Comments by "Holger P." (@holger_p) on "The Present Past" channel.

  1. But keep in mind, it's mainly commercial and advertisement, that made the difference. Of course were was no ultra-wide coca-cola sign anywere. With parks and flower pots, they could compete. Just colour, the real literal paint liquid, was a valuable resource.
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  2.  @TrixRN  On university teachers, aka professors you are right, but it's more all the economists, philosophers, historians, all the subjects with political influence, not in nature science. Math professors could stay. If you talk about teachers and school years, people think on elementary and junior high. I think that's just a missunderstanding. A Professor is not called a teacher in german, and a university is not called a school.
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  3.  @lynnhubbard844  cause nature science teachers could stay. It's simply a wrong information, they were all fired. There were also no change on elementariew. Where should a replacement come from ? It's simply impossible.
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  4.  @lemsip207  No, it was never closed again, with "opened" people mean, you could pass at checkpoints with showing your passport, just as on any other international border. This was abandoned due to spring next year or so. The date of reunification was pretty meaningless on everydays business. It's more the end of east-parliament and all east german laws. It's the change of law-date, which isn't effecting daily life very much.
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  5. You can do it fast and painful, or slowly adaption. People wanted, and practized speed. THey were not patient. And I think it's the only possible way, It's a naive idea to believe, they could have kept the skilled workers for years in old slowly upgrading factories, without moving to the West and getting jobs there with better payment. I don't think there ever was a East-West-competition. East had lower wages and produced cheaper, that's all. Wages raised, advantage gone, industry dead.
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  6.  @projohn123  There are no business owners in East Germany. And something like the ban of imported computers, lead to the very creative approach to build you own. The make or buy decision was no decision. Buy was not possible, so you had to make it. Now the expectation was, to combine skilled people with new ressource to produce better results. But we cannot forget, also the computer industry in westgermany, and the shoe industry, and the textile industry, they all went to asia in the 90ies. It was the begin of globalization. And these two things coming together, kind of broke the neck.
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  7. Really a stupid question, sorry to say that. Of course you can go and see all of Europe. In Ukraine there is war - don't go there, this is an exception. You can find not-nice people in downtown Boston as well as in Berlin, and I still would feel safer in Europe, cause nobody is armed. There are so many American Youtubers with travel reports, watch them to see how it is. Nobody got killed or robbed.
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  8.  @KLblk88  what a Nonsense. Of course a state has a right to give up souverenity and join something bigger. Texas did, for example.
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  9. No, this is just refering to a point in time, people have an idea how long it is ago, how old they have been, etc. It helps people understand how long it is ago, what 33 years mean, he continues "it's a generation". If you dilligently search for things to be insulted, you will always find some of course.
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  10. You seem to refer to a time in the past. Since 2020 ties to Russia are definitly broken. But before: Why not ? For what reason you should avoid Russia ? It's a country that was invaded by Germany, and to say "OK, let's now be friends again" is just a good result. Of course, most recent connections are econonmy based. It's like the relation from US to Saudi arabia.
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  11.  @adrianbaron4994  yes, but still, saving money was simply not necessary, maybe something to pay the next car. It were mostly no noticeable amounts. But they needed to do something, not looking like expropriation. From income around 1000 Mark you couldnt save as much as from 3000 in the West, over 20-30 years. And there was only exactly one way to " invest" money. Savings Accounts. No stocks, no shares, no houses, no Gold, nothing.
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  12.  @KLblk88  No, the population urgently required this unification. They did not realize all the effects you mention, like people loosing jobs. People had their own free will, and people were stupid. It's as simple as that. Don't know why you say "even in economics and politics", of course they had to go first, whatfor you should need economic professor unable to explain capitalism unbiased ?
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  13. IT's more a lack of responsibility for your own life. There was always somebody external taking care of. "adapting to freedom" is something like "organize your pension fond on your own". This is where people struggle.
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  14.  @Lilly3oo4  No, that's too superficial. How do you explain fashion or "trend setter" otherwise ? People copy each other, want to be alike, form a social group. That's normal social behaviour. To be different, is considered crazy and about 5% of people dear to do it. You cannot change the psychology of humans from outside. But you can discribe communism with this approach: Communism turns, what 95% of people want, in what 100% of people have to want, and the 5%, who want to be different, suffer.
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  15. No US guy will understand the difference. For them, todays Germany is socialist, cause they have health insurance.
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  16.  @jutswheezie  What would change if the wall would be re-established? Why do you want it ? All the refugees going to west-germany only, and east-germany closing borders like Poland ? The rotten streets you might have found also in Bavaria in 1960, and they were repaired with tax-money from Bremen. So what. Anything wrong with the democracy ?
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  17. People, skilled workers were kept in place. Nothing else. Currency is meaningless outside capitalism. There was nothing like an exchange rate, just a black market trade in about this measure. The west german buy-out of apples and bread was not really harmful. It mainly was food-only, maybe a haircut.
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  18.  @SakakiDash  yes, but if you expect this repair, this will never happen. You will get close, but never catch up.
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  19.  @juozassakavicius4726  First, nobody left, there was an iron curtain, and it developed in different speeds on either side. Second, it's impossible to catch up. You can do investments to create jobs, but it will be always affiliates of something outside. Same as no German competitor is able to catch up with google. You have google in Germany - but it's not German. So the pride, to have something of your own, is not coming up. It's only a mental problem.
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  20.  @projohn123  No, the disparity has completly other causes. That's the case for all communist systems. It's a leak in Marx' Theory. The communist theory is, how to convert from capitalism to communism and keep it. It's missing innovations. Inventing new products is not part of ideology, or society or whatever. What was missed, was the capitalist idea of "OK, let's try it, let's take a risk, if we fail, we go bankrupt". That's the drive for new products in capitalism. If communists just keep a state, they will go well for 20-30 years, but then it will show up, the capitalists got newer products. Communist economy is demand driven in theory. It fullfills peoples needs. So to invent a smartphone, it would have been necessary, a major part of population would say "folks, go and invent some handheld device to do things". This would never happen, of course. Creativity doesn't work demand driven.
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  21. A country, with pseudo election resulting in 99% agreement, it's at least not democratic. And leaders who stay for lifetime, this is more like a dictatorship. We do not exclude the benevolent dictator. Nobody was feeding - that's just Nonsense. Maybe sunflower oil or melons, things that don't grow up north, were imported.
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  22. There were dutch persons ? And you know the video is historic. Do you also have messages for Nero ?
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  23. No, it's reality.
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  24. It's more, some realize it happens once a year, others talk like it happens daily. It's crime, not culture, calling it culture is racist.That's the point.
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  25.  @thecursed01  Do you invent those numbers, and how do they relate to culture, there is no culture dependent statistics. Child abuse are "cases reported". Today many 60 year old people speak up and say "I was abused in 1970" or so. This appears as case of 2015. You have to know how statistic is made, to read it correctly. Sensibility for these topics has increased, people report more, it does not happen more. In year 2000, a women touched on the bosom, just goes away, today they report rape.
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  26. "Getting civilized" is a too hard word. Civilisation was done 6000 years ago. They were not cannibals. And development just took another direction, it's not they haven't done anything. Even education was great, just not education about democracy. But that's normal. In Church you also don't get told Darwins theory.
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  27.  @KLblk88  You describe correctly what happened, but it was the free will of the people, completly democratic. If people harm themselve with their decision, it's allowed in democracy. That's about the first thing they had to learn. They are self-responsible for what they do, and what they vote does have a result. Some haven't understood this concept until today.
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  28.  @KLblk88  i have no idea what you are talking about. I was talking about germany beeing split in two parts amd reunited. World did call crimea 2014 beeing occuppied by russia a million times. People in crimea did not wanted to join with russia. After beeing occupied, and offered tripled income, they said ok. It's a wrong order. Agree what already happened vs enforce to let it happen. West germany checked all options to avoid fast reunification. They they hadn't seen any. They were afraid to be overrun by eastgermans. There was absolutly no drain from crimea towards russia.
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  29.  @TrixRN  so it was in germany. (It's called 2+4 negotiations if you want to Google). If something formerly United, is externaly divided by usa and russia, it's easier to reunite.
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  30. Were was both, the wall around the West-Part of Berlin, and another splitting the country, not really a wall, more a set of fences. But you know, I'm east German, I couldn't even go close to the border, I also thought were was a wall to West-Germany, I learned later on, it wasn't made of concrete. But however, that's just a term, to call it wall or not. Let's call it the iron curtain. And this went from Denmark to Turkey splitting Europe ! Your story of the republicans never arrived in Germany, and nobody relates anything with Reagan. Except he gave the last big speach of an us-president, before the wall came down. I rather think, foreign policy is not so important to Americans, most just don't care.
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  31. But it dropped drasticly after 2005 to 5% or so. Mining was widely kept, except for some salt mines. Unions never existed (or just formally). People don't strike for higher wages in a communist regime. There is no inflation, by definition, if prices are fixed. Union did care for bungalows for vacation .... ;-)
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  32. Germany was founded 1871, so your terms do not make any sense at all.
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  33. But you are the fascist, if you conclude from a few people to all people, don't want to pay for them, put them in camps (behind a wall). That's an originated right wing mindset, solving problems by behaving inhuman.
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  34. But with less effect, cause they didn't understand a word. I can also pick up TV from the philippines today via internet, but I have no interest.
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  35.  @ktipuss  And "many" is less than "all". So what's wrong in my statement ? But the idea, the czechs are watching west-german tv, to watch hollywood-movies in German is really new to me. Foreign language is still exhausting. You don't really do it for your entertainment.
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  36.  @ktipuss  You information was only "they were able to receive it". Not how much they used it.
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  37. That's just your missunderstanding of terms. Communism never ever existed anywere on earth, it's a dream. The country was not democratic, this does not mean there is a dictatorship. At least there is no dynasty or personal cult, like you know from North corea. Do you apply the "dictatorship" also to China ? That's about what it was in East Germany.
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  38. Sounds like this all happened long before the wall was built (1961) and is not really based on German separation. Influence from the communists in the 50ies was probably pretty low in this short time. But of course, communists existed in the 20ies and 30ies and this must be the time of their parents. And "not anti-Nazi" is not "pro nazi", it's more ignorant. Since entire population was kind of involved into something, you cannot hate 90% of your neighbors for their past. Attitude was more "what happened, happened - now lets's start all over". And don't forget the brainwash by the Nazis, it's not so easy to revert. The historic processing came later, more like 1965-75, with some distance and the next generation.
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  39. Yes, but they were 80+, to sick for the court and died short after anyway. You have to remember, they didn't infringe any laws, it's hard to sue somebody, for doing nothing criminal. You cannot apply the law of one country, to actions in another country. You have the "court of human rights" for this case but this was not applicable. "tyrannic" is also a too hard word. Prohibiting people to start a private business is not really tyranny. Or telling them "you are not allowed to go to Paris". It's discomfort, that's why people could stand it 30 years. It's little annoying somethings piling up.
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  40. Beeing something, is never discrimination. Something you might have got, or expressed wrong.
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  41. Yes, but most often there is no geographic line, dividing groups of people. This is not separating rich from the poor.
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  42. Of course it was rough times, but it all came out well, there was no better blueprint how to do it. You talk a bit like BMW or Bosch establishing plants in the east, is harming west-german econonmy ? That's nonsense. Today it's Tesla and Intel with subsidies. So this is not an east-west topic. You try to attract people with money, wherever they are from.
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  43. maybe "starting her political career" was the meaning.
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  44. If you remove "Germ" you get "any". If you make silly jokes, at least make good silly jokes.
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  45. Well described, the only topic people really complained was travelling. Of course you could go see Prague or Budapest, but people know there is also Vienna ....
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  46. Don't call them refugees, it's dislocated persons, and since many big cities were destroyed also people in todays germany were moving, or living in barracks or shelters. People didn't care where they are coming from. Everybody was on the move. All statistics were done by historians afterwards. Maybe the meaning of your numbers is in relation per capita. 38% of the dislocated people, moved into an area, where only 20% of Germans lived. In an eastern village with 100 people, were came 30 people, in an western village with 100 people, were came 10 people, in total you have more western villages. So the concentration in the east was higher. But most often it didn't feel as kind of "refugee invasion", people just moved to family and friends if possible. And don't forget, 12 million people died in war and holocaust. The 12 million people moving, only filled the gaps, they didn't cause any population grow. In the village with the 100 people, there were 30 empty beds from people killed in the war.
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  47. In relation to this video, it's nonsense. What we call "the west" in this context, was established in 1945, before the term was unknown or had another meaning. The Romans rather occupied (no: developed) the South. About a horizontal Line roughly passing south of Frankfurt.
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  48. That's nonsense. People in need help each other. East Germans were more in need sometimes, that's all the difference. But in the West you see the very same thing, like after the Ahr-flooding. If you have no drilling machine, you can either go ask your neighbor, or go to the hardware store (or amazon) and buy one. If you have no hardware store, your only option is to ask your neighbor. This is enforded "beeing social-work together", it's not a free decision, there was no other option.
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  49. So, you talked with somebody leaving Germany in 1945 or so ? You could have also talked to a Brazilian about Germany. The idea of commmunists beeing bad, might be American influence. And the idea of you are a communist, cause you are born at a certain place, is just stupidity. (Merkel was born in the west, and father was a priest anyway - so simply complete nonsense). You know the Sudetenland was Austria-Hungary up to 1918, and czech republic since than. It's just a german minority outside of Germany. So my term "leaving Germany" is already wrong.
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  50. In Paris they call it the Metro. They must be very uneducated.
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  51. Yes, and I wouldn't even call it occupation. It was more an influence.
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  52. Don't blame anybody, otherwise, you take over right narratives yourself. 70% of East Germans are not Voting AfD and you talk like they do not exist. At the time of your comment, the 30% far right in Bavaria + 36% moderate right in Bavaria, have not been in your mind, probably.
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  53. So maybe your experience of the dutch or the German sound is wrong. how did you establish your knowledge ?
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  54. That's just temporary. Keeping up feelings of your youth is Nostalgia only anyway. Everybody has this I guess. Just Normally you don't find your youth back.
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  55. East Germans asked to get annexed, yes. Than it was annexed to fullfill their dream.
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  56. Very simple. It's not about Berlin. It's the number from entire Germany. You know russians came walking on ground, they didn't fly in.
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  57. If everybody around you is having the same life, it feels very normal. Imagine somebody would prohibit you, to go to the moon. That's about the "suffering" you had to go through. You know there is a place you can't go. And you just say "OK".
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  58. You should have told this somebody in 1989. Nobody knew what they wanted. They cried for west german currency. If they discover today, they were stupid .. OK, maybe.
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  59. There's also prejudice via New Yorkers and Texans, and that's not a topic to talk about. Or maybe you can compare it, with introducing something as Italo-American, even when in 4th generation. That's much more strange. As part of biography it's OK, to point out somebodies heritage. It's just unusal for you, a territorry is changing country .. without war, without people moving. If Korea would re-unite, in 20 years you would still talk about different topics with Koreans from north or south. It's a main part of identity.
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  60. No, there will be always smart people and stupid people.
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  61. So once slave owner, always slave owner ?
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  62. Do you want to keep a 200km long and wide stripe of death as a museum ? No, keeping a few hundred meters should be OK. Using land in a city is not really related to capitalism. Also the communists build houses ;-) And rather think on the wall, where you don't see remainders, like around Brandburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz. This was just all empty space. Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and empty sand as far as you could watch. American/British/French Embassy, Hotel Adlon, all built completly new.
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  63. But if nobody came and bought the factory, it went bankrupt as well. So where is the difference ? What's the other option ? Just donating money into a company, without the money having an owner ? Sounds strange. Like keeping up socialism with western tax money.
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  64.  @albertoballsybossa610  So you have an inner conflict between your emotions and logic. And obiously you are racist an xenophic, if you want to keep east german race and money clean of any outside influence. You can see the result of your ideal world in the czech republic. Doing OK, but took an eternity, and are still behind.
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  65. You exaggerate. Private home-ownership existed and was kept, public home-ownership went into the property of the municipalies, and partially are there today. State stopped looking after you, that's exactly what happend and what people weren't prepared for. Although this is exactly what they wanted.
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  66. This was more presenting the past, than showing something about "today still divided". Well, First they wanted a change, later on they complain, they had to change. That's a dilemma. But if the environment changes, the species have to adapt. Darwins law.
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  67. That's nonsense, Every wealth only comes by trade and exchange and cooperation. If people like to divide themselves into smaller parts, and one want to have green police uniforms, the other want to have blue police uniforms, this is nonsense, but that is what people want. You realize Czech Republic is also a "split" republic, same as croatia or so ?
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  68. No, some single people want to do cherrypicking and want something good back, but that's just naive.
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  69. Unbiased views might be impossible.
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  70. Why do you post this Nazi propaganda ?
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  71. Yes, everything that is produced in low numbers is an expensive luxury good. And since Jeans is representing the West, the capitalism, they weren't produced that much. As they started, they called it "riveted pants" just to give it another name. Cotton doesn't grow in Germany, for case you don't know.
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  72. But remember, it's the 70+ year olds, seeing old friends again. Most other people just had no relation. People in Germany hardly move, it's not normal to have related people 100 miles away. It changes today with easier transport and more mobility of course.
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  73. Nothing would have been different, if you just had ignored it. Cold war was more or less invisible. A threat happens in your head. It's the same as the threat of climate change, including the demonstrations today. Yes, you can have worries. But not 24/7.
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  74. That's complete Nonsense. There are not even rumours of people accumulating money somewhere. 80 year olds are not planning "future careers". Sticking to power: yes. They even cared for their people, just in the assumption, all people want/need the same. This went wrong over time. 80% were OK, 20% unsatisfied , cause people are individually different.
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  75.  @kingeling  If you say were was no health care or hunger, I just can't react differently. And having daily access to Bannanas or new cars, is far away from getting rich. Getting rich is meaningless in communism. You get everything wihtout any money, "power" is enough. You can take what you want, you don't need to pay. So why hording money ?
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  76. Getting rid of something is liberation, and contributing nothing yourself, beeing passive, is "beeing liberated". What other term you like to use ? There is no term less correct than feeling innocent. Entire right to Asyl, any incoming refugee today, is a result of feeling guilty. I think Germany is the best, maybe also the only country in the world, coping with their guilt and not hiding anything at all. Very slowly in the last 10 years, you hear kind of voices from Australia "what we did with aboregines wasn't right", they are catching up, but it's still rare in the world, to admit mistakes.
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  77. It only demonstrates, they were proud on their image. They invested in sports, for having no other output than gold medals. Today this is considered wasting money, but it could be reproduced today, if you want to spend the money.
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