After the end of World War II, Germany, which was once again a defeated country, was occupied by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in accordance with the Yalta Agreement and the Potsdam Agreement. On May 23, 1949, the occupied territories of the United States, Britain, and France merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany. On October 7th of the same year, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet-occupied area in the east. Since then, Germany has officially split into two sovereign states.
The story takes place in a small town on the border of East Germany. However, what is curious is that the family of the male lead seems to be rich and happy, but why they still escape with one heart? What is the reason behind this that prompted them to make such a trial. Risky choice?
This starts with the division of East Germany and West Germany.
Under the historical conditions that the world has formed a bipolar confrontational political structure led by the Soviet Union and the United States, Germany is divided into two and belongs to two sharply opposed political systems, socialism and capitalism.
It is indeed a country that produced Goethe, Bach, Beethoven, Markant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Leibniz, Heidegger, Weber, Einstein, etc., only a few years after the war, East and West Germany respectively made brilliant achievements that attracted worldwide attention in the devastated war ruins.
First look at East Germany: under the leadership of the German Socialist Unity Party (formed by the merger of the German Communist Party and the German Democratic Socialist Party after the war), less than five years after the war, that is, in 1950, industry returned to its pre-war level. Among them, the productive national income continued to quadruple from 1950 to 1970, with an average annual growth rate of 7.2%. It once ranked among the top ten industrial powers in the world, and became the country with the highest level of economic development and the highest quality of life among Eastern European countries. A country with a population of less than 17 million has created such a miracle, which is praised by the world. Therefore, it was once called "the showcase of socialism" by Soviet leader Khrushchev. The comrades of the "Brother Countries" delegation who came to East Germany to see such a modern factory building, magnificent assembly lines, and sophisticated equipment all expressed their sincere admiration. If a mainland Chinese arrived in East Germany in the 1970s, he would be amazed that this is ideal communism.
By the early 1980s, although East Germany’s national economy and national income had begun to show negative growth, the results published by the World Bank’s 1982 World Development Report showed that the GDR’s gross national product was 156.2 billion US dollars in that year, with a per capita GDP of 400. The US dollar ranks 89th in the world and 1st in socialist countries.
Let's look at West Germany (Federal Germany): In less than five years, that is, in 1950, the industry in the Federal Republic of Germany also exceeded the level before the war. From 1950 to 1965, a total of US$228.1 billion was invested to promote rapid economic growth and maintained the "Rhine Miracle" for 15 years. From 1950 to 1965, the average annual total import and export volume increased by 13.3% and 15.8% respectively. The volume of trade in 1965 was 8 times that of 1950. In the early 1960s, the gross domestic product of West Germany surpassed Britain and France to become the world's third largest economic power after the United States and the Soviet Union (it was replaced by Japan as the fourth largest in the world since 1968). In 1971, West Germany's foreign exchange reserves reached 18.655 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the United States and becoming the world's largest.
In terms of pure economic development statistics, the gap between East and West Germany is actually not large (because East Germany is less than half of West Germany, and its population is less than 1/3 of West Germany). However, if the respective social wealth has increased at the same time as the economy is developing rapidly, the advantages and disadvantages of the people will be extremely obvious.
——At the same time, East and West Germany, established on the ruins of the war after the war, are at the same starting line. In order to cope with serious difficulties, both East and West Germany implemented a rationing system after the war. But there was a huge disparity in a very short time: shortly after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the domestic market quickly appeared prosperous, large and small shopping malls sprung up, and consumption was very strong. Beginning in 1950, the West German government abolished the rationing system; but East Germany still did not meet the conditions for abolishing the rationing system by 1958. Just to take into account the face of the "socialist window", the East German government announced the abolition of the rationing system this year. However, after the abolition of the rationing system, the lack of commodities and the single situation remained. Food, clothing, and even daily necessities must be provided by ticket.
The brilliance on the surface of East Germany can hardly conceal the bleakness of reality. The reason is that it has followed the development model of the former Soviet Union (at the Second National Congress of the United Socialist Party, it also accepted the Soviet Union’s plan for "conducting socialist construction" with a strong military command color. As the main task of the party and the country.), heavy industry, military industry enterprises and the investment and construction of national face projects are over-emphasized. Agriculture and industries closely related to national food, clothing, housing and transportation have been seriously neglected, and the national economy has been developing abnormally. At the same time, it, like all socialist countries at the time, first suppressed the individual economy, and then did not allow the existence of the individual economy (even individuals were not allowed to buy cars), and implemented an absolute egalitarian labor remuneration system (do more and less, good or bad). The income is almost the same), resulting in serious setbacks in national production enthusiasm and thinking innovation ability. Labor and production efficiency are too far from official statistics and beautiful face projects.
In order to win the competition with West Germany, the East German government tried its best to improve production efficiency. First, it put forward the slogan "Only by good production can live a good life", and launched propaganda machines to encourage the people to "enthusiasm for building socialism." CUHK engaged in unpaid labor similar to the Soviet Union’s “socialist labor competition” and “communist Saturday voluntary labor”. Later, the results were low. Therefore, despite the grievances of the people’s growing dissatisfaction, it extended workers’ working hours in an institutionalized form, which eventually triggered Mass bloody protest movement-On June 17, 1953, a large number of workers in East Berlin staged a demonstration to protest the authorities' increase in labor quotas and hours without raising wages. The East German authorities opened fire and suppressed it, leading to bloody crimes, which became the entire Cold War period. The first large-scale mass protest in Eastern Europe was also an important reason why the people fled and the government had to build the Berlin Wall to encircle the people.
However, West Germany is a completely different landscape: starting from the first government under the leadership of Prime Minister Adenauer, it has been committed to building a "social market economy" that can not only give play to the vitality of market competition, but also take into account social equality and welfare guarantees. The "welfare state" system.
Contrary to East Germany's "Life is good only when you live well", the Adenauer government put forward the slogan "Only when you live well can you produce good." Beginning in the 1950s, in just two decades, citizens have established a well-designed social security system that is the most expensive in the world. ——From 1977 to 1978, the total amount of social welfare throughout the country amounted to 300 billion marks (approximately 125 billion U.S. dollars), which means that each resident enjoys 2015 U.S. dollars in social welfare payments.
By the end of the 1980s, the gap between East and West Germany was widening. Taking 1988 as an example, East Germany's per capita GDP was only 1/4 of West Germany's, labor productivity was only 30% of West Germany's, and import and export trade was 1/10 of West Germany's. The level of science and technology lags behind West Germany for 20 years. The average monthly salary of East German workers is 1270 East German Marks, while the Federal Republic of Germany is 3850 West German Marks. Calculated according to a ratio of 1:1, the average monthly salary of GDR is only one-third of that of Federal Germany. By 1989, the per capita gross national product of East Germany had fallen to 33% of that of the Federal Republic of Germany. And owed 21 billion U.S. dollars in foreign debt (21 billion U.S. dollars back then, by no means 21 billion U.S. dollars now!).
It is true that the most important factor for West Germany's continued glory is not how strong the heads of government and their cabinet members are. Systems and policies are the most critical factors.
Former U.S. President Nixon once said: "To judge the pros and cons of a social system, there is no need to conduct ideological arguments. It will be clear where people are running in two countries established by the same nation."
Nixon’s above words were not prophetic predictions, but sent out with feelings about the reality of East and West Germany at the time. Since the 1950s, when the economies of East and West Germany took off rapidly amidst the wonders of the world, An unexpected event soon appeared: After the founding of East Germany, hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of citizens flee to West Germany each year across the borders that have not yet been closed. Throughout the 1950s, in East Germany, which had a population of less than 17 million, about 2.7 million people fled to West Germany. Among them, elite talents and technical backbones account for a large proportion: there are about 6,000 doctors, pharmacists, 8,000 judicial personnel, 750 professors, and 34,000 teachers and engineers. This is a huge loss that cannot be measured by money.
Such a serious wave of escape not only caused huge losses to the "soft power" of East Germany, but also caused the legitimacy of the only ruling party, the German Socialist Unity Party (formed by the merger of the German Communist Party and the German Social Democratic Party after World War II) and the government led by it. The tremendous impact also tarnished the face of the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union. By the end of the 1950s, Khrushchev, then the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, had to warn Ulbricht, then first secretary of the German Socialist Unity Party: "We can't compete with capitalism with open borders!" Beginning in August 1961, a 3.6-meter-high, 1.2-meter-wide, 155-kilometer-long reinforced concrete wall was quickly erected between East and West Germany, equipped with barbed wire, observation towers, and trenches. This is the famous "Berlin Wall" that has survived for 28 years.
And the background of the story happened in this time period. At the beginning, he ran hard but was shot dead. The famous "Berlin Wall" that the protagonist's family never crossed in their first flight.
After the completion of the Berlin Wall, the history of the escape of the East German citizens became a history of escape with blood and tears-regardless of danger, people used to swim, dig tunnels, jump high buildings, hit hard with heavy vehicles, build submarines, hot air balloons, and gliders. , Catapult and other means fled to West Germany.
I have to sigh here that the Germans’ knowledge, industrial level, and hands-on ability are fully reflected in the movie. Who can build a hot air balloon or even a glider by themselves... (note that the male partner said in the movie that building a plane is not a problem , Only limited to runway factors).
Having said that, the failure of East Germany is inevitable. It is not terrible for a person, an organization, or a government to make mistakes, but one who is afraid of knowingly making a mistake (or even a fatal mistake), but not dare to face it. He even repeatedly looked for various excuses and reasons to conceal and hide his ugliness. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, Honecker, then the first secretary of the East German Unity Socialist Party, told the world without shame and self-deception: "Because of the construction of the'anti-fascist defense wall', we have defended our socialism. Achievement". The so-called "defending our socialist achievements" is indeed a shameless lie. But the construction of the Berlin Wall did effectively prevent the mass exodus of the East German people. ——From hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people fleeing every year before the wall was built, only 177,000 people successfully fled from 1961 to 1980 after the wall was built, which is about 89,000 people every year.
Once a political party based on the illusory beliefs of utopia faces setbacks, it is very easy to slip into the extreme of achieving goals and unscrupulous means. In 1962, faced with a dilemma, the top leadership of the East German United Socialist Party came up with a bad idea that has been stinking for many years and finally caused the party to be completely rejected by the people: exchange political prisoners for marks. And sent people to negotiate with the West German government. East Germany’s standard for ransom is: an ordinary worker is 30,000 marks; a teacher is 40,000-50,000 marks; doctors have to pay 150,000 to 180,000 marks; after bargaining, the two parties finally agreed to use an average of 40,000 marks per person to achieve this. Transactions. After that, this transaction was repeated every year. By the fall of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 1989, a total of 33,755 political prisoners had gained freedom in this way. As many as 250,000 relatives of these people moved to West Germany.
The rigid ideology and the extremely rigid bureaucratic thinking pattern often caused the government under the leadership of the Leninist party to do unbelievable stupid things. After World War II, the United States regardless of ideology, implemented to help Europe out of the post-war economic crisis. The "Marshall Plan". West Germany received a subsidy of 140 marks per capita from the Marshall Plan. However, the East German party and government leaders, who were reliant on the Soviet sigh, regarded the Marshall Plan as a strategy for the expansion of American capitalist rule to the whole of Europe, and rejected this aid.
There is an ancient Chinese saying, “Don’t worry about widowhood and inequality, and don’t worry about poverty and anxiety.” The prosperity and prosperity of West Germany are actually not the main reason for the fleeing of the East German people and the ultimate cause of "destruction of the party and the country." Severe social injustice, bureaucratic privileges and corruption, suffocating political pressure, inability to see a future and a way out, etc. are the most important factors-the rapid economic development of East Germany, only a small number of party and government benefits Officials. Especially the main senior officials headed by the First Secretary enjoy all kinds of legal privileges: you can buy goods that the common people can’t see or even have heard of; enjoy special medical services; you can go there on weekends and holidays The villa goes on vacation.
The bureaucratic system granted by superiors not only led to a trend of slaughter, bribery, and corruption, but also led to a class solidification of nepotism and nepotism. The most terrifying thing is the ubiquitous threat of national terrorism. —— From the late 1940s to the late 1950s, the leader of the East German United Socialist Party, Ubri, carried out a "purge party" in accordance with the Stalin killing model, and 151,000 party members were purged (the total population of East Germany was less than 17 million at that time). Through large-scale purges, the power of the party is highly concentrated in the hands of individuals, and a large bureaucratic privileged class has gradually formed. What is more chilling than the "serious killing" is the secret police's impervious supervision of the people of the country. Before East Germany was merged into West Germany, the East German secret police numbered 91,000.
The total number of indirect informants and spies is close to 500,000. In the 30 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, an average of 8 East Germans were arrested on charges of "undermining national security" every day. If you count the informants, on average, one out of 66 East German citizens works for the secret police all year round. Compared with the Gestapo (1:2000) and the KGB (1:5830), this ratio is ridiculously high. Of the only 18 million people in the former East Germany, more than 6 million people have secret files. That is to say, one out of every three East Germans has been under the surveillance of the secret police.
By the 1980s, the patience of the East German people had reached a critical point. Beginning in 1986, many people took the risk and took to the streets to demonstrate, demanding the removal of the Berlin Wall and the reform of the political system. We need the basic rights of citizens such as democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
However, the East German government headed by Honecker at this time not only did not reflect on and review its faults, but also rebelled against Li Neishen and described the legitimate criticisms of the Chinese people as "extremist defamation"; it described the wishes and demands of the people as "external." Danger and the instigation of a few people". He also warned "to beware of dangers from imperialism"-Honecker, who had committed a heavy crime and was difficult to extricate himself from, relied on his "big brother" Soviet support, and was still lucky in times of crisis. In January 1989, 10 months before the Berlin Wall was overthrown, he still asserted his confidence: “As long as the conditions that led to the construction of the wall existed, how long this anti-fascist retaining wall existed, 50 and 100 years later. It must also stand tall."
Honecker's stern tone and demeanor increased the people's antagonism and anger, and more Chinese joined the ranks of resistance. On May 7, 1989, the people of Leipzig held a demonstration. The Honecker government sent military police to suppress and arrest more than 100 people. He declared to the world: "Neither the bull nor the donkey can stop the advancement of socialism." Honecker's brutal stubbornness aroused the national resistance. On October 2, 1989, 20,000 demonstrators in Leipzig took to the streets to protest. . On October 9th, another 70,000 people took to the streets. The protesters shouted the slogan "We are the people" and expressed their determination to the rulers of "I give you freedom or give me death".
In the end, in the context of the continuous wave of capitalism in neighboring countries and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, East Germany withdrew from the stage of history, and the democratic Germany of modern industry 4.0 became the backbone of the European and world economy.
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