Documentary From Monday Night

 Last night (Monday) via ARD (Channel One of public TV) ran a documentary piece called 'Russia, Putin, and We East Germans'.  A 45-minute piece, with a sports journalist who grew up in eastern Germany and figured that she'd go on a trip.  She would try to understand why so many eastern Germans are pro-Russia on the Ukraine business.

Journalist?  Jessy Wellmer.  

First, let me say this....Wellmer is a sports commentator/journalist/moderator.....so this is a bit outside of normal world.  Yes, she did grow up in the 1990s of former East Germany.....so she has some insight to how people think.  I am a bit surprised that ARD signed up to this....with a sports journalist.  

I watched about 30 minutes of the 45-minute piece and will talk to four observations:

1.  She tried hard to just ask questions and not moderate or show her own opinion....to which 'why' was a central theme to the show.  She gave people a fair chance to talk over their pro-Russia feelings.

2.  I noted after a while....that a lot of the people she spoke to....were over the age of forty-five.  That means that they were at least kids, teenagers, or young adults in the 1980s and saw the full 'blast' of East German propaganda.

3.  The anti-US chatter?  Always there, and typically statements that you would have heard in the past year from Russian talk-show presentations.  

4.  A lot of this leading back to successful propaganda from 1970s/1980s?  OH YES, you absolutely got the feeling that what was heard and believed then.....is still around today.  You can get the same feeling from West Germans who consumed a lot of political propaganda in 1980s/1990s.  You can also cite environmental chatter/propaganda today and how people believe in things with limited or marginal facts.  

So, for Germans who viewed the documentary piece (shown at 8:15 PM)....does it change their view of their fellow countrymen?  First, I don't believe that many people watched the show.  If you follow the normal schedule.....the documentary was not slated for the evening (an odd thing).  The massive bulk of Germans probably watched something else.

Second, a lot of West Germans will tell you this is the remarkable fact that politicians believe that an entire country (like DDR) could be absorbed into West Germany, and they'd be reacting or thinking in the same fashion.  These Germans will tell you that even today....it's two separate groups merged into one single nation.  

Finally, if you wonder why RT (Russian satellite TV in English/German) was turned off for viewing in Germany a number of months ago....it was absolutely done to prevent more BS-propaganda from being pumped into Germany.  

If you want to watch the show (45 minutes, all in German), it's here.  I will say it was done in a fair manner, and ARD's reporter absolutely tried to be neutral in telling this story.  

Yes, it is a bit worrisome on how these older eastern Germans have this view.....30 years later, after the wall came down.  But if you paid attention for the past thirty years.....this view has always been there.