GDR history | History will soon be available second-hand

The ensemble of the play “Freedom: Simson” Photo: Tim Jonez Not only is it already shuffling its hooves, it has already galloped off, the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED Dictatorship. Off to the commemorative derby 2029/30, when the “Peaceful Revolution” in the GDR and the unification of the two German states will mark the 40th anniversary.

Anniversaries can be a key, “opening doors and windows for responsible politics and culture,” said Managing Director Anna Kaminsky on Tuesday at the presentation of the Federal Foundation’s ambitious undertaking “40|40: Shared History – Shared Present”. The year 1989 is like a “circular point” from which the history of dictatorship and democracy in Germany can be recorded and measured. The focus should be on November 9th. “On this day we mourn the victims of the pogroms of 1938 and pay tribute to the courage of those who made the fall of the Wall possible in 1989.” The compass measure “40|40” also captures the double founding of the German state in Anno Domini 1949.

The Federal Foundation wants to encourage municipalities, museums, schools, libraries, associations and clubs to plan and design contributions to the 2029/30 years of remembrance and would like to provide advice, help to make contacts and provide background material. Anyone interested can access the foundation's digital contemporary witness office and online archive at any time. In addition, a historical calendar service on their website can now be used for research, which records "over 5,200 events down to the day from the history of communist dictatorships in 96 states and regions, with a focus on the GDR," as Michael Wellmann, head of the institution's public history department, proudly announced.

There have already been around 200 positive responses to the “40|40” program, said Jenny Baumann, who is responsible for it. Municipal interest is currently greater in West Germany than in East German states. Among other things, the foundation has already written to the Central Committee of German Catholics about how “our ideas could be integrated into the Catholic Day 2030” and is in contact with the Tour de France, which is scheduled to begin in East Germany in 2029. The Palatinate Museum in Speyer and the German Historical Institute in Paris are also taking part. A first nationwide network meeting is planned for spring 2027.

From spring 2027, the foundation will also be offering the poster exhibition “DNA of the East? Youth in transition”. It introduces 16 people who were born and grew up in the GDR and East Germany between 1974 and 1995. These included the pop singer Stefanie Hertel, the journalist Carolin Wölfe, who also wrote the scripts for “Sam – ein Sachse” about the first black police officer in East Germany, then the photographer Georg Wendt, who was born in Leipzig like Wölfe but now lives in Hamburg by choice, and the spokesman for the 1. FC Union Berlin, Christian Arbeit, who not only promotes tolerance with his podcast, but also promotes tolerance as chairman of the board of the “Union united!” foundation social justice applies. According to the exhibition representative at the Clara Marz Foundation, the 20 panels can already be pre-ordered as a poster set in DIN A1 format. Like all of her house's previous annual exhibitions, it is suitable for display in all kinds of public buildings.

But back to the new program focus “40|40”. What exactly is this about? What are the motivation, concerns and aspirations of the processing authority, which describes itself as a “stimulator, motor and service provider”? The majority of Germans only have second-hand knowledge of the “dictatorship in East Germany and during the Nazi era,” states Anna Kaminsky.

The majority of Germans only have second-hand knowledge of the dictatorship in East Germany and the Nazi era.

In fact, the number of contemporary witnesses is shrinking not only regarding the years of the fascist dictatorship in Germany, but also the respective counter-projects on both sides of the Elbe after 1945. How can solid historical knowledge be conveyed in the future? Does second-hand history contribute? To what extent can it create identity and values? How can this be linked to the living conditions of the young generation today, who have their own experiences in a constitutionally united but ambivalent Germany? Also with those of adolescents from migrant backgrounds, some traumatized by their own horrors of dictatorship in their countries of origin or shaped (second-hand) by the burden of the memories of their parents and grandparents.

“The transformation period in East Germany is told very emotionally and is still associated with clichés today, for example that the East was ripped off and plundered in 1990,” continues Anna Kaminsky. Under no circumstances does she want to deny mistakes in politics and economics after unification, which caused the initial euphoria in East Germany to turn into severe disappointment.

The historian, who was born in Gera in 1962, refers to the enormous audience success of a documentary theater about the disdainful handling of the VEB Simson in Suhl by the Treuhand: with the laconic but telling title “Freedom: Simson”. All performances were sold out. Anna Kaminsky, however, feels it is important to warn against attributing the problems of the 1990s "solely to actual or perceived mistakes on the part of politicians and trustees and ignoring the consequences of four decades of SED dictatorship and a planned economy."

Well, the sad end of the Kahla porcelain factory in Thuringia, world-famous for its onion patterns, which has to close down operations this year, is not the fault of Honecker, Mittag & Co. Their end, with the loss of around 100 jobs after a glorious 182 years, has to do with the continued lack of desire to invest and the competitive egotism of (West) German big capital. A topic that must be addressed by a serious and truthful assessment of recent German history. Especially since, as in this specific case, the name of a moped brand popular in the East was shamelessly exploited and sullied for the election campaign of a right-wing extremist party.

On August 18th of this year, Anna Kaminsky, together with Uwe Neumärker, director of the Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of Europe, and Kai-Michael Sprenger, director of the Federal Foundation for Places in the History of German Democracy, argued in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that the debates about "the two German dictatorships", the Nazi state and the GDR, should no longer be conducted separately, but should be united.

Is a relapse to be feared in times of the doctrine of totalitarianism, which serious historiography and some memorial sites with a double past have long since abandoned? Back to an equation of the murderous German fascism, the eliminatory anti-Semitism of the Nazis, with the East German state, which saw itself and actually was a consistent historical doctrine and social alternative to the Hitler dictatorship?

And what is the aim of the early, meticulously prepared offensive by the Federal Foundation for Reprocessing? To establish and cement a homogeneous view of German history? A uniform culture of remembrance? Is such a desirable? Anna Kaminsky energetically denies the “nd”’s request: “We are not concerned with a monolithic remembrance that is aligned in the same way. That can't exist either. Just as there is no such thing as the German people, the West Germans and the East Germans." A wide variety of experiences should be included, but one wants to draw attention to "gaps" in the study of contemporary history.

Ulrich Mählert, responsible for press and communications, added that the decision about financial support for projects within the program focus “40|40” is not guided by political or ideological motives. The 1968 native of Neckarsulm affirmed pluralism as a criterion. It asked for understanding in advance if not all projects benefited from pecuniary support.

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