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Berlin mit Berlin [B/B]
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Interview Transcript
2011
Translation/interpretation by Virginia Renalis and Natali Mahn
Günter Bormann
Lawyer of BStU (Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic)
[00:00-00:48] I think there are still differences. So, I’m fifty-five years old, for me the German division, East and West Germany, was part of my education, of my experience. But even younger people who are now twenty years, they are perfectly aware if they are from West or East Germany. We have a lot of young people here, in our federal agency, which do vocational training, they are twenty-years old, and I’d like to put some the question if I meet this group of these young people, “are there still differences between East and West?” And they’d say, “Yes, there are. Look, these three people, they are from the Western part, but that’s not a problem for us, we get along".
Frieda Bialas
Healer
[00:50-01:20] Wir wollten eigentlich noch hier auf die andere Seite der Mauer gehen und mal gucken, wer da so rumläuft und so, aber wir sind gar nicht mehr hierher, wir sind dann zurück. Und es ist heute noch so, dass ich sehr genau weiß, wann bin ich in West-Berlin und wann bin ich in Ost-Berlin. Ja, hier kenn ich mich aus, wenn ich natürlich auch nicht rüber fahr, dann kenn ich mich drüben auch nicht aus... Das ist auch die Straßennamen hier, weiß ich das relativ gut, aber alles was da ist, ich hab keine Ahnung wie die heißen.
We originally wanted to go to the other side of the wall and see the people walking around there and so on, but we didn't go there anymore, we then went back. And it is still the case today, that I know exactly when I'm in West Berlin and when I'm in East Berlin. Yes, I know my way around here, if I obviously don't go over, then I don't know my way around over there. Also with the street names: here, I know them relatively well, but everything that is there, I have no idea what they are called.
Frank Rieleit
Teacher
[01:22-01:34] Just look at who are near to me, once I meet people. And people who are near to me are mostly from the West, or from Western countries.
Uta Erler
Bank Employee
[01:36-02:04] If you see our children - my son is thirty, my daughter is twenty-seven. Both of them have connections to people which are living in the West, but their normal sphere is in the East. And I for myself would not prefer to live in the West. I don’t… I can’t tell you why.
Beate Schüssler
Teacher
[02:07-02:43] Ich denke, wenn man das langsamer gemacht hätte, erst mal das System so lassen. Ja, ich weiß ja auch nicht wie, aber erst mal so die Leute in ihren Kreisen. Man hat ja sofort angefangen die Betriebe abzuwickeln... Es gab eine Organisation, die dann die DDR-Betriebe verkauft haben. Und das ist alles an den Westen gegangen, haupsächlich. Die hatten kaun ne Chance selber zu sagen: "hier, wir möchten unseren Betrieb behalten oder verändern."
I think if you'd done it slower, leave the system like it was at first. Yes, I don't know how, but only the people in their circles. One immediately started to handle with the companies… There was an organization who then sold the East German enterprises. And they went to the West, mainly. They hardly had a chance to say, "here, we want to keep our enterprises or change them"
Martin Textor
Former Chief of Police Special Unit (SEK) in West Berlin
[02:45-03:12] Wir haben uns zusammengeschlossen und dann müssen wir auch für einander sorgen, das finde ich ist richtig. Aber ich sehe auch, dass in solchen Vereinigungen eben Probleme sind. Es gibt reiche Regionen und ärmere Regionen. Das muss man eben, wenn man zusammen kommt, muss man das ausgleichen. Wenn ich heirate, und ich bin reich, und ich heirate eine arme Frau, dann ist das das Gleiche; Dann bekommt sie auch Geld. Oder umgekehrt.
We have united and we must take care of each other too, I think that is right. But I also see that there are problems in such associations. There are wealthy regions and poorer regions. This you must, if one unites, you must compensate for that. If I get married, and I am rich, and I marry a poor woman, then this is the same thing; then she gets money. Or vice versa, yes.
Wibke Schüssler, Virginia Renalias and Roland Schüssler
Interpretor, and teacher
[03:14-03:46] Wibke Schüssler: They didn’t have the chance to develop by them selves or to…
Virginia Renalias: to decide.
Roland Schüssler: Die Frage ist natürlich, wollten das die Leute in der DDR. Der überwiegende Teil, die wollten eigentlich ganz schnell eine Angleichung, also einen Anschluss an die Bundesrepublik. Die wollten also ganz schnell an das Geld rankommen, also ganz schnell, dass die D-Mark eingeführt wird. Und dem hat man dann auch gerne, damals die CDU-Regierung, gerne Rechnung getragen.
Roland: The question is, of course, did the people in the GDR want that. The vast majority, they actually wanted a fast assimilation, so a connection to the federal republic. They wanted to get money quickly, so they wanted the D-Mark to be introduced quickly. And they were happy, at that time the CDU government, to provide this.
Martin Textor
[03:49-04:48] I heard… I heard it in the radio. It was in the night, on the bridge in the north of Berlin. I heard in the night, thousands of East German peoples came to this bridge, and they wanted to come to West Berlin. And I looked television and heard radio the whole night, and the next day when I go to my work. First I said to one friend of me, “Look for a car, we go to this bridge” and we went there, and it was… it was like carnival. All people lie in their arms, and tears run down and… many people from West Berlin stood there and they came and they gave them money… “Buy something to eat” or “buy a radio recorder” - it was sensation, sensation to have in East Berlin.
Beate Schüssler and Roland Schüssler
[04:51-05:40] Beate: Wenn ein Gebäude im Osten ein Ausgang hat, ne Tür hat, und im Westen ne Tür hat, und welchen du benutzen musst oder so, nach dem BRT wirst du bezahlt. Ich hab neulich ne Urteil gehört, wo jemand da gestritten hat. Das ist ganz krass.
Roland: Das man glaub es nicht. Die Wende ist wirklich schon seit fast 20 Jahren jetzt, ne? '89, '99... Ja. Und trotzdem gibt's noch diese Unterschiede und das ist echt, geht nicht.
Virginia: ...building, über ein bürgeramt oder so was?
Beate: Ich weiß nicht um was für ein Amt es sich handelte. Es war ein riesiges Gebäude mit zwei Adressen: Ost, West.
Roland: Wenn diese Ungerechtigkeiten dann mal behoben sind, nicht, dann haben wir sicher ganz gute Hoffnungen, dass es alles besser wird, ne.
Beate: And sometimes it's... If a building has an exit in the east, a door, and a door in the west, and which one you have to use or so, you get paid for that BRT. I've recently heard a verdict where someone argued about this. That was pretty blatant.
Roland: You can't believe it, you know. The turn is almost 20 years ago now, right? '89, '99 ... Yes. And yet there are still these differences and it's, not possible.
Virginia: …building, at a local public office or something similar?
Beate: I don't know what kind of agency it was. It was a huge building with two addresses: East, West.
Roland: If these injustices are corrected, right, then we certainly have very good hopes that things will get better, you know.
Frank Rieleit
[05:42-06:13] I find from the friends we’ve got from the East, I find it’s a … Bereicherung... what is that? Enrichment? Enrichment. It’s an enrichment, because I met people, who are German, and who are, but, they are much different from us. And to understand how they think, and to understand how they grew up, that’s an enrichment for me. And I hope my history is enrichment for them too.
Gerd Danigel
Photographer
[06:15-06:52] Ich kenn leider noch, leider noch, viele Leute, ich gehört dazu, die... die Mauer nicht aus dem Kopf kriegen. Die ist nicht mehr materiell da, aber die ist im Kopf da. Und immer wenn ich von, äh, ob das zum Mauerpark ist... ist auf der Straße die Mauer eingezeichnet. Und immer, wenn ich mit dem Fahrrad in den Mauerpark fahr, dann, und ich überfahr diesen Streifen, dann fahr ich in den Westen. Ich fahr nach West-Berlin… Ja, immernoch im Kopf.
I know, I know, unfortunately, still, unfortunately still, many people, I'm one of them, who don't get the wall out of their heads. It is no longer physically there, but it's there in the head. And every time I, uh, whether it's to the Mauerpark, the wall is marked on the street. And every time I ride my bike to the Mauerpark, then, and I ride over this strip, then I'm riding into the West. I ride into West Berlin. Yes, still in the head.
