@navi big success!

(what's the model if i may ask? i may have a similar need 😅)

@lizzy well what would you propose? as far as i can see, most of the obvious "achievements" have been implemented by now, especially those that are essentially just zero-cost liberalism (e.g. free expression of sexuality).

keep in mind that it's much easier to achieve relative "equality" when you drop the baseline. for example "everyone has a job" doesn't mean much when these jobs don't pay well.

@yakmacker @lizzy

you are certainly right that in general annexation has a broader meaning. however when applied to countries, annexation usually implies force / coercion, and i believe this is how a reader will understand it most of the time, especially someone with a german understanding of "annexion" ;)

but anyways this was clarified by lizzy so it doesn't really matter

@lizzy eh, i was baited by the extremely one-sided op into making a pointed joke (and even that joke did not characterize the GDR as universally bad, if i'm being pedantic!).

that does not mean that i see the GDR as "black"; i just see it as a very dark gray. i have no problem acknowledging that they were more progressive in some areas, but that doesn't tilt the scale for me overall; and neither does it for the large majority of germans, both west and east, who don't want it back (97% / 88%).

@lizzy i did not get to reading that yet, i was still researching the rest of this huge message with lots of links..

apollocheese! i should have waited with my reply. part of why i didn't is that as a mastodon user i am incentivized to click reply once i've written a certain amount of characters 🙃

@lizzy you speak of popular opinion, both here and in your OP.
well then let's take a look.

https://www.infratest-dimap.de/umfragen-analysen/bundesweit/umfragen/aktuell/30-jahre-mauerfall/

51% of Wessis and 70% of Ossis say the DDR had advantages "in a few areas". this already shows that your entire premise of "Wessis see DDR as bad and only bad" is blatantly wrong. you are projecting your own black and white thinking on your strawman of a Wessi (for whom, i quote, "it's completely impossible [...] to not think of this problem in a black and white fashion")

@lizzy yeah, that was half tongue-in-cheek.

all things considered, the GDR was the much worse state, without dispute. that is why it failed and dissolved itself in the FDR. they were not forced by the GDR. they failed.

if you want to assess the GDR on its merits, the first thing you need to do is stick to the facts.

and describing the reunification as some kind of doomsday annexation is not that. that is factually false.

ex falso quodlibet.

@yakmacker @lizzy

"Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory." (Wikipedia)

It is not correct to refer to the reunification as an annexation; it happened voluntarily, with vast support in the population of the GDR, and huge concessions from the FDR, e.g. extremely favorable exchange rates and billions in subsidies.