I don't even understand why people never look and understand the history that happened outside of their country. Just the sheer risk of having a society like in the DDR is reason enough to not do stuff like that.

We never learn (long-term) from the past.

A sizeable part of Germany is nostalgic after the good ole times, be it of 50 years ago or of 90 years ago. You can see them at the voting booths.

See also: Ostalgie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie)

> there are obvious historical reasons why Germans like the idea of having a right to privacy

There are obvious historical reasons why they shouldn't try far-right, race-based politics, yet here we are [1].

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/rise-germanys-most-succ...