Youth in the GDR [1]
(and then still in indirect Question clause)
Helga Schubert [2]
Translated by xia23
Do you want to know, how the socialist principle “one according to his abilities, to one according to his achievements” is applied to us in the GDR?
In order for the first sentence become a correct indirect question clause I would have had to begin to ask: you want to know, how that…
But I didn’t even know, if you really want to know. But it was a correct indirect question clause though. The main sentence expresses an uncertainty, “if” follows after the comma, and then the word order is different than in the direct question. You will surely notice the same, as I think of that.
The reason I write all of these, is to introduce you to the indirect question clause. You can check, which clause I failed, where the content moved away from me and the form lagged behind.
With the preceding clause, you are not sure, if that was also an indirect question clause. A characteristic feature, by which you might recognize that, is missing: the main clause before it. My poetic freedom was to blame. So an unofficial one.
The life of a youth in the GDR lies in front of him as a clear railway network. The question is only, how the directions were set to where the journey would go. And who sets the directions. The state says: you set the directions. But we say the state. The main question is only, how long a youth need to understand that.
Many youths do not know, when they could go out and go for a walk in a meadow. The basic answer is:
The man at 65 and woman at 60. And they can’t even know, if they can retire and retire earlier or not.
The first direction is set seven months before birth. So a youth asks her friend, if they want the child or not. If both say yes, they ask themselves as the next, if they want to marry before or after the birther of the child or not at all. They know the advantage and disadvantage of each of three possibilities. If they marry, they can take a state loan, for which they must pay low interest and the loan is partially forgiven after the birth of the child. If they do not marry, they don’t get this loan, but they will be guaranteed a spot in a daycare center. An unmarried mother receives special supports. Since there is no uncertainty for the alternatives and the parents of youth do not have catastrophes, not even moral ones, I did not know, where I should construct an indirect question clause.
An unmarried mother does not need to ask any question whether they can work after the birth of her child. Tree months after the birth, she will have a spot in a daycare center.
In contrast, a married expectant mother does not know exactly, how long she will stay home after the birth of her child. It might not take longer than three years and she can first bring the child to the kindergarten. There are more spots there. How long the child stays at home, depending not only on the family status, but also on the profession of the mother. As a worker in a production business or as a student, she will naturally prefer opposite to a house wife.
The question whether the father should stay at home with child and the mother continues to works, is rarely a problem for the young parents despite the equal right. As people discuss in the newspapers, old role perception of man and woman still exists.
It might not have been totally meaningful, why I describe the development in the first years of life in detail. As soon as a child comes in the community education, it is ordered to take a standard education and connected education plan for every child. Educators immediately pay attention to the gifted and the handicapped children. They are obliged to think about how they support these children. In the first few years the effect of these supporting measures depends on how strongly these efforts are supported by the parents, so the parents set the course at the beginning. In the school years the main question more and more becomes independent, the main obstacle before every directions, the question, what a grade average the child, the student, the youth has. The decision, whether let a child after the 8th grade go to high school and whether let him take the high school leaving /university qualification examination and go to university to study, depends on his grade average (only two from the class achieve it). The decision, whether a student can begin certain professional education after the 10th grade, depends on his grade average at the end of 9th grade. Then at the beginning of the 10th grade, a year before school end, the apprenticeship contract will be accepted. Every student knows, that they will get an apprenticeship. But they do not know, whether he can learn the profession he wants. Other applicant can have better grade average.
The next direction will be taking a profession. The delegation to technic school depends on grade average at the training end and on the youth activity in a youth brigade, a youth initiative or a youth object.
How far the strict and planted security of his life will go, that is what the youth notices not only during his professional development, but also in his everyday life. Where he camps in the coming summer, is decided in winter. Then he has to apply for a camping permit. On the camping site he must apply no late than the second day. With his personal ID card, which he has always carried himself from the age of fourteen.
At the age of 18 the young men normally join the army, but not the young women. She has an advantage, which doesn’t last long. Then seven months before the birth of the future youth she asks her boyfriend (who is currently in the army), whether they want the child or not. If they both say yes, then they ask themselves…
You know now the rest and the indirect question clause. But I don’t know, if they can emphasize themselves a little with the problem of our youth. When you can’t judge something with the grade average, when you should be spontaneous.
With us everything is sensitive and clear. The question is now, how everyone copes with it.
[1]. p. 97. Jugend in der DDR (und dann noch im indirekten Fragesatz). Kontakt mit der Zeit. Dieter Stöpfgeshoff. Max Hueber Verlag. Germany, 1995.
GDR. (formally) German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
[2]. Helga Schubert. 1/7/1940 - . A German psychologist and writer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helga_Schubert
