Part of Urban Cirkulations (curated by Judith Schwarzbart) and Berlin-Alexanderplatz (curated by Petra Reichensperger ), public art projects in Berlin in cooperation with Felix Meyer, Sarah Schoenfeld and Ivalo Frank Jørgensen
 

What structures, systems and ideas from the former DDR can be used in today’s Germany?

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From this question, two documentary videos were made and presented in installations at resp. Tuchollaplatz in Lichtenberg and in the S-Bahn station on Alexanderplatz. Both in Berlin.

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To me, Germany had a historic chance to unify two systems into one. To use good ideas, structures and systems from the past DDR times and pare them with good ideas from liberal capitalism. The ideas from DDR did not need to be communistic – ideas spring from many sources. What is important is that every kind of idea has been repressed after the reunion in order to give way for a total take-over by liberal capitalism!

Immer Wieder Vereingung, that translates something like ‘ongoing reunion’, is about how to revive some of the ideas and systems from the DDR period that could be useful today. The knowledge production of so many people and with such great efforts must not be buried in the ruins of a time repressed and forgotten. This because the consequences of the reunion politic has been the creation of Germans without a history of contribution to their own society.

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To me the DDR period was a doubtful implementation of communism. Marxism and communism carry in it a focus on community and love as the platform of society rather than on earning, buying and consuming. This focus means that a different evaluation system than the capitalistic one creates an emphasis on people and their interaction rather than on products. An emphasis on progress for mankind rather than for products.

What is intriguingly interesting is what this emphasis produced of ideas and solutions on all levels of life in DDR! This is a hard task though, because the system of fear and repression from the dictatorial government also created situations that led to the development of systems that might not be of any use today!

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From the interviews it became clear that the former DDR-citizens had lots of ideas to what could be used from the DDR times. Some ideas where ready to implement, like the traffic and recycling systems, and others had a more deconstructive effect, like equal prices on all similar products. It was also interesting to hear the analysis of present-day liberal capitalistic Germany from someone who has tried both to live there for 15 years as well as in a socialistic society.