The Wall Jumper

The Wall Jumper, written by Peter Schneider, is a book with a collection of stories about the struggle of friends and families on each side of the wall and their firsthand accounts living in these separate, yet German, states. But through these stories and experience in Berlin, one can conclude that both governments control their people as the German government does today.

The East German government gets a very bad rap as the socialist neighbor who controls every thought and dictates citizens' lives to the point that these comrades couldn't think for themselves. Although not entirely false, the government did read their citizen's letters; the government in the West was not entirely different than the East. In the West, the West Germans were told they were the better German state since the free market ruled and the West Mark was worth more than the East Mark. But unemployment was higher and every aspect of life was ruled by money. The west German government did everything in their power to ignore and essentially forget that the East German state was next to them. The government didn't recognize the East German border on their maps.

Today's German government is not to far off from its former divided states. They still try to control their people in what clothes they wear and certain symbols of national pride. Up until recently, it was really looked down upon to wave the German flag at football matches in fear of too much German nationalism. Although never an official ban, the government looked down upon this due to its touchy past of the former Nazi party and its basis on German nationalism. Also, the government has banned the swastika and other Nazi symbols on clothing. Although I find it a completely legitimate reason for this ban, it still shows the German government and the German people's need to hide from their past. Much of German history is based on this fact of hiding from their past.