Material Fantasies

Milena Veenis Material Fantasies This informative study of East German fantasies of material abundance across the border, both before and after the fall of communism, shows the close and intricate relationship Expectations of the Western Consumer World between ideology and fantasy in upholding social life. In 1989, news broadcasts all over the world were dominated among East Germans Milena Veenis for weeks by images of East Germans crossing the Berlin Wall to West Germany. The images, representing the fall Material Fantasies of communism and the democratic will of the people, also showed the East Germans’ excitement at finally being able to enter the Western consumer paradise. But what exactly had they expected to find on the other side of the Wall? Why did they shed tears of joy when for the first time in their lives, they stepped inside West German shops? And why were they prepared to pay more than 10 per cent of their average monthly wage for a pineapple? Drawing on fifteen months of research in the fast-chang- ing post-communist East Germany, Veenis unravels the perennial truths about the interrelationships of fantasies of material wealth, personal fulfillment and social cohe- sion. She argues persuasively that the far-fetched socialist and capitalist promises of consumption as the road to the ultimate well-being, the partial realization and partial corruption thereof, the implicit social and psychological interests underlying the politicized promises in both countries form the breeding ground for the development of materialist, cargo-cult-like fantasies, in which material well-being came to be seen as the place of “fulfillment and ultimate arrival”. Milena Veenis lectures in anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Foundation for the History of Technology & tehs Amsterdam University Press Technology and European History Series (TEHS) 6 ISBN 978 90 8964 400 8 9 789089 644008 omslag_TEHS6_material_fantasies.indd 1 3/5/2012 10:05:44 AM 1 Material Fantasies 2 To Maurits and Ria, in memoriam Leonard van Es 3 Material Fantasies Expectations of the Western Consumer World among East Germans Milena Veenis Amsterdam 2012 is publication has been made possible by Netherlands Organisation for Scientic Research (NWO) and Eindhoven University of Technology and the Foundation for the History of Technology. ISBN 978 90 8964 400 8 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 565 3 (e-pdf) e-ISBN 978 90 4851 566 0 (e-pub) NUR 697 © Milena Veenis, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, pho- tocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Design and typesetting: Ellen Bouma, Alkmaar, the Netherlands Cover image: “Rudolstadt 1994”. Picture by the author Amsterdam University Press, Herengracht 221, NL-1016 BG Amsterdam, www.aup.nl 5 Preface In 1994, the former socialist part of Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was probably one of the most fascinating places for an anthropologist to conduct research. Five years earlier, the Fall of the Berlin Wall had initiated the collapse of the socialist regime in Eastern Germany and the start of German reuni- cation. Although heartily welcomed, this prompted the complete breakdown of East German society and the fast disintegration of all existing material, social, and conceptual standards. e ensuing turmoil could be seen, heard, and felt through- out the country. e general atmosphere was tense, and conversations on the most mundane topics could suddenly derail – ostensibly for no reason. Whereas anthropologists have generally come to accept that a society’s social and cultural structures are not xed but rather constructed, it was a shock to witness the panic and pain this confrontation caused in everyday life. People were frantically search- ing for new safeguards. Since then much has changed – not just the material, social, and psychological make-up of the former socialist society, but also the way it is remembered. Initially, the painful breakdown of everything trusted and secure caused people to experi- ence any criticism of their history as extraordinarily hurtful, but as time passed, people’s memories on the GDR have grown more dierentiated. In 1994, longing and nostalgia for the past, anger and denial with regard to criticizing it were com- mon reactions to the complete reshuing and widespread critique of former East Germans’ existence. Barely twenty year later, these responses have made way for a more nuanced and critical perspective on the GDR. is shi is clearly illustrated in cinematic form by two lms about the GDR that received wide acclaim also outside Germany: Goodbye Lenin (2003) and Das Leben der Anderen (e Lives of Others, 2007).1 Although not denying or ignoring the dictatorial aspects of the GDR, the former lm excels in its endearing, somewhat nostalgic depiction of the socialist past, whereas the latter conveys a far darker mood. Goodbye Lenin’s main message is roughly: “life under socialism may have been cramped, and we may not have had much, but what we had was comfy and cozy,” while e Lives of 1 Since both lms have been made by West Germans, they do not represent East Germans’ shiing valu- ations of their past. ey are used here merely to illustrate, primarily for non-Germans, the two extremes of how the GDR is and has been recollected. 6 Material Fantasies Others reveals the almost unperceivable corruption of human relationships under socialist dictatorship. From humoristic-nostalgic and tenderly ironic, to gloomy and (self)critical: the two lms represent the sequence of collective memories of the GDR in a nutshell. Based on historical ethnographic material, this book presents a theoretical analysis of a society adri. It describes the situation I encountered in 1993 and 1994, but its scope is much wider than a historical record of that time. It provides an analysis of how people react when the prevailing social and cultural order can no longer provide stability or meaning to their lives, and the apparent normality of how life is supposed to be lived is exposed as articial. Focusing on people’s reactions then, while glossing over the (public) recollec- tions of the former socialist era circulating over the past two decades, my repre- sentation might seem to conrm the typical image of inhabitants of socialist countries as Western Europe’s straggling ‘other.’ Such an interpretation would disregard the real and more general theme of this work. Apart from the specic topics it addresses (consumption, its role in German history, the relationship between East and West Germany before and aer 1989, and in the GDR between the people and the state), this book explores how people respond to being confronted with the make-believe of their society’s main ideological underpinnings. It shows how they try to restore condence in the symbolic order as a meaningful, discursive frame- work that will support social structure and allow for mutual recognition. Writing this book would not have been possible without the generous support of a number of people and institutions. First of all, I am grateful to the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research who funded the research on which this work is based, and to the Netherlands Organization for Scientic Research (NWO) for funding the nalization of the manuscript. My time in Rudolstadt was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. It was overwhelming to be so closely involved with people whose lives had been thrown into such turmoil by their history. I am very grateful to many people there, especially Stefan Breternitz, Hartmut Franz, Petra Rottschalk, Katrin Stapf, Heiner and Iris Tschoepke, Mr and Mrs Weißensee, and the late Jo Winter, for their sin- cerity and friendship. Beyond Rudolstadt, I would like to thank my colleagues in the international EUWOL (European Ways of Life in the American Century) network, for the hearty and pleasurable atmosphere in which we worked together. I am particularly indebted to Ruth Oldenziel and Johan Schot for their personal support and advice during dicult times. My very sincere thanks also go to those who gener- Preface 7 ously gave me their valuable comments on sections of this book, or whose involve- ment supported my project in other ways. In alphabetical order they are: Mireille Berman, Anne Gevers, Rob van Ginkel, Suzanne Kuik, Birgit Meyer, Mattijs van de Port, Irene Stengs, Alex Strating, Bonno oden van Velzen, and Jojada Verrips as well as my parents and my sister Clara. Val Kidd deserves a special mention for her invaluable and speedy editing and translating during our particularly enjoy- able and productive collaboration. My deepest and heartfelt thanks, however, go to Leonard van Es, with whom I was fortunate to share many happy years. His love and support have had a pro- found and lasting inuence on me and my life. I dedicate this book to his beloved memory, and to our children, Maurits and Ria. 9 Contents Introduction 11 Western Prosperity as Consolation 11 Consumption, Identity, and Fantasy 16 Life in Dictatorial Societies 21 1 Fieldwork 31 Reactions to My Presence 32 Material Culture and Tell-Tale One-Liners 37 Generalization, Dierentiation 43 2 Germany 1945: A Country in Ruins 47 Material and Social Trauma 47 In Search of a Hold 56 3 e GDR: Future Promises 63 e Past Rewritten 64 A New

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