“Something Missing”: Reflecting on Prof. Ina’s Story of a Divided Germany
Dr. Ina Sammler, one of Professor Wong’s most influential mentors and the current lecturer of the German Academic Exchange Service in Cyprus, was born and raised in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. During a virtual discussion with Professor Wong, Dr. Ina gives a firsthand account of post-war life in Eastern Germany, formerly the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR). The childhood experiences she shares highlight the specific impacts of food insecurity, censorship, and other typical features of socialism on life in the DDR.
Professor Ina talks about having grown up in her family’s large farmhouse, with a garden in the backyard and a cheese factory in the basement. Her family was considered “privileged” in that they owned a home telephone, though they were not immune to the inefficient outcomes of central (state) planning. Dr. Ina reminisces on the informal bargaining system that emerged in her community as a means for farming families like her own to acquire necessities during shortages: Ina’s parents would send her to the store with a parcel containing cheese or meat for the shop owner, and she would return with a package of apples, coffee, butter, or the like. In trying to imagine a world with government controls limiting the production of consumer goods such as chocolate (☹️!), I recall the textbook role of markets in coordinating prices and output.
The professors’ discussion of the East German education system reveals how the constant presence of political propaganda and idolization of communist leaders in the classroom “brainwashed” students in the DDR from a young age. Professor Ina explains how speaking one’s mind could have severe consequences beyond the academic setting, for example, by leaving a permanent mark on one’s record. This taught her to choose her words carefully in front of teachers, especially those with military backgrounds (whom Ina says seemed to enjoy reprimanding students). It must have been challenging to maintain a sense of individual identity in a learning environment thus founded on conformity and fear.
The German term Ostalgia describes a feeling of nostalgia about “the good old days” in East Germany. Dr. Ina characterizes it as “a longing for a down-to-earth East German past,” with a focus on the cultural components of daily life: food, music, furniture and other household items — not any of the controversial political aspects discussed previously. I believe this concept emerges from the feeling of solidarity that Ina describes as having existed within the East German community prior to German reunification.
Nevertheless, I recognize the ways in which the preoccupation with a divided Germany hinders sustainable development in the eastern part of the country. Ostalgia likely contributes to the (gender-based) income inequality, unemployment, and labor shortages observed in the East. Those who emigrated to the West in pursuit of advanced degrees and higher-paying jobs after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 lack economic incentives to return to the region today. Relatedly, the rising popularity of the AfD (Germany’s far-right party) in parliament has fostered opposition to international migration, something I believe necessary for the long-term growth of Germany’s social market economy. Considering these and other socio-political issues rooted in the East-West divide, the nation might benefit by investing in emerging industries and institutions in Eastern Germany. Policies to facilitate technological development and capital accumulation in the region—to unify Germany in an economic sense—might also enable progress toward socially sustainable outcomes.
