GDR history – “Contemporary witnesses always remember differently”

How did you come to work at the DDR Museum?

I am a military historian and worked for ten years at the Bundeswehr Center for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam. I had studied the history of the Bundeswehr in the 1950s and when there was no longer any extension for the temporary position, I had to reorient myself. I decided to do museum work first at the city museum in Neukölln. After two years, I applied to manage the collection here.

What did you feel when you came to the museum depot?

The first thing that really impressed me was the collection in general. I saw this immense task that lay before me. It made me happy too. I was immediately fascinated by the historical object and the theme. To this day, I appreciate that there is a museum concept for the collection and that not everything just disappears.

And the first encounter with individual artifacts?

When I saw some things, I was initially very driven by memories.

Positive or negative?

I saw a lot of things here that I remembered from my home or from my grandmother. So many childhood memories came back and they are always positive.

Where do the exhibits for the museum come from?

We receive most things as donations.

For example?

Recently an offer came from the USA for a “Spee” detergent carton. We receive a lot from Berlin. We also receive donations from the entire former GDR area as well as from the western federal states. The latter in particular happens more often than you think. These are mainly things that concern design and sport.

The museum was founded in 2006, has anything changed since then?

You notice the generational shift. We are offered an incredible amount, but the people who offer us objects are now mostly the grandchildren and children.

What should or can the museum do for the younger generations?

The important thing is to actually deal with history and your own origins.

How do you tell history with things from the wall cupboards to the lamps from the Palace of the Republic without it becoming cliché?

Our motto is “history you can touch”. Of course you have to simplify large lines. It’s about bringing the different facets of society and the state closer in a clear way. Both with the permanent exhibition and with special shows. Like right now on “vacation in the GDR”. Apart from that, we have revised the initial exhibition, which seemed a bit nostalgic.

The identity debates surrounding the East are as controversial as they are intense. How does the museum position itself?

We are following these debates and have also had discussions in the house, for example with Katja Hoyer, but we do not make this the focus of our work. It’s more about depicting living environments for as broad an audience as possible. However, we are often criticized for this, sometimes as being too pointed or sometimes as being too nostalgic.

You were born in 1979 and were ten years old at the time of reunification. What influenced you during this time?

That’s ten years of childhood, almost the entire childhood. What I was very active in was, of course, the school and the early pioneer days. I experienced the young pioneers as a kind of pre-military instrument with their rituals of order and uniforms. As part of socialist military training, the positive image of the NVA soldier was already formed here. My father was an officer in the NVA himself, so I have relatively good memories because it was part of our everyday life.

What else was important and left a mark?

Of course the chemical area where I come from. Wolfen and Bitterfeld with the everyday smoke. And of course the change and the exodus in our residential area, the resulting rapidly changing milieu. I found it to be a very hostile environment, especially when you, as a simple teenager, are crushed between different youth subcultures. In 1998, shortly before graduating from high school, I had an unpleasant experience with neo-Nazis.

How did you and your family experience November 9th?

I only have limited memories of that November 1989. I still remember today that I really wanted to see the parade marking the anniversary of the October Revolution. That must have been on the seventh or eighth of November. I only noticed the fall of the Wall when we actually went to West Berlin with our parents and a few days later the family restrictions on watching Western television were lifted.

How Did you live with your family?

In one of the WBS 70 apartments. It was a four-room apartment in Wolfen-Nord, an urban area with a lot of prefabricated buildings.

Did the famous wall unit exist?

We also had this exact wall unit that you see here. When my parents got a “Karat” extension wall with dark imitation walnut in 1988, this first typical one with the light veneer went into my sister’s children’s room as youth furniture.

What was different and individual about your home?

Good question! Although other people had it too, there were many, many books on shelves under the kitchen hatch. There was also the orange record player and an interesting selection of records that my father, as a political officer and cultural officer, was able to purchase, including, in addition to GDR music, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson. In the hatch there were numerous glasses with prints from maneuvers, sporting events and party conferences. In 1989 we bought a cassette recorder for a lot of money.

Do you still have things from the GDR?

There are photos, books and my father’s medals and medals and smaller pioneer badges. But unfortunately stuffed animals, for example, no longer exist. I had to throw them away.

Do you have any interesting conversations with your parents as a result of your work here and the insights you get?

Depending on what mood I find my parents in, we can debate with each other. I can discuss the topic of the military very intensively and critically with my father because it played a large part in his life and he is interested in new knowledge. But there are also emotional situations where one of the two says: “You have no idea, it wasn’t like that!”

What does the historian feel in you?

That’s what you always have to deal with as a historian: contemporary witnesses always remember things differently. This also has to do with the way memories are formed and because we only get a limited picture through media and literature. However, contemporary witness reports are always an important source. But you have to be able to interpret them.