A Country in a Container – The Disposal of East German State Symbols
At midnight on 3 October 1990, the black, red and gold flag of German unity was raised in a solemn ceremony in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin. The GDR was thus a thing of the past, and with it its state symbols. Many symbols of SED rule had already disappeared from public spaces in the weeks and months leading up to this. The image of bulky waste containers, in which not only hammers and compasses ended up, was ubiquitous and forms the starting point of the exhibition.
Some of these objects reappeared at flea markets shortly afterwards and were sold for a few Deutschmarks. From there, they often found their way into museum collections – as physical artefacts of a defunct state. The special exhibition »A Country in a Container«, which mainly features objects from the third volume of the DDR Museum’s collection series »The GDR in Objects 1949–1990: Work, Economy, Politics«, traces the convoluted paths taken by these discarded symbols of the GDR state.
From status symbol to junk: GDR medals after 1989
By 9 November 1989, the political upheaval was already clearly visible. Attentive observers noticed the empty lapels of many officials: in particular, the SED emblems were removed and disappeared into drawers. The remaining so-called »medal bars«, which had lent their wearers a certain prestige despite being awarded en masse in the GDR, also quickly lost their original significance. The badges and decorations of the ‘workers’ and peasants’ state’ were now being sold as junk by resourceful street vendors.
A particularly striking symbol of the SED dictatorship also became a souvenir. For decades, the inner-German border and the Berlin Wall stood not only as a symbol of Germany’s division, but also – as part of Europe’s deadliest border, the »Iron Curtain« – as a symbol of the world’s division into hostile blocs. After 9 November 1989, this changed rapidly: the so-called »Wall Peckers« used hammers and chisels to chip pieces from the concrete wall, and visitors from all over the world took small fragments home as mementos. Today, the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall are listed as historic monuments and form part of contemporary remembrance culture.
Black, red and gold instead of a hammer, compass and wreath of ears
Even during the transitional year of 1990, numerous creative stopgap solutions were devised for dealing with the GDR’s state symbols. An item from the GDR Museum’s collection illustrates this process particularly clearly. The NVA officers’ cap worn by the border troops complies with the regulations of the time in terms of shape and design, but bears a black, red and gold cockade without the GDR emblem. This change was introduced on 20 July 1990 by order. The political change was thus immediately visible.
Another striking example of this is the state coat of arms on the Palace of the Republic. As early as June 1990, the first and last freely elected People’s Chamber decided to remove the hammer, compass and wreath of ears from the façade. One of the Palace’s architects, Dieter Bankert, saved a small detail – a single grain from the wreath of ears – as a memento and later handed it over to the GDR Museum.
Alongside such high-profile cases, there were numerous everyday changes. For instance, many people used simple methods to cut the GDR coat of arms out of the old flags. What remained were black, red and gold flags, symbolising a new sense of patriotism for a united Germany, which were carried in particular at the demonstrations following 9 November 1989.
Controversy over street names and monuments from the GDR
Yet not everything disappeared without a trace or without controversy. The redesign of public spaces led to intense debate in the 1990s. In particular, street names from the GDR era – which, alongside anti-fascist resistance fighters, primarily commemorated the SED leadership – were seen in many places as no longer appropriate. In many cases, streets were given back their former names, such as Leninallee in East Berlin, which became Landsberger Allee once more. The historical assessment of the figures after whom the streets were named also played a role. The Marx-Engels-Forum, for example, was allowed to keep its name.
Monuments were also the subject of heated debate. For instance, the Lenin monument on what is now United Nations Square was dismantled in 1991. Other monuments remained in place, although the recommendations made by the commissions set up to assess them sometimes provoked strong reactions. Thälmann monuments, in particular, can still be found in eastern Germany today, such as the Thälmann monument in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. In private life, however, everyone was free to decide for themselves whether the bust of Marx could remain in its place on the wall unit or had to be relegated to the back..
Takeovers from the East
The Unification Treaty of 1990 finally regulated the transition of the GDR into the political and economic system of the Federal Republic of Germany. Most institutions, laws and structures were adopted from the West. Only a few elements from the GDR found their way into everyday life across the whole of Germany. A well-known example is the green arrow, which allows drivers to turn right at a red traffic light.
The subsequent history of the GDR’s state symbols thus tells not only of their disposal, but also of the ongoing engagement with the past. The special exhibition is based primarily on objects from the third volume of the series »DDR in Objects«, which brings together the DDR Museum’s collection on the themes of state, ideology and politics. It sheds new light on these exhibits through its thematic focus and places the period of transformation following 1989/90 at the centre.
Ongoing dispute
The narrative spans the abrupt dismantling and devaluation of these symbols in the run-up to and immediately following German reunification, through their often improvised preservation, to their return to museums and cultural life in the decades that followed. At the same time, the exhibition explores which traces of the GDR remain visible in today’s urban landscape and how this material legacy shapes the culture of remembrance: what has been deliberately preserved, what has been unintentionally overlooked, and what has been the subject of controversy or rediscovered?
The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on these developments. It offers insights into the ambivalence and contradictions surrounding the symbols of a defunct state and encourages visitors to question today’s culture of remembrance regarding the GDR.
