Yep, with the dissolution of the GDR came a thorough eradication of all organized socialists in the East, who were purged and punished by the western half. This created a vacuum easily filled by the far-right.
First, currently whole Europe is shifting right, so its not only the dissolution of the GDR at play here. However, that the former GDR is a bit farther along can be explained partly by the older generation in the GDR having been socialized in an authoritarian regime, a neo-liberal shift in the last decade(s) afterwards and missing strong civil society, where they felt left behind which affected the youth. And the right was there to gain traction over all these years.
I don’t agree to your framing as ‘all organized socialists’ getting ‘purged and punished’, because many individuals are still alive and well today. The PDS, now ‘Die Linke’ had or has a couple of them in their ranks. Many mistakes where done in the dissolution, but it has been a generally positive change for the people in east Germany.
BSW, the ‘other left’, and Putin sympathizer party, founded by an ex-SED politician, is actually closer to the far-right AfD in term of foreign policy, immigration and other topics, then other parties, supporting my point that the common thread is actually authoritarianism then actual social values.
I see that you are from lemmy.world, and I see that we are both using Lemmy. I don’t really see what that has to do with anything.
As for the whole of Europe surging to the right, I am well aware. The global south is managing to develop through increased south-south trade, which is weakening European abilities to benefit from unequal exchange and imperialism. There’s a ton of intricacies I just glossed over, but what we are seeing isn’t anything new: when capitalist economies suffer crisises in profitability, they surge to the right as smaller capitalists feel squeezed out and larger capitalists take advantage of this.
My point on the former GDR regions being especially vulnerable to this rightward shift is just that, the trend is broad but is especially pronounced in the GDR due to the crushing of the socialists during the reintegration of eastern Germany into the west.
One thing I strongly disagree with is your analysis of what authority actually is. By all means, Germany today is an “authoritarian regime.” States exist to uphold the ruling class of society and to prevent other classes from gaining political power. The extent to which authority is applied depends on the conditions a society is in. Modern Germany is a dictatorship of capital, and is an imperialist state. The former GDR was a socialist state, where the working classes ran society. Both are “authoritarian,” in that both exerted controls on those who undermined the state, but both serve enormously different groups of people.
As far as modern socialist parties in Germany are concerned, the KPD and DKP seem to be more representative of socialist views.
You shifted the definition of ‘authoritarian’. I mean Germany today is a democracy, which is not a single-party state as the GDR de facto was, as the other bloc parties were subordinate to the SED via the National Front. They spied on their own people and suppressed dissenting thought. People that tried to flee were shot under standing order. It clearly was an authoritarian regime. Under your definition, any system with a ruling class, would be authoritarian, and that would also include the GDR.
The GDR was run by SED, which later formed into the PDS, with many of the same people, even before the unification. That party got votes and was and still is in form of ‘Die Linke’ an important political party. They weren’t ‘eradicated’… What happened in the unification to GDR that was bad was the de-industrialization. People were left behind, and the far-right stepped in. Now, I would say that the unification was still good for the people of the former GDR, because they gained more freedom, but that is subjective, of course.
In the early years the workers in the GDR were coerced by USSR to mine uranium for them. They were subservient to the USSR, not just run by the workers.
KPD and DKP are electorally negligible, so they aren’t representative of Germany’s left.
Germany today is not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship of capital. The working classes have no power in Germany. Being single-party is not the same as not being democratic. Democracy is rule by the majority, which you conflate with pluralism, which is simply an aspect of western democratic forms, not an actual requirement for rule by the majority.
As for the GDR being authoritarian, sure, only the ruling class was the working class. Many people did lose out with the implementation of socialism, especially because the GDR actually did de-Nazify. People in the former GDR gained the freedom to be impoverished, to see the safety net broken down, to return to being exploited by capitalists and to return to exploiting the global south through imperialism. Sure, they could buy western trinkets again, and business owners benefitted, but I can’t really see that as a valuable “freedom.”
As for the USSR coercing the GDR, the Soviets were devastated by Nazi Germany’s genocidal invasion. They forced reparations on Germany, which they did have a right to.
As for the KPD and DKP being negligent, that doesn’t mean they aren’t representative of Germany’s left. The problem is that Germany, like the rest of the west, is overwhelmingly right-wing, with variances between flavors of right-wing.
Yep, with the dissolution of the GDR came a thorough eradication of all organized socialists in the East, who were purged and punished by the western half. This created a vacuum easily filled by the far-right.
Ah… I see you are from .ml…
First, currently whole Europe is shifting right, so its not only the dissolution of the GDR at play here. However, that the former GDR is a bit farther along can be explained partly by the older generation in the GDR having been socialized in an authoritarian regime, a neo-liberal shift in the last decade(s) afterwards and missing strong civil society, where they felt left behind which affected the youth. And the right was there to gain traction over all these years.
I don’t agree to your framing as ‘all organized socialists’ getting ‘purged and punished’, because many individuals are still alive and well today. The PDS, now ‘Die Linke’ had or has a couple of them in their ranks. Many mistakes where done in the dissolution, but it has been a generally positive change for the people in east Germany.
BSW, the ‘other left’, and Putin sympathizer party, founded by an ex-SED politician, is actually closer to the far-right AfD in term of foreign policy, immigration and other topics, then other parties, supporting my point that the common thread is actually authoritarianism then actual social values.
I see that you are from lemmy.world, and I see that we are both using Lemmy. I don’t really see what that has to do with anything.
As for the whole of Europe surging to the right, I am well aware. The global south is managing to develop through increased south-south trade, which is weakening European abilities to benefit from unequal exchange and imperialism. There’s a ton of intricacies I just glossed over, but what we are seeing isn’t anything new: when capitalist economies suffer crisises in profitability, they surge to the right as smaller capitalists feel squeezed out and larger capitalists take advantage of this.
My point on the former GDR regions being especially vulnerable to this rightward shift is just that, the trend is broad but is especially pronounced in the GDR due to the crushing of the socialists during the reintegration of eastern Germany into the west.
One thing I strongly disagree with is your analysis of what authority actually is. By all means, Germany today is an “authoritarian regime.” States exist to uphold the ruling class of society and to prevent other classes from gaining political power. The extent to which authority is applied depends on the conditions a society is in. Modern Germany is a dictatorship of capital, and is an imperialist state. The former GDR was a socialist state, where the working classes ran society. Both are “authoritarian,” in that both exerted controls on those who undermined the state, but both serve enormously different groups of people.
As far as modern socialist parties in Germany are concerned, the KPD and DKP seem to be more representative of socialist views.
You shifted the definition of ‘authoritarian’. I mean Germany today is a democracy, which is not a single-party state as the GDR de facto was, as the other bloc parties were subordinate to the SED via the National Front. They spied on their own people and suppressed dissenting thought. People that tried to flee were shot under standing order. It clearly was an authoritarian regime. Under your definition, any system with a ruling class, would be authoritarian, and that would also include the GDR.
The GDR was run by SED, which later formed into the PDS, with many of the same people, even before the unification. That party got votes and was and still is in form of ‘Die Linke’ an important political party. They weren’t ‘eradicated’… What happened in the unification to GDR that was bad was the de-industrialization. People were left behind, and the far-right stepped in. Now, I would say that the unification was still good for the people of the former GDR, because they gained more freedom, but that is subjective, of course.
In the early years the workers in the GDR were coerced by USSR to mine uranium for them. They were subservient to the USSR, not just run by the workers.
KPD and DKP are electorally negligible, so they aren’t representative of Germany’s left.
Germany today is not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship of capital. The working classes have no power in Germany. Being single-party is not the same as not being democratic. Democracy is rule by the majority, which you conflate with pluralism, which is simply an aspect of western democratic forms, not an actual requirement for rule by the majority.
As for the GDR being authoritarian, sure, only the ruling class was the working class. Many people did lose out with the implementation of socialism, especially because the GDR actually did de-Nazify. People in the former GDR gained the freedom to be impoverished, to see the safety net broken down, to return to being exploited by capitalists and to return to exploiting the global south through imperialism. Sure, they could buy western trinkets again, and business owners benefitted, but I can’t really see that as a valuable “freedom.”
As for the USSR coercing the GDR, the Soviets were devastated by Nazi Germany’s genocidal invasion. They forced reparations on Germany, which they did have a right to.
As for the KPD and DKP being negligent, that doesn’t mean they aren’t representative of Germany’s left. The problem is that Germany, like the rest of the west, is overwhelmingly right-wing, with variances between flavors of right-wing.