Illusions / Illusionen Beeskow – Łódź 2015

The German Democratic Republic existed from 7 October 1949 to 3 October 1990. At the time of its establishment, the East German state had a population of 18.4 million; over the years, this figure fell by more than 1.7 million. After almost 41 years as a socialist state with a political and social system modelled on that of the Soviet Union, the GDR disappeared from the map, while the federal states that had made it up acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. Today, nearly 25 years after the fall of the GDR, little remains of the state that no longer exists. In Berlin, both German residents and tourists can visit the DDR Museum to learn how people lived in the former East German state: they can see the inside of a typical GDR flat, sit in the driver’s seat of a Trabant—the world’s best-known symbol of the GDR—shut themselves inside a grim detention cell, or sit in an interrogation chair facing a blinding lamp and a Stasi officer. On the streets, they can also buy souvenirs of the former GDR or take a rented Trabant or Wartburg for a drive. 
The film Good Bye, Lenin! is one work that explores the “Ostalgie” visible in the German capital—a longing for the days of the GDR. Another important work of German cinema, the Academy Award-winning film The Lives of Others, is set in the GDR of the 1980s. Yet this is not much.