Social change and welfare programmes

Question 1

Living standards would be guaranteed in return for…

Answer 1

at least outward acceptance of the regime (quid pro quo)

Question 2

What is the meaning of quid pro quo?

Answer 2

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services - “a favour for a favour”

Question 3

How did the Honecker regime hope to secure popular support during the 1970s and 1980s?

Answer 3

Through social and welfare programmes

Question 4

Honecker in particular had genuine sympathy with the working class - where did this derive from?

Answer 4

The poverty of his earlier life

Question 5

The Party committed itself to improvements in living standards on the understanding that these would lead to…

Answer 5

greater scientific and technical developments - to modernise society within a socialist framework

Question 6

When was minimum wage increased?

Answer 6

1976

Question 7

The monthly minimum wage was raised from ___ to ___ Ostmarks with smaller increases for those earning between ___ and ___ Ostmarks

Answer 7

350
400
400
500

Question 8

The GDR had faced critical housing problems predating its inception - why?

Answer 8

As much as two-thirds of the housing stock in major cities (such as Berlin and Dresden) had been either destroyed or severely damaged during the war

Question 9

The price of rents

Answer 9

Rents (subsidised by the state) were cheap - often no more than four per cent of income

Question 10

What per cent of older homes had no hot water by the 1980s?

Answer 10

44%

Question 11

What per cent of older homes lacked a bath or shower by the 1980s?

Answer 11

60% lacked a bath or shower

Question 12

What per cent of older homes lacked an indoor toilet by the 1980s?

Answer 12

65% lacked an indoor toilet

Question 13

Continuing problems with housing by1989

Answer 13

There was a waiting list of 800,000 for repairs to accommodation and a thriving black market in circumventing this

Question 14

Healthcare in the GDR was comprehensive and based on two principles - what were these principles?

Answer 14

• Communities needed to be healthy for the strength of the nation
• Individuals needed to be healthy so they could produce more

Question 15

Healthcare was largely funded through a system of…

Answer 15

National Insurance for which employees contributed ten per cent of their gross income and employers an equivalent amount

Question 16

Infant mortality rate in 1950 and in 1985

Answer 16

1950 = 21 (deaths per thousand babies)
1985 = 11 (deaths per thousand babies)

Question 17

What did healthcare in the GDR focus on?

Answer 17

The emphasis was always on prevention of illness so comparatively more was spent on preventative medicine and promotion of healthy lifestyles than on clinical medicine

Question 18

Problems with healthcare

Answer 18

• The economy could not afford the quality of care it sought
• Provision was not equal
• The environmental pollution took a fierce toll of health

Question 19

The economy could not afford the quality of care it sought

Answer 19

Much specialist equipment had to be imported and the state lacked the resources to pay:
- It was estimated in 1988 that only 30 per cent of the equipment needed for successful heart surgery and transplants was available in the GDR

Question 20

• Provision was not equal

Answer 20

The political elite and those felt to be more valuable to the state (for example scientists) received better treatment than the rest of the population - although they were expected to pay ten per cent more from their salaries

Question 21

The environmental pollution took a fierce toll of health

Answer 21

More bronchial disorders and worse

Question 22

Why was education crucial in the GDR?

Answer 22

• To give young people the necessary skills to flourish in a modern technological society
• Political indoctrination

Question 23

In 1959 the system of secondary schools called ____________ was completed

Answer 23

polytechnics

Question 24

What do polytechnics focus on providing?

Answer 24

Hands-on practical and applied education

Question 25

Vocational education in the GDR

Answer 25

For less academic students there were developed links with industry which offered work placements and training schemes

Question 26

In 1951-52, __ per cent of students spent more than eight years in school. By 1971-72 this had risen to __ per cent

Answer 26

16
72

Question 27

There were two fundamental problems in education - what were these?

Answer 27

• The huge pressure for ideological conformity caused resentment among many
• The workforce became over-qualified (there simply were not the skilled jobs for the number of skilled workers)

Question 28

The workforce became over-qualified (there simply were not the skilled jobs for the number of skilled workers) - provide examples for this

Answer 28

• 70 per cent of workers were skilled but there were only suitable opportunities for 55 per cent of them
• Other data suggests 20 per cent of workers were doing jobs for which they were overqualified

Question 29

What did social welfare policies lead to? (negative)

Answer 29

Shortages (essential minimum standards were prioritised and items considered luxuries had to wait)

Question 30

Essential minimum standards were prioritised and items considered luxuries had to wait - provide two examples of this

Answer 30

• People could wait 12 to 17 years for the delivery of a new car
• People could wait up to 13 years to be connected to a telephone

Question 31

What did the 1949 Constitution guarantee?

Answer 31

Equality of opportunity and pay

Question 32

What did the 1966 Family Code guarantee?

Answer 32

• A birth allowance of 1000 Ostmarks per child
• A marriage loan of 5000 Ostmarks
• A generous maternity leave

Question 33

Why was the GDR birth rate low?

Answer 33

The pressures on women - the double burden

Question 34

What was the birth rate like in 1975?

Answer 34

10.5 per 1000 inhabitants

Question 35

Provide an example of the double burden in the GDR

Answer 35

It was estimated in 1972 that 52 per cent of women had no help from their partners with childcare and housework

Question 36

How many University students were female in 1960?

Answer 36

35%

Question 37

How many University students were female in 1984?

Answer 37

50%

Question 38

How much of the labour force did women make up?

Answer 38

half

Question 39

What per cent of women had jobs in 1984?

Answer 39

80%

Question 40

What were women noticeably absent from?

Answer 40

Senior managerial roles in all professions

Question 41

Women were noticeably absent from senior managerial roles in all professions - what exhibits this?

Answer 41

They compromised 82% of teachers but never more than four per cent of departmental heads in the Ministry of Education

Question 42

Who was the head of the Ministry of Education under Honecker?

Answer 42

Margot Honecker

Question 43

What was Margot Honecker known as?

Answer 43

“Purple Witch”

Question 44

Why was Margot Honecker known as the “Purple Witch”?

Answer 44

Her vicious policies across three decades which included forced adoptions of children of dissidents and a notorious prison for those children called “Margot’s Concentration Camp”

Question 45

How were gender issues treated in Politburo discussions?

Answer 45

They were treated with levity

Question 46

An official encyclopedia for women in 1987 focused on…

Answer 46

• fashion
• homecare
• cooking

Question 47

Historian Mary Fulbrook on the treatment of women

Answer 47

Overall policy was geared to making women act more like men in the labour force but had little influence in the domestic sphere where women largely maintained responsibility for home and childcare

Question 48

What did many women appreciate?

Answer 48

The employment opportunities and childcare provision that gave them a greater independence than elsewhere

Question 49

Why were some women fearful during the reunification process?

Answer 49

70% of women in the GDR feared employment opportunities and childcare provision would diminish