[Three responses follow. Ed.]

1.
From: Charles Ingrao, Purdue University

Maybe many of those Ossies who have emigrated since unification (and a lot of
others who haven't) would have tried to get out before 1989. You cannot weigh
the relative insufficiency of the Communist and post-Communist regimes by the
number of post-1989 malcontents/emigres, since there is no way of
scientifically measuring the number of Ossies who _would_ have left or _would_
have expressed their dissatisfaction the GDR but were not free to do so.


2.
From: Benita Blessing, Ohio University

Thanks to Thomas Adam, Cary Nathenson and Gerhard Weinberg for bringing up the
necessary questioning of what "Ostalgie" actually is. Their postings are in an
interesting dialogue with one another:

I do not agree that Professor Weinberg's response is "flip." Indeed, his rather
pointed example demonstrates quite well how some scholars and observers of
post-Wende Germany use the supposed phenomenon of "Ostalgie" (in terms of East
Germans truly longing for the GDR) without considering what such a longing
would actually entail.

Cary Nathenson's point that "Ostalgie" has become a consumer product for a very
large target audience that is not only (or even mostly) former GDR citizens is
important. A few years ago Discovery produced a fantastic short documentary
that dealt in part with Ostalgie as a packaged product that one could buy,
either in terms of an evening of dancing with the "Easty Girls," or in terms of
Trabi meets (where many of the owners were from many parts of the world and
were quite proud of their newly-acquired Trabis). The movie was called Tanz den
Lenin (German version) and Right on Red (English version), but I have been
unable to re-locate it and Discovery has never returned my emails or phone
calls. Nathenson's reframing of this phenomenon is timely and one that I would
like to see more scholarship on.

And both Weinberg's and Nathenson's points flow nicely into Thomas Adam's
reminder that what might be labeled "Ostalgie" by some critics is actually
another phenomenon entirely of people dealing with life in a new society. Adam
does not use this term, but what he describes in his posting sounds like the
phenomenon of "culture shock" of the milder kind that students use when
studying abroad (although they can come back), or of the potentially
devastating kind experienced by people who voluntarily or involuntarily leave
their countries for another one without the possibility of returning.

I do not use the term culture shock here lightly - the trauma and confusion
surrounding coming to terms with a new society's rules and regulations are
socio-psychological issues that not everyone who cannot return to what was once
home successfully manages. In that sense, we should perhaps also be looking at
those former GDR citizens who have negotiated life in a new country. Regardless
of the circumstances that force someone into a new society, however desirable
that new society remains for that person, the work that goes into "readjusting"
is difficult, challenging, sometimes a possibility for re-inventing oneself
after getting through the transition, and, too, sometimes insurmountable.

Benita Blessing


3.
From: Gerhard Weinberg, University of North Carolina

Contrary to Cary Nathenson's suggestion that my comment was a flip dismissal of
Ostalgie, what I was pointing to is a major change in German behavior patterns.
 In the past as in the present, Germans who either feel obliged to leave the
country or want to look for better opportuniies elsewhere, have left and
currently leave for countries that they believe either represent the values
they cherish or offer safety or better opportunities.  They came or come to the
US, Canada, Brazil, and other places for safety, opportunities, or a
combination of these and other reasons.  What I suggest is distinctive and a
real break with the past is the reluctance of those who mourn the DDR to
consider moving to countries that still share many of its features.
Since there has been a great deal of discussion in recent decades about breaks
and continuities in German history, it seems to me that here there is a break
worth noting.

Gerhard L. Weinberg

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