A documentary called Life Behind the Berlin Wall, shows that communist regimes, in addition to being historically linked to poverty, oppression and hunger, further pollute planet earth. The visual material focuses on the example of the former German Democratic Republic. One country, two systems: Democratic Germany, which was the opposite and eventually succumbed, and Federal Germany, western, democratic and capitalist, which developed without having to cause the disproportionate damage of its counterpart.
Dr. Rainer Zitelmann, a German historian, sociologist and writer, wrote about the material. The film is based on one of the chapters of his book Capitalism is not the problem, it is the solution.
More poverty and pollution
Zitelmann detailed that in 1989, 65% of apartments in communist Germany still had furnace heating, 27% of homes did not have their own toilet, and only 16% of East Germans had a telephone, compared to 99% in West Germany.
Pollution in East Germany
The writer explained that East Germany emitted more than three times as much CO2 per unit of GDP during its existence as the Federal Republic or West Germany. In 1988, 10 times more sulfur dioxide was emitted per km2 in East Germany than in the federal axis, generating sulfur dioxide air pollution at a rate of 48.1 metric tons/km2 , compared to 4.6 metric tons/km2 respectively.
Air pollution, airborne particles: the average load of 20.3 metric tons per km2 in the GDR was more than 10 times higher than in the Federal Republic (1.8 metric tons/km2).
Practically half of the main rivers in the German Democratic Republic were biologically dead in 1989 and 70% could no longer be used for drinking water. Almost half of its inhabitants did not receive regular drinking water, due to high inputs of nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals and other pollutants in the water. The documentary shows all these historical facts and illustrates that a market economy is more effective than one planned by a totalitarian regime.
