Opinion / Columnist
Understanding the concept of multi-culturalism in German political landscape
05 May 2016 at 19:26hrs | Views
Part four: 4.1 East Germany's multi culturalism
When Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union and the Western allies it was divided into four parts following the conclusions of the Potsdam Conference of 1945. Three parts were occupied by Great Britain, France and USA that created the Federal Republic of Germany. The fourth part East Germany also called German Democratic Republic was established in 1949 where the Soviet Union had occupied it as its territory during the war and was recognised as the Zone and confirmed as the Soviet Military administration, prevented the unity of the two Germans.
Again the German territory that was east of the Oder/Neisse line was handed over to Poland and Soviet Union as de-facto annexation. The Germans who were living in that area were systematically expelled from their place of birth and the estimate of those citizens who were chased away could be about 2 million of them. The problem arose regarding Berlin and its geo-political status, the capital city of former Nazi Germany. It had to be shared too; hence there was West Berlin divided into four parts as well. East Berlin, the fourth section of Berlin was given to East as its capital city taken over by occupation authorities of the Soviet Union, SMAD.
Because the German Democratic Republic was under the surveillance of the Big Brother; (SMAD) Sowjetische Militäradministration Deutschland, they allowed the formation of anti-fascist parties that were going to be assisted to take over the administration of East Germany. SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutchlands) was favoured by the military occupation authorities of the Soviet Union. The SED, that had won the elections in 1949, was tasked with the programmes of denazification and demilitarisation of their occupied zones.
Some German population resented socialism and the centrally planned economy of East Germany. Most of the educated elite, scientists, economists and doctors fled, left East German by the night to settle in West Germany and West Berlin, a brain drain of the fragile East German economy. By 1958 more than two million people had fled East Germany to go and settle in West using West Berlin as the gateway to West Germany and other western countries they wanted to relocate to.
The government of East German then fortified its borders with West Germany built a Berlin-wall over night and the separation of the two Germans was physically complete in 1961. However not the hearts and minds of the ordinary people in both countries were separated. It was impossible for East Germans to go to West Germany and all other western countries because the ideologies that created the iron curtain forbade their travelling rights to western countries. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 588 people were killed just by trying to cross the wall.
East German even under SED had limited political leverage in its efforts to create a democratic state. Too many military activities took place in DDR immediately after the war; the cold war had kick-started. The East Germans concentrated mostly on the economy, they had to start from scratch, and most of the major industries had been looted by the Soviet Union. Again they had to pay war reparations to the Big Brother Soviet Union. The Soviet Union looted 1,9 million tons of material of unclassified nature, 3,6 million tons of industrial equipment and large quantities of agricultural produce.
In the early days after the war, the relationship between the Soviet Union and East German population was a bitter-sweet one, a forced marriage. The atrocities committed by the Soviet military after the war on the German population were too much to comprehend. To add insult from the looting that was done to the economy of a small zone of East Germany, and the loss of land, Schlesien to Poland and Soviet Union, East Germans were systematically humiliated by the Soviet military presence in various ways. Top German scientists were forcibly relocated to the Soviet Union to go and improve and industrialize the Soviet economy.
Women and girls were raped and repeatedly by the soldiers who were in the Soviet zone. The most potent weapon they used to humiliate the Germans was rape on women and girls. The number of women especially young girls and young women, who were raped and were registered cases of rape, was 2, 5 million of them! There are also those cases in the grey area that went unreported and unregistered as rape. It does not say in any literature how these women coped with sexual assault and abuse they endured after the war in the hands of the Soviet occupation. Such atrocities were pushed under the carpet and never to be mentioned again.
Early 1950 the situation calmed down, tensions between East German Authorities and the Soviet occupation was wholly suppressed. Soviet Union was supposed to be seen as a liberator of German peoples from fascism, it was inconceivable even to imagine it, that the new government of SED would utter atrocities of rape meted by the Soviet soldiers! Soviet soldiers were confined to the barracks along the borders of West Germany and West Berlin and removed from the population of East German.
There were hardly any foreigners in East Germany in the 50s. If anything, they were those very Soviet soldiers who were stationed and confined n the barracks and very little access to the main-line population of Germany. The industry of East Germany expanded exponentially, were trying to compete with West Germany. They needed manpower to quench their thirst of ever expanding industries. East German entered a recruiting programme with countries from the Eastern bloc: Vietnam, North Korea, Angola, Mozambique and Cuba in exchange for whatever was needed by those friendly countries from the East German economy.
These workers were called Gastarbeiter or migrant workers under Gastarbeiterprogramme were common in some countries even in the West. Federal Republic of Germany had guest workers, Netherlands and Belgian called such workers "Gastarbeider." Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland called such guest workers "Arbetskraftsinvandring" which means workforce-immigration. This outsourcing of foreign workers was not new to both German countries; even during the Nazi-German they had such workers who were called "Fremdarbeiter." But this term Fremdarbeiter was abandoned after the war because it was racist in its meaning and instead they were called guest-workers or migrant-workers.
In East Germany these guest-workers had to cope with squalid living conditions; they lived in single sex dormitories, packed like sardines. It was forbidden to have contacts with the general German population. The work permits were strictly three years and after the expiry of their work contracts, they were repatriated given their end-of-work packages back to their respective countries; the next batch of new migrant-workers came to replace them. Any kind of sexual relationship with German women would lead to deportation with immediate effect. Female guest workers were not allowed to get pregnant; if they did, they were forced to get abortion.
Another wave of foreigners that went to East Germany was students from friendly countries liberation movements and friendly political parties, mostly from the communist parties. Thousands of students were given scholarships to get education to develop their immerging economies in their respective countries effectively. The student's provision of stay of East German had international students recognition, was different from the migrant-workers. They were relatively integrated in the society as they lived in students' hostels together with German students. Officially, there was no race segregation of any kind in schools, colleges and universities in East German.
Social contacts with Germans were possible among students. Intermarriages took place, in various ways. Under special permission, German women, or even men, who married foreign students, were allowed to leave Germany and emigrate to live with their spouses in their respective countries. As time went on it became a ticket, passport and visa to leave East German by marrying a foreigner and abscond. Some lucky one did leave East Germany but still the number of those who left was just a drop in the ocean, very insignificant indeed. To highlight this insignificant fact is to give some more evidence of how East Germans were oppressed and suppressed, and only confined to Germany and Eastern countries only. But when they left East Germany some of them further fled to West Germany leaving their partners in their respective countries. The marriage was of convenience (Schein-ehe) and a passport to leave an oppressive socialist system.
The German population remained homogeneous in the sense that even if they were Gastarbeiter and students in their thousands living in East Germany, they constituted a very small percentage number compared to what the West German government recruited as Gastarbeiter in Turkey, Italy , Spain, Poland Yugoslavia and many other countries.
The East German economy remained less dynamic in comparison to the West German one. The competition, be it social, economic, freedom of press and individual freedom and human rights, between two Germans was galling! The economic conditions that led to the economic boom in West Germany were different from East German ever to compare the two economies. The marshal- plan that was facilitated by the Western Allies in West German to kick start the economy was not available to East German's new dispensation that was still strained and impaired by the war-reparations liable to the Soviet Union.
As a result West German was way ahead of East German by almost all accounts, the bright neon sounds flushing, taxi cabs and buses bushing through the night, Beate-Uhse-sex- shops, the Coca-Cola consumers and Marlboro cigarettes smokers, attractive tank stations and shopping at KADEWE (und schlemmen) until one collapses. The East Germans only heard about the luxury life-styles of their Western brothers and sisters, difficult to comprehend if one did not have a relative who, once in a year sent a Christmas parcel full of goodies; coffee and chocolates.
But not all West Germans were impressed by the life in West Germany. The parents of Dr. Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of German Federal Republic) who lived in Hamburg in West Germany, voluntarily left West Germany and relocated in eastern Germany or GDR and they lived in rural areas of north Berlin until she left to embark on her studies in Leipzig at Karl-Marx University.
In East German the principles of Marxist and draconian practices of communist establishment dominated the lives of the peoples of Germany. East German citizen rights never added up to western civil and political rights. It was human rights and socialism that were judged at odds by both countries. Socialism was defined more as social rights, the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security and those political rights were inseparable to economic rights. On the other hand West German upheld the concept of humanity that was built on individual rights and privileges.
It can also be said with equal truth that East German had scientists, economists and many other academic dignitaries who were respected in the "free world" too. As a result of this, the two countries, even if they competed bitterly, was never near to comparing their equivalence between California and the Republic of Congo. The East German economy was sound enough to remove poverty in the country; nobody went with a hungry stomach to bed. What is the use of individual rights if you are homeless, no work, and no perspective ever to live a civil and decent life? Despite all the challenges East German faced in starting from scratch in almost everything, it had the best economy from the entire eastern bloc including the Soviet Union itself.
The advantages of living in the East were also valid too; women were more emancipated in the East than in the West. The citizens had good health system, good education system; everybody had a job to do, zero unemployment. Almost all services that made life manageable was available, the transport system was good too.
East Germany unlike West Germany did not have time to deal with the Nazi past; "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" which means analysing and learning to live with the past. There was demilitarisation of East German yes but the denazification was omitted completely for whatever reason, it never became a priority to the new German dispensation under the SED as the ruling party.
The mass politicization was mostly about socialism, the teachings of Marx and Lenin were practically implemented into their economic, educational and social aspects of their lives. SED was a workers' party and farmers, all means of production belonged to the state. The national cake was to be shared equally by all Germans living in Germany.
At this point in time it is best to depart from German history and focus on the relations between the East German populations and the foreigners. We shall need to press fast forward and look at the political situation leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the steps following the reunification of two Germans and how the multi culturalism was embraced by emerging two Germans. The immigration of East Germans to West Germany that led to the fall of the Berlin wall and how the relations between the peoples related politically, economically and culturally to historical change is most interesting. However these two essays do divert from our original point of view but they highlight the importance reunification and the give a lot of insight to the definition multiculturalism in Germany.
I pen off for now
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist, an engineering metallurgist by profession, author of two books, a chemistry teacher and lecturer in her present occupation. Her essays are purely personal and do not reflect any political party affiliation. She can be contacted on Nomazulu.thata(at)web.de
When Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union and the Western allies it was divided into four parts following the conclusions of the Potsdam Conference of 1945. Three parts were occupied by Great Britain, France and USA that created the Federal Republic of Germany. The fourth part East Germany also called German Democratic Republic was established in 1949 where the Soviet Union had occupied it as its territory during the war and was recognised as the Zone and confirmed as the Soviet Military administration, prevented the unity of the two Germans.
Again the German territory that was east of the Oder/Neisse line was handed over to Poland and Soviet Union as de-facto annexation. The Germans who were living in that area were systematically expelled from their place of birth and the estimate of those citizens who were chased away could be about 2 million of them. The problem arose regarding Berlin and its geo-political status, the capital city of former Nazi Germany. It had to be shared too; hence there was West Berlin divided into four parts as well. East Berlin, the fourth section of Berlin was given to East as its capital city taken over by occupation authorities of the Soviet Union, SMAD.
Because the German Democratic Republic was under the surveillance of the Big Brother; (SMAD) Sowjetische Militäradministration Deutschland, they allowed the formation of anti-fascist parties that were going to be assisted to take over the administration of East Germany. SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutchlands) was favoured by the military occupation authorities of the Soviet Union. The SED, that had won the elections in 1949, was tasked with the programmes of denazification and demilitarisation of their occupied zones.
Some German population resented socialism and the centrally planned economy of East Germany. Most of the educated elite, scientists, economists and doctors fled, left East German by the night to settle in West Germany and West Berlin, a brain drain of the fragile East German economy. By 1958 more than two million people had fled East Germany to go and settle in West using West Berlin as the gateway to West Germany and other western countries they wanted to relocate to.
The government of East German then fortified its borders with West Germany built a Berlin-wall over night and the separation of the two Germans was physically complete in 1961. However not the hearts and minds of the ordinary people in both countries were separated. It was impossible for East Germans to go to West Germany and all other western countries because the ideologies that created the iron curtain forbade their travelling rights to western countries. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 588 people were killed just by trying to cross the wall.
East German even under SED had limited political leverage in its efforts to create a democratic state. Too many military activities took place in DDR immediately after the war; the cold war had kick-started. The East Germans concentrated mostly on the economy, they had to start from scratch, and most of the major industries had been looted by the Soviet Union. Again they had to pay war reparations to the Big Brother Soviet Union. The Soviet Union looted 1,9 million tons of material of unclassified nature, 3,6 million tons of industrial equipment and large quantities of agricultural produce.
In the early days after the war, the relationship between the Soviet Union and East German population was a bitter-sweet one, a forced marriage. The atrocities committed by the Soviet military after the war on the German population were too much to comprehend. To add insult from the looting that was done to the economy of a small zone of East Germany, and the loss of land, Schlesien to Poland and Soviet Union, East Germans were systematically humiliated by the Soviet military presence in various ways. Top German scientists were forcibly relocated to the Soviet Union to go and improve and industrialize the Soviet economy.
Women and girls were raped and repeatedly by the soldiers who were in the Soviet zone. The most potent weapon they used to humiliate the Germans was rape on women and girls. The number of women especially young girls and young women, who were raped and were registered cases of rape, was 2, 5 million of them! There are also those cases in the grey area that went unreported and unregistered as rape. It does not say in any literature how these women coped with sexual assault and abuse they endured after the war in the hands of the Soviet occupation. Such atrocities were pushed under the carpet and never to be mentioned again.
Early 1950 the situation calmed down, tensions between East German Authorities and the Soviet occupation was wholly suppressed. Soviet Union was supposed to be seen as a liberator of German peoples from fascism, it was inconceivable even to imagine it, that the new government of SED would utter atrocities of rape meted by the Soviet soldiers! Soviet soldiers were confined to the barracks along the borders of West Germany and West Berlin and removed from the population of East German.
There were hardly any foreigners in East Germany in the 50s. If anything, they were those very Soviet soldiers who were stationed and confined n the barracks and very little access to the main-line population of Germany. The industry of East Germany expanded exponentially, were trying to compete with West Germany. They needed manpower to quench their thirst of ever expanding industries. East German entered a recruiting programme with countries from the Eastern bloc: Vietnam, North Korea, Angola, Mozambique and Cuba in exchange for whatever was needed by those friendly countries from the East German economy.
These workers were called Gastarbeiter or migrant workers under Gastarbeiterprogramme were common in some countries even in the West. Federal Republic of Germany had guest workers, Netherlands and Belgian called such workers "Gastarbeider." Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland called such guest workers "Arbetskraftsinvandring" which means workforce-immigration. This outsourcing of foreign workers was not new to both German countries; even during the Nazi-German they had such workers who were called "Fremdarbeiter." But this term Fremdarbeiter was abandoned after the war because it was racist in its meaning and instead they were called guest-workers or migrant-workers.
In East Germany these guest-workers had to cope with squalid living conditions; they lived in single sex dormitories, packed like sardines. It was forbidden to have contacts with the general German population. The work permits were strictly three years and after the expiry of their work contracts, they were repatriated given their end-of-work packages back to their respective countries; the next batch of new migrant-workers came to replace them. Any kind of sexual relationship with German women would lead to deportation with immediate effect. Female guest workers were not allowed to get pregnant; if they did, they were forced to get abortion.
Another wave of foreigners that went to East Germany was students from friendly countries liberation movements and friendly political parties, mostly from the communist parties. Thousands of students were given scholarships to get education to develop their immerging economies in their respective countries effectively. The student's provision of stay of East German had international students recognition, was different from the migrant-workers. They were relatively integrated in the society as they lived in students' hostels together with German students. Officially, there was no race segregation of any kind in schools, colleges and universities in East German.
Social contacts with Germans were possible among students. Intermarriages took place, in various ways. Under special permission, German women, or even men, who married foreign students, were allowed to leave Germany and emigrate to live with their spouses in their respective countries. As time went on it became a ticket, passport and visa to leave East German by marrying a foreigner and abscond. Some lucky one did leave East Germany but still the number of those who left was just a drop in the ocean, very insignificant indeed. To highlight this insignificant fact is to give some more evidence of how East Germans were oppressed and suppressed, and only confined to Germany and Eastern countries only. But when they left East Germany some of them further fled to West Germany leaving their partners in their respective countries. The marriage was of convenience (Schein-ehe) and a passport to leave an oppressive socialist system.
The German population remained homogeneous in the sense that even if they were Gastarbeiter and students in their thousands living in East Germany, they constituted a very small percentage number compared to what the West German government recruited as Gastarbeiter in Turkey, Italy , Spain, Poland Yugoslavia and many other countries.
The East German economy remained less dynamic in comparison to the West German one. The competition, be it social, economic, freedom of press and individual freedom and human rights, between two Germans was galling! The economic conditions that led to the economic boom in West Germany were different from East German ever to compare the two economies. The marshal- plan that was facilitated by the Western Allies in West German to kick start the economy was not available to East German's new dispensation that was still strained and impaired by the war-reparations liable to the Soviet Union.
As a result West German was way ahead of East German by almost all accounts, the bright neon sounds flushing, taxi cabs and buses bushing through the night, Beate-Uhse-sex- shops, the Coca-Cola consumers and Marlboro cigarettes smokers, attractive tank stations and shopping at KADEWE (und schlemmen) until one collapses. The East Germans only heard about the luxury life-styles of their Western brothers and sisters, difficult to comprehend if one did not have a relative who, once in a year sent a Christmas parcel full of goodies; coffee and chocolates.
But not all West Germans were impressed by the life in West Germany. The parents of Dr. Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of German Federal Republic) who lived in Hamburg in West Germany, voluntarily left West Germany and relocated in eastern Germany or GDR and they lived in rural areas of north Berlin until she left to embark on her studies in Leipzig at Karl-Marx University.
In East German the principles of Marxist and draconian practices of communist establishment dominated the lives of the peoples of Germany. East German citizen rights never added up to western civil and political rights. It was human rights and socialism that were judged at odds by both countries. Socialism was defined more as social rights, the right to a modicum of economic welfare and security and those political rights were inseparable to economic rights. On the other hand West German upheld the concept of humanity that was built on individual rights and privileges.
It can also be said with equal truth that East German had scientists, economists and many other academic dignitaries who were respected in the "free world" too. As a result of this, the two countries, even if they competed bitterly, was never near to comparing their equivalence between California and the Republic of Congo. The East German economy was sound enough to remove poverty in the country; nobody went with a hungry stomach to bed. What is the use of individual rights if you are homeless, no work, and no perspective ever to live a civil and decent life? Despite all the challenges East German faced in starting from scratch in almost everything, it had the best economy from the entire eastern bloc including the Soviet Union itself.
The advantages of living in the East were also valid too; women were more emancipated in the East than in the West. The citizens had good health system, good education system; everybody had a job to do, zero unemployment. Almost all services that made life manageable was available, the transport system was good too.
East Germany unlike West Germany did not have time to deal with the Nazi past; "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" which means analysing and learning to live with the past. There was demilitarisation of East German yes but the denazification was omitted completely for whatever reason, it never became a priority to the new German dispensation under the SED as the ruling party.
The mass politicization was mostly about socialism, the teachings of Marx and Lenin were practically implemented into their economic, educational and social aspects of their lives. SED was a workers' party and farmers, all means of production belonged to the state. The national cake was to be shared equally by all Germans living in Germany.
At this point in time it is best to depart from German history and focus on the relations between the East German populations and the foreigners. We shall need to press fast forward and look at the political situation leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the steps following the reunification of two Germans and how the multi culturalism was embraced by emerging two Germans. The immigration of East Germans to West Germany that led to the fall of the Berlin wall and how the relations between the peoples related politically, economically and culturally to historical change is most interesting. However these two essays do divert from our original point of view but they highlight the importance reunification and the give a lot of insight to the definition multiculturalism in Germany.
I pen off for now
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist, an engineering metallurgist by profession, author of two books, a chemistry teacher and lecturer in her present occupation. Her essays are purely personal and do not reflect any political party affiliation. She can be contacted on Nomazulu.thata(at)web.de
Source - Lloyd Msipa
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