
14 Jan 2016, 10:28
I was navigating to this section of the forum to post this same interview, only to find that lev beat me to it. It's an interesting conversation. It's worth nothing that she was never just "Honecker's wife". She was working on her political career in the GDR before she even met the guy.
You get a great sense of political and ideological clarity from her words. I have seen other interviews that use heavy editorialising and paraphrasing to make her appear "out of touch", but her own words show a different picture. I suppose being "in touch" means being like Schabowski, apologising in exchange for clemency and making a 180-degree political turn, working for the CDU.
Some insights by her and other former GDR leaders are now being vindicated: that the GDR had severe economic problems, but was certainly not "bankrupt" to the extent that the annexation was the only option; that the intelligence agencies today are more advanced and more invasive than the Stasi could ever have dreamt of. Or about the issue of her "militarisation" of education, because kids learned civil defence in school. I'll take that over the tears of a powerless US president any day of the week.
She also has a few choice words about current events outside of Germany, like the Greek situation. She understands the stakes well, even though it's probably far from her area of expertise. Again, it shows what clarity you have at your disposal when you have a reliable compass. Sticking to that is difficult in general, but I imagine it's even harder in exile. Great interview, all in all.