Recently I was once again asked this question in an interview on the past in the DDR. Quickly I said yes, eagerly quoting two current examples from the national German press. Two minutes of this interview can now be found on a data carrier – wilfully countered with diverse animal sounds from the jungle, slowly submerging my voice. The main idea is to react in this way to the endless repetition of this set of problems. On the one hand the same questions keep repeating themselves to a sickening extent, soon becoming absurd through their repetition and ending up in cynicism. On the other hand it is extremely calamitous to put the most recent past at a definite rest and to tick it off historically. The German Republic’s history after the war is the most significant negative example for such an attitude. I have tried to illustrate this antagonism acoustically. The overstrained metaphor of the jungle seemed the most striking example to me, just and more than ever because of its obtrusiveness. The accompanying picture shows an acoustic motion detector including a multi-channel mp3-sampler in the still deserted building of the former administrative district agency of the MFS Weimar.
(Photo: Bach)