My father lived in various bits of East Germany during the communist era. He had nothing to say but good things about the situation, until he pissed off a couple of Stasi in the late 1970s that was and was deported to the West after a fairly light telling off (fortunately versus locked up). The main thing that pissed him off about this is that he had just bought a new Robotron TV that he spent two years saving up for and had to leave it behind. He is bitter about this to the day :)
If it wasn't for the Stasi, it would have been a modern Utopia. Stable employment, manufacturing oriented economy (value added everywhere) and could pretty much stand alone. They even pushed family values and equality for all over conspicuous consumption, which is pretty much the entire facade of capitalism these days.
This ALL went down the shitter at reunification.
Perhaps someone should try it again (without the Stasi that is).
Some Ostalgie: I have three bottles of Vita Cola in the cupboard (that stuff rocks) and a Praktica MTL 5 camera which I use regularly - I find these to be the essence of the good bits of the GDR :)