East Germany thrived on snitching lovers, fickle friends and envious schoolkids
As politically incorrect as it seems to be now: The GDR thrived on people who actually believed in what they did.<p>The trend to blame circumstances, pressure by authorities or psychological factors like envy is just an attempt by many who once willingly, consciously participated to now clear themselves of responsibility. As such, I don&#x27;t see much of a difference to post WW2-Germany when all Germans suddenly discovered that they had been anti-fascist all the time.<p>I spent the first few years of my life in the GDR, moved to West Germany in 1989 just before the wall fell and moved back a few years later. We have seen our Stasi-records, we know who snitched on us - it rarely were those disappointed or envious. It were people who actually were much better off, people who were convinced in the GDR&#x27;s ideology and people who snitched on my family as a career move. We also could clearly see that those who were real friends did not provide information on us, even though they were asked to - in those records they are labeled &quot;useless as a source&quot;.