GDR - Unit 3 - Life in East Germany Flashcards
1
Q
Housing - Overview - 12 Points
A
- By 1945, 14% of the GDR’s housing was destroyed
- Shortages were somewhat alleviated by emigration, but much of the houses were in poor conditions and deteriorating
- Building of new residential homes and housing estates, including heath centres, child care centres, community centres and sports facilities
- Interlinked the house, workplace and welfare facilities, meaning their lives were totally influence by state ideology and policy
- SED idealistic vision became constrained by their overall economy, with a clear focus on quantity rather than quality of housing, as seen in prefabricated and substandard housing
- Honecker’s policy to improve housing in 1976, with 1 million new homes being built by 1990
- 1971 - 1975 - 400,000 home were built
- Target exceeded by 1980 due to the building of Plattenbau housing, which were cheap and quick to assemble but looked bleak and soulless ,and were referred to as ‘comfort cells’
- Estate had high crime rates - Halle Neustadt crime rate was 20% higher than the nearby old town
- In Leipzig 1984, 60% of young skilled professionals had accommodation with hot water
- Still housing shortages, with many couples living with their parents, even after marriage which strained them and increased divorces
- Social inequality in housing as members of the Party elite lived in best housing, with workers living in run-down ones
2
Q
Housing in the 1950s - 3 Points
A
- 30% had a toilet
- 22% had a bath
- 3% had central heating
3
Q
Housing in the 1970s - 2 Points
A
- 20% had central heating
- 50% had a bath or shower
4
Q
Education - Overview - 6 Points
A
- Mid 1950s - buildings were damaged and schools operated in bomb-damaged structures
- 80% of teachers had been dismissed due to “Nazism”
- High demand for teachers, and training recruits were given full-time jobs after 2 weeks
- 1946 Law for Democratisation of German Schools - removed gymnasium-grammar schools, and Grandschules for 6 - 14 year olds were set up to raise academic achievements of all students
- By mid 1950s, half of university students were from working-class backgrounds
- 1949 - 1985 education policies of the GDR focused on developing technical skills to support the development of the economy and reinforce political loyalty to the party/socialism
5
Q
Education in the 1950s - 2 Points
A
- Move towards a comprehensive system of secondary education where people of all abilities followed the same general curriculum
- Jugendweihe - 1954 coming of age ceremony for 14 year olds that signified loyalty to the party
6
Q
Education in the 1960s - 2 Points
A
- Law on Unified Socialist Education System introduced by Margot Honecker, who was Minister of Education
- 1965 - introduction of military training in schools and teachers to report on dissidents to communist ideology
7
Q
Education in the 1970s - 2 Points
A
- Reduced university places as the GDR had a workforce that was overqualified for the jobs available
- More political conformity
8
Q
Changing Status and Role of Women - 11 Points
A
- SED wanted to reverse the GDR’s demographic of an ageing and decline population, to achieve gender equality in the workplace and home
- 1966 - emphasis on women’s equality in marriage and family
- 8th Party Congress in 1972 legalised abortion and contraception was given out for free
- Extension of maternity leave from 18 to 26 weeks and working hours limited to 40 hours for women
- Creches and nursery schools were expanded and by 1974, 60% of infants were placed there
- Late 1980s had highest proportions of female employment, which was 90% compared to the FRG’s 50%
- Women made up half of all teachers and doctors
- The measures still preserved traditional roles rather than reduce them
- Supported mothers more than women
- Women still only made up higher proportions of lower-paid jobs, which were usually unskilled
- Women were under-represented in politics
9
Q
Healthcare - 13 Points
A
- Government saw good health as essential for higher productivity
- Series of Polyclinics based in every district
- 1971 - choice of doctor within polyclinics was allowed
- Much of healthcare was based on preventive medicine and early diagnosis
- Care homes provided for the elderly and disabled
- 1960s - 1970s - life expectancy increased to levels similar to the West
- By 1985, birth rate of GDR was 13.7/100, where’s in the FRG it was 9.6/thousand
- 1959 - deaths during childbirth was lower than in the FRG
- Number of hospital beds at a similar level to the FRG
- 1970s - just under 160 doctors per 1000 people, which rose to 242 by 1989
- Basic medical equipment was often in short supply
- By the end of 1970s, there was pressure on healthcare with a failing economy and lack of resources
- Led to prioritisation of top medicals towards Party Officials
10
Q
Stasi - 12 Points
A
- Set up in 1950 to defend the GDR against acts of sabotage
- Initially, 1000 people were employed
- Rose to 4,000 in 1953, and had 90,000 full time employees and 175,000 IMs
- Opened mail, bugged homes, accessed bank statements, and viewed medical records
- Used psychological torture
- 1970s - forced to become more covert as part of their Abegrenzung play to root out western influences
- Telephones were bugged and false rumours spread
- 20% of the GDR’s population worked for the Stasi
- Stasi files in 1989 showed that 3/4 of the adult population in the GDR had been under surveillance
- People collaborated with them because they felt they were contributing to a communist utopia or for material benefits
- Some were coerced into joining as IMs
- 1949 - 1989 - between 200,000 and 250,000 political prisoners were imprisoned by the Stasi and sometimes tortured
11
Q
Free German Youth - 11 Points
A
- Young Pioneers (JP) were for 6-14 years old
- FDJ was for 14-25 years old
- Deliberately mixed gender to differentiate from the Hitler Youth
- Junge Welt - their newspaper which had the largest circulation of any GDR paper, with 1.4 million copies sold in 1950s
- Membership was not compulsory, but was the only youth organisation officially acknowledge by the SED
- Failure to attend could easily jeopardise future university places or career choices
- Controlled over 28,000 organisations, in order to prepare its best members for admission as candidates into the communist party
- Indoctrination occire with political activities or fun-oriented school events, such as youth clubs and discos
- Holiday camps were organised, with 1million out of 2.2 million pupils attended in 1983
- Most put u with the propaganda to gain access to the more leisure based activities
- By early 1980s, most young people preferred to spend time informally with friends, listen to western music, and follow western trends
12
Q
Propaganda and Censorship - 10 Points
A
- Used a combination to promote the GDR and the USSR and to belittle the FRG and its western allies
- 1950 - SED’s 3rd Party Congress declared all culture had to be based on Marxist-Leninist ideological principles
- GDR was portrayed as as the genuine representation of Germany’s achievements
- Highlighted social problems found in the West such as homelessness, frugs, and unemployment
- Wall was represented as a ‘protective barrier’ from the West
- Had control of all aspects of mass media with the exception of the Church, who only wrote religious articles
- 1970s - SED tried to manufacture a national identity with the use of extensive propaganda promoting the GDR as a unique and non-German state
- References to a shared German culture were removed
- Military propaganda was also increased, which was unsuccessful as were was a rapid push for reunification by the East German public after the fall of the Wall in 1989
- SED were fearful of the influence of writers, so intellectual spheres were heavily infiltrated by IMs and special surveillance
13
Q
Popular Support - 6 Points
A
- Had highest living standards in Eastern bloc, so many accepted the more repressive aspect of the SED rule as the improvements in social welfare and security outgrew the repression
- 1970s - a generation of East Germans that had only experienced life under SED were more tolerant of the system
- SED didn’t win a free election, but did enough to create a stable society
- After 1968, the state presented its citizens as docile
- Hid figures, such as suicide rates, which showed social problems
- Pride in the GDR was balanced with hatred of the SED
14
Q
Argument that he SED Had Popular Support
A
Large-scale numbers of GDR citizens who co-operated with the regime were committed to the eventual create of a communist state
15
Q
Argument that the SED Did Not Have Popular Support
A
GDR’s stability was due to the development of a niche society, where East Germans came to accept the GDR in public but not necessarily in private (dual-existence)
