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Quote of the Day: East German Joke
Early in the morning, Eric Honecker (head of East Germany) arrives at his office and opens his window. He greets the Sun, saying: “Good morning, dear Sun!” — “Good morning, dear Erich!”
Honecker works, and then at noon he heads to the window and says: “Good day, dear Sun!” — “Good day, dear Erich!”
In the evening, Erich calls it a day, and heads once more to the window, and says: “Good evening, dear Sun!”
Hearing nothing, Honecker says again: “Good evening, dear Sun! What’s the matter?”
The sun retorts: “Kiss my arse. I’m in the West now!”
— From the film The Lives of Others.
Published in Group Writing
That is a great movie.
Yes, it is.
Every young person should be made to watch this movie – high school or college, doesn’t matter. This is the most chilling portrayal of what life is like in a surveillance/police state. It shows them even supporters of a regime can get in the crosshairs if an unelected bureaucrat decides it is so . . .
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It was a good movie, but I thought it downplayed the viciousness of the regime. In real life I don’t think any agent would be allowed such freedom of action as the hero had. Somebody would have been monitoring him.
And they didn’t even have Twitter in those days.
I still haven’t seen it, and it’s been on my list for years. I love Goodbye Lenin have you seen that one?
William F. Buckley, Jr. said that this was the best movie he has ever seen. Not to be missed.
I thought it was okay, but it really lacked a real sense of the evil involved. There’s no way the spying guy would have been allowed such autonomy. The nature of the serveillance is that no one is trusted, especially not people doing the surveillance.
To me, it failed because it made it look like there was hope for individual actions and autonomy. Reality was much worse.
Edit: It appears @thereticulator made the exact same point. Sorry to step on you.
It’s fair to say that the movie doesn’t work on every level that it could have. It’s a good enough effort for what it does teach.
I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only person who noticed that.
Agreed. But then we wouldn’t have the movie, would we? Hehe . . .
Great movie, one of my top five favorites. But previous commentators are right – it does downplay somewhat the sheer grimness of life in the GDR. Even snuffle-bear marxist Slavoj Zizek said the East German communists were in reality much more ruthless. Anyway, here’s the scene from the movie (which perfectly illustrates how the notion of Political Correctness poisons everyday life):
If you do some searching there are some interesting Twitter feeds about the GDR.
Also be sure to subscribe to “Soviet Visuals”. That is one of the craziest things you’ll ever find on Twitter.