yr13_ia_2007_reed_d

=Analysis [600 words]= o **open this topic with important historical period/place and what lessons it provides for us today** o **assess interviewees comment about economic and social conditions match the ecidence, format could be :** § **what she says (ie the stuff you already have written here)** § **ways this is backed up by the books you’ve read** § **things she missed out/is less useful for (again, quote from the books to give exmples.**

1. Economic Conditions
Starting with economic questions I asked Ms.Neumann if the living standards were the same for everyone in the East and whether they got better with time she replied: “//only officially everyone was treated the same. The politicians and their friends had many advantages which were kept undercover…the ones who had western relatives had an advantage because they were able to receive care packages from Western Germany.”//

In some respects, this accords with what can be found in the written sources relating to the period....[100 words]

Nevertheless, the testimony on Ms. Neumann is not a full picture / is inaccurate in some respects. For example,....[100 words]

3. Political Conditions
On the gradual state of living conditions: //“While the wall was the still standing: the living standard was pretty much the same but everything was very limited and difficult to obtain: no cool clothes, no travel to other Western countries, etc. During the first wave after the wall came down many Eastern Germans used their savings to buy everything they could not get before. But many overdid it and therefore went into debt…It is better/easier to stand in front of an empty shopping window with a lot of money instead of the other way around”.// Ms.Neumann’s last sentence in this quotation is capable of describing what many Eastern Germans went through while living in the East. It was normal to have a job and money but no produce. This deficiency concerned those who then moved into the West after the wall had came down just to find that they had spent all their savings and had no jobs because all factories had shut down in the East. It was a vicious circle for many…But fortunately for Heike’s family, her parents had jobs it was ultimately her parents that had convinced her to flee towards the West. Since unemployment did not exist in the Socialist regime her family was rather well off….she says //“My father always said while we lived in Eastern Germany: “all this does not make any sense – you need to leave somehow”.// I asked her if she thought that the economic situation in the West was better while she was on the East side. From her responses it is seen that she had very accurate knowledge of what the West was like, this is half because they watched western television and listened to western radio (illegally) as well she had relatives in the west to (legally) send her things. She replies “//Yes, of course. The Western people had everything: cars, travel, jeans, chewing gum, chocolate, coffee. Magazine and books from the Western were absolutely forbidden since they were considered “West-propaganda”. Everything in the east was pragmatic and grey since NO competition on the market for goods existed. In the West everything was colourful and great!”// The enthusiasm she responds with shows just how she might have felt back when she hadn’t taken such things for granted but cherished them as though they were treasures…. Heike knew that the socialist system was more developed but she also knew that “//The human being is striving for individualism, which brought the whole socialistic system to collapse”//

I asked her what she thought the best things about Eastern Germany were, and she didn’t have to say much except how well put together the school systems were. Although it is shown that she agrees with the assumption that the economy was stable socially wise. She says These quotations can be backed up by this statement //“In East Germany too, once the ongoing population losses had been stemmed by the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, a degree of normality and stability was attained.”[|**[1**]]// This statement is to some extent proof of the performance that the society of East Germany provided for its people and the remainder of residents who stayed after the wall had fallen. After the wall fell communism had not yet been overthrown by that time so it was still consistent in its methods.
 * //“//**//For the persons who had a job and kept their job in Eastern Germany the living standard has definitely improved” and “Socialism: in theory everybody is treated the same, everybody has a job, nutrition, etc.”//

[|[1]] Internet located Article __Living with Loss, Dealing with Shame: Neil Gregor looks at Germany and the legacies of war.__