REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Lars HANEBERG.: Living beside the Berlin Wall 65
Unfortunately, at the same time at the West, a snobbish Victor’s justice spread itself and
I noticed that the general attitude towards the Ossies was quite pejorative. They were
judged as lazy and there were at least subliminal allegations that finally everyone
cooperated with the Stasi.
The notion “Ost” is still often added to describe something cheap or inferior. Anything
that reminded of the GDR was condemned and quickly exchanged. First of all the ossies
replaced their clothes and cars by new western products, credit-financed in many cases.
But also socialist buildings like the “Palazzo Prozzo”, erected to seat power and seat of
the parliament of the GDR were demolished because it was regarded as a symbol of
Socialism. In the course of urban De-Socialism, even the traffic lights in the east were
replaced by western models.
Only few things, like the “Sandmann”, a child production from the GDR-Television,
survived the process of cultural westernization which took place after the reunification.
Altogether, there stayed very few heritages from GDR-times. Exceptions hereby were the
sportsmen from the former GDR, who were very welcomed in order to improve the
German medal balance.
The East German people had very quick forgotten to remember their heroes: the civilrights
activists who dared to raise their voices and Michael Gorbatschov, the man who
changed the world for me.
References
Fig. 6: View in our backyard, 1986 and 2012
1. Marck, J.: Over the Wall: a once in a lifetime experience, NYT Magazine, November
1999.
2. Berliner Protokoll über die Ausgabe von Passierscheinen an Westberliner für
Verwandtenbesuche vom 17. Dezember 1963, printed in: von Münch, I. (ed.),
Dokumente des geteilten Deutschland, Stuttgart, 1968, pp. 395-398.
3. Fragen an die Geschichte der DDR, Junge Welt Berlin, 3. Auflage, 1989, pp. 144-
151.
4. Benjamin, D.: Wall of Shame 1961-1989, Time Magazine, Nov. 20, 1989,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959086,00.html, Accessed 19.09.2012.