What was life like?
Poverty was big because people could only afford the bare essentials. The state created its own industry for nearly everything and brands did not exist. Most people lived double lives and there was lots of surveillance. E.g. watch western Tv but not mention it outside of the house. People weren't allowed past the Berlin wall into the west so many tried to sneak into the country but many failed resulting in death. Others dug under the wall, hid in cars from western visitors, went through sewers etc.
What did young people do for fun, like, listen to?
Many young people would come together to learn socialistic views and organise events for younger children by joining youth groups. Others enjoyed going out to theatres and watching movies. Authorities reviewed lyrics for hints of dissent so music was heavily censored. Bands were only allowed to sing in German but the youth wanted to listen to bands from abroad so a black market developed of copies of western artists' music.
What was education like?
Students were taught Russian instead of being taught English as it is a world language that is usually taught in schools across the world. Children were taught basic etiquette and how to work together in classes which included socialism views. E.g. pioneer classes where each child would bring in something like show and tell which gave them the opportunity to talk to each other about their lives.
Why was there so much tension and suspicion?
If the stasi thought that they were being rebellious by associating themselves with Western culture east Germans were put under surveillance. East Germany regarded the west as being run by old fascists and corrupted by big, international companies. They suspected the west to prepare for WW3. The west stated that the east deprived citizens of their human rights such as freedom of religion, speech and ability to leave the country.
Why did people want to escape the East?
People had a lack of freedom in how they lived their life because the East was heavily run by the government. Everything was controlled, their social life, their work, what they said and what they did. People wanted to escape the East in order to have more freedom and the ability to express their views without being scared of being imprisoned or punished.
Why did people like and respect the public?
There was no unemployment as they didn't believe in the concept therefore there was no benefits and workers were afforded the safety of their jobs as they couldn't be fires unless they committed a serious offence. They thought the patriarchy was viewed as a symptom of capitalism so they helped women in the workplace. They implemented a strong foundation of laws to protect mothers and distribute childcare services. There was more equality as there was a smaller gender pay gap than in the West.They offered free health care, free places to kindergarten and school and had affordable housing.
What was the relationship between the citizens and the government/stasi nearing the end of the cold war?
The stasi, which was the largest network of secret police in history were able to infiltrate every facet of society and it is estimated that one in five adults in the country were directly connected to them.
Some citizens were happy in their living standards as there was benefits such as more quality, more work, free health care etc however a majority started to get rebellious as more people were being put under surveillance and being punished for the smallest things as the country was over-dictating. Therefore, this led to citizens tearing down the Berlin Wall by hand in order to get their freedom.
How did they view the West?
They had popular culture such as western music, fashion and ideals because the West contained modern ideas with the allied countries of the Us and Uk.
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