The weirdest case was a convicted jail inmate in East Germany, who came out of prison a decade or so after the German unification and had to cope with a totally different society.

What is this shop with empty shelves?
- It’s a butcher’s shop.
What’s this another shop with emty shelves?
- It’s a sausage shop.
But how come this shop have no shelves?
- Because it’s a shelf shop.

And back to Korea: one of the scaries things about the totalitarianism in North Korea is that no jokes like that ever reach our ears, while the old Soviet block was full of that kind of stuff.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Over on the West side of the wall, there were masses of people celebrating, including a group of Koreans holding up a banner that said “KOREA IST EINS”– “Korea is one.” I recall being touched by this; it was probably sad for those Koreans to see reunification happening somewhere other than in Korea. At the same time, it might’ve given them hope that such a thing would be possible on the peninsula.

Your post brings back memories.

Kevin

Talking about the downfall of East Germany brings a lot of memories - like the East German lecturer of German whose classes I was taking, and who suddenly lost his country during the winter vacation. I guess very few were surprised when it became known that he had been reporting to Stasi all the time - after all he had been let abroad.
Or like the young East German in a youth hostel in Budapest in the summer of ‘89, who was going to over the Austrian border the following night, while I was just going to take the train… Cases like him help to remember what it is to rule people with barbed wire and bullets.