Jared Kushner, chief White House Nepotism Beneficiary
Humor Under Communism East German Jokes collected by Spies West Germany.
Is the East Germans originate from apes ape Unable could never survive on just two bananas per year These jokes were whispered in East Germany - and West German spies were hard to understand the public mood, according to recently published information files.
The Trabant was a favorite butt of jokes in Germany from the communist East.
What would happen if the desert became communist nothing for a while, and there would be a shortage of sand Jokes like that made the rounds among East Germans during the communist era, and the intelligence service of West Germany would collect, as a way to gauge public opinion behind the iron curtain, but also to entertain his masters in Bonn, the West German capital.
Here's another why West Germany have a higher standard of living that we Because communists can not get a work permit there ubiquitous Trabant or Trabi, legendary plastic car in East Germany with its engine pops two-stroke, was a favorite butt jokes as well as one new Trabi has been launched with two exhaust pipes - so you can use it as a wheelbarrow.
The jokes were drawn open letters and telephone conversations secretly that agents of the Bundesnachrichtendienst BND West Germany would monitor in their quest for Eastern Germany state secrets during the Cold War.
Intelligence agencies around the world tend to value each extract the information they get and the BND was no different scrupulously collected and filed the jokes and sent them in Bonn during the carnival season each year, to the the joy officials BND has just published the files on humor he arose East Germany.
The joke report was by far the most popular service the spies provided it was our most successful recalls former BND spy Dieter Gandersheim, whose real name is of course quite different from the Chancellery and the ministries could not wait for the file, he said.
It wasn t just about embellishing the gray routine civil service The jokes gave an overview of what the Germans of the ordinary Eastern reflect on their diet and current events The Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 gave birth to a new saying, for example, if the farmer falls his tractor, it must be close to a reactor.
Chernobyl, incidentally, had not been an accident, another joke went it was just a ray Soviet program X population.
East Germans weren t satires secretly opposed their political leaders, the bureaucracy or the chronic shortages that have hit the country, although it was risky for them.
Political jokes thrive in dictatorships, says Christoph Kleeman, a former official of the Birthler Authority, which was set up after German reunification to manage the archives of the secret East German police, or Stasi Anyone who says one or laughs creates a democracy for a brief moment, and brings the regime leaders down to his level.
Christmas has been canceled, another joke goes Mary didn t find diapers for the baby Jesus, Joseph was called to the army and the three kings didn t get a travel permit.
Have often been preceded by BND's joke reports an analysis of the political and economic situation in the German Democratic Republic in the early 1980s, when the Polish government imposed martial law in response to strikes against rising food prices and demands political, the BND reported that some east German workers had also shot down tools, and gave the following analysis the GDR leadership believes the population is resilient and ready to make sacrifices, but it is willing to take severe measures if necessary to prevent the Polish conditions, it added a chapter on political jokes on the supply situation like this Why can not you get pins in Germany is because they are sold in Poland as kebab skewers.
Telling jokes was playing with fire, says Kleemann The Stasi had 91,000 employees and a network of approximately 189,000 civilian informers to spy on the German population is 17 million he considers every political joke as a potential threat Anyone who mocked representatives of the state bodies and the company was prosecuted.
There were cases of people who were put in prison, it was particularly bad in the 1950s and 1960s, says Kleemann.
Here's an example of how this risk has been lampooned There are people who tell jokes There are people who collect jokes and jokes and there are people who collect people who tell jokes.
Humor Under Communism East German Jokes collected by Spies West Germany SPIEGEL ONLINE, humor, communism, is.