One of the most interesting themes which emerged from my conversations with people was the way the power of the state featured in their past. On the one hand, people wholeheartedly admitted that the state had exerted a far-reaching influence on their existence. In their stories, the state was generally portrayed as a distant entity, responsible for everything that had gone wrong in the GDR: “Them at the top, they were always thinking up such strange things…” At the same time, the influence of the state was perceived in a highly relative way, with phrases such as: “It wasn't that bad, we didn't take it seriously.” Furthermore, as will be shown in this chapter, it was precisely thanks to the bond between state and citizenry that the majority of the people I met had not seen the state as a threat, but on the contrary as a force that had actually played a rather positive role in daily life. It was partly due to the state's omnipresence that the general atmosphere in the GDR had been so warm and friendly.

Initially, I found this inconceivable. Why did people's stories about the past sound so mild, sometimes even entirely positive, and nearly always defensive – as for instance in the frequently heard sentence “es war nicht alles schlecht damals [it wasn't all that bad].” Two of the most frequently mentioned positive aspects people recalled were the warmth and mutual equality that had supposedly characterized their former lives. Yet another comment that many people repeated about their past was: “We were all in the same boat then.” Spoken in a somewhat defensive manner, like an excuse, the same boat apparently represented the security brought about by mutual equality.

Although I did occasionally hear critical comments about the past, they were negligible compared to the amount of protective and positive accounts. The main criticism was limited to material consumption.