During the period when Germany was divided into East Germany and West Germany, East Germans wanted to go to West Germany because of high-handed politics, too much control and too poor life ...

why did the east Germans run? Cheng Yinghong: Ordinary people in a society have cars, country cabins, holiday allowances, basic living materials subsidized by the government, and education and medical care are guaranteed. Why can't such a system be maintained? This is my feeling after visiting the DDRMuseum in Berlin, Germany. This museum is located at No.1 liebknecht Street in Berlin. Liebknecht was the leader of the German * * * production party and was killed by a right-wing mob in 1919. After the reunification of Germany and Germany, many place names that reflected the socialist history and the ideology of * * * have not changed, such as Marx and Engels Square, Rosa Luxemburg Square, etc., which reflects the respect of the unified country for history. There is a travel note about Germany on China. According to an old Berlin introduction, the author commented on these street names: "These names written in the book are of course the names before the merger of East and West Germany. I guess the streets are still the same now, but the names have basically changed. Aren't Marx, Lenin,' liberation' and liebknecht too exciting for some people in West Germany? " In fact, the place names of these places are still the same, and they are at the feet of the author. The East German Social Exhibition Hall has two characteristics. The first is that it mainly introduces the system that has disappeared from the perspective of social life. The second is that most of its exhibits can interact with the audience. People can "revive" the exhibits by touching them and starting electronic devices, so as to gain a more real feeling of that era. After entering this exhibition hall, the first thing I saw was a family car made in East Germany. The history of family cars in East Germany can be traced back to 1954, when a member of the Political Bureau of the East German Party suggested that Volkswagen in West Germany produced the Beetle small family cars, and East Germany should also produce similar products. In 1958, this product called Trabi in East Germany was put into production and soon went on the market. This Trabi is very small, and it is hard to imagine how a German with a tall average figure can comfortably sit in it. But the small space is not a problem. One of the real problems is the after-sales service of the car. Repairs are very expensive, and spare parts are extremely short. If the repair shop wants to replace spare parts, it is often necessary for the owner to find a way. In order to save money, many Germans repair their own cars, using the words in the exhibition instructions: the dining table in many German homes is the workbench for repairing cars. The second is the price of the car, which is a luxury for most East Germans. Finally, waiting in line to buy a certificate usually takes 16 years (this is unbelievable in the exhibition instructions). However, surprisingly, many East German families managed to save money and waited patiently for more than ten years to buy a car. By 1985, half the families in East Germany had cars. This ratio can be said to be the level of developed countries not only at that time, but also in today's world. In fact, in terms of meeting daily traffic, East Germans don't need to buy cars. The railways, highways and urban buses in East Germany are well developed. Due to state subsidies, the costs are very cheap, and sometimes even free. Although the train is old and slow, so is the car, which is often late; But compared with many places in the world where transportation is insufficient, the conditions of East Germans should be good. There are many things that East Germans should be satisfied with. The most basic food, mainly bread, is so low that some people feed it to dogs. Although other commodities, especially meat and fruit, are still in short supply. Education and medical care are free, although the facilities and services are not ideal. East Germans generally enjoy the welfare of going out for a holiday every year, which can reach the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea and other socialist brother countries, and even Scandinavia. If you spend a holiday in China, the government issues holiday coupons to vacationers, offering great discounts on transportation and accommodation, and low-wage people even pay only one-third of the cost. In 1982, German trade unions had 695 resorts all over East Germany, providing holiday services to workers' brothers. Trade unions in East Germany are not only in charge of holidays, canteens and movie tickets, but also have a little bargaining power with government or factory leaders in terms of wages, although they basically cooperate with rather than embarrass leaders. Employment opportunities are open, and factory recruits are posted directly at the factory gate to the public. In the late period of the "Cultural Revolution", China people gradually became accustomed to going through the back door and replacing these ways, which seems to be unusual in East Germany. It seems that the control of employment and the allocation of places by government departments such as labor bureau and personnel bureau either do not exist or are not important. In addition, many city dwellers in East Germany have their own holiday cottages in the suburbs and countryside, like the Soviet Union, called dacha. They not only spend holidays and weekends there, but also hold parties and have barbecues. East Germans generally pursue nudism, and many seaside beaches and parks are bustling with naked people on weekends and holidays, which is more free than in the west. There are many photos in the exhibition hall. The government was opposed to this at first, and later tolerated it. There are many kinds of recorders and cameras used by young people in East Germany in the 198s, all of which are made in China. The quality is very good, much better than that in the Soviet Union. If we compare East Germany and West Germany in material life, as far as the so-called hardware is concerned, there is actually little difference between the 196s and 197s. At that time, if we only looked at furniture and electrical appliances, there was nothing worth mentioning between the two sides. There are two photos in the exhibition, one is the living room of the East German family, and the other is the kitchen. The equipment and layout are not bad by the average level of urban families in China today, right? Then, why did millions of East Germans drive their cars across the border to West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which was once a symbol of their superiority over other countries in the socialist system? Unlike some other former Eastern European countries, the system of East Germany was not destroyed by revolution, nor was it slowly eroded by reform, but was washed away by the flood of going abroad. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the liberalization of Hungary had caused the spectacle that East Germans flocked to Hungary. In the post-cold war narrative, the collapse of the Berlin Wall is often mistaken for the symbol of the revolution in Eastern Europe. In fact, it is not, and the East Germans are flattered. This is how history exaggerates the significance of symbolic signs. The real revolution took place in countries like Romania and Poland. What happened in East Germany was that the wall fell and everyone pushed, but the wall fell and everyone walked, great escape. Many aspects of material life can be said to be good. Why did East Germany collapse? This question is very big, and people today may have a very abstract answer, but the contents of this exhibition hall can provide some specific clues. For example, there is a prison for political prisoners in a corner. The caption mentions that from 1949 to 1985, East Germany held 25, political prisoners, with an average of nearly 7, people per year. From the establishment to the disintegration of East Germany, the population has never exceeded 2 million, which is amazing. Imprisoning a large number of political prisoners has always been the main way to maintain a closed country. East Germany seems to be no exception, but also prominent, which may be the reason why it did not have a fierce revolution and tenacious resistance movement. In contrast, there are no political prisoners in West Germany. No, there was a vigorous New Left Movement in the 196s, with the center in West Berlin surrounded by East Germany. At that time, from Marx, Engels and Lenin to Mao Zedong and Guevara, these revolutionaries were once idols of youth. In contrast, none of the new leftists have been imprisoned for their political opinions and ideological problems. Another example is a society that relies on state subsidies for basic living materials, which is likely to be a system with rampant privileges, rather than being as egalitarian as it seems. There is a refrigerator in the exhibition hall, which belongs to the families of senior cadres in East Germany. It is filled with all kinds of famous wines and fresh fruits, which is unimaginable for ordinary East Germans living in a shortage economy and rationing system, even though their bread is very cheap every day. Some people may ask: Will this refrigerator be fictional, with the purpose of discrediting the red political parties in East Germany? To be sure, unlike other exhibits, this refrigerator can't be the original from any cadre's home. Those fruits are all made of wax. But you can think of it this way: if there is still special supply in some societies with abundant materials and market economy in the supply of consumer goods, isn't it more inevitable to have the privilege of consumer goods under a rationing system with short materials? The "Little Birch Shop" in the history of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was the place where those special offerings were distributed. It is precisely because of these reasons that in the 4 years after the establishment of East Germany, especially in the nearly 3 years after the establishment of the Berlin Wall, countless people are willing to risk their lives and imprisonment in an attempt to flee this place for West Germany. From the way they fled, people today can also see that the general living standard in East Germany was actually higher than that in many countries. For example, the trunk or even the seat of a car is modified to hide people; Homemade human aircraft and hot air balloons; Homemade simple submarines and rowing boats (some people drifted from the Baltic Sea to the Nordic countries); Digging tunnels (the most successful way to escape, there is an underground passage from East Berlin to West Berlin that once let 57 people escape in two nights) and so on. These require a considerable degree of mechanical tools, equipment and other conditions, and most of them are done by these fugitives in their own homes. Although most of the fugitives did not achieve their goals, but were sent to prison, which became an important source of an average of 7, political prisoners every year, after all, many people got their wish and came to West Berlin or West Germany. As you can imagine, in a society where materials are extremely poor and people's homes are empty, a society where people's homes only have the most basic tools such as hammers and vises, and a society where every move is clearly seen by neighbors without privacy, such an escape can only be a luxury fantasy or even a myth. I'm afraid these fugitives have no other choice but to travel long distances and swim. By the standards of these societies, East Germany has become a paradise for developed socialism (as Soviet leader Brezhnev said in the 197s) rather than a well-off society in the primary stage. Apart from the state welfare, the technology and materials needed for these self-made escape vehicles also illustrate this from the opposite side. People in such a society may think that they are not satisfied with living in such a paradise, but they have to risk their lives to go out. What can be explained except that they don't know whether they are blessed or not? On the contrary, in the eyes of East Germans, explaining the word "freedom" with those who think that they were born in happiness may be like a summer bug. (RFA) German society that experienced two totalitarian autocracies, Hitler and East Germany, especially those who experienced cruel persecution, were worried that the younger generation did not understand the historical situation of East Germany. China-Germany Radio held a public discussion to discuss the youth and the history education in East Germany. From 193s to 1989, Germany experienced two totalitarian dictatorships, Hitler and the * * * production party, in about 6 years. Many people themselves or their relatives and friends have personally experienced the persecution of these two despots. To this end, these people and German society have a deep understanding of how tyranny deceives ordinary people and how cruel it is. Now, 23 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the complete implementation of democracy in Germany, many people have not lost their vigilance against the autocracy that has left Germany. On March 5th, there were two activities on the same day, which urged people not to forget their vigilance against the autocracy in East Germany. One is that the people in Berlin asked the Berlin municipal government not to demolish a representative section of the Berlin Wall site in the city center, so that people could see the history of that year continuously. One is that China-Germany Radio publicly held a seminar on youth and East German history education of the * * * production party. The topic of the seminar is "Don't tell me about East Germany". The participants in this seminar include Jahn, head of the research department of secret police archives management, Professor Schroeder, a sociologist specializing in the social problems of the * * * production party at the Free University of Berlin, Doggerlo, Minister of Culture of Anhalt, Saxony, and Ms. urban, a former middle school teacher who now works in the Leipzig Student Museum. At the beginning of the seminar, the host asked Professor Schroeder in the name of opening the chapter. "Mr. Schroeder, how dangerous do you think it is to hear that many students cannot tell the difference between democracy and dictatorship?" In this regard, Professor Schroeder clearly replied: "It is very dangerous for people to be confused by dictatorship if they are not sober enough. Because it will slowly occupy your whole body and mind. It is very dangerous if you don't know the signs of dictatorship from history, what they have done specifically, the significance of democracy to a person who has lived through dictatorship, and how they evaluate democracy. Today, democracy has become a matter of course for many people, but looking back at history, if you imagine that people living in Germany today have so much free space and so many development possibilities, it is definitely not so natural. " According to Professor Schroeder's investigation, one-third of students now think that there were free elections in East Germany, and two-thirds of teenagers even think that East Germany is not autocratic. To this end, this seminar made everyone see that it is necessary to strengthen the history education of East Germany in schools. The above is the report from Germany by special correspondent Tian Yi.