Research Question:
What, if any, products from the former DDR are still being produced and sold in modern Germany and why have these products survived? Although many products are still sold as souvenirs, I was more interested in discovering if any products had managed to maintain their status as everyday consumer goods and, if not, what market forces had led to their disappearance. The main two forces which I observed prior to arriving in Germany were a need to satisfy the nostalgia of the older generations, a need which would slowly diminish over time, and the poor quality of many products from the DDR minimizing demand.
Background:
When I was first told that East German goods were still being sold, I was surprised as I was under the impression that East German products were of poor quality. At that point, I began to question whether this impression was simply a result of western propaganda and distortion. Aside from quality, what could allow goods to persist in the market and based on these forces, how much longer can these goods be expected to survive?
During my investigational research, I was directed to the movie Good Bye Lenin! directed by Wolfgang Becker. The movie explores a theme of “ostalgie,” or nostalgia for the former East Germany. As the main character struggles to find various elements of East German society in a rapidly westernizing world, I was able to see what particular products were desired, and in some cases for what reasons. The movie also demonstrated the idealism associated within East Germany despite the many shortcomings of the actual governmental system. People were willing to turn a blind eye to the loss of freedom and focus instead on the sense of community and equality.
Once in Germany, I found many of the same sentiments in former East Germans. Although they realized the East German government was oppressive, they also felt that the western government was too cold and unforgiving, neither system being perfect. For them, the old East German products hold not only memories of their childhood, but also a sense of cooperation and unity that the current competitive capitalist system lacks.
However, learning such facts proved to be quite difficult. First of all, as a non-German speaker I not only had difficulty communicating with many people, but even those who spoke English and were willing to talk to me viewed me as an outsider. In this light, I always felt as though people were not willing to truly open up to me and would only share more objective facts, keeping their personal experiences as detached as possible.
In addition, actually finding places with East German paraphernalia that was not simply tourist directed proved to be difficult. In the end, I was forced to mostly resort to tourist attractions that could also serve to benefit former East Germans in a search for remnants of the past. In particular, a recently opened café named “Zur Firma” or “The Company” is a bar which is modeled to mimic the surveillance prevalent beneath the eyes of the Stasi, the East German secret police. The bar is equipped with mock surveillance cameras, an urn marked to contain the ashes of Erich Honecker, “informant cards” entitling one to discounted drinks, and a sign outside declaring “Come to us, or we'll come to you.” Although the bar attracts tourists during the day, eager to continue the experience from the nearby Stasi Museum, at night many former Stasi members who still live in the area tend to gather here.
My first visit to the bar was around 10 o'clock at night. After wandering around, unsure of exactly where the bar was located, I came across the bright sign amidst a largely residential neighborhood. Standing outside while attempting to decide if it was actually the bar I was looking for drew many glares from a group of older men inside. It was then that I realized another roadblock. The former East Germans could be divided into two distinct groups. On the one hand, the younger generation was eventually willing to talk about their experiences and the change that they underwent. The older generation, however, was extremely tight-lipped and was rarely open to talk to a foreigner about their difficult past. For this reason, the comments I received were largely skewed towards the perspectives of those under thirty.
In addition , I learned that some products are of good quality in their own right. In particular, the Saale-Unstrut is a wine region of former East Germany which still produces “East German wine” of excellent quality. However, having limited experience with wines, I was unable to provide a personal opinion on the matter.
In an attempt to experience East German quality first hand, I found a tour which offered tourists a chance to drive a Trabant, the only car available in East Germany. Upon entering the car, I noticed a number of things. First of all, the dashboard was incredibly sparse. There was nothing aside from a speedometer. No odometer, no gear indicator, not even a gas gauge. In addition to the lack of information was the lack of space. The car was not made for a tall person and driving it felt almost like driving a toy car. Once on the road, I quickly noticed the many squeaking and rattling parts, indicative of its age and shoddy workmanship. Although it was an entertaining experience, it was not one I would wish to repeat on a daily basis in my own car.
Methods of Investigation:
During my research time, I employed a number of research methods ranging from simple observation and textual research to interviews and experiential research. Each method had varying degrees of ease and accessibility and yielded a wide range of results which could then be synthesized.
The most basic method, observation, was possible throughout the entire trip. In my case, I was not simply observing the presence of the East German products I was looking for, but also the absence of them. However, without extensive prior knowledge, observation usually failed to grasp the entire picture and required other forms of inquiry to supplement it. This can also be somewhat subjective as personal biases, such as my belief in the inferiority of East German products, can unconsciously skew one to perceive only what one already believes to be truth.
Textual research through books and the internet provided a good starting point to create a foundation for understanding the relevant issues. However, this form of research could only take me so far as all of the opinions and subjectivity had been thoroughly edited out in an effort to create objective, encyclopedic sources. Unlike other forms of research, texts only provide a one way communication, without minimal opportunity to expand upon ideas or delve deeper into the author's view on a subject.
To get the full experience, one must not only passively read and observe the happenings around them, but one must actively engage and interact with their environment. For this reason, interviews and experiential activities were also key methods of investigation. Interviews allow an opportunity to gather personal experiences and opinions as well as a chance to further explore points as they come up in conversation. The interviewer is therefore given greater power and control in directing what questions are answered. However, as mentioned earlier, interviews also introduce biases not only from the interviewer, but also the interviewee. The interviewee brings his/her own bias regarding not only the topic, but also the interviewer and how they should portray themselves to the outside world. Many times, people would even be willing to speak on controversial topics, but would clam up once any form of recording device appeared, even pen or paper. This forced me to rely mainly on memory when recreating conversations. Unfortunately, this adds another layer of subjectivity as I am now restricted to those comments which I found to be memorable.
Analysis:
As a result of my research, I found that despite the western stereotype of inferior East German products, the range is as varied as the products in any other market. Although I did find a larger percentage of goods which were of poor quality, many of the products which remain on the market today do so purely in their own right.
For example, the amplemann is an iconic figure of Eastern Germany. The amplemann is the pedestrian walk signal which was going to be torn down after the reunification and replaced with West German traffic signals. However, there was a large public outcry at this announcement because many people preferred the cute, friendly amplemann to the standard traffic signals. Much of the tourist industry in Eastern Germany now references the amplemann, placing the icon on everything from shirts and mugs to cookie cutters and pasta. The amplemann does not still survive simply as a nostalgic icon of the past, but its cute design alone allowed it to survive where other products did not.
This particular program, however, was rather different in that it required us to not only go into the city to research our topics. Instead, at the same time we needed to analyze the character and actions of the people with which we interacted with the intent of using these observations to create our own characters for our final composition. This placed more emphasis on the subjective aspects of research as we had to look at the emotions that various topics evoked in people and their reactions and mannerisms. The research was equally an exercise in people watching and deciphering body language as it was a basic research project.
Therefore, by looking specifically for those aspects which would be used in the composition, my focus was not just on the individuals I met, but also the similarities in attitudes and mannerisms across the various groups of people which I encountered. In addition, the composition required me to observe and analyze not just those people who related to my research, but also others that were completely unrelated in order to find some sort of standard which I could then use to make note of deviations from. This greatly broadened the scope of my research as I needed to observe a “typical” Berliner in order to find what made my characters different.
To expand upon this research, it would be interesting to also look at the topic from a business perspective. A number of Western businesses bought up East German companies to receive tax benefits from the government to help restore the East German industry. However, the western companies usually discarded the East German industry as soon as possible. It would be interesting to find those companies which kept and integrated the industry and find out what influenced them to maintain production from an economic standpoint and what benefits these companies gained from maintaining production.
