In 1989, I worked as a research complex manager at the Institute for Market Research in Leipzig. I joined the party in 1958, firmly convinced that this was a good and correct step. Later, it was concrete experiences and the collegial environment that made me increasingly critical. I also always remembered a sentence from my father: that it’s good to be enthusiastic about something, but that I should be careful not to become driftwood. In other words, swim along uncritically. However, it took me until March ’89 to say: Enough. Without me. I left the party. Of course, that didn’t go off without a hitch. The advantage was that, as an unmarried woman, I didn’t have to take anyone personally into consideration. But the thought was already there that, at worst, I would have to work as a warehouse labourer.

For me and many of my friends, we got on quite well when it came to criticising the status quo. But when it came to what a feasible alternative would look like – well. Even today, I still think that if people can’t come up with a clever alternative to the current system, we will produce our own downfall. In 1989, when the dissatisfaction of the population in the GDR became more and more apparent, people naturally tried to patch things up. The question was whether the politically explosive situation could be defused by mitigating supply plans. In ‘special commissions’, we were asked to submit proposals on how supply problems could at least be alleviated. As if there had been nothing more important!

When reunification loomed on the horizon, there were no major fears at the Institute, but there were certainly illusions. We were convinced that we were the ‘top dog’ here: So if there was reunification, we would remain. That was the case, but it was an extremely painful process at first. We were just one of hundreds of institutes in Germany that were involved in market, opinion and media research. It soon became clear that our institute had to become much smaller – a terrible fact…

Read more: in „Mother, don’t worry. Everything is fine here. Everyday life from 1989“. Publication of Frauenkultur Leipzig, 2009; 2nd edition in 2021. click here->