How Memory Divides by Jeremy Brooke Straughn

Author:Jeremy Brooke Straughn [Straughn, Jeremy Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138088931
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

“It’s one people, we are all Germans”

Paul, a former bookstore apprentice, remembers feeling “very happy when the Wende came along.” Yet, unlike most of his compatriots in the GDR, he would learn about the escalating events in Leipzig and the subsequent opening of the Wall from the other side of the border, after fleeing to the West via Hungary and leaving everything, and everyone, he valued behind. Born in a small city in Saxony-Anhalt in 1966, Paul grew up in Leipzig as the youngest child of a book dealer and a kindergarten teacher. Although his family had “lived quite well here,” young Paul had bristled at the distortions and “condescension” (Bevormündung) implicit in official newspaper stories touting “1,000 percent plan fulfillment” and “Long live socialism!” In particular, restrictions on travel “really had a very, very big influence on me—this, this, this prison that we were actually in, right? [ … ] Everything was locked down. You couldn’t get out.” Paul was “in any case among those who, who had a gripe with this country here as such, because of the regime.” Not surprisingly, he felt “quite happy actually” with the way things developed over the summer of 1989. Paul had set his sights on the world outside the GDR for some time. “For me, one thing was always certain: if there is ever the smallest chance somehow to get out of this country, then I would use it immediately. And I did use it immediately back then, by fleeing through Hungary.”

Paul had less to leave behind than most. Two years before, his “first love” had left him for another man, and shortly afterward his brother’s seemingly happy marriage ended in divorce. When his mother died of cancer later that year, Paul became profoundly depressed for several months. In 1989, moreover, Paul was 21 and would likely be called for military service within the next few years. “That was certainly one reason why I fled.” Even so, Paul was under no illusions about what this meant for his ties to family and friends.

I have to add, however, that this meant I had to burn all bridges here [ … ], because I knew that if I leave here now, I will probably never see my sister again, I [will never] see my niece—she had just been born back then—I will never see her again, I will never see my brother-in-law again, in other words, [I will never see] my whole family again, and least not for a long time. And also my friends, I will probably never see them again …

In the event, Paul recalls, it was the lethal crackdown on protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square (known in German as der Platz des Himmlischen Friedens, or Plaza of Heavenly Peace) in May of 1989 that sparked the sense of urgency that ultimately propelled him across the Hungarian border in around August:

And during the Wende, what really made an impact on me, and what actually moved me to take the step of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.