I extend my warmest greetings to you, those born later, who, despite slander and numerous falsifications of history, which can also be found in school books, are interested in the German Democratic Republic and its policies. You are confronted in this society with a lot of untruths about our state, a state that no longer exists. But I can assure you: We who were committed to the cause wanted to change the world and create a better Germany. So that never again will a mother weep for her son. Unfortunately, for many reasons, including our own fault, we have not yet succeeded. Much remains to be done.
And yet I think: We laid the groundw[ork and] we sowed the seeds. We will certainly not live to see the harvest. But I hope that you and your peers, your children and your children’s children will not forget that for 40 years there was an anti-fascist state in the east of Germany that had learned the lessons of two world wars and was a real alternative to capitalism and war.
[…]
Dear attendees, there are many reasons to like the GDR. And also many reasons to sharply criticize its shortcomings. But above all stands the word peace. The GDR never waged war. It was the German state of peace. In this context, I would like to recall the state telegram from Moscow to President Wilhelm Pieck and Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl regarding the founding of the GDR. I quote it, because it succinctly expresses the historical mission of the GDR:
“The formation of the German Democratic Peace-loving Republic is a turning point in the history of Europe.” And further: “There is no doubt that the existence of a peace-loving democratic Germany alongside the peace-loving Soviet Union precludes the possibility of new wars in Europe.” How true, how clear, how relevant!
[…]
Within a historically short period of time, West German governments destroyed what had been built up in the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR in terms of trust between the Germans and the peoples of the Soviet Union. Now, German politicians and the German media are stirring up hatred of Russians, hatred that I last experienced as an eight-year-old during the final phase of World War II. The old enemy stereotype — the “Russian” is to blame for everything — and the myth of the dangerous Russia is being revived. It is raising fears of Russia as if its troops were lurking around the corner.
[…]
In retrospect, we know that since the GDR ceased to function as a social corrective, social alienation has increased. The already existing gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider, and the chasm is now downright obscene. Patronage-based political parties embezzle funds intended for the common good. But resistance is growing.
Social interest from almost all segments of society is forcing the bourgeois parties to discuss the worst excesses. If only they were led to discuss this as energetically as they did when methodically disparaging East German personal histories and engaging in a blanket witch hunt of former employees of the GDR’s security forces, all in an effort to divert attention from their own country’s problems! The GDR will not serve as the Cinderella of German history.
What the GDR was, why it was founded, what historical achievements it had, what position it occupied internationally, how both German states were always on the brink of a possible nuclear war in a cold civil war, what the reasons for the defeat of the GDR were and what will remain of it — these are fundamental questions of German post-war history, indeed of European and world history — and much, much more than a “footnote of history” and also far more than the “green arrow.”
Judging objectively
I can be accused of idealizing the GDR. That may be. But in reality, I am merely advocating something that should be self-evident, namely that academics, politicians and media professionals, who were mostly socialized in the Federal Republic, should finally strive for an objective and historically fair evaluation of the GDR.
We, the contemporary witnesses, are still alive. And when we are no longer here, our experiences and memories will remain in the memory of our children, who were born in the GDR. And there were plenty of them, because the GDR was also a child-friendly country. But I cannot and I refuse to give up the belief that this world of war and exploitation will change from what it is today and that “the sun will shine more brightly than ever over Germany,” as the GDR anthem says.
(Emphasis original.)