We'll always have East Berlin - Germany's strange new nostalgia for life behind the Wall

Globe ^ | 9/7/2003 | Y. Euny Hong

[Tailgunner Joe]

Marianne Koos has owned a convenience shop in the Alexanderplatz subway station ever since 1984, when her home and business lay east of the Berlin Wall. Her wares have scarcely changed since thenshe continues to sell Communist-era shampoos, household cleaners, and Ersatzkaffee (imitation coffee made of malted grains and charred vegetables). These aren't vintage goods, however; the companies that manufactured these products shut down after the fall of the Wall in 1989 but soon resumed production due to popular demand.

[Old Professer]

Might as well try to explain this, click here

[shrinkermd]

"It is of interest to note the means by which a mass movement accentuates and perpetuates the individual incompleteness of its adherents. By elevating dogma above reason, the individual’s intelligence is prevented from becoming self-reliant.

Economic dependence is maintained by centralizing economic power and by a deliberately created scarcity of the necessities of life. Social self-sufficiency is discouraged by crowded housing or communal quarters, and by enforced daily participation in public functions.

Ruthless censorship of literature, art, music and science prevents even the creative few from living self-sufficient lives. The inculcated devotions to church, party, country, leader and creed also perpetuate a state of incompleteness. For every devotion is a socket which demands the fitting in of a complementary part from without. Thus people raised in the atmosphere of a mass movement are fashioned into incomplete and dependent human beings even when they have within themselves the making of self-sufficient entities. Though strangers to frustration and without grievance, they will yet exhibit the peculiarities of people who crave to lose themselves and be rid of an existence that is irrevocably spoiled. (p. 128)Eric Hoffer, The True Believer.

[Argus]

The Irish are also nostalgic for the Potato Famine.

[cornelis]

Does Ostalgia require this?

[GOP_1900AD]

The Perestroika Deception.

[cornelis]

If you're hard pressed, you can get some Olvatine, but you need one of these:

[cornelis]

Don't vurry, Dieter, ders Haps Flip for you at de end.

[Prodigal Son]

Goodbye Lenin was a pretty good flick. Saw it last night.

[Prodigal Son]

That is hillarious.

[StarfireIV]

Perhaps Kat Witt can also devote a segment to the border guards and that wonderful invention that fired bullets in the direction of someone attempting to escape to the West.

[RobbyS]

If you can't cut it in the new age--as my Ossies can't-- you yearn for the security of the old. Kind of return to the womb. Never mind the number of abortions performed.

[Prodigal Son]

What has that to do with link about the dirt eaters?

[RobbyS]

A lot of older East Germans would like to put the wall back up.

[Prodigal Son]

Again, what has this to do with people in the south of the USA who like to eat clay? That was the post you were responding to of mine...

[RobbyS]

Well, there is some nutrition in dirt amd the East Germans grw up living on it. Many cannot be used to a richer diet.

[BnBlFlag]

I've lived in the South my entire life and I've never heard of anyone "eating dirt". Lets have some sources. Thanks.

[Prodigal Son]

Hey you guys. RobbyS responded to my post number 10- yes? My post number 10 says "Hillarious"- yes? My post number 10 is in response to post number 2- by old Professor. Post number 2 includes a link about people eating dirt in the south. I found this funny. In fact, I found it hillarious. This is why I told old Professor that I found it hillarious. I'm just having a little trouble connecting the responses to my post number 10 with what I thought about post number 2.

What's the deal?

[RobbyS]

As I said, there is some nutrition even in dirt. You are probably a city boy who doesn't know that.

[Prodigal Son]

Jeez, man. This is like the twilight zone. I grew up in rural Georgia. Trot lines, turtle baskets, bass boats, skinning catfish with a pair of pliers- that was my childhood. I'm looking back over my posts now and can't add this up. I told old Professor his link about eating dirt was hillarious and your reply to that was all about the Ossies. I still can't connect your reply to my hillarious comment. I don't see where they connect. Now you're going on about me being a city boy. What's this all about? It was a funny link- regardless of where you grew up. And what it has to do with the Ossies in Germany- I have not a clue.