GOODBYE LENIN

Life in Germany After the Collapsed of the Wall

Bintou Coulibaly

Comparative Politics

Professor Tavishi Bhasin

12/07/2019
 The movie Goodbye Lenin is one of many that gave us a chance to see the social and political

realities in countries like Germany. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the country was divided in

two (west and East). The democratic west that had the chance to benefit from western countries'

goods, development, and political ideology and the East that remained under a socialist

influence. I enjoyed watching this movie and learned a lot from it. It was very realistic, funny,

and shows us many aspects of people living in Germany before and after the collapsed of the

wall. It also shows us the importance of embracing changes. In this paper, I will be discussing

how the lives of ordinary people were different in the two democratic and authoritarian political

system. I will also discuss how people's lives changed in the country after the wall was taken

down. I will be focused on change made in the area of economy, food and lifestyle, and housing.

People who live or lived in divided countries face a lot of challenges. Challenges that continues

sometimes even after they are reunited. It is the case in Germany where people from the same

country had different rights, political systems, and lifestyles. In the authoritarian East, German

people had no freedom of speech, and freedom of protest. We can see it in some scenes

(11min36s to 14min47s) in the movie in which people were rallying for the freedom of the press.

Unfortunately, they were brutally beaten and pushed away by the police. Many people were also

arrested including Alex kerner. Another right that the people from the East also didn’t have was

the right to free elections. While in the democratic west people benefited from more freedom.

The economy also had an important effect on the life of the ordinary people in West and East

Germany. The one from the West had more job opportunities and was able to access foreign
goods and technologies while the people from the East were forced to do small jobs like Tv

repairer, teachers, farmers in order to survive.

After the wall was taken down, changes happen pretty fast and I think that it was due to the

willingness of Germans to ameliorate their lives. Changes happen in all aspect of people lives

because finally they were able to move around freely and access to the same goods. People in

East Germany were able to benefit from new job opportunities, technologies and goods from the

west. While westerners could move to East Germany and Start a new life. Economically, A

common currency was adopted to make transaction and exchanged easier. Unfortunately, it was

difficult to go through such rapid change. We can see that in the movie (1h08min09s) when Alex

Kerner and his sister tried to exchange their mother old currency to a new one but they couldn’t

because the deadline had past. East Germany was also able to benefit from the technological

advancement of the West.

When it comes to housing, because of the huge number of people migrating to the East the

government had to take measures in order to build more houses and shelters for those thousands

of people. Those people were also welcomed by Easterners that were willing to give them a

shelter.

Food and lifestyle were hugely impacted by the collapsed of the wall. People in the East could

now access to new tv programs and satellite. People found a new hobby which is soccer that

made the relationship between Germans stronger. One Country, one soccer team, one flag, this is

how the Germans were perceiving soccer. People could also have access to better transportation

(new cars coming from the West). Before the West and East side of Germany was reunited, the

people from the East could have access to only socialist made product (pickles, wine, bread,

honey). Later, they were able to access food brands coming from Holland and other European
countries. Food chains like burger king also implanted their franchises in East Germany. We can

see that in the movie when Ariane Kerner started working for burger king (19min20s).

In the second half of our class we had the chance to study the different types of dictatorship and

I think that the communist dictatorship can be applied to this movie. After the end of the

Germany’s Nazi dictatorship, the East part of Germany became a satellite country of the Soviet

Union. Where people had no freedom of speech and no right to a free election. They were also

no opposition to the government because they were all exiled or killed when they were

considered as traitor or enemies of the single party (socialist party).

In Conclusion, I can say that the collapsed of the German wall impacted the country

economically by giving the chance to the East part to develop. it also bonded the Germans in

many ways (like soccer), and free the people all around the country. Division is one of the worst

enemy of humans and through this movie we can see how much pain it can cause to a country.
 Bibliography

Good Bye Lenin. Directed by Wolfgang Becker. 2003. Germany: X Verleih AG, Film.