Photos taken by Janina in an alley in Eisenbahnstraße. The graffiti in the left snapshot says ‘Nobody has the right to obey.’

История дух стран: Часть ІІ

Восточная Германия отличается от западной не только из-за разделения после второй мировой войны, но и в результате последовавших за их воссоединением событий. Хотя единство это и хорошо, принятие отличий и разногласий может открыть путь к еще большему взаимному уважению.
Germany, Western Europe

Story by Janina Cymborski. Translated by Илья Еременко
Published on December 19, 2020.

This story is also available in GB br de es it kr tr



Третье октября в Германии – это государственный праздник, день воссоединения в 1990. Но многие восточные немцы помнят другие события осени 1989. В Лейпциге мы отмечаем 9 октября 1989. День, в который мирную 70-тысячную демонстрацию за свободную страну могла постигнуть та же участь, что и их товарищей на площади Тяньаньмэнь в Китае. За людьми наблюдали снайперы с крыш вокруг, ожидая приказа открыть огонь. Но он так и не был дан. Наша семья и другие люди очень волновались за исход демонстрации.  

Родившись когда-то в Лейпциге, я вновь живу тут, принимаю участие в торжествах 9 октября и прохожу вокруг центра города с тысячами других. Мы держим свечи и слушаем записи скандирования демонстрантов из 1989, которые передают по громкоговорителям на улице. Со слезами на глазах, я просматриваю фотографии с открытия границ Берлина 9 ноября 1989 – спустя месяц после демонстраций в Лейпциге. С интересом вглядываюсь в лица этих людей, ставших свободными. Каково это: быть несвободным всю жизнь и внезапно освободиться? Думаю про свою семью и как им приходилось жить, как бы пришлось жить мне, если бы не смелость этих демонстрантов. После 1989, моя семья и я могли покинуть страну и стать частью нового свободного мира, с новыми знаниями и мнениями.

Но это, отнюдь, не означает, что я автоматически согласна с новым общественным порядком. Необходимость критически смотреть на существующий порядок – это самый важный урок, который я вынесла из революции 1989. Именно потому, что я не родилась в свободной стране, я вижу противоречия между свободой и согласием. Свобода – это поиск своих ответы на самые важные вопросы: кто я, кем я хочу стать и какую жизнь я хочу жить? Восточных немцев от западных отличает осознание факта, что ни один социальный порядок не окончателен, и что он может изменяться (это красноречиво подтверждает мое свидетельство о рождение, выданное несуществующей ныне страной). 

Сегодня безработица и недостаток денег по-прежнему являются проблемам для моей семьи. ГДР не осталась в памяти, а продолжает влиять на нашу жизнь. Пожив в двух системах, мои родители дорого заплатили за свои жизненные уроки. Их веру в добро, многократно эксплуатировали. Нам пришлось начинать «с нуля» в мире, который рушился. Я вижу, как мои родители скорбят об утрате чувства принадлежности, которое мне вообще неведомо. В Восточной Германии они принадлежали к обществу, в котором большинство людей были в одинаковых условиях. Откровенно говоря, чувство общности в ГДР, часто, было вынужденным, порождаемым взаимным долгом: «Я работаю в администрации, если я помогу тебе получить квартиру, ты достанешь велосипед для моего ребенка?». Общность была условием выживания, обеспечения семьи и адаптацией к постоянному дефициту. Общество позволяло жить, но не расти и процветать. Из-за этой потребности в сотрудничестве, человек всегда оставался частью группы. Воссоединение стало и даром, и проклятием. Безусловно, мы получили многое, возможно, даже больше чем я смогу когда-либо осознать. В то же время, как мне кажется, мы потеряли долю человечности – ту, которая может проявиться лишь в трудные времена.  

Первую часть истории Янины можно прочитать тут.


How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Janina Cymborski

Janina Cymborski

Born in East Germany, I still live here, enjoying the freedom of an unconventional life I did not really plan on having. After college, I worked in the travel industry in various positions in sales and at one point I decided that it was not enough. I quit and went back to university. I will be doing my master’s degree in political science hopefully next year and apart from that engage in various activities. I learn Arabic and vice versa support others learning German. I volunteer for different projects, both here in Leipzig and Europe-wide. I lack money, sometimes employment, and certainly I could have chosen an easier path. But so be it. I obviously took the road less travelled  and I hope it will one day make all the difference. As Rosa Luxemburg put it: Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.

Other Stories in Русский




Show all

Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Liberation

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938