relevant and makes sense.

[frieda]

I was born in the GDR in 1984. I don't know where this historian got his information but my grandparents (born in 1931 and 1934) never once talked about starving or being particularly hungry after the hunger winter 46/47. And they would have talked about it if it had happened as portrayed in this video. He also seems to be of the impression that people were helpless pawns that didn't know how to trade or grow stuff. It annoys me to no end that so called historians who have never visited the region or talked to the actual people there make assumptions of what life actually was like. And thats coming from someone whose grandfather was imprisoned under said regime because he picked up a leaflet with Ulbrich jokes on it and read it to his colleagues (stupid). And yet my grandfather stayed, not because of some ideology...he had worked in the west in the 50's but came back because he missed his family. He already had to leave home in 1945 when Pomerania fell to Poland. People had normal lives, they had jobs (all of them, there actually was a worker shortage, hence why the women worked way before it became a thing in the west), they had families, they laughed, they cried, they read (everything), they had opinions, they went on holiday, had barbecues, they had intellectuals, music, arts, literature, sports, science and all that good stuff.... No one denies that they didn't have all the things people in the west had and couldn't go to far away countries and no one denies that they didn't really have a say in politics and that people were spied upon and what not (and usually people knew who was in the party and who was prone to spying, at least in my hometown). But painting life in the DDR as dark and cruel and oppressing all of the time is just not true and. its also a great injustice to the people that actually lived through it. People were quite inventive and handy and less of a throw away society. I wouldn't want it back but there is still to this day a lingering arrogance towards East German people and east german society as a whole, like they were less then...