Re: [xmca] Berlin Wall

[David Preiss <ddpreiss@me.com>]

And maybe not with the older generations either.

Check this very recent video of Margot Honecker in Chile, which took  
refuge here along Eric Honecker  as a result of misunderstood  
reciprocity because of DDR solidarity with Chilean exiles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUJ92C-AKfQ&feature=player_embedded

This video was reported in the Chilean radio. In addition to sing some  
old DDR songs, according to the radio hosts she showed no regret but  
maybe the german speaking colleagues at XMCA may want to translate and  
correct me if they were inexact.

Alas, we not only welcomed nazis in Colonia Dignidad but also old  
Stasi patriarchs. Interestingly, some of those chilean exiles in the  
DDR have produced many testimonials about what it meant to them living  
their exile in a dictatorship of the opposite sign and how it ended up  
eroding what was left of their idealism, after the Coup.

On Nov 10, 2009, at 12:33 AM, mike cole wrote:

> thanks for the memories, bruce.
> I assume that there is no possibility of communicating with next  
> generations
> about this. And so it has always been? Or are there some
> optimists out there who can recount counter-examples? I hope.
> mike
>
> On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 4:49 PM, Bruce Robinson <bruce@brucerob.eu>  
> wrote:
>
> > Interestingly, tonight I went to a seminar on the fall of the wall  
> > and what
> > has happened since with five German speakers. One, an interesting  
> > character
> > called Gerd Koenen related that he was working with an American NBC  
> > news
> > team. He said that when the news came that the border gates had  
> > been opened
> > in Berlin, the Americans instantly believed it, while the Germans  
> > were
> > extremely sceptical and their news teams didn't appear on the  
> > streets until
> > a bit later. He also spoke about the different attitudes, with the  
> > Americans
> > thinking something like 'Hurray, we knew we beat communism one  
> > day'. Several
> > of the speakers talked about how far apart the two lots of Germans  
> > had grown
> > over the 40 years of the GDR.
> >
> > I was in Berlin at New Year 89-90 (as I was in 88-9 and 90-91) and  
> > managed
> > to get hauled up onto a bit of the wall just behind the Brandenburg  
> > Gate. I
> > also took a photo of a smiling young East German border guard looking
> > through a hole in the wall and talking to the people on the Western  
> > side.
> > There was also a clear presence of dissident slogans and  
> > organisations in
> > the exhibition area under the Fernsehturm on the Alexanderplatz. An  
> > amazing
> > atmosphere but also a feeling that nobody was really in control of  
> > what
> > would happen next, which led to the initiative falling to those who  
> > seemed
> > to provide the most immediate solution.
> >
> > Bruce R
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Whitson" <twhitson@UDel.Edu>
> > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> > Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 10:05 PM
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] Berlin Wall
> >
> >
> > I just saw a brief TV clip, which got me wondering:
> > > I don't know this in any scientific way, but I would not be  
> > > surprised if
> > > people in the USA are under an impression that the Berlin Wall  
> > > came down
> > > because of Ronald Reagan.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, 9 Nov 2009, David Preiss wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear colleagues
> > > > Does anybody know of a good poem to remember the (fall of the)  
> > > > Berlin
> > > > Wall?
> > > >
> > > > And / or the Stasi and the damage of / to the human soul?
> > > >
> > > > I was looking for some but was unable to find.
> > > >
> > > > 20 years is too early, maybe?
> > > >
> > > > Or, beyond the fireworks, did we already forget?
> > > >
> > > > David Preiss
> > > > ddpreiss@me.com
> > > > http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > xmca mailing list
> > > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > > Tony Whitson
> > > UD School of Education
> > > NEWARK  DE  19716
> > >
> > > twhitson@udel.edu
> > > _______________________________
> > >
> > > "those who fail to reread
> > > are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
> > >                 -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > xmca mailing list
> > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca

David Preiss
ddpreiss@me.com
http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/

_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca