Political book: We need a political change

Wolfgang Berghofer has chosen a pithy title for his new book: “Germany needs change”. Who wouldn’t want to agree with him? The subtitle, however, raises questions: “Do instead of complaining.” Do it – yes, how?

»Dissatisfaction has been with me for as long as I can remember… There were regulars’ tables everywhere. In the party apprenticeship year as well as in the young community. The former FDJ official and Dresden mayor from 1986 to 1990 is right: Even in the GDR we talked our heads off and everything passed us by. But now, after the so-called reunification, many people got a capitalism that they had not expected – and did not want. That’s the problem.

“Capitalism, as it works now, needs to be reformed.” Many readers, especially in the East, will agree with the author. Some would even go further: that capitalism can be overcome because it is a structurally unjust social order. But extremely efficient.

The socialist attempt could not keep up with this, if only when it came to the development of productive forces. »If this is inhibited by the production conditions – we have all learned what happens there. Of course everything is much more differentiated: Cold War, arms buildup, weakness of the USSR…”

But Wolfgang Berghofer is not dwelling on the past. He puts the present up for discussion and asks “how we could get out of this mess collectively and constructively.”

In fact, we have to allow a lot to happen to us after we put our crosses on the ballot paper. In any case, we buy a pig in a poke, as the saying goes. If we met for a public discussion, I would ask Wolfgang Berghofer how he imagines a government that would be completely committed to its own people. It is really his strength to think beyond what is given and also to become practical. He is able to argue factually and pointedly, not without emotion, in powerful language.

What pleased me was how he sided with Holger Friedrich, the publisher of the “Berliner Zeitung,” who co-signed the “Manifesto for Peace,” initiated by Alice Schwarzer and Sahra Wagenknecht, “because he too supported the murder and “did not want to prolong the destruction in Ukraine with further arms deliveries.” The headwind he encountered from other newspapers is polemical to note – and on the other hand, not surprising if you are capable of geopolitical thinking.

Wolfgang Berghofer understands global political connections in this dangerous phase of upheaval, as a new world order is emerging. China is on the rise and the USA is in decline. »While around sixty percent of global economic output came from the USA after the Second World War, in 2020 it was only sixteen. In 2021, China’s share of global exports was already fifteen percent, while that of the USA was less than eight percent. And Europe – the sparrows are whistling from the rooftops – is not only harming itself economically by being vassal to the USA, but is also running the risk of war to be drawn in.

The Ukraine war could have ended shortly after it began. But the USA and Great Britain prevented that. The author doesn’t say this out of the blue, he can prove it. How he actually operates with many facts, some of which are not generally known. Another advantage of reading is how it leads from the present into the depths of history. Who knows today, for example, what the Ukrainian “Bread Peace” of 1917/18 meant?

“Systems always break down from within, namely when they reach their limits.” Rigorous criticism of the AfD and its “seduction staff.” This takes advantage of the “people’s dissatisfaction with the conditions in the country” when “the market economy strips away its social elements because the coffers are empty and less and less can be distributed ‘at the bottom’ because those ‘at the top’ can’t get enough.” . However, he is convinced: “Prosperity for all is possible if certain sacred cows are slaughtered.”

»Everything put to the test. Everything!” Books that go all out like this aren’t exactly common. “We need a political change.” But how is that supposed to happen? There are an incredible number of pointedly clever statements in the book. From a self-confident East German perspective. But would there automatically be more reason in political action if more East Germans came into leadership positions?

At the end, the author summarized a political program on three pages, sensible from the first to the last point. It speaks from your heart. The most important task: “to stand up for peace” in a Europe that is free from “overseas paternalism”. Better financing of education, upbringing, research and teaching, reduction of bureaucracy, a fair tax system, forms of direct democracy… I don’t want to ask in a mean-spirited way how this is supposed to work, but first of all I want to be happy that someone has said it like that.

Wolfgang Berghofer: Germany needs change. Do instead of complain. Edition Ost, 221 pages, br., 18 €. nd Literature Salon with Wolfgang Berghofer on September 4th, 6 p.m., Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin.

After the so-called reunification, many people got a capitalism that they had not expected – and did not want. That’s the problem.

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