Olaf G. Klein. Suddenly Everything Was Different: German Lives in Upheaval. Translated by Ann McGlashan. Edited and annotated with an introduction by Dwight D. Allman. Rochester: Camden House, 2007. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. xxix + 210 pp. $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-57113-369-4.

Reviewed by Gunnar Peters (Department of History, University of Rostock)
Published on H-German (January, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher

Rethinking Life Before, During, and After the Revolution

Most of us have an apparent idea of what the word "unification" means: two becoming one, or perhaps the formation of something new from two parts that fuse. By contrast, German unification in 1989-90 was, from a legal point of view, an asymmetrical process. Choosing the path of accession (following Article 23 of the Grundgesetz), the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ceased to exist on October 3, 1990, while the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) preserved its constitutional, legal, and economic foundation and was simply enlarged by the former GDR territory and population.

To West Germans everything remained the same; to East Germans suddenly everything was different: they were "trained GDR citizens without GDR" (gelernte DDR-Bürger ohne DDR).[1] On one hand, unification was a process of self-determination, since the speed and extent of the changes corresponded to the people's will. On the other hand, the revolution demanded too much mentally from East Germans. The GDR, which existed almost as long as the German Empire, had shaped its inhabitants (no matter whether they were in support of, indifferent to, or opposed to the communist dictatorship). All those born after World War II had virtually no other experience than that of the GDR.

Immediately after the end of a state, a dictatorship, and an ideology, a time of self-reflection began. Some of these thoughts and memories are captured in Olaf Georg Klein's book, first published in German in 1994.[2] Having conducted numerous interviews with former GDR citizens from 1990 to 1993, Klein composed his material into twelve first-person narratives. He is neither an oral historian interested in a precise transcription of the spoken word nor an author of pure fiction. When Klein was writing the manuscript, he felt like a "translator." His book belongs to the genre of Dokumentarliteratur, which dominated East German literature during the first years after unification.[3] In it, twelve people rethink their childhood, career, and life in the GDR and afterwards. The oldest narrator was born in 1925, the youngest in 1974. None of them was a high-ranking representative of the GDR. Their stories answer many questions, particularly concerning their attitude toward ancien régime.

"If you aren't willing, we'll force you into socialism, turn you towards the Good," as major Glewe, a retired Stasi employee, describes "the education mentality" of socialism (p. 52). Glewe confesses: "I was convinced that GDR socialism was the social order made in the interest of the overwhelming majority of the GDR population, and I also believed that the majority of the population of the GDR was in agreement with it" (p. 52). Accordingly, only a few nonconformists were assumed to be hard-core opponents "who wanted to bring down the socialist context as a whole" while the vast majority of them were only "misguided" (Irregeleitete) or "fellow travelers" (Mitläufer) (p. 48). After the end of GDR socialism, Glewe concluded that he had been misguided himself.

Another example: Petra had learned from her father that one member of the communist party might behave erroneously but not the party itself (p. 23):"I really couldn’t imagine that Marx and Lenin could not have been right. There were after all so many clever people, so many scholars, who studied it back then, who lived it and made it accessible to us. It all seemed so logical to me. An alternative to capitalism. I did sense the differences between theory and practice, but that the entire theory was wrong, well, that was just inconceivable" (p. 30).

Attitudes toward the authoritarian structures of the GDR of course vary among the case studies. Bärbel, a daycare worker, joined the Society for German-Soviet Friendship, a mass organization, although at first she did not want to: "I've just never been able to follow through. I did try to protest, but later I gave in and went along with it. You needed to have more courage" (p. 83). On the other hand, Klara, an artist, always said what she thought. Her colleagues at work called her dumb: "We think just like you do, but you mustn't say it out loud. Keep your mouth shut; you're only hurting yourself" (p. 9). Of course, Klara did not see why she should be quiet. She was lucky. Instead of being hit by repression, she was permitted to emigrate to the FRG--one out of some forty thousand GDR citizens who legally left the GDR in 1984. The political leadership hoped to get rid of the "incorrigibles."

Even if the finer points of language can only be noticed in the original, the sensitive translation by Ann McGlashan successfully performs the balancing act between preserving the original and providing a version accessible to English-speaking readers.[4] As a consequence, the English edition of Klein's book has three advantages over the German one: first, an index helps readers with special interests easily find what they are looking for. Second, Dwight D. Allman's concise introduction provides parallel insights into Klein's life--he was born in 1955--and the history of the GDR.[5] Third, Allman's annotations are indispensable as the book does not merely address historians specialized in German history but also students and scholars in political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and literature studies. Today, even German students will need such help to understand the context of these narratives, because they have not experienced the GDR themselves.

Klein's book is a document of the latest German history and a treasure trove for anybody interested in life in the GDR and afterwards, a revolution's consequences for individuals, and the atmosphere during the first years of German unity.

Notes

[1]. Richard Schröder, "Warum sollen wir eine Nation sein?" Die Zeit 18 (April 1997): 3.

[2]. Olaf Georg Klein, Plötzlich war alles ganz anders: Deutsche Lebenswege im Umbruch (Cologne: Kiepenheuer and Witsch, 1994).

[3]. Wolfgang Emmerich, Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR (Berlin: Aufbau, 2000), 478.

[4]. Peter, for instance, says he has just received his "driver's license" (p. 139). In the German edition, he uses the word "Fahrerlaubnis" (Klein, Plötzlich, p. 231), a term common only in the GDR. A West German would say Führerschein.

[5]. Allman does, however, make a mistake concerning the end of the "Prague Spring." He states that, in 1968, "Warsaw Pact forces, including two divisions from the GDR, entered Czechoslovakia to suppress the indigenous reform movement" (p. xii) and "[t]housands of East German soldiers took part in this invasion" (p. 174). If GDR troops had entered Czechoslovakia, it would have been the second invasion of German soldiers after 1938. The truth is that Walter Ulbricht, first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), supported the plans for an invasion and provided logistic aid. He wished the GDR to take part in an invasion and SED party propaganda even gave the impression that East German forces were directly involved. Research after 1990, however, has shown that divisions were mobilized but did not actually cross the border. See Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk and Stefan Wolle, Roter Stern über Deutschland: Sowjetische Truppen in der DDR (Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag, 2001), 198-199; and Manfred Wilke, "Hüter der reinen Lehre: Walter Ulbricht und die Prager Reformer," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 150 (June 30, 2008): 11.

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Citation: Gunnar Peters. Review of Klein, Olaf G., Suddenly Everything Was Different: German Lives in Upheaval. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23096

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