Saturday, November 07, 2009

I Remember Standing by the Wall

1981. A loop to East Berlin via Dresden with a college class. Some snippets from my journal at the time (I was twenty years old, and, after the Soviets occupied Afghanistan, had been required to register for Selective Service in 1980):

Expecting smart jackbooted submachine gun carrying helmeted border guards, I was underwhelmed by the bureaucratic border police who processed us. . . Driving through the night was a little eerie, behind “enemy” lines. But there was no sign of Soviet presence. There was very little sign of anything. It’s much less populated than West Germany, perhaps because so many fled before the Wall was built. . .

Paper and other goods are of ersatz quality, markedly inferior to similar Western materials. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see how well-dressed and fed everyone is, being led to believe something different by our own media and government propaganda. Their propaganda I expected, but to find out we've been badly distorting reality is rather surprising. Too naive.

Our East German guides, Gunther X and Anita Kretschmar, were quite an experience. At first they were stiffly cautious, probing for our reactions to what they said. Within an hour they opened up and spoke to us as friends. Gunther was a man harried by the state bureaucracy. Anita was a young artist who felt stifled by that same bureaucracy. It appears that the East German system thematically is more like Huxley’s
Brave New World than Orwell’s 1984. Materially the East Germans do well by global standards . . . In return for self-disciplined caution in actions and words, the people are rewarded with material goods. . .

It was raining when we toured the Checkpoint Charlie Museum this morning . . . Some of the inventions and means of escaping from the Iron Curtain were really ingenious. The resultant countermeasures just as ingeniously added new diabolical strength to the Wall.

The saddest thing about the Iron Curtain countries, and indeed all centrally governed countries, is the people’s lack of individual freedom of choice. Freedom of choice is not in my opinion an inherent “right” of anyone’s, as our constitution suggests, but it is a very nice luxury to have.

Today's Rune: The Self.

10 comments:

JR's Thumbprints said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JR's Thumbprints said...

Your last statement is so damn profound. I'm sure there's others who would disagree in the name of capitalism. BTW, in 1981 I was finishing my highschool education.

the walking man said...

I understand that freedom of choice is not a necessary right. People who murder someone, for example, do not own that right to choose if another lives or dies.

What right they do own though is the freedom of will to come to a place of choice. If then their choice is abhorrent to the society within which they live they must be willing to accept the consequences for the choice made.

Middle Ditch said...

I watched a program on tv about the rise and fall of the Berlin wall. It moved me to tears. So many people died trying to flee. So many demonstrations I never knew about.

Freedom of choice and speech eh? Well tell my boss at work about this. (and don't mention this anywhere else as big brother is watching my every move).

Charles Gramlich said...

Very interesting material. What an interesting experience to remember. So glad you journaled.

Anonymous said...

I HAVE A PIECE OF THAT WALL. I ALSO HAVE A PICTURE OF A STATUE NAMED THE CALLER. HE IS CALLING THE EAST GERMANS TO FREEDOM. WHO EVER THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE A NIECE WORKING NEAR BERLIN IN 2009. WAR AND PEACE, THE EVER GOING STRUGGLE OF MANKIND.

jodi said...

Erik, You sure have gotten around, Dude. Now repeat after me, "there's no place like home. There's no place like home"!

Lana Gramlich said...

"Freedom" is such a relative term. Despite my vaunted "freedom of expression" here in the USA, I'm not allowed to wear my hair down at work, or talk about religion or politics (although I'm expected to listen to the opinions of others to no end.)

Erik Donald France said...

Thanks y'all for the comments, appreciated!

Johnny Yen said...

My friend Mark, my friend who was murdered three years ago, went to Europe in 1990, as all the changes wrought by the Wall falling were happening. He brought me back two souvenirs that I still treasure: a piece of the Wall and a political poster from the first free elections Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) had after the Wall came down.