… und nur noch 5 Jahre, bis Mauerfall und Existenz der DDR gleiche Zeiträume umspannen. Die “Neuen Länder” werden wohl immer noch “Neu” sein, exotisch.
Etwa jetzt, vor 35 Jahren – Donnerstag, 9. November 1989:
Bin spät von der Schule nach Hause gekommen. Bis halb acht haben wir uns (so ne Gruppe üblicher Verdächtiger) die kurz zuvor veröffentlichten “Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit”, eine autobiographische Doku über den Prozess gegen Walter Janka, reingezogen (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Janka). Janka war Dramaturg, wichtiger Kopf bei der DEFA, hat die “Mephisto”-Verfilmung mit angeleiert … spannend.
Es ist ja nicht so, dass nix über den Osten geschrieben würde; im Gegenteil: in der jüngeren Vergangheit gab’s geradezu ne Flut an Büchern und Beiträgen. Flut ist halt auch das Bild, das strapaziert wird bei Migration – das Bildmotiv kann nun jede selber ergänzen. Unter den ersten Sachen, die je über den Osten erschienen sind, war dafür auch viel Mist – manchmal in der heiteren Variante der Komödie. Grit LemkesKinder von Hoy allerdings ist nunmal ein Buch, das ich irgendwie auch bewohne, ohne jemals in Hoy gewesen zu sein. Trotzdem kenn ich mich darin aus, und es fühlt sich mal gut an, sich in einer Bücherwelt auszukennen, sich mit-erzählt zu wissen, buchwürdig, mit allen Tugenden und Untugenden, sie halt das Leben ausmachen. Ich hab’s noch nicht durch, aber zusammen mit Kairos von Jenny Erpenbeck sind das nun endlich mal angemessene literarische Versionen des “Ostens”. Kairos sehr allegorisch und episch, und Hoy halt Hoy, eher proletarischer Stil. Und so muss det och sin.
By the earth that, sacred, carries and feeds me By the water that, sacred, flows movement into me, By the air that, sacred, breathes fire into me, I make this vow
Gogo, it would have been your 100th birthday today. Well, as far as I am concerned: it is, regardless where. Happy 100, gogo Annemarie and your twin Lilo!
I haven’t devoted much energy to this blog lately, yet it is about time a major change in our lives finds some representation here: the birth of our daughter, Lilo Chikondi. A year and a half after our wedding, she joined us here and has been growing her very own personality since.
This morning my wife, from Malawi and still somewhat disappointed by the German government that doesn’t give us the Monday off, asks me: “So this is your Independence Day?!” Uhmm, I’m from East Germany, that got me thinking. Isn’t it rather Dependence Day? … Now, I intend this ironically, in all seriousness! 😉
Actually, I get the sense that this 30th anniversary is more meaningful: I think we, as East Germans, are becoming who we are. I find it is noticeable, especially these days, and it feels healthy. Less victim of circumstances and world history, more confident.Wir sind der Osten is just one of the shapes this has taken.
This goes back to a Facebook nomination chain post, which I shall simply replicate here. Now, since I’m somewhat unruly, I did provide commentaries (contrary to the request), but refrained from nominating anyone – I’m actually not a big fan of these requests and I usually opt out from them.
So, if you like, see ten of my favourite travel pics. It’s not a top ten or anything, just a start in roughly chronological order. In this recap, I made it up to 1994. Now that’s a few months ago, so to say, and I reckon I’ll do this “10 choice pics” thing more often.
Number 1/10
1988, Kaluga – then Soviet Union, now Russia. As the East German schoolkid that I still was, I had sucked up the slogans about our “big brother”, the Soviet Union. “To learn from the Soviet Union is to win” (Von der Sowjetunion lernen heißt Siegen lernen). When I went there at the end of the eighties for a one-week school exchange trip, I saw actual poverty for the first time, and even the family I visited, who was not poor, lived way below the standards I was used to. I saw beggars for the first time of my life, in Moscow. And yet, there was the Perestroika going on, Michael Gorbachev’s reform movement. For us East German teenagers it was almost shocking to see, and as the relationships between the East German government under Honecker and Gorbachev started to sour, they were refreshing. The slogan in the picture calls upon on Kalugans to put all their strengths into the Perestroika, more Democracy and economical reforms.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a married man! My partner Chimwemwe “Chimz” and I got married on Valentine’s Day this year. Four and a half years ago we first met at Lake of Stars in Malawi, stayed in touch, met up when I travelled Africa in 2017. After that, Chimz would come to join me in Jo’burg as often as was possible (here and here and here), and we’d travel quite a bit through Zim and Zam (here and here), and of course through her homeland Malawi, last in September 2019. Two trips to Germany later (here and here and here), we’d made it happen – against all odds. For us.
We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and now that we’re happily married it may seem strange to go back to all those obstacles that were raised by one authority or another, by all those snide remarks that were thrown at us, racist micro aggressions which people here in this country are still largely unaware of. Although some of my friends avoided the trouble of getting married here in Germany and went to Denmark where things are easier, I didn’t want that to become a wedding tourist. I find as a citizen of this country I can expect service delivery re what the laws entitle me to get. I didn’t want the local authorities to get away with making it sound difficult. I wanted to make them work for us!
