East German Jokes

West Germany’s intelligence service has released a collection of jokes made in East Germany during the Cold War. You can read some of the here, such as, “If Christmas had happened in East Germany, it would have been cancelled. Mary would’t find any napppies for the baby Jesus, Joseph would be called up to the army and the three kings wouldn’t get a travel permit.” Or, “What would happen if the desert became communist? Nothing for a while, and then there would be a sand shortage.” The humour is pretty dry, but it reveals the way many East Germans coped with the repressive regime and their dreary surroundings - through cynicism and sarcasm. Of course, the penalty for being caught telling such jokes could be very high. The Stasi had 189,000 informants who reported any criticsm of mockery of the government, and many people were arrested and sent to labour camps.

The report is published by Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, and you can find further coverage (in English) of the events marking the anniversary of 1989 here.