this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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chapotraphouse
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Yeah, Goodbye Lenin is definitely that. It's been a while since I've seen it, but iirc at the end of the movie, the mom goes on a rant about how she used to believe in socialism until she realized how terrible it was
IDK I think this is wrong comrade. The mother may have expressed criticisms of GDR at some point, I don't quite remember but I think that's ultimately fair. Generally she missed the GDR dearly. The entire plot of the movie is about a young man who was apolitical-to-reactionary learning there was something of serious value lost when the wall fell.
That resembled my interpretation as well. MC goes from typical youthful rebelliousness against authority aimed at the DDR (the strongest authority available to him) to fascination with West Germany to slow disillusionment with West Germany to recognition of the DDR's flaws but overall sadness at its loss, and coping with the meaning of its loss.
There's multiple stories told together though including family drama (and possibly some symbolic parallels between the mother and DDR itself) and coming of age moments, along with a lot of really dry/sarcastic humor. I personally recommend it. There's also some very subtle digs at capitalism like how after the wall falls he's often exhausted from working late (something that didn't happen under the DDR), which at one point results him falling asleep while he's supposed to be babysitting.
It's been over a decade since I've seen it, so you're probably right. I should probably just rewatch it at some point, since back then I had no idea what East Germany went through after reunification (Europe Since 1989: A History by Philipp Ther is a
-ass book, but has some good parts in it about the former DDR).
Check out "Stasi State or Socialist Paradise" if you're curious. It's basically a defense of things the GDR did right.
That's on my long list of books to read, I think the e-book is somewhere on my external hard drive.