> Chris Doss:
>
>> False. It was lack of consumer goods that created
>> the greatest discontent, at least in the USSR. The
>> average Brehnev-era Soviet person would rarely if ever
>> personally experience political oppression.
> Chris, I will concede the point regarding the USSR,
> which I know very little about.
> The point is valid for the DDR, however, which I do
> know about.
Hi Chris, Angelus. Angelus, next time you go for a drink, I'd love to come along, are you in Berlin now?
> The Montagsdemonstrationen were initially
> demonstrations for political freedoms.
Where they? Or where they a bunch of bearded christian hippies who wanted the DDR to have it's own exciting change brand like Poland's Solidarność or Russia's Perestroika?
Like Obama's naive followers, they just wanted "change," whatever that means. Change. Yahoo!
At least that's what I'm told. I wasn't there.
> The stereotype of "Banana Gabi" is a vicious Wessi caricature,
> though once monetary union occured, it was inevitable that
> people would start wanting Western goods.
>From what I have heard, the majority of people at the Montagsedemo,
did not want union with West Germany, monetary or otherwise, they
just wanted an end to what they perceived as there own "Era of
Stagnation."
Most of them thought like Poland and Russia, the DDR would remain it's own country and probably couldn't imagine being swallowed by the west as quickly as it happened.
> Do not however underestimate the sneaky role played by the
> CDU and the western secret services, and the
> historical revisionism which paints the Monday
> demonstrations as a nationalist movement all along.
Indeed, and what of the Compradore class created by the Treaty of Rome/vodka-cola pact trade?
Where any of the Bündnis 90 funded by Western interests?
Was it simply the first "colour revolution?"
Wer Kann die Pyramiden überstrahlen?
Den Kreml, Sanssouci, Versailles, den Tower?
Von Allen Schlössern, Burgen, Kathedralen
Der Erdenwunder schönstes war die Mauer.
-- Dmytri Kleiner editing text files since 1981
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