Ostalgie with Dr. Ina Sammler
Ostalgie. A combination of the words East (Osten) and Nostalgia (Nostalgie). After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the term Ostalgie was born to capture the ambivalent longing for the down-to-earth aspects of a bygone era experienced by some of those who lived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Experiencing such Ostalgie goes hand in hand with remembering the injustices committed by the regime, and so it is often accompanied by a feeling of conflict.
Guest speaker, Dr. Ina Sammler grew up in East Germany when it existed as the GDR. The conversation between Dr. Sammler and Professor Wong revealed colliding feelings about life during the existence of the GDR as a result of beautiful childhood memories simultaneously existing under an oppressive regime. Dr. Sammler spoke fondly of her childhood, feeling protected and sheltered by an environment created by her family, her large house on a farm with a cheese factory, and her immersion in nature. Most notably, she expressed how she never felt like anything was missing as everyone in East Germany had similar clothes and children had similar toys. Her feeling of safety was largely attributed to the notion of collective identity that had strong roots in the GDR. The feeling of Ostalgie had especially unfolded here as Dr. Sammler contrasted the community-centered society within the GDR to today’s society where hyper-individuality is fueled by neoliberalism, jealousy, and mistrust.
As Dr. Sammler grew up and attended school, she increasingly came face to face with the source of her conflicting memories while living in the GDR. She was in an indoctrinating pioneer youth program that instilled communist and socialist ideals into young individuals. The program defined West Germany as bad and East Germany as good, using the powerful mechanism of establishing a group identity amongst young individuals. Teachers in the GDR had the map outside of East Germany blacked out and when Dr. Sammler questioned this act she was academically punished. Dr. Sammler soon learned she was being educated to lie as people in East Germany could not openly say what they were thinking. With hostile and abusive teachers, Dr. Sammler explained that students had good reason to perform as they were told which included military salutes at the start of each lesson.
I was struck by the duality of Dr. Sammler’s reflection on her experiences in the GDR. On one hand, Dr. Sammler expressed her fond memories of life in the GDR, but going deeper than that meant resurfacing the problematic political and social implications of living there. Dr. Sammler expressed how the reunification of Germany coincided with the disappearance of everything from her early childhood including street names, shops, and products. To this day there are specific moments in her life that prompt Ostalgie, like finding a special kind of milk in Budapest from her childhood. Moments that Dr. Sammler describes as time traveling.
