Participants' Reports
Chair „European Policy and Society“
University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal
Breitscheidstr. 2
D - 39 114 Magdeburg
+49 391 8864 336
christiane.dienel@sgw.hs-magdeburg.de
Working Group 4: Migration Issues
Moderator: William ChandlerThe United States and Europe - seen by East German young people (10 minutes)
Introduction
The difference between a clear pro-American public opinion in most of the candidate countries of Eastern Europe and a pronounced anti-Americanism among young people in Eastern Germany is astonishing. The contribution tries to trace down the mental status of these young people, their political socialisation and consciousness, and to outline the importance of their state of mind for the formulation of national policy and the conception of Europe’s role in the world.
Split image of the United States
There is evidence for a split image of the United States among young people in Eastern Germany.
a) Pro-Americanism
On the one hand, learning English, travelling to the United States or even spending a Junior Year there have become a much desired part of higher education. Some icons of proamericanism (McDonalds, Coca Cola, Base caps, Bowling, Rap, Jazz dance) have integrated into the dominant youth culture.
Folie 1In the former GDR, Pro-Americanism was present in the longing for special status symbols like Blue Jeans. The GDR Government suspete American popular culture to lead to immorality and decadence. Secret social research by the Leipzig university had shown leaders that long-haired beatniks were acutally less persuaded by socialism. The ambivalent relation becomes tangible in some symbolic figures like, e.g. Dean Reed, the “comrade rockstar” whose life is just being put into a movie by Tom Hanks. Born in Colorado, Dean Reed moved to the GDR in 1972, because he had fallen in love with an East-German girl. But he stayed there and enjoyed his exotic status as one of the very few American Rock’n’Roll stars who could enter the stage. In the Soviet Union, he was even the only rocker ever allowed to give concerts, presented as the “voice of the other America” or “Johnny Cash of Communism”. He involved in many spectacular polit-pop actions like scrubbing the American flag in front of the embassy in Santiago thus protesting against the Vietnam war. 1978 he was arrested in Minnesota during a farmers’ protest. 1983 he sang the forbidden anthem of the Unidad Popular in front of Chile miners. 1986 he was found dead in the Zeuthen lake near Berlin. For a short period, Dean Reed could serve as an icon of Pro-Americanism in the GDR, mixing up rock music, openness and a certain American tradition of emancipation. Even a school in Potsdam was named after Dean Reed. His success was due to the longing for the free world the United States stand for. This longing was also expressed in the exotic names GDR people gave to their babies: I have never met so many Mikes, Gordon, Randy, Steven, Sandy, Ronny, Peggy teaching in Magdeburg.
The emergence of a globalized international youth culture is a worldwide phenomena. Overall in Europe, many young people follow a homogenized life style marked by “consumer’s individualism” and reduction of regional attitudes.
b) Anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism was the typical attitude of West-German counter cultures in the 1960ies and has partially remained so in certain milieus. Eastern Germany offers a special panorama. Mostly those young people who see themselves and their parents as loosers of unification, who fear competition with immigrants on the work market, will be most sceptical about globalizing features of youth culture. (Jugend – Wirtschaft – Politik 1993, 351-353)
On a very unstable knowledge base, many young people seem to identify the United States with a loss of social quality, the deconstruction of traditional European social security systems. The image of the United States is identified with globalization, neo-liberalism and both tendencies are seen as anti-European. We have some empirical evidence for this:
Folie 2Interesting differences between East and West German young people persist concerning the role of Germany in the world. More East Germans than West Germans think Germany should defend her national interests more strongly, and 31% percent of all East Germans think Germany should collaborate less closely with the United states, only 17 percent think this cooperation could be closer. More than 80% of the young people between 12 and 25 years express a clear opinion about this issue.
This position could even be described as a new anti-American conservativism standing on two pillars: GDR traditions transmitted by parents and teachers and the „old leftist“ ideas of 1968 imported by Western German scholars and administrators who still dominate leading positions in Eastern Germany today. Anti-American conservativism among young people in Eastern Germany is non-christian or anti-christian, anticapitalistic, antiliberal, sometimes xenophobic and sometimes even anti-modern.
Anti-Americanism = Pro-Europanism in Eastern Germany?
Folie 3A longitudinal study of young East Germans which started already 1987 can show how political conceptions of these young people still reflect GDR socialism. 1281 pupils of the Bezirke Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt had been asked in 1987, about 450 of them answered questionnaires ten and more years later. Changes in Eastern Germany after the Wende are seen positively by a clear majority, but this does not mean that the actual political and economic system is appreciated. 53% still identify themselves with socialistic ideals in 2002 (Förster 2003, 13), only 10% think that the GDR system had more disadvantages than advantages.
Folie 4But the most significant change is the loss of confidence into their own future. This loss of confidence is over-compensated by a stronger feeling of nationalism in Eastern Germany. Since 1945, nationalism has been very weak in Germany and mostly based on economic achievements. In the East, this kind of economic nationalism has partly been replaced by a nationalistic, traditional one. Generally, nationalism in Eastern Germany is more based on culture, in Western Germany on the constitution. (Gille/Krüger 2000).
Folie 5To be sceptical about capitalism and about American influences in Germany does not mean that East German youth identify themselves actively as “old Europeans”. The knowledge about the European Union and the indification with the integration process are extremely weak in Eastern Germany. Participation in the elections to the European Parliament is low, the EU influences on national and regional politics are seen as a loss, and the D-Mark is still mourned. But still, it is astonishing that a majority of young people expect the European Union to develop into a unified state. Between 43% (East) and 48% (West) of young people between 12 and 25 years agree to the statement: “On the long run, should the countries of the European Union unite in a common state?”
Folie 6However, there is clearly less interest for European policies among East German young people. Still, only 13% of young people think that the process of European integration will bring along more disadvantages than advantages for their personal life (19% in the West), 12% in the East and 19% in the West think that advantages will prevail – but 41% (West)/ 51% (East) are ambigous. (Deutsche Shell 2000, Bd. 1, S. 335)). Based on the Data of the Shell youth study of 2000, two types can be described: Those who see the advantages of the European Union have a higher education or are students, they have higher social and economic resources and sometimes a binational identity. Those who expect more disadvantages than advantages have lower qualifications, are more often xenophobic, unemployed and very often East German and male. (Shell 2000, S. 337).
Consequences for Germany = Internal Migration
It has to be stated that among the immobile part of East-German Youth, right-wing-radicalism or at least a vague right-wing identification is the dominating political attitude. (Landau u.a. 2002)
The considerable internal migration of young East German people to Western Germany may even be a result of this special state of mind: Those who believe in their chance to succeed leave, those who stay conserve a backward longing to the closed society which was the GDR.
My study about internal migration in Saxony-Anhalt.
Youth culture in Germany today
Folie 7On the other hand – we find a broad common base of youth culture among West and East German youth, just like Wim Wenders’ protagonist in “Im Lauf der Zeit” said it 1976: “ Die Amis haben unser Unterbewusstsein kolonisiert” (Amis have colonized our subconsciousness). Important tendencies like Hiphop or sports clothing are transported via the mass media and reach East German youth bedrooms as easily as Western ones. One important medium of transportation is the chain MTV with its Rap-Videos. They have been actively received by German HipHoppers who say “seh Euch” (see you) to say good-bye. Like this, another part of the Black American Ghetto has found its way into German youth culture. But is this a pro-American tendency? I doubt it.
The transmission of HipHop culture does not mean an identification with the United States as a whole, on the contrary. Gangsta-Rap is a Ghetto kid and is understood as such – rather a protest against the capitalist society – which is imitated by German young people, very much like the Beat Music has at first been received as protest music and than been commerzialised.
Streetworkers in Germany today will most surely invite young people at risk to play streetball, often at midnight and accompanied by noisy HipHop music. The federal police introduced their “Streetball concept” 1997. By this, young people who do not enter a sports club shall be reached. So far, plices has given over 50 000 Basket balls to street kids. The concept is based on a cooperation between police and local youth workers. I doubt wether these initiatives support pro-American feelings.
Graffiti has also become a standard part of German youth culture in the bigger cities. Here we see a very interesting mixture: import of a protest culture which is directed against the establisment (e.g. Anarchy A) – acculturation into the dominant youth culture – use as an expression also of right-wing extremism – introduction into the repertoire of professional youth work.
Political socialisation of nowadays East German young people
This has seemingly not much to do with the German-American relations. But I wanted to illustrate the cultural melange in which German young people in Eastern Germany grow up today. The postwar period with its stable alliances is over, also in the minds. For today’s young people, the United States are not just the Land of the Free and the big friend which helped up West German Economy-
Folie 8The public reactions on the Iraq war have been a crucial point for the political socialisation of many young people in Germany. Pupils aged 12 to 17 took part in the demonstrations, did not go to school for some days even when being punished for that. Research on the development of political conceptions with young people can show that such initiation experiences will determine political convictions, possibly for a lifetime. I have here a study where this has been proven for the first Iraq war 1991 (Mansel 1992) This effect was certainly much stronger with the second Iraq war, for two reasons: Firstly, German politics at the time were also anti-war, so the protest could not be anti-governmental and had to be directed outward. Secondly, the broad vogue of protests all over Europe and the world could merge into a globalized youth-culture, as shown e.g. in the rainbow flags.
The protest against the second Iraq war in Germany has probably formed a generation of young people who will conserve pacifistic and also anti-American feelings. This influence may even be stronger with young East Germans, but we still lack empirical evidence. I have been present at the celebration of the day of German unity in Magdeburg this year. Given the current pressure on social policy, chancellor Schröder did not have an easy part to play there. The only moment in his speech where he got full applause was when he reminded of the German government’s No to the Iraq war. This may be taken as an indicator.
In a last step it shall be asked wether this unclear mix of feelings also influences national policies. Is the European identity as it has just recently been demonstrated by Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder at the occasion of the Iraq war, partly formed by anti-American feelings? Do these feelings have a broad basis in the feelings and conceptions of those generations who no longer have had the experience of war and liberation? Will the popularity of the European Union increase only if it plays the role of the world counterpart of the United States?
We have to consider that young people in Germany today, while seemingly unpolitical, are more and more interested in world politics. The so-called Globalisierungsgegner (enemies of globalization) are a very attractive movement for young people. In any case it is clear that young people in Germany do not limit their conception of politics to the state, because they do not feel that the boundaries of politics are congruent with the boundaries of the political-administrative system (Deutsche Shell 2002). Those who grow up in East Germany today are a minority, but their political feelings are shared by many young people in West Germany as well.
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