Learning from Ostrock: What Music in East Germany Can Tell Us

     Hallo, Genossen und Genossinnen.  Firstly, let me say that I plan to be posting weekly for the rest of the summer, so check back frequently!  I might do some extras if I have a draft that just can't wait too...  At any rate, I've got three more posts planned already, and that's barring thought-provoking news here, or from my catching up with Neues Deutschland, so chances for more posts abound

     Over the past two years I’ve been getting into the East German music scene from the 70s-80s.  Briefly stated, when Honecker became Sekretär-General, he liberalized some of the DDR’s cultural policy, and the state started sponsoring rock bands.  The most successful of these has been the Puhdys, who recently announced their retirement, effective next year.  They’ve become my favorite band, as my bemused coworkers and family will attest.

     Quite aside from strong singing voices from Maschine and Quaster(the product of the rigorous training required to professionally perform in the DDR), an absolute rainbow of guitar styles, a peculiarly scientific, deliberate drumming from Klaus Scharfschwerdt, the amazing musical breadth of Peter “Eingehängt” Meyer, and the best bass line I’ve ever heard (on “Ikarus”, courtesy of Harry Jeske) what really draws me is the lyrics.  (Predictably- words are everything to me).  These guys- who frequently wrote their own lyrics from 1980 onward- covered a really wide range of topics.  I can’t decide what’s more interesting- that these guys wanted to talk about this stuff, or that the government endorsed it and even sent them on tour in the west!  Some make sense from my own dirty commie perspective, others suggest a wider degree of permissiveness than that for which we usually give the DDR credit.  

At any rate, I wanted to discuss some of these songs, because I think the Puhdys often convey a constructive, progressive to moderately Socialist message in ways that seem more effective than the idea of state-sponsored rock music would immediately suggest.

Most of these can be found in one form or another on youtube, and I encourage you to check them out.  (Make sure to search for the German names)

Important song topics

     Bullying- on their 1980 album, Heiß wie Schnee (hot like snow) there’s a song called Weit, so Weit (far, so far) from the perspective of a member of a clique who drove a young man to suicide because he “wasn’t loud like us”- this could be interpreted in a lot of ways: on its face it’s a haunting lyric, but it could easily be interpreted (or simply appropriated) to confront homophobic bullying.  It’s worth remembering that Gayness was totally legal in the DDR, though I’m not sure that was the intended reference of the song.  It sure works well.

     Single mothers- Also from the Heiß wie Schnee album, there’s a song “Melanie” about a young woman fleeing an abusive father, seeking comfort anywhere she can find it, and ending up pregnant and alone.  It’s full of all kinds of problematic assumptions about women needing to be mothers to be fulfilled, but it’s significant, and kind of beautiful, that this acoustic anthem was glorifying single mothers at a time when they were being excoriated in the US.

    Gender conformity- from their 1981 album Schattenreiter (shadow rider) there’s a fantastic song called Männlichkeit-masculinity.  This is a pretty basic discussion of pressures on men, but it is early- 1981, to be calling out our society on assuming a man has to be pugnacious, unflinching, emotionless, and “never break the rough shell”.  This is a really commendable degree of sociological awareness, and a fantastic rock song.

     John Lennon- months after Lennon’s assassination, they released a song called “Hey, John”, openly confessing how inspired they were by his work, what solace they drew from his songs “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance”.  There is a really sweet line which translates to “although your voice which always sought the truth has been extinguished, your songs will never be silent”.  They spliced in a bit of “Imagine” itself at the end over a refrain of “your songs still live”.  Two ways to interpret this- both of them good.  One- we Leftists know how to honor our own, and two- Lennon’s work was respected enough that a government which ordinarily restricted access to western work allowed a high profile tribute to him.  Either way, it’s a seriously cool event and a very sweet song.

     US imperialism- on the 1984 album "Das Buch" „The Book“ there’s a lovely song called der Angstverkäufer „Fear Salesman“.  This could be interpreted many ways (at least by my imperfect translation), but the core plot of the song is that a businessman “with the American flag on his hat” comes to a utopia to convince the residents they should be afraid, offers insurance policies against disaster, and eventually leaves the smoldering ruin of the town because there is still much for him to do.  I’m not sure if it’s mocking the increased use of American military power as “insurance” or not.  Genossin Sophie says that usury by American insurance companies in the Third World was a recurring theme in Communist messaging, so it could just be that.  Either way it seems to be an effective anti-capitalist message and a fun song.

     State repression – earlier in their career- which is significant because they weren’t as established then- they put out a song called „Ikarus“ with the aforementioned awesome bass track.  Its lyrics are a creative repurposing of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, to reflect well on Icarus as a standin for those who attempted to flee the border.  Lines like “He achieved nothing and was broken, but he was the first.  Many followed him, therefore his death is a victory” and the chorus “Soar, Icarus!  Fly us outta here!” make it pretty clear.  So, to recap, we have an awesome band, who seem to be pretty Socialist in their later work, releasing a rock song plainly critical of the government’s emigration restriction, and completely getting away with it.  They performed a similar feat in 1979, when, asked for a suitable single release for the country’s 30^th anniversary celebration, they responded with “Doch die Gitter Schweigend”, later exported in English as “Prison Walls are Silent”.  Title pretty much tells you what you need to know.

     Napoleon- on their 1979 album “10 Crazy Years”, there’s a song, with interludes in the style of 19^th century chamber music, about Napoleon invading Saxony, killing the local nobility, and violating Saxon girls.  On its face, this seems to be a simple “Napoleon was a prick” song, but the conduct described does bear a certain resemblance to that of the Red Army on its liberation of Germany.  I think we can all agree that while the Soviet Union deserves most of the credit for resisting and eventually saving the world from the Nazis, their military’s conduct in freed territories, particularly towards women, was often reprehensible, and if this song is reflecting that, then it’s yet another example of the Puhdys getting a significant critique of the Soviet bloc subsidized by their government. 

     Abuse- Schattenreiter “Shadow Rider”, the title track of their 1981 album really reminds me of the Furies of the Oresteia.  In it, Maschine and Quaster are mocking an abusive father who has finally begun to feel guilt, who has beaten his children, lied to his family, and done nothing to correct the injustices he sees in the world.  Noteworthy for how explicit it is, and just another example of the enormous range of topics the Puhdys covered in their songs, especially in the 1980s.

     Solidarity and shared communities- Karriere “Career”, Schöpfung “Creation”- these are excellent examples of underlying Socialist messages, despite the band’s obvious frustration with the more repressive elements of the DDR.  Karriere calls out the failure of a man who ignores his comrades in favor of sucking up to superiors, doing things only with concern for money and advancement, “climbing over bodies” for his career, knowing no friendship or camaraderie.  This strikes me as an excellent cautionary tale designed to reinforce the need for a collectivist ethic, and I like it very much.  Schöpfung is just a great, hard rocking Commie environmental anthem, calling for sharing the earth, and looking to the future instead of short term profit as individuals won’t live out a century, let alone forever, and the earth doesn’t belong to anyone alone.  It also builds a hopeful narrative of progress, at least towards the beginning (I think- remember I’m not fluent)

     Frei wie die Geier- this is the most worthy of mention.  In 1997, the Puhdys released this as the title track of a new album.  It means “As Free as the Vultures”, and blatantly denounces a (newly westernized) society that abandons the hungry, blindly follows religious orders to hate any difference, and applauds wars of conquest and slaughter.  Quaster sings that we’ve gone back into an ice age, and are circling the Dead Sea.  It’s hard to call our society out in stronger terms, and this is a fine Socialist critique of our (western capitalist) cultural norms in general, and of the annexation of East Germany in particular- VEB systems were privatized, women’s reproductive and employment rights stripped away overnight, unemployment became a part of the economy, and cities like Rostock that strongly supported Communism were deliberately penalized by the Western government.  Germany seems to have a pretty strong welfare state, but it makes sure to discourage EU applicants from doing the same, and they didn’t even have a minimum wage until this year!  With these and other problems in mind, listening to the music of the Communist past is a fun way for me to gauge and ponder what has been gained and what has been lost by the annexation of the DDR, and which of its achievements should be remembered.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Genossin Elise

Edit- Just decided to double check the lyrics to "Schöpfung"- it's "if man doesn't break the wonder apart", not "for man doesn't live more than a century"

Publicly run daycare options

Hello again.  I thought I'd take this up, and see if I could reach any of you (obviously wonderful) folks who read me all those months ago.  This is a piece I wrote last Fall, need to rework it a bit, but the basic issue comes back to how we apportion housework in general and childcare in particular.  Essentially, our society puts the burden of domestic work on women, and assumes they will accept it.  The United States doesn't really have any universal alternative to one parent (read- the mother) staying at home for the first 3-5 years of a child's life, because daycare is expensive and of inconsistent quality.  I'm not saying it's always bad, just that we don't have a system to guarantee childcare out of the home to all families who need it.  This disproportionately affects women, who suffer social consequences whether they stay home (and be labelled parasites if they receive assistance) or work (and be labelled selfish), and being exploited either way.  We've seen all over Europe that one of the best ways to get more women into the workforce, and further reduce inequality, is by using the state to collectivize the burden of childcare, so all women have a legitimate choice other than staying at home with young children.  Many may still choose this path, and that's fine- this is just meant to provide maximum freedoms of choice in economic matters.

Daycare Needs to be Provided by the State

                One of the most pressing challenges for the modern family in today’s economy is balancing work with child care.  The United States lags behind the developed world in that we provide very limited childcare assistance, only serving 5% of children under 5 years old.  In our society, women still shoulder the bulk of the burdens of child–rearing, meaning that in a society with no guaranteed daycare, women are being kept from choosing to participate in the workforce and contribute to productivity.  This leads to an underutilization of labor potential- Only 64% of American mothers with young children work outside the home[1], while over 80% of Finnish women do so.  This puts the U.S. at a disadvantage with underused labor potential, and contributes to a limiting of women’s options.         

Finland doesn’t begin compulsory schooling until age 7, but guarantees childcare in a system of non-mandatory kindergartens, some public and some private/subsidized[2].  Rates are assessed on sliding scale of income, and tempered with subsidies.  Costs are capped at less than $4000  per year (equivalent), compared to average cost $10,000 per year in United States, and only 15 percent of the total cost is assessed to parents.   Since the implementation of this policy, Finland has achieved 97 percent enrollment among 6 year olds, with 60 percent total enrollment among children under 7.  Furthermore, the class sizes are tiny, with the legal limit set at one adult for seven 6 year olds, and the ratio of adults: children increasing as the age of the children decreases.  Each municipality sets its plans to implement the national core curriculum, and the caregivers must be either teachers or licensed nurses.  80 percent of mothers with children over 3 are working. 

Childcare costs also preclude equal workforce participation.  Akiko Oishi has documented the dilemma of high costs namely that to be an efficient choice, the cost of childcare has to be less than the income of the lower-paid parent.  Japan meets a problem in this regard as its tax code penalizes married women who work full time, but offsets this with a relatively generous childcare subsidy.[3] 

                The subsidized private model that has worked in Japan has not achieved its end in the Netherlands.  In 2004, the Dutch government deregulated their childcare sector, switching over to a voucher system for “child-minders”.[4]   National inspections in 2010 and 2012 showed these newly-deregulated child-minding facilities underperform compared to traditional daycares in both physical condition and attentiveness to their charges.[5]  The National Daycare Trust concludes that child-minders offer second-class care, with discrepancies in aggression, anxiety, language skills, complexity of play, and socialization growing between minded and preschooled children.[6]  Aside from the poorer childcare, the system fails to meet the goal of increased participation of women in the Dutch workforce, with no resultant increase.  A market-based system that lessens childcare quality while leaving mothers’ employment unchanged is not the answer. 

                Encouragingly, the U.S. has the skeleton of a government-run daycare system.  Head Start, established during the Johnson administration’s Great Society, serves a million children a year with federally funded, locally run daycare/preschools along with nutrition and health assistance.[7]  This will form the core of any properly expanded, universal childcare program for the United States.  Head Start for all who want it would be a good next step.  Expand the program gradually, raising the eligibility maximum as full enrollment is achieved.  The many advantages of such a plan include wider access to vaccinations and preventive pediatric healthcare improving the lives of American children, and freeing up larger numbers of parents, especially single mothers, to further their education or participate more fully in the workforce. 

                Universal, state-run childcare is a needed option for working families, and for societies meaning to fully develop the potential of mothers.  The future of children and the economy is too important to be left to private vendors.

This system works- we just need to adopt and expand it.  We pull this off, and we'll have a stronger workforce, more financially independent women and all the freedoms that brings, and better educated kids.  

Solidarität, Genossen und Genossinnen- I'm back, I think

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[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics , US Department of Labor.  Employment characteristics of Families Summary.  August 26th, 2013.   http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm

[1]

[2] - Early Ed Watch Blog, Mead, Sara, December 15^th, 2008 http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2008/how-finland-educates-youngest-

children-9029.  “How Finland Educates its Young People

[3] Akiko, Oishi.  The Effect of Childcare Costs on Mothers’ Labor Force Participation.  National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Tokyo, 2002 p. 1

[4] Daycare Trust National Childcare Campaign.  Childminders in the Netherlands.  Policy Briefing, May 2012.  http://www.daycaretrust.org.uk/data/files/Childminders_in_the_Netherlands.pdf.  p. 1

[5] Ibid, p. 2.

[6] Ibid, p. 4.

[7] Satkowski, Christina. Head Start and State Pre-K: Competing, Collaborating and Evolving

Early Education Watch, - September 8, 2009.   http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2009/head-start-and-state-pre-k-competing-collaborating-and-evolving-14411