Ddr Quotes

“Ci abituiamo di nuovo a dormire tranquilli. Viviamo senza risparmiarci, come ce ne fosse anche troppa di questa strana sostanza ch'è la vita, come se non dovesse avere mai fine.”
― Christa Wolf, Il cielo diviso

“Quella fresca domenica d’aprile in cui lei arrivò, Manfred mostrò alla sua futura moglie l’abitazione dei suoi genitori.
- La bara della mia vita: suddivisa in bara-soggiorno, bara-sala da pranzo, bara-camera da letto e bara-cucina.
- Perché? - chiese Rita. Per conto suo, era intimidita da quella strada fuori mano e signorile, da quella villa antica, da quelle stanze pesanti e buie.
- Perché qui non è mai accaduto nulla di vivo, - disse lui. - A memoria mia, mai.”
― Christa Wolf, Il cielo diviso

“Ich hoffte inständig, daß es sich bei Modern Talking um eine Eintagsfliege handeln würde. In Anbetracht der schlechten Songs gab es da durchaus Hoffnung. Aber auch die nächsten Singles dieser beiden Typen stürmten die Charts, und ich verstand die Welt nicht mehr. Warum kauften im Westen so viele Leute die Musik von Thomas und Dieter? Die hatten doch eine riesige Auswahl an superguten Platten in den Geschäften. Warum immer wieder Modern Talking? Der Albtraum ging weiter. Selbst im DDR-Radio lief einige Zeit später "Cherry, Cherry Lady". Die Mauer, die uns vor den schädlichen Einflüssen des Westens beschützen sollte, hatte schon damals total versagt.”
― Sascha Lange, DJ Westradio: Meine glückliche DDR-Jugend

“What in essence happened under the Treuhand was a complete transfer without compensation of property and assets accumulated over forty years through hard work and effort by GDR citizens, as well as the land they owned (which in the GDR had no monetary value as such) to, in the main, West German owners. This transfer of a country's assets — unprecedented anywhere in the world during peacetime — amounted to billions of Euros: a robbing of ordinary people for the enrichment of a few. Of those companies and individuals who bought GDR property, 80 per cent were West Germans, only 10 per cent were from other countries, and a mere 5 per cent went to GDR citizens.”
― Bruni de la Motte, Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It

“What followed was the largest and most rapid privatisation ever seen in any country in the world (except perhaps in the Soviet Union under Yeltsin). Never in the history of civilisation has a state's total assets and infrastructure been disposed of so rapidly and in such a criminal fashion. Its machinations make Al Capone look like a paragon of capitalist virtue.”
― Bruni de la Motte, Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It

“In hindsight, it's seen as inevitable that the two Germany's would reunite. But none of the people who had laid the groundwork for the fall-those who had started the tremors and endured the security forces' brutality-envisioned a unified Germany. Those people had sacrificed their places in society for the chance to form a new one, something different and distinct, an independent East Germany built form scratch. The hadn't looked to the West for inspiration before, and none of them looked to the West for salvation now that the border was open.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“The ethos of East Berlin punk infused the city with a radical egalitarianism and a DIY approach to maintaining independence-to conjuring up the world you want to live in regardless of the situation or surroundings.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Ich lernte viel an diesem Fall. Ich lernte, daß keine Lüge zu plump ist, als daß die Leute sie nicht glauben würden, wenn sie ihrem geheimen Wunsch, sie zu glauben, entgegenkommt.”
― Christa Wolf, Medea

“Herr Bohnsack comienza con un chiste, que contó en un almuerzo allá por 1980 ante un grupo de colegas en un restaurante reservado a los altos cuadros de la Stasi. Se reclina en su silla y sonríe, como el que se regocija en su secretito.

—Estados Unidos, la Unión Soviética y la RDA quieren sacar a flote el Titanic —dice arqueando las cejas—. Estados Unidos quiere las joyas que se supone que deben estar en la caja fuerte. Los soviéticos quieren la tecnología más puntera, y la RDA… —se bebe lo que le queda de Korn, a modo de pausa dramática— la RDA quiere a la banda que tocaba mientras se hundía.”
― Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

“The problem in the DDR wasn't No Future, the rallying cry of British Punk. As Planlos guitarist Kobs liked to say, the problem in East Germany was Too Much Future.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“She just wanted to be herself, and doing, saying, reading and writing the things that would have made her feel like herself were all verboten.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Kids in tje East had also grown up with a genuine sense of fear that the world might actually come to an end during their lifetime. That it probably would in fact. For some this fueled nihilistic feelings - one reason Toster from Die Anderen, for instance, never got deeply political was because he stopped giving a shit.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“And as the Stasi began to pay more and more attention to the new network, they made the same mistake they had when trying to break up the punk scene a few years before: they sought to identify leaders and focus on undermining them. The Stasi assumed every organisation had a top-down structure like the Stasi, like the Party, like the dictatorship.”
― Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

“Die Parteispitze, die Intelligenz – alle rockten und rollten durch die Gegend, und unsere braven stinklangweiligen DDR-Lipsi hatten restlos verloren. Ein wenig befremdend ist es immer wieder für mich, zu sehen, wie Genossen ihre Häute abwerfen und schwache Menschen werden. (Ich hab so einen netten Kinderglauben an die Kraft von Ideen, die den Menschen auch in seinem tiefsten Innern verwandeln. Aber nein, man spürt nichts davon.”
― Brigitte Reimann, Ich bedaure nichts. Tagebücher 1955 - 1963.

“Proteste herauszufordern ist meistens Taktik, Proteste niederzuschießen ist meist ein Verbrechen, aber Proteste herauszufordern um sie niederzuschießen, ist Perversion.”
― Thomas Brussig, Helden wie wir

“Als sie Stalin kippten, das war klar,
War auch Lenin nicht mehr lang zu haben.”
― peter hacks, Diesem Vaterland nicht meine Knochen

“Wir vier zum Beispiel. Ausländer in Deutschland. Ja, auch du, Nico, deine Mutter ist DDR, das zählt.”
― Saša Stanišić, Möchte die Witwe angesprochen werden, platziert sie auf dem Grab die Gießkanne mit dem Ausguss nach vorne

“Ci sono persone che si sentono a loro agio a parlare della propria vita, come se riuscissero a ricavare un senso dalla successione di eventi casuali che le hanno rese quel che sono. Questo comporta una sorta di fede preveggente nella vita; la convinzione che causa ed effetto siano legati, e che essi stessi siano qualcosa di più della semplice somma del loro passato.”
― Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

“È così difficile sapere quale genere di ipoteca i nostri atti pongono sul nostro futuro.”
― Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

“Mi piacciono i treni. Mi piace il loro ritmo, e mi piace la libertà di essere sospesa tra due luoghi, tutte le ansie del fare messe a tacere: per il momento so dove sto andando.”
― Anna Funder, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall