Schneider, L. (2022). “In the past everything was better”: the implications of GDR’s penal policy for surviving in capitalist society

This paper focuses on the relationship between GDR’s penal policy and people’s imprisonment seeking today. During in-depths ethnographic research in Leipzig, Germany, I followed a group of men who had been imprisoned in reform homes for resisting socialist society during their formative years, (between 14 and 18). In these work camps, they were to be reeducated, re-integrated into socialist society and turned into ‘better people’ (Sandberg 2020). Many of these men describe the torture and Foucauldian disciplining they experienced there as both horrific and helpful and, they ultimately aligned with the demands of the authoritarian regime, were released, started families and found work. After the fall of the GDR, the new found freedom to decide on the direction of their lives, the responsibility to take the reins in their own hands, caused a sheer overstrain and, these men, now unable to lean on the state for such decision making, fell into poverty. Many reject the neoliberalist mantras of the activating state (e.g. self-reliance, individual freedom) and seek to return to a disciplinary society with a strong state. Many do so by seeking to enter prison, supervised housing or mental health wards (giving away legal and political agency for the comforting structures of discipline). Until today the extent and impact of these facilities remain well guarded public secrets and the connection between long-term penal re-education and docile-making and the demands of neoliberal self-reliance is not drawn. In this paper, I therefore trace the relationship between authoritarian disciplining and neoliberal responsibilisation and ask: How can we understand the implications of a society of control (Deleuze 1992: Crain ny) and a disciplinary society (Foucault 1977) for people whose formative years were shaped by forced compliance to an authoritarian regime? What underlies people remembering the system that imprisoned and tortured them with nostalgia? What happens to freedom when it has been unlearned? What happens when choice becomes a bigger prison than prison itself?