Flying an East German flag

[Hardrada]

Stalinism or Sentimentality?

[Gabi Hayes]

1. I can think of another German flag that goes back just a little farther

why stop with E. Germany?

[Bluebear]

4. Snap!

[ronnykmarshall]

2. Shower curtan.

[Hardrada]

5. Looks just like the one I turned up.

Now that's practical!

[wuushew]

3. I have personally have never seen an East German flag flown in the U.S.

n/t

[Hardrada]

6. At the UN??

[Bluebear]

8. Or the Olympics ;)

[David__77]

7. Nothing wrong with that.

East Germany wasn't a bad place to live. Many in the east freely acknowledge that. They were proud of their accomplishments. There can be no comparison of the DDR with the nazi state.

[NoPasaran]

11. Yeah, I hear they had to build a wall

To keep the illegal immigrants out!

[David__77]

12. Sensenbrenner wants to build a wall too.

Aren't we US citizens not free to travel to Cuba? How is that different than East Germans not being allowed to travel to capitalist countries?

[NoPasaran]

13. How can I argue with your logic?

Aside from the DDR having universal health care, there is no difference between the US and East Germany.

[David__77]

14. No, that's not true...

The US has military bases all around the world. And there are many more unemployed and homeless people here. The GDR was poorer though, and representative democracy didn't exist, though there were strengths in the area of workplace democracy. I don't uphold the GDR. I'm speaking tongue-in-cheek, in actuality. But I do think now is a time to look inward to the problems of the US.

By the way, it was Spanish communist Dolores Ibarruri, known as "La Pasionaria," who popularized the anti-fascist clarion call "No parasan!" during the Spanish Civil War. Communists aren't all bad, are they?

[Karenina]

21. Y'all be SOOO behind the times!

Die Mauer ist jetzt nur im Kopf. Try this on for size.



My FAVORITE Ossi..

http://www.kattrin-kupke.de

[Hardrada]

23. That's a neat flag too!

Danke!

[DavidMS]

18. You left somthing out

It wasnt a bad place to live provided you weren't an enviromentalist, civil rights activist or in any way caught the atention of the SASI. .

The DDR was certanly better than the Nazis running the show (they didn't as officialy persecute people on religious grounds) but they were not a functioning democracy.

[David__77]

20. True.

But I'd prefer life there to under fascism. We need to take the best from different political models and not arrogantly assume that perfection has already been achieved.

[LeftCoast]

24. You should tell that to my friend's father who was tortured by the Stasi

While the DDR may not have been as bad as the Nazi regime, it certainly wasn't a wonderful place to live.

[Cleita]

9. What does that have to do with a nation that is a neighbor

and in theory a friend of ours?

[Kellanved]

10. Ostalgie ("Eastalgia")

It's not that uncommon. :shrug:

[Ignacio Upton]

15. Stalinism

Why else did people risk their lives to cross the Berlin Wall and cheer when it came down? It's not nearly as bad as the Nazi flag, but still repressive.

[Gabi Hayes]

16. not nearly as evocative, surely, but Stalin was responsible for a lot more

deaths than Hitler

once you get past a million, though, what's the diff?

[David__77]

17. That flag isn't about Stalin.

When Stalin was alive, the GDR used the same flag as West Germany. The flag we're talking about wasn't used until years later. Many former GDR citizens are not ashamed of that flag, and many are even proud. It's too bad that 1989 didn't produce a better model in the GDR, rather than simply leading to annexation by comsumerist West Germany.

[Hardrada]

22. I hated seeing bourgeois Germans from the West

driing into the former East Berlin and looking contemptuously down their noses. One particularly haughty woman looking out of the window of a big Mercedes particularly remains in my memory. Before that the comrades had been safe from the likes of her!!

[slackmaster]

19. False dichotomy

It could be both.