I was an American exchange student to West Germany for 12 months from 1985 to 1986. I visited Berlin just once for 4 days, got to ride through the GDR countryside and spent a day in East Berlin. My opinion, for what its worth, is informed by that limited experience. But I was really shocked to see how much bombing damage from WWII still dotted the countryside in 1986. West Berlin was a glittering modern city, while the east was very drab. I was yelled at by a waitress for taking a photo of my own student group in a restaurant. Apparently, "Dass findet NICHT STAT!" My opinion is that neither socialism nor capitalism can exist in pure form. We need the promise of some personal rewards for creativity and hard work, but we also need a secure social safety net. The pitched arguments between capitalism and socialism seem to pretend that the option is either one OR the other. The reality is that the arguments are really about how much of each a person believes is best.

My concern with the GDR was not socialism, for that is an economic system. It was the autocratic rule and the intrusion into personal lives of the police state. Socialism is wonderful, but I'm rather partial to democratic socialism, and the GDR crushed any notion of real democracy. When I think of good socialism, I think of Sweden or Norway.

Having lived in Communist Poland, which was not nearly as oppressive or dependent on the Soviet Union as the GDR was, I can tell you the ideals they preached had nothing to do with reality. While I had a good childhood there, I remember being told not to touch on certain topics in school, because it could land my whole family (and not just me) in deep trouble. I was nine or ten years old at the time. Since then I've heard tons of stories of oppression from family and friends back there. So beautiful ideals? Maybe on paper, but they were always only lipstick on a pig, not anything real or really intended to be implemented.
So what does that tell progressives? I'd say keep it democratic first. Marx was wrong - the "dictatorship of the proletariat" never ends of its own free will. Democracy may make it more difficult to enact progressive ideals (see the US today), but it's best to stay away from more "efficient" methods.

Melancholic song by German communists fighting Franco while remembering the struggle for the homeland also...

The GDR was founded by the communists who resisted Hitler and were his first victims. Some of them had fought in Spain against Franco. I like the music of Ernst Busch and Hans Eisler which expresses the revolutionary spirit of the 1930s. But why did communism become oppressive? Look at the specifics of the history... The Western capitalist countries, including the USA, invaded Russia to put down the revolution, thereby prolonging the civil war. When the US was winning WWII, it dropped the genocidal atomic bombs on Japanese civilians. This was a warning to the USSR. In Europe, the US created NATO, under the pretext of defending Western Europe. Having just experienced extermination in Hitler's camps and faced with an enemy capable of atomic genocide, it was inevitable that Eastern European communists would become oppressive to their citizens to defend their governments.

Interesting..
[thelocal.de]

The concept was great, like democracy, cooperative societies, and communal living. Unfortunately, human nature most often takes over and what comes out was not what was envisioned in development. Or maybe it was by some. The GDR and the USSR were just two examples.

And we're living and struggling with another one right now. Humans can pervert any idea and rationalize why they've done it. But we can always resist.

GDR? what is that?

I was in Germany for two years and lived in Berlin - then Niederfischbach near Siegen. I loved it we were only allowed to go to the east on certain days and had our passports stamped so that we couldnt stay overnight I was living in a tent on a campsite and many of the older people came over to visit their family from whom they had been separated but could only stay a short time - I asked one of the older women what it as like and she said it was pretty equal really some things were worse some betterI was impressed by all the beautiful countryside but rather alarmed at the size of your ants.ours are really small.

I agree with you that the idea was beautiful as was the idea of the Soviet union in general. Unfortunately, for various reasons the ideas were never able to be put fully into practice and a lot of things went wrong. I spent a year in the USSR in the 1960s and there were many things about it that I loved as well as many things I found oppressive. I never went to the GDR but I have heard that it was more oppressive than the USSR. You presumably only know about it from your parents who i imagine have mixed feelings about it, too.

Your profile says you are 28 years old if you lived there you did not live there for long as reunification occurred in 1990; you would have been less than a year old.

The GDR? Well, looking at it from Spain, I felt sorry for its people and wished they could be free one day.
What do you exactly mean with 'the idea of the GDR was very beautiful'? It was a country controlled by the Soviet Union...

German Democratic Republic. It was created after WW2.

It was basically 'East Germany'. Sorry.

I'm not sure what the ideals of the DDR were and I only saw it from across the Fulda Gap while knowing that if a war starts while I'm here, I've got about 4 seconds to live.

After the wall came down, I had a good friend from East Germany. I know more about the struggles of its people than what it was meant to be.

ADD:
After looking at your profile, I believe you're too young to have lived in the DDR.