There absolutely was bad economic management by an increasingly aged political leadership, none of that can be denied. But again, that circumstance is also present in the (surprise surprise) modern day United States, where our entire political class is mostly made up of boomers and silent generation who can barely form a coherent sentence. Economic policy in the DDR could have been better, but its standard of living (measured by purchasing power, not nominal GDP) was similar to the West, its rate of income inequality far better, and life satisfaction in all aspects outside of being able to criticize the government was far and away better than the West. East Germans had a strong say in how to do their jobs, women in East Germany had far more freedom (so much so they had better sex under communism than their capitalist German peers!), and the DDR was even tolerant of homosexuality, having a state run gay bar. Life in East Germany wasn't like the West, you couldn't get consumer goods in mass quantities, there were coffee shortages, but nobody sent hungry, everybody had a house, everybody got a good education, and when the wall came down and East Germans realised they needed lots of cash to buy the consumer goods they wanted while their rent trebled and they lost their jobs, they by and large regretted the fall of the DDR.
In the USA you atleast have the chance of getting rid of the old people due to democracy, but in the GDR if an old person came to power, he was in power for ~20 years average. This can be seen in the aftermath of the 1953 uprising when Ulbrich was meant to be replaced due to his incompetency, was veto'd by the Soviet Union.
The GDR didn't legalise being gay. They only decriminalised it. But they viewed it as "a biological flaw". But I must give credit to the GDR on their lgbt policies, since they were better than the western countries.
The HIB, which was an organization for gay people, was constantly surveid by the Stasi, who also constantly intervened in the actions of the HIB leading to the disbandment of the HIB.
And the most famous trans person in GDR Charlotte von Mahlsdor was also constantly surveid by the Stasi.
Try guessing who stepped in when Ursula Sillge tried to organize a meeting for lesbians in the GDR. It was the Stasi once again, who stopped this from ever happening in the first place.
And probably the worst thing is that the GDR government denied that gay people were victims of the HOLOCAUST. They said that due their low numbers killed they weren't victims of it. And they said this in 1983, so it was pretty late into the GDR life. They of course changed their stance on this 2 years later, but my god.
"The SED responded negatively, arguing that homosexuality could not be considered a ‘separate problem’ in the history of the Holocaust, adding that ‘many homosexual concentration camp inmates were criminals, and the number of homosexuals murdered in concentration camps was a very small part of those killed by the fascists.’" - Taken from this wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_German_Democratic_Republic
After all of this the GDR began to change their stance on gay people in the 80's. The clubs that you were talking about were made during this time. But of course this didn't completely wipe homophobia from the GDR, since the policies on gay people were vague and up to interpretation.
I can't deny that the GDR had good empoyment and housing, since that is one of the strengths of communism. But that doesn't guarantee a good life for the citizens of a communistic country. On the part on life fulfilment, every source I can find on how life was in the GDR, and says it was dull, since all entertainment had to be state approved, and freedom of speech was restricted. Also people were indoctrinated ever since they were in kindergartens, so that probably had something to do with it.
Once again if I made some mistake, feel free to correct me. Also sorry if I didn't respond to all of your stuff, since this thing took an hour to write on my commute, and I am running out of time to write more.
There absolutely was bad economic management by an increasingly aged political leadership, none of that can be denied. But again, that circumstance is also present in the (surprise surprise) modern day United States, where our entire political class is mostly made up of boomers and silent generation who can barely form a coherent sentence. Economic policy in the DDR could have been better, but its standard of living (measured by purchasing power, not nominal GDP) was similar to the West, its rate of income inequality far better, and life satisfaction in all aspects outside of being able to criticize the government was far and away better than the West. East Germans had a strong say in how to do their jobs, women in East Germany had far more freedom (so much so they had better sex under communism than their capitalist German peers!), and the DDR was even tolerant of homosexuality, having a state run gay bar. Life in East Germany wasn't like the West, you couldn't get consumer goods in mass quantities, there were coffee shortages, but nobody sent hungry, everybody had a house, everybody got a good education, and when the wall came down and East Germans realised they needed lots of cash to buy the consumer goods they wanted while their rent trebled and they lost their jobs, they by and large regretted the fall of the DDR.
In the USA you atleast have the chance of getting rid of the old people due to democracy, but in the GDR if an old person came to power, he was in power for ~20 years average. This can be seen in the aftermath of the 1953 uprising when Ulbrich was meant to be replaced due to his incompetency, was veto'd by the Soviet Union.
The GDR didn't legalise being gay. They only decriminalised it. But they viewed it as "a biological flaw". But I must give credit to the GDR on their lgbt policies, since they were better than the western countries.
The HIB, which was an organization for gay people, was constantly surveid by the Stasi, who also constantly intervened in the actions of the HIB leading to the disbandment of the HIB.
And the most famous trans person in GDR Charlotte von Mahlsdor was also constantly surveid by the Stasi.
Try guessing who stepped in when Ursula Sillge tried to organize a meeting for lesbians in the GDR. It was the Stasi once again, who stopped this from ever happening in the first place.
And probably the worst thing is that the GDR government denied that gay people were victims of the HOLOCAUST. They said that due their low numbers killed they weren't victims of it. And they said this in 1983, so it was pretty late into the GDR life. They of course changed their stance on this 2 years later, but my god.
"The SED responded negatively, arguing that homosexuality could not be considered a ‘separate problem’ in the history of the Holocaust, adding that ‘many homosexual concentration camp inmates were criminals, and the number of homosexuals murdered in concentration camps was a very small part of those killed by the fascists.’" - Taken from this wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_German_Democratic_Republic
After all of this the GDR began to change their stance on gay people in the 80's. The clubs that you were talking about were made during this time. But of course this didn't completely wipe homophobia from the GDR, since the policies on gay people were vague and up to interpretation.
I can't deny that the GDR had good empoyment and housing, since that is one of the strengths of communism. But that doesn't guarantee a good life for the citizens of a communistic country. On the part on life fulfilment, every source I can find on how life was in the GDR, and says it was dull, since all entertainment had to be state approved, and freedom of speech was restricted. Also people were indoctrinated ever since they were in kindergartens, so that probably had something to do with it.
Once again if I made some mistake, feel free to correct me. Also sorry if I didn't respond to all of your stuff, since this thing took an hour to write on my commute, and I am running out of time to write more.