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Why was housing seen as so important to the building of a socialist society?
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About the lecture
In this module, we think about why housing was seen as so important to the building of a socialist society in East Germany, focusing in particular on: (i) the practical need for new housing in the aftermath of the Second World War; (ii) the role in housing in the political aims of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED); (iii) the construction of the Stalinallee in East Berlin and socialist model towns such as Stalinstadt (later renamed Eisenhüttenstadt); (iv) the lack of progress on housing between 1945-71, and the renewed efforts under Erich Honecker between 1971-89; (v) the nature of some of the housing developments that were built in this period, in particular the Berlin-Marzahn development built from 1977 onwards; and (vi) the extent to which the housing policy of East Germany was a success, both practically and politically.
About the lecturer
Dr Marcel Thomas is a historian of modern Germany with a particular interest in rural and urban life, oral history, memory and sensory methodologies. His monograph Local Lives, Parallel Histories: Villagers and Everyday Life in the Divided Germany (2020) is the first comparative study of how East and West German villagers experienced and navigated social change in their localities in the postwar era.
My name is Marcel Thomas.
00:00:06I'm a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Manchester.
00:00:07Um, my work on 20th century Germany. Urban history, rural life.
00:00:11I'm generally interested in everyday life in the divided Germany. Especially,
00:00:16um, this is short, um,
00:00:20sort of lectures about everyday life in Socialist East Germany.
00:00:23And we're going to kick off with a lecture about housing,
00:00:27which was a really important, um,
00:00:31theme running throughout the history of East Germany.
00:00:34So what was housing seen as so important to the building of a socialist society?
00:00:38First of all,
00:00:44housing became a key issue after the Second World War
00:00:45because there was a very practical need for housing.
00:00:47The bombing of cities across Germany meant that thousands
00:00:52of flats have been destroyed in the war.
00:00:56In cities like Dresden, more than 90% of inner city housing was uninhabitable.
00:00:58Also,
00:01:05the inflow of about six million refugees from Eastern
00:01:06Europe meant that there was an acute housing shortage,
00:01:10um, in East Germany
00:01:13and even the existing housing that made it through
00:01:17the war was often in a terrible condition.
00:01:19Um, the so called meets cousin rental barracks, um,
00:01:22that were built in the 19th century and cities like Dresden elliptic.
00:01:27These were decaying quite rapidly,
00:01:32and
00:01:35flats often had no private bathrooms. Families had to share one or two small rooms.
00:01:38Um, so these were in need of renovation. In any case, the new housing was needed.
00:01:44But beyond the very practical need,
00:01:50housing was also a key tool for the socialist regime to build a socialist society.
00:01:52Now East Germany was a planned economy.
00:02:00Um, that means that there was no private housing market in East Germany.
00:02:02Um, so housing planning was firmly in the grips of the socialist state,
00:02:07and the creation of socialist model towns
00:02:15and large settlement of housing blogs became the central
00:02:18element of attempts to reshape the citizen state relationship.
00:02:22Um, and quite literally, build a new type of society.
00:02:26The first major project in 19 fifties was the Stalin Allee,
00:02:31the Stalin Avenue in East Berlin.
00:02:34This was one of the first prestige projects in the early cold war,
00:02:36So this was an almost two kilometre long row of
00:02:42housing blocks stretching along the boulevard in East Berlin,
00:02:46and the uniform flats in um, these housing blocks, uh,
00:02:50was supposed to espouse this new Socialist egalitarian culture
00:02:55to really show to the world what socialist living looks like.
00:03:00Socialist visions of a better society were also
00:03:06put into practise in socialist model towns.
00:03:09Ison Hidden Start,
00:03:12which originally wasn't called Stalin start Stalin City was the first one
00:03:14to be built in East Germany in the early 19 fifties.
00:03:19However, despite um, these first projects,
00:03:23progress of housing was actually quite slow.
00:03:27The housing problem persisted well into the later years of East Germany.
00:03:29The real push for housing
00:03:36came in 1971 on the electronic Oh
00:03:38um,
00:03:43when East Germany initiated a huge programme to
00:03:43provide welfare services and invest in housing in particular
00:03:47between 1971 and 1989 almost two million flats were built in East Germany.
00:03:52So by 1989 28% of East Germans were living in a newly built housing block.
00:03:58So it's quite a significant transformation that we're looking at.
00:04:04And the most important and biggest housing project of them all was well in Madison,
00:04:09which was built from 1977 onwards.
00:04:13Um, this was a huge settlement at the northeastern edge of Berlin,
00:04:17planned for 100,000 residents,
00:04:23and Martin exemplifies the socialist housing principles of the time,
00:04:26the standardised uniform flats that were built cheaply and quickly,
00:04:30the small private spaces.
00:04:36But the big emphasis on communal spaces,
00:04:39including lots of green spaces between the buildings, um,
00:04:42and the neighbourhood also comes equipped with all kinds of facilities,
00:04:47such as shopping, schools, cultural facilities,
00:04:51everything the good socialist citizens would need, really.
00:04:55And let's not forget that the wide open avenues of Martin and
00:04:59the Clear Lines of Sight also quite useful for surveillance purposes.
00:05:02Eli Reuben has called Matson an amnesia palace, a city of forgetting,
00:05:08because I tried to completely break with the capitalist past
00:05:13and I tried to change people's daily routines,
00:05:17and I think it's quite a good way of putting it,
00:05:21Um,
00:05:23because housing really became a central attempt to transform life in East Germany.
00:05:24Now the big question is, did it work?
00:05:32On the one hand, lots of new flats were built as we discussed, um,
00:05:36but still there was never quite enough.
00:05:40The housing shortage persisted until 1989 until the end of the East German regime,
00:05:43Um, even in the 19 eighties,
00:05:48you would find families struggling for housing space uh,
00:05:51it was quite common for East German couples to
00:05:54accelerate the process of getting married or having kids,
00:05:57because as a married couple or a couple with young Children,
00:06:00you are more likely to be allocated a flat.
00:06:04For those who were lucky enough to receive a flat, Um,
00:06:08moving into one of the new housing blogs was always a big experience and
00:06:12something you certainly remember quite well as a big step up in their lives.
00:06:17Um,
00:06:23you can imagine moving from dark and dingy
00:06:23inner city dwellings into these modern housing blocks,
00:06:27which offer private bathrooms, which offer separate bedrooms for the Children,
00:06:30for example.
00:06:36Um, that was quite a big change for most people,
00:06:37but it should be noted that the housing blocks were not perfect, either.
00:06:42Um, often there were of poor quality. There's a lot of leaks. Breakages um,
00:06:46the residents of the housing blocks often, um,
00:06:53complained about the lack of privacy and the uniformity of the blocks.
00:06:58Um, they're joking jokingly refer to them as rabbit hutches or as workers lockers.
00:07:02Um,
00:07:09and quite often, um,
00:07:12you would hear complaints about the thin walls and the fact that you were, um,
00:07:14open on this play on your balcony for everyone to see.
00:07:19So housing certainly did not make East German socialist.
00:07:23Um but it did reframe life in East Germany around the socialist collective.
00:07:28So to summarise remodelling the spaces of East Germany,
00:07:36um was really key to the regime's attempts to build a socialist society.
00:07:42And housing was particularly important in this regard.
00:07:47Housing was a very basic aspect of everyday life,
00:07:51and that's why it also was so important. Everyone needs housing.
00:07:55And in light of the almost never ending housing crisis in East Germany,
00:08:00which persists until 1989 this remained one of the
00:08:05top priorities of the regime until the very end.
00:08:09
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Thomas, M. (2021, February 09). A5: East Germany, 1958–90 - Why was housing seen as so important to the building of a socialist society? [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/options/a5-east-germany-1958-90?auth=0&lesson=3528&option=6124&type=lesson
MLA style
Thomas, M. "A5: East Germany, 1958–90 – Why was housing seen as so important to the building of a socialist society?." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 09 Feb 2021, https://massolit.io/options/a5-east-germany-1958-90?auth=0&lesson=3528&option=6124&type=lesson