Jennifer Stanek

Demystifying the Notion, "The West is Better": a German Oral History Project Jennifer Stanek

The notion, ?the West is better,? assumed much mythical character during the existence of the German Democratic Republic, which it largely has not shed. This is apparent in the manner, in which it is still often expressed: as an idea whose origins can be found in nature or in ?fact?, rather than in history, in other words, as an idea that does not warrant questioning or necessarily require explanation. Steered by Roland Barthes' ideas on myth, I was able to recognize mythical elements of the concept, ?the West is better,? in the narratives of four German women who chose a life in the West either shortly before the construction of the Wall on August 13, 1961 or in the 1980s before the fall of the Wall. This belief in the ?golden West? is crucial to understanding what moved a people across dangerous borders and to understanding an ever-present East-West tension among a reunified Volk.