1989/2009 Shaping Freedom

What makes the Wendekinder generation peculiar?

When the wall came down, this generation was between 12 and 25 years old and thus at the age in which one's political understanding takes shape. In essence it has had a dual experience:
a childhood or early youth in the GDR and then the experience of the Wall disappearing and of freedom, democratic revolution and societal transformation. This experience enables them to grapple with both systems, if they so desire. Sociologists also refer to this generation as the "Unadvised Generation" because when the Wall fell, they found themselves amid the upheaval of the entire East German society. Neither the educational system nor parents were equipped to orient the young people at this time. Therefore, they needed to find their bearings on their own. After the fall of the Wall, this generation could truly begin anew and determine their own course in a setting that offered many new possibilities.

How did this experience influence their understanding of politics?

There are sociological studies concerning adolescence and electoral politics that show that positive attitudes concerning socialism in the GDR greatly decreased at the end of the 1980s, above all among young people. This means that a large portion of them had a very critical and distant outlook on the political and ideological offerings of the GDR. I believe this critical position did not simply vanish after the fall of the Wall, but rather it shifted to target all politics in general. This applies above all to the decade of the 1990s. How this mindset looks today depends on which concrete experiences an individual has had since the Wall fell.

Acceptance or resistance?

If one is well integrated and has achieved some social advancement, his critical disposition towards the current system is minimized. However, if one has fallen on hard times and can't find work, as a rule he is disappointed in the system and develops a defensive stance. In this case one must differentiate between social groups.

How have the events of that time formed this generation's understanding of democracy and freedom?

Here it also depends on the personal experiences of the individual. If one has perceived and experienced dictatorship as such, for example, if he suffered discrimination at school because perhaps he had not taken part in several meetings of the FDJ, the GDR youth organisation, or because she was part of the church and as a result was forbidden opportunities for advancement, or if one was involved in a civil protest and was hence subject to reprisals - if one has had such a concrete experience typical under a dictatorship, democracy and freedom are perceived accordingly as positive and liberating.

But for many individuals the GDR also provided a very normal everyday life.

Right. In fact most people did not experience the DDR as a dictatorship at all. On the contrary, they saw it more as a poor country in comparison to West Germany. For them it's not about dictatorship, democracy and freedom but rather about social contrast: who earns what, who owns what, what is the standard of living - these questions prevail. And this is often still the case today.

What role does this generation play today or can it play in the future?

Today this generation holds key positions, or soon will; this means it is now a crucial generation. What role it can and will play, however, depends again on the concrete experiences of the individual: whether the person has developed a critical and distant disposition or a resistance to present-day responsibility or whether the experience has created engaged people who will play a part in today's politics and economy, and in other areas of society as well.