German Post 2 Abtreibungsrechten

Abtreibungsrechten sind in Gefähr- Frauen brauchen mehr Freiheit

 Here's a shorter piece, just added in as a bonus this week for our German readers.

Es gibt mehr als vierzig neue Gesetze gegen die Abtreibungsrechte in manche Amerikanische Bundesländern, die von der so-gennanter “Right to Life” Bewegung gegen Frauen unterstützt sind. Ich bin der meinung, dass aktuelle Abtreibungsregeln (Warten-Zeiten, Klinik Mindesgroße, und so weiter) ganz gefährlich sind, und Angriffen gegen den Menschenrechten Amerikanerinnen sind. Ich glaube fest, dass die Abtreibung immer greifbar sein muss, und einfacher durchzusetzen sein soll. Es ist ganz furchtbar für eine Frau der es nicht erlaubt ist, über ihren eigenen Körper zu entscheiden.

Diese Frage ist kontrovers, weil viele Religionsfanatiker wollen, das Frauen ihren eigenen Entscheidungen nicht machen. Diese Glaube ist am stärksten über Sexuelle Freiheit- diese Leute sind ganz erschrocken, dass Frauen Sex haben wann sie es wollen. Diese Frauenfeinde sagte, dass sie¹ will alle Fetusen geboren erlauben, aber die Mehrheit wählt für Kandidaten und Parteien, die niemals die Sozialkasse unterstützt, sondern eine Sparpolitik. Dieser Widerspruch ist, meiner Meinung nach, eine große Schande. Die Religiöser Gegnern Abtreibungsrechten sorgen nichts für Kinder, nur gegen Frauenrechten. Die “Right to Lifers” sind die gleichen Leute, die wollen, dass die Frauen nur in die Küche zuhause arbeiten, und niemals ihres eigenes Geld verdienen. Sie glauben, eine Frau muss ihrem folgen auf jedem Befehl folgen, um ein “Heiliges” Leben zu leben. Meine Parole darauf ist immer- Freiheit für die Frauen, und Freiheit von Religion.

Es ist mir wichtig, die Abtreibungsrechten zu unterstützen, aus manche verschiedenen Gründen. Zuerst gibt es in unsere Geschichte viele religiöser Kriege und Verfolgungen, und ich habe Angst vor alle religiöse-Gesetzen. Zweitens denke ich dass keiner für den Anderen entschieden kann, was einer mit seinem eigenen Körper machen kann. Es ist wahnsinnig, dass einem diese Menschenrechten verloren kann, wenn man nur Sex hat. Sex ist kein Grund, Menschenrechten zu verlieren. Drittens bin ich der Meinung, dass Kinder besser aufwachsen, wenn sie geliebt und anerkannt werden. Unverhoffte Schwangerschaften macht viele Probleme, wie zum Beispiel Armut und Schwerigkeiten für Kinder sowie Müttern.

Ich interessiere mich dafür weil ich weiß, dass die Gleichen Feinde die Frauenrechten hassen, auch mich verfolgen wollen weil ich Transgeschlechterin bin. Wir alle brauchen die Freiheit unseres eigenen Körpers, und die Religiosern in Deutschland so wie die Vereinigten Staten sind immer die Gegnern der Gleichstellung.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Thälmann vor Allen!

Vor Allen Thälmann !

Hi, Genossinnen und Genossen!  Trying something new today- I'm proud to present DGBFHTP auf Deutsch!  I'll continue with a regular post later tonight.

Edit- should add in some current news.  Since winning a majority of the seats with less than 40% of the vote (damn you, single member district system!), David Cameron has set out to massively reduce the already punch-drunk British welfare system, and now he is about to abolish the Northern Irish peace treaty that ended the Troubles.  Not sure what he hopes to gain from that- it is part of his plan to install a written Bill of Rights in UK law which is a good idea but going after a popular treaty seems poorly advised to say the least.  I'm very pleased with the SNP's showing (which admittedly also depends on the anti-democratic quirks of First past the post single member districts) they got over 95% of Scotland's seats in parliament with about half of the vote.  I'll analyze this all in n upcoming piece restating my positions on election design in a hopefully sexier, more concise manner than I've yet delivered.

Wisconsin is still in the grip of the Kochs- in a blatantly punitive move, the GOP legislature is cutting Secretary of State La Follette's staff by 2/3 and office space (for the state's records) by 9/10, primarily because La Follette is the only Democrat holding statewide office.  He also had the nerve to go on national television to talk about the punitive campaign being led against environmentalists in general and Tia Nelson in particular- Treasurer Adamcyk and AG Schimel have, in their capacity as members of the Commission of Public Lands, banned the staff of this commission from acknowledging climate change-whether they'll go as far as Florida did and declare acceptance of the science behind Climate Change to be a mental illness requiring psychiatric evaluation remains to be seen.

I'm also keeping an eye on the Labour Party leadership election.  More on that later but for now I can only say "Go Mary Creagh!".  Now on to the article.

      Wenn nur ein Wahlkampf anders ausgegangen wäre, würde so viel besser sein hätte. Die Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands hatte einen so guten, so mutig, so starken ein Vorstand in der späteren Weimarzeit, und es ist so nahe an seiner Ziel gekommen: die Rettung Deutschlands von Faschismus und Kapitalismus. Immer wieder für gewählt mit 100 anderen KPD Reichstagsangehöriger, der Kommunistische Partei worden von der Held der Arbeiterbewegung, Ernst Thälmann geleitet. 

      Ernst Thälmann bleibt ein ewiges Symbol des Deutschen Widerstandes gegen Faschismus. Thämann wünschte und behaupte immer, dass wichtige Betriebe der Arbeiterklasse gehören sollte. Er hat viele Streik-Aktionen geleitet, nach seiner Beteilung in der 1918 Revolution als er wider Willen Wehrdienst für Monarchie machte. Während der 20er Jahre, kämpfte Thälmann mit den Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands gegen den Freikorps und die NSDAP.

      Wenn Thälmann nicht ermordet wäre, würde alles ganz anders sein. Heute gibt es so viele Probleme, die seine Ideen gebrauchen. Thälmann würde nicht mit der Entwicklingshilfe sparen, sondern er benutzte die Wohl der Erste Welt, um alle ArbeiterInnen zu helfen. Strom würde auch wichtig, wenn Thälmann noch leben würde, aber es würde ganz anders verwaltet sein. Der Volkseigenen Betriebe Systemen würden noch zu dem Volken gehören, wie eine Mehrheit Berliner noch wollte. Es würde keine Debatte mehr über Kinderkrippen geben, weil Thälmann wußte und es noch wissen würde, dass es ist sehr wichtig, junge Muttern zu arbeiten zu helfen, um ihre eigene Unabhängigkeit, und die Entwicklung die Wirtschaft.

      Stellen Sie sich vor, wie ein Europa ohne den zweiten Weltkrieg aussehen würde. Es gäbe weder Massenmord noch Bombenangriffen. Thälmann wußte immer das Krieg sich am stärksten auf die Armen und ArbeiterInnen auswirkt, und würde Deutschland in eine friedliche Koalition mit dem Soviet Union gegen alle Rüstungsliefern und Imperialisten einreihen.

      Wenn Thälmann noch leben würde, würden einen neue Mindeslohn für alle ArbeiterInnen einräumen, und es würde auch Arbeit für alle geben. Deutschland leitet schon der Entwickelten Welt in Grüne Technologie, aber mehr muss getan worden, und mit Thälmann als Bundeskanzler, würde es so sein.

     Ein weitere interessante Frage ist ob die Vereinigten Staaten werden so großes ein Militär gebaut hätten wenn es de zweiten Weltkrieg nicht gegeben hätte. Es ist warscheinlich dass es noch schneller hatte passieren können, wenn Deutschland und Russland zusammen gearbeitet hättet, aber vielleicht nicht. Eine Welt ohne Amerikanische Imperialismus wäre ganz anders- Es hätte eine kurzerem vietnamischen Krieg, keine koreasichen Krieg, und keine Besitzungen im Nähen-Osten.

Thälmann würde so viele Problemen lösen, wenn er nur überlebt hätte. Und vielleicht, würde er diese Zielen erreichen, wenn die gebrauchte Einheitspartei zwischen die Sozial Demokraten und der Aktuelle Linkspartei passiert. Aber die Vision Ernst Thälmann lebt trotzem weiter.

Solidarität

German State Feminism since Annexation

      One could draw many parallels, superficial and meaningful, between the current state of the women's movements in Germany and the United States. Which is to say, both look to be in pretty dire straits if we look at the federal level. An examination of movement goals, politics, and political opportunities will reveal some meaningful differences, and show that by embracing bureaucratization, certain German feminist movements have been able to make great strides in regaining some of the protections lost when West Germany (hereafter the BRD) annexed East Germany (hereafter the DDR), and in placing women's rights firmly on the agenda at the municipal and state level. This analysis will be conducted through a political opportunity lens, and will show that bureaucratized “state feminism” is the viable future of the German women's movement.

      Barbara Epstein has thoroughly outlined a pessimistic view of the American women's movement which is far from inaccurate. She points out how despite feminist publicity of the unfair expectation that women perform household and childrearing labor regardless of whether they work outside the home or not, this “second shift” persists, along with increasingly successful attacks on reproductive freedom, lethargic action to improve protections against pay and hiring discrimination, and myriad other defeats.¹ On the same page she also highlights the role elite feminist theory has played in reducing issues in women's lives to the most abstract minutiae, segregated from any concept of relevance or applicability to women's lives or the activist process. She discusses the cultural successes the feminist movement has achieved, mostly spreading awareness of feminism as an idea which seems unlikely to die completely due to the breadth of its ostensible support, but has weakened politically since its heyday.² The parallels cannot be overstated- Epstein links the decline of the American feminist movement to the loss of the world's most prominent alternative to American hyper-capitalism: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The collapse of the DDR government was hastened by the same forces which brought Soviet Socialism down, and women's movements in both the United States and Germany have been hampered by the political discourse forbidding further alternatives. The German women's movement has adapted to this by bureaucratizing as has the American women's movement, but also has infiltrated both of Germany's mainstream leftist movements- the Greens (hereafter die Grünen) and the Left Party (hereafter Die Linke, or PDS when Professor Guenther was writing), which has borne notable results, particularly at the local level.

      Much of the framework for women's rights during the DDR's existence was laid decades beforehand- German feminists were extremely active in radical circles and in war resistance. Germany's greatest woman radical, Rosa Luxemburg was a crucial leader in the aftermath of the 1918 revolution until her martyrdom at the hands of the proto-Nazi Freikorps in 1920, and her writing led the new Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to embrace a detailed platform to undermine the influence of sexism on society, calling for public daycare, hiring protections and educational expansions which would have taken a meaningful chunk out of the “second shift” had they been implemented. Weimar Germany also saw the first organized forays of feminism into film, including the  first film with lesbian protagonists, “Mädchen in Uniform” (previously reviewed on this site) critiquing double standards of behavior and misogynist, natalist ideology. This free, critically thinking climate was one of the Nazi party's many targets, and the surviving Communist leadership seems to have felt a degree of solidarity with other Nazi victims- they would have little other reason to legalize homosexuality and conscientious objection to military service. Under the communist government of the DDR, women were able to make dramatic gains in the field of arts, especially in theatre with works like Franziska Linkerhand, and films like the Legend of Paul and Paula which concern themselves with the struggle of proletarian women in what was still very much a man's world, and music with Tamara Danz of Silly being the most prominent example of feminist rock musicians. Many male artists also devoted considerable attention to what are often considered “women's issues”- the Puhdys released songs about heroic single mothers, loathsome abusive fathers, the absurdity of some performative gender roles, and women's suffering in war zones, to name a few. The ultimate anthem of empowerment however, has to be Silly's “Mont Klamott”- a funky power ballad recounting the rebuilding of Berlin by its women- the “Trümmerfrauen” in the wake of World War II. This is important as evidence of what ideology the regime was willing to support, and as will be demonstrated later, the DDR was extremely supportive of women's personal and professional rights.

      Over the same period as American feminism's decline or abeyance, German politics have taken an increasingly hostile stance towards women's economic empowerment and reproductive freedom, actually starting considerably sooner in the early 70s as the Supreme Court struck down the Brandt government's modest reforms as unconstitutional attacks on religion. The 70s also marked the beginnings of modern globalization, producing a contest between progressive interest in state power over market abuses against the force of globalization making firms and their interests bulletproof. State power has shrunk just as women begin to access it, abetted by the conservative approach of putting some issues out of state reach.³

     Even aside from that, the fact that all German women now live under the BRD has been a major blow to their liberties. There were serious campaigns and mass mobilizations to legalize Abortion in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, bu none of them has yet achieved lasting success. The closest German women have yet come is in the early 70s, when the practice was legalized by the Willy Brandt government. After protests began, the supreme court struck the legalization down. Abortion has now been legalized for reasons of hardship, eugenics(!) health of the mother, or rape or incest cases. The solution was in 1995 to ban other abortions but only punish with mandatory de facto religious counseling⁴, and both public and private insurance is forbidden to cover abortion services. Finally, the dominance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has led to massive government subsidies to Catholic churches and organizations which conduct the shaming/counseling of women who seek abortions or obtain them without certain doctors' permission, even in heavily protestant or atheist areas. Bavarians have used their outsized influence through the CDU to ban doctors from earning more than 25% income from Abtreibung.⁵ While this is a gross violation of human rights, there have been positive developments arising on other fronts at the local level.

      A large part of the current activity of German Feminism is motivated by the desire to regain the rights women had under the Communist government, which were considerable. Among its highlights were a formal (though hard to enforce) ordinance mandating equal division of household labor, family policy that did not incentivize marriage, a full year of paid maternity leave, and guaranteed time off to care for sick children available to both parents, and an extra day off each month for women to deal with time sensitive errands and childrens' appointments.⁶ (This latter policy obviously contradicts the goal of equal division of domestic labor, but it sure helps more than having a culturally mandated second shift and no day off). Access to healthcare was also markedly improved in the DDR- birth control was fully available for free to single and married women alike, and abortion was also free and legal, if somewhat stigmatized,⁷ and the revolutionary Poliklinik model brought more people access to specialist medical providers than ever before. Culturally, single motherhood was not only tolerated but actively embraced by the state with several popular state-backed musicians both male and female producing songs glorifying their work and openly acknowledging their difficulties. Employment was more available than in the west, but glass ceilings were ubiquitous. Despite this, the DDR set a new world record in 1984 with 83% of women employed outside the home, compared with less than 40% in the BRD.⁸ The advantages of this cannot be overstated- employed women are more valued in a materialist culture, and also have the means to free themselves from abusive situations. Crucially, 90% of DDR children under 3 were cared for in state day facilities, compared to 3% of BRD children⁹. All of this would be destroyed overnight by the western government, whose lack of a minimum wage law until 2014 meant that it was not unheard of for women to be hired in the service sector for only 1 euro per hour¹⁰.

     The opportunity to act came about through great backlash among eastern women and some men at the loss of women's rights under the western regime. Organization efforts were primarily localized, and this arena provided the best opportunities following the legal mandate for each political unit of 10,000 or ore citizens to appoint a high level official as “Bearer of the Equality Objective” (hereafter Die Gleichstellungsbeauftragte, or GB). Nascent women's movements sought to cooperate with and in some cases supply this new leadership of state activism.¹¹ Gleichstellungsbeauftragten are generally tasked with ensuring municipal compliance with gender equality legislation, and for gender mainstreaming city policy- making sure it doesn't have a disparate negative effect on vulnerable populations as well as disseminating information on inequality as well as providing governmental advice and counseling to citizens seeking redress and direction.¹² This opportunity allowed for symbiotic institutionalization- many cities' women's movements became dependent on the political power of these new officials, who themselves relied on information, policy drafts, and activist support from these organizations to remain relevant, ensuring a steady stream of state funding for things like women-targeted job training and domestic violence shelters.¹³ Particularly in Rostock, women's movements' partnering with the local Gleichstellungsbeauftragte has contributed greatly to the resurgence of daycare co-ops, and was crucial in getting city funding for these feminist undertakings.¹⁴

     The leading organization in women's rights in northeastern Germany (at least as of 2005) was the Landes-Frauenrat Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (State Women's Council of West Pomerania), based in Rostock, seeking women's equality in politics, women's political participation, solidarity among women, consolidation of women's interests, improving the representation of women in media, business and politics, reducing long-term unemployment among women, and restoration of support for single mothers. They primarily use petitions and letter writing campaigns to engage at the legislative level rather than street protests, but with strong GB offices in both Rostock and the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, they've accomplished much, especially in the arena of funding for women's shelters and job training.

      We can see examples of successful bureaucratization in Germany, helped by a receptive political climate and elites in the east. The American feminist movement should look to our German sisters for inspiration of how to get back up after the most savage of punches, and look to work at municipal levels to gain access to the health care, childminding, and employment rights Washington would withhold from us.

Sources

Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009

Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005.

McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003.

1Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009., p. 376.

2Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009.P. 379.

3McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. p. 231.

4McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. , p. 232.

5McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. p. 235.

6Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. p. 27

7Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. p. 27.

8Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 30.

9Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. P. 30.

10Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 74.

11Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 37

12Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 38

13Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 40.

14Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. P. 75.

1931 Berlin's Gay Community and Their Message for Us

Concerning the film Mädchen in Uniform

I’ve noticed that nearly no one read my last piece on German culture, but my old post on German politics is my fourth-highest scoring one so far…  We’ll have to see how this one does!

                A thriving Gay community emerged in Berlin in the late 19^th-early 20^th century.  German law still condemned homosexuality, but many factors emerged making things easier for the culture to prosper.  Public crossdressing was even legal in Berlin, as long as you obtained a permit (ah, my lawful, lawful people- you can’t make this stuff up).  This community experienced a strong upswing during the latter half of the Weimar Republik years, further cementing Berlin’s reputation as the center of Leftism in Germany, which in turn led the Nazis to assign Göbbels to lead their campaigns there personally.  Wearing down the strength of the Left’s stronghold was critical to the strategy that brought the Nazis to power, and they of course succeeded.  But too often we forget how vibrant the Gemeinschaft (community) Berlin was with tolerance, creativity, and social awareness.  Among the important happenings was the first open foray of the LGBT community into film, which produced famous Gay influenced works like Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), but also produced the first film with lesbian protagonists, Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform).  It’s actually not at all as trashy as the name implies. 

     

 Mädchen in Uniform is a strong film about forbidden affection, and social disturbance in an unfeeling society.  

 It passes the Bechdel test (do two or more women characters share a conversation about something other than a man?) with flying colors- indeed there are no men in the film.  Briefly, teenager Manuela von Meinhardis arrives at a typically strict repressive boarding/finishing school, has all her books taken, and has a hard time fitting into classes and learning the strict regimen of bible study.  Fortunately, she is assigned to the dorm run by the one sympathetic teacher (who is if anything 6 years older than her charges), Fraϋlein von Bernburg, who believes the children do better if they trust their supervisors, and are in need of emotional support.  For this reason, and the kiss on the forehead she gives each girl, she is wildly popular among the students and unpopular among the teachers. 

After several tender conversations with Manuela, FvB begins kissing her on the mouth (which Manuela passionately returns in a cinematic first), and Manuela explains to her that she has become jealous of the other girls, that she wants to be with Fraϋlein von Bernburg alone.  FvB explains that she cannot make exceptions, but gives Manuela one of her petticoats, apparently as a token of their special affection.

After a successful school play, the girls are rewarded with spiked punch.  Manuela becomes drunk and loudly proclaims her love for Fraϋlein von Bernburg, and discloses the gift of the petticoat, resulting in her imprisonment and eventual suicide attempt, with Fraulein von Bernburg forced to resign over the scandal.

In this setting, almost any form of affection could be read as subversive, as it is defying the emotionless structure of the society in which the girls are confined.  The words schwul or lesbian are never used, but it is clear that the relationship between Fraϋlein von Bernburg and Manuela is forbidden for both its obviously lesbian overtones, and the mere presence of affection itself in a situation which prohibits it.  

To our eyes of course, glamorizing a teacher-student romance is not the best way of advocating for sexual permissiveness, and is troubling due to the power differential and potential for abuse, but the film seems to attempt to address this by making the age difference seem small enough to be inconsequential, and it’s easy to see this being part of the reason for Fraülein von Bernburg’s dismissal.  While this still renders the film somewhat problematic, let’s work with what we have here in discussing the film’s messages.

Early in the film we are introduced to the headmistress (or Frau Oberin) talking about the need for the girls to be emotionless to be good “Soldatenstochtern und, mit Willen des Gott, so wie Soldatenmutter”- Soldier’s daughters and with god’s will, Soldier’s mothers.  This is showing the goals of the militaristic state here, the investment in futureist terms, similar to Edelman’s Ponzi scheme as children must be produced for the welfare of the state’s military aims, but existing children, at least girls, are systematically undervalued as we see in the film.  People are only important in serving the state, which is interpreted here as either being or producing soldiers.  The message of individual love and fulfillment against a backdrop of a society striving to exist only for war remains powerful.

The question of “outing” can also be addressed by this film, even though it wasn’t to be employed as a tactic for some decades to come.  Manuela discloses her partner’s love for her publicly, resulting in tragedy for them both.  While many in the Gay community have used forcible outing as a tool to show straight society how much of its makeup is comprised of those it undervalues as well as to compel solidarity within the oppressed group, here it is played as a negative, only arising out of Manuela’s drunkenness.  This definitely puts the film in the less radical camp when viewed modernly, but we must remember that the cast and filmmakers had good reason not to expose their comrades- the Berlin Gay community would be marked for death within 18 months of the film’s release, while the author, Christa Winsloe emigrated and then died fighting for the French Resistance in 1944.

This brings us to a final point of the film- its optimism that Gays could eventually win acceptance and support from straights.  Towards the end of the film, during Manuela’s confinement, the other students finally decide to rebel, and go find her; whatever she and Fraulein von Bernburg have done they regard her as their comrade, and refuse to allow her to suffer alone any longer.  They find her clinging to the top of the school’s needlessly big, dramatic stairwell, about to jump.  Some run to pull her back over the top (spoiler- they succeed), while one rings the school’s alarm bell- an amusingly conformist gesture calling for help from the authorities, trusting that they will do something I suppose- and during this scene, Bernburg is telling Frau Oberin that what she calls sin is actually love in a thousand different forms.  At the end of this scene, both Bernburg and FO run to the site of Manuela’s attempted suicide and see what the repressive ostracizing has wrought.  In the film’s final shot, Frau Oberin, clearly horrorstruck at the damage done by her repressive policies, walks shakily away from the camera.  This suggests such a hopeful message, that those reinforcing hetero-patriarchy will eventually see reason, that human camaraderie can transcend prejudice and allow the LGBT community to live and love in peace, and homophobic laws and rules will be regarded as shameful attacks on human rights.

This was what the Berlin Gay community was thinking and saying in 1931.  Some 30,000 of their numbers would be murdered and hundreds of thousands more imprisoned in the coming decade. 

A friend of mine said it best- they made a movingly effective holocaust movie 18 months before Nazizeit began.  They just made the ending hopeful, and in so doing, inadvertently made the film that much darker to us now.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

Genossin Elise

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"

Landeswahlen, Volksbegehr, und Sparpolitik

Brief Update on German Politics

Hello, all.  I’ve got lots of thoughts on current German politics that are burning a hole in my brain, (wait, what?), and thought I could make a shorter post summarizing what I’ve been following from my distant seat back here in Missouri.  Some of it is actually quite encouraging, while some is disheartening or even sickening.

State elections- the federal elections for the Bundestag are approaching, set for September 2013, but many state legislatures held their elections last winter, offering some idications of the national mood.  The news was very mixed- my favorite party, die Linke/the Left lost some overall representation, but so did the Frei Demokratische Partei/liberals, the reprehensible and unprincipled business party who make it a priority to cut social services at every opportunity and to try to use Germany’s economic power to coerce privatizations in other countries.  The change was mostly in favor of the Greens, my second favorite party, and Neues Deutschland speculates that Merkel will probably have to change coalition partners- perhaps working either with the Greens or a sold-out SPD, as it seems unlikely that the liberals will have the numbers to give her Christian party a majority.  Two other footnotes in the returns- the Piraten Partei won their first state legislature seats in Berlin, while the neo-nazi National Democrats picked up a lot of strength, especially in the south.  the Social Dems are talking about banning the National Democrats, and I think they ought to: insofar as Germany constitutionally commits to banning fascist organizations from political power, the NPD certainly qualifies, and it ought to give the Verfassungschutzamt something to do other than harass union leaders, although they have been working to observe and infiltrate the Nazi Underground movement, an investigation lauded by the ND.

Energy- Berlin citizens have apparently succeeded in petitioning for an initiative (Volksbegehr) to establish a collective green power company for the city and surrounding regions of Brandenburg.  the only question remaining (as of my last reading of the ND) is when the election will be held, with the measure’s backers trying to get it on the September ballot.  (Initiatives are always handicapped by low turnout, so when possible they should be scheduled to coincide with bigger, sexier elections to take advantage of their higher turnout.).  Sadly, Merkel seems to be reconsidering her newfound opposition to nuclear power, and the ND ran a rather amusing editorial comparing her to the Simpsons‘ Mr. Burns.  Regulatory power is also under threat as Merkel, apparently as a favor to her weakening coalition partners, is allowing great numbers of Free Democrats to be installed in appointive office.  That can’t end well.

Sparpolitik und Privatisierung- the government is still pushing for mass privatizations and abolition of social services in countries with struggling economies- the most egregious ones look to be Spain’s airports and water systems.  The ND points out correctly that the status of East German Volkseigenerbetrieb after reunification offers a pretty strong case against wanton privatization- the record time and again is of increased price to pad some investor’s wallet while lowering the availability of vital service for citizens, but after all, if a government cares about its people, it’s promptly called Socialist.  (I happen to be a Socialist, but that’s beside the pointJ) 

It’s still my firmly held belief that the vital sectors of the economy- food production and distribution, energy, education, media, healthcare and transportation cannot be trusted to exclusively private hands.  Most of the western world (and nearly all the developing world) has operated with this viewpoint to one extent or another since the end of the Second World War, with generally positive results.  Now, insofar as Austerity „Sparpolitik“ seeks to revert Social Contracts to their pre-war, laissez faire state of indifference to human suffering and the evils of capital, the fruits of collective responsibility are threatened. 

Wenn ich ein Bürger Deutschlands war, wählt ich Links- were I a German citizen, I’d vote Left

Just a brief update, Danke sehr, mein Genossen und Genossinnen

Genosse Graham