Ostalgie

History

Ostalgie is a complex term that should not be described as simple emotion of nostalgia. And relates Ostalgie back to history of Cold war, it is better to examine this term in context of history and its current influence in Western Society. After that, meaning of East (Ost) of this term would be clearer.

The most noticeable differences would be the ruling political party of two countries. Differences of the two parties establish the different strategy for the process of “restoration”. In the West, authority adopted a capitalism tendency economy under Marshal Plan. In the other hand, authority of East Germany was under massive pressure from Soviet Union and adopted a more radical economy system that having more intensive requirement for individual. Divergence between two states first appears in their different in economic system choices. Structure of two German societies and their people were inevitably distinct from each other under the broad background of Cold War. Although people in two Germanys share the same language and the same history from establishment of German Empire to defeat of World War II, their identities were no longer the same in the dimension of completely different social life. Differences between West Germany and East Germany are evident before reunification.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German reunification that followed a year later, many of the symbols of the German Democratic Republic were swept away. Almost all GDR brands (DDR in German) of products disappeared from the stores and were replaced by Western products. However, after some time most of the Eastern Germans began to miss more or less aspects of their former lives (like culture or the known brand marks). Ostalgie particularly refers to the nostalgia for aspects of regular daily life and culture in the former GDR, which disappeared after reunification.

The term was coined by the East German cabaret artist Uwe Steimle in 1992.

Influence

Many businesses in Germany cater to those who feel Ostalgie and have begun providing them with artifacts that remind them of life under the GDR; artifacts that imitate the old ones. Available again are brands of East German foodstuffs, old state television programmes on video tape and DVD, and the previously widespread Wartburg and Trabant cars. In addition, life in the GDR has been the subject of several films, including Leander Haußmann's Sonnenallee (1999), Wolfgang Becker's internationally successful Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), Carsten Fiebeler's Kleinruppin forever (2004).

Those seeking the preservation of East German culture banded together to save the "Eastern Crosswalk Man" (Ost-Ampelmännchen), an illuminated depiction of a man wearing a "perky", "cheerful" and potentially "petit bourgeois" hat (inspired by a summer photo of Erich Honecker in a straw hat) in crosswalk lights. Many German cities in and near the former East German border, including Berlin, Lübeck and Erfurt, still retain the use of the Ampelmännchen at all or some pedestrian crossings due to its cultural relevance, and many souvenirs sold in East Germany and in Berlin make use of the icon.

One of the other evident proofs of this phenomenon of memorizing east commercially in current Germany would be the Musealization of Halle-Neustadt. Halle-Neustadt is a city constructed during East Germany regime and now is a kind of living museum for East Germany memory. But more than the meaning of living museum, tourism in Halle-Neustadt is an evidence of commercialization of Ostalgie. In this case, Musealization of Ostalgie is somehow connected with a consumerism attitude. Ostalgie in this sense is not a realistic or pragmatic term. It is the artifact rather than social life of East German plays the main role in this commercialization. If the special social life in previous East Germany is more complex than few artifacts and symbols, it would be fair to say, Musealization of Ostalgie in Halle-Neustadt creates stereotype of East Germany. That is to say, reflection of Ostalgie in Halle-Neustadt should not be considered as an actual memorization of East Germany.

Since social life in East Germany is more complex than few symbols, people should not treat commercialization of those symbols to have an actual meaning of Ostalgie. For example, people lived in East Germany might consider their past history of secret police and high intensive institution as a horrible memory. Commodities of artifacts of East Germany should somehow be distinguished from, or at least, not messed with the term Ostalgie, which is used realistically and connected with past history of Germany. Although that is not to say Musealization is a bad thinning, people should keep in mind that Musealization of Ostalgie is only one of many ways of describing history.

Arguments

There is no doubt Ostalgie exists in current Germany through commodities and products. Influence of Ostalgie in market is realistic.

Indeed, ostalgie could be inspired by the longing of the Ossis (German for "Easterners", a term for former GDR citizens) for the social system and the sense of community of the GDR. When the renowned West-German magazine Der Spiegel asked former GDR-inhabitants whether the GDR "had more good sides than bad sides", 57% of them answered yes. To the statement of the interviewing journalist that "GDR inhabitants did not have the freedom to travel wherever they wanted", Germans replied that "present-day low-wage workers do not have that freedom either".

But there are also arguments for the actual meaning of this term and the main question is that: Whether Ostalgie is the expression of nostalgia of former residents in East Germany or the fantasy created by West Germans? Some might argue that popularity of East German brands and products is a phenomenon resulted from former East German’s emotion of getting lost things back. In this discourse, former East Germans are thought be kidding themselves by believing a sort of Utopia in the past. And on the other hand from Boyer’s perspective, Ostalgie is more like a fantasy created by West German and in his description Ostalgie is actually the Westalgie. He argues against the common accepted idea of Ostalgie through analysis of multiple dimensions of public culture and discussion about German past history.

Boyer's Argument of Ostalgie as "West-algie"

First, he argues that the idea of Nostalgia is not new; it is developed as a symptom reflecting disorder of body for centuries. But what is interesting for Boyer about the idea of nostalgia is that nostalgia is found somehow connected with the notion of nation. That is to say, nostalgia is somehow related with nationalism. In this context, miss for the homeland generates love for everything in home country and then transformed to exclusion against foreign stuffs with desire of performing patriotism. But as it has been emphasized by Boyer, the usage of nostalgia is not as serious as it used to be. While in past time, nostalgia is realistic and strengthened by limitation of technology, people’s feeling for this word now is relatively lighter due to advancement of society. After demonstration of heaviness of the word nostalgia, Boyer goes on further to conclude that nostalgia in some levels is justified as the physical state of nationalism. And relates this point to discussion of Ostalgie, it is just theoretically impossible to think Ostalgie to be East German’s nostalgia. Since nostalgia is connected with the combination of nationalism and departure from nation, it would be very hard to think the cheerful event of reunification become a source of it.

Second, Boyer discusses nostalgia in context of Second World War, which is a huge historic event in Germany and creates the predicament of Vergangenheitsbelastung. According to Boyer, the imposed division between West Germany and East Germany is not merely a geopolitical fact that punishes German war crime. More than that, German people also use this geopolitical fact as a deferred confrontation against ethnology during Holocaust. History of Third Reich, which makes German postwar generation shameful and anxious about the past, is clearly a historical burden. And to overcome this burden, one strategy that both Germanys adopt is to claim the other side of Germany is more “German”, that the other side is fascism and should be more responsible for war crime during World War II. Boyer goes on further to explain that identification of each state is actually dependent on each other. West Germany needs the existence of East Germany to reflect its own contextual identity, and so does East Germany. The situation has changed since the reunification; the previous "two German States" exist no more, and now East Germany is no longer a valid imagined enemy. But the strategy of constructing a “West German-ness” has not totally vanished. Reunification has not changed the social structure of West Germany significantly, most institutions in West Germany are preserved. So, the strategy of treating East Germany as a perceived enemy could also be preserved after reunification. That is to say, Ostalgie as an idea created in this context could also possibly be used by the West Germans to construct an imaginary image of East Germany, even though East Germany no longer exists in the modern world geography.

Third, Boyer examines current West-East relationship, and what he finds is that West German opinion is dominant in discourse of the West-East relationship and refuses to treat input and opinions from former East German members seriously. Boyer admits that it is possible for former East Germans to fantasize some aspects of the GDR but, he also argues, none of them would fantasize actually returning to the historic GDR. Boyer argues the current construction of Ostalgie has created a “no-place” of East Germany. East Germany in this discourse is only “realistic” from a West German perspective. The East German perspective (despite its individual history, policy, structure, way of life, and outlook), is somehow invalid and thus unable to challenge the imagined "western" image of East Germany. Since the differences between West and East are realistic and profound at both the social and political level, the construction of a “no-place” East Germany is just a utopia (or indeed dystopia) of West German creation.

There are also authors, such as Enns Anthony, who suggest that understanding the Ostalgie phenomenon should go “beyond the simple question of whose representation of the GDR is more valid or authentic”. Moreover, what matters is the observation of the actual situation of the former residents of the GDR.

Books