Do You Think That East and West Germany Are Portrayed in a Positive or Negative Light in Goodbye Lenin?

Do you think that East and West Germany are portrayed in a positive or negative light in Goodbye Lenin?

Goodbye Lenin begins in East Germany in the year 1989: when Alex Kerner, a young man, protests against the regime. His mother, who marries herself to the DDR, watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the DDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot. The East and West Germany battle ends after the wall is pulled down in 1989, however more problems arise as Alex and his family have to fight against reality, and hidden truths, to comfort his Mother’s unstable condition.

East Germany, known officially as the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), was the Communist State established in 1949. In Goodbye Lenin it can be portrayed in a positive light, in regards to the Glorification of Communism, symbolised in the launch of Sigmund Jähn in his Spaceship into Space. This was a huge success for the DDR. In addition, Alex’s mother is congratulated and becomes as a socialist hero, as a consequence of her hard work campaigning for worker’s rights alongside spurring on communist ideas (such as the Pioneers whose lyrics portrayed the DDR in a positive light).This metaphoric image of being launched into space and the idea of freedom, however, can be seen as very ironic as it is known that it was West Germany that had more freedom, therefore an ironic negative portrayal of East Germany. East Germany can however be portrayed in a negative light, in regards to being a more ‘backwards’ and communist part of Germany that needed to move on with the times and advance in society, seen in the old fashioned clothes and traditions that soon became collector’s items.

West Germany, also known officially as the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany), was more for the ideology of ‘Unity, Justice and...