Lothar Mertens. Unter dem Deckel der Diktatur: Soziale und kulturelle Aspekte des DDR-Alltags. : Duncker & Humblot, 2003. 250 S. EUR 67.40, paper, ISBN 978-3-428-11142-8.

Reviewed by Axel Fair-Schulz

Published on H-German (March, 2006)

Unter dem Deckel der Diktatur is a collection vanced than his or her Western counterpart, of six separate essays, exploring oft-neglected as‐ would develop all of his or her talents freely and pects of the former East German regime. The chief be engaged in life-long self improvement and cul‐ strength of these pieces is that they draw atten‐ tural refnement. Most of all, this personality type tion to the less noticeable social and cultural di‐ would engage in self-directed creative pursuits, mensions of everyday life in the German Demo‐ no longer regarding work in terms of wage labor cratic Republic (GDR) and present new and inter‐ but as humanity's true calling and chief source of esting archival fndings. Yet, as Lothar Mertens personal satisfaction. Naturally, East German fac‐ points out in his brief preface, the contributions tory conditions fell far short of these lofty goals. derive from a workshop and ofer eforts of re‐ Yet while ofcial party ideology maintained that construction and preliminary assessment--not East was moving ever closer to trans‐ sustained analyses. The essays are very engaging; forming itself along these lines, many social scien‐ however, an introductory and/or concluding es‐ tists in the GDR arrived at more complex and real‐ say could have served to not only orient readers istic conclusions. Mertens summarizes a signif‐ but to highlight overarching themes, methodolo‐ cant amount of these fndings. Beginning with a gies and theoretical issues. consideration of how the East German regime in‐ The frst essay, by Lothar Mertens, examines strumentalized the works of Karl Marx and evening and shift work in the GDR. Mertens bases Friedrich Engels for its own purposes, the author his study largely on confdential research carried alerts us to how both thinkers had opposed shift out by scholars in former . He starts and night labor as exploitative and inhumane. out by contrasting ideological Marxist-Leninist The GDR's Marxist-Leninist regime, however, was predictions about the emergence of a "communist obsessed with closing the productivity gap with personality" type among the GDR's work force. the West and thus propagated shift and night This desired "new human," qualitatively more ad‐ work as essential to the emergence of a more hu‐ mane society. Addressing an obvious contradic‐ H-Net Reviews tion, GDR thinkers asserted that shift work was East German scholars noted that men were more exploitative in capitalist societies, but in socialist outwardly success-oriented, while women placed East Germany, shift work would have diferent a higher value on a good working climate and and far more positive qualities, given that the their relationships with fellow workers. Shifts and means of production were now in the hands of evening work also hit women more severely than the workers themselves. A worker's willingness to men, inasmuch as they also had to balance a larg‐ accept night and shift work became a measuring er share of household and family obligations. stick for loyalty to the state as well as the Mertens observes how socio-economic ar‐ achieved level of "new consciousness." East Ger‐ rangements within East Germany in general dis‐ mans were constitutionally guaranteed the right couraged innovative thinking. Tinkerers were to work, but at the cost of signifcantly limiting perceived as troublemakers, and workers knew the choices of where and at what. Mertens points that their jobs were secure, regardless of individ‐ out that shift and night work was designed to fur‐ ual or company performance. The main criterion ther the reach of the regime, fulflling three main for promotion was political and ideological loyal‐ functions: frst, to aid the GDR's economic perfor‐ ty, which thus bred incompetence and corruption. mance; second, to form loyal citizens at an educa‐ Mertens continues his line of inquiry by examin‐ tional level; and third, to discipline the workforce, ing how night and shift work afected child rear‐ making workers easier to control. These ideologi‐ ing and health as well as diet and living condi‐ cal objectives soon collided with reality, however, tions. Mertens concludes that East German society and the regime was unable to deal with the GDR's was exceedingly centered on the workplace. Forty developing complexities. to forty-two hour work weeks combined with Mertens summarizes the empirical data col‐ lengthy commutes were common place. Mertens lected by scholars from diverse institutions, rang‐ argues that a lack of Western-style amusements ing from the sociology research team of the Cen‐ and distractions placed additional stresses on the tral Research Institute for Labor at the State Sec‐ family, resulting in a high divorce rate, which fur‐ retariat for Labor and Wage Afairs to the Social‐ ther enhanced the importance of the work envi‐ ist Way of Life research unit at the Institute for ronment as a substitute family. All in all, this Scientifc Communism (centered at the Academy failed to create the new Communist personality-- for Societal Sciences at the governing party's cen‐ the stresses of night and shift work added to what tral committee). These scholars found much dif‐ Mertens deems (by quoting the playwright Heiner ferentiation within East German society, along the Müller) the serf-system of the GDR. lines of education, income and gender. In general, While Merten's essay is very engaging, it is at those workers who were less trained and less- times somewhat polemic. He is certainly justifed qualifed were motivated less by the regime's in highlighting the regime's exploitation of East elaborate system of "idealistic stimuli" (i.e. German workers. Yet, a greater degree of nuance medals, citations in the party newspaper or other would have ofered additional insights. For exam‐ forms of propaganda) than by tangible improve‐ ple, Mertens pays little attention to changes over ments in income. As technologies developed and time or to regional diferentiation. Mertens could more technical expertise was required, average have situated shift work within a larger context, workers were less than enthusiastic about em‐ with comparisons with other Soviet-style societies bracing new ways of doing things--additional re‐ or Western countries. He could also have refected sponsibilities were often unaccompanied by high‐ on the methodologies involved in those "confden‐ er wages. The growing diversifcation of values tial East German dissertations" and elaborated to and norms within the GDR was gendered as well.

2 H-Net Reviews what end they were kept "confdential." How was came to accept their powerlessness in dealing the collision between party ideology and empiri‐ with management. However, this state of afairs cal fndings negotiated by the authors of those dis‐ did not translate into utter passivity, as women sertations? What in-built conficts within the re‐ workers more successfully concentrated their ef‐ search paradigms came to light during his exami‐ forts on improving day-to-day environmental con‐ nation? ditions, such as lunch breaks. Annegret Schuele--a trained historian with a Schuele is sensitive to changes over time and strong interest in social history whose research takes complex dynamics into consideration when focus is not only in East Germany but also indus‐ examining the interaction between everyday life trial history--has contributed an excellent piece and workers' brigades. Her carefully examined on female workers in the GDR's cotton-weaving case studies illuminate what it meant for those industry. The author of a well-researched mono‐ brigades and their members to "work, learn, and graph on the experiences of female cotton-weav‐ live according to socialist principles" (ADD PAGE ing workers in Leipzig, she focuses her chapter in NUMBER). In addition, her chapter benefts from this volume on the everyday life and cultural being well versed in the scholarly literature on world of workers' brigades at the VEB Leipziger the subject matter, as her references to such ex‐ Baumwollspinnerei. Her well-structured article perts as Peter Huebner and Joerg Roesler exhibit. probes how "socialist brigades" were intended by Annette Kaminsky, an expert on the cultural the regime to be germinal to the formation of and social history of the GDR, has written an en‐ workers' identities. Schuele points out that the gaging chapter about the private donations of ruling party and most workers agreed on the cen‐ West Germans to their less prosperous East Ger‐ tral importance of workers' brigades to their self- man relatives. She succinctly chronicles the real perception. Far from being associated simply with impact as well as the perceptions regarding West labor (and thus income), workers' brigades be‐ German gift packages within GDR society, seeking came a sort of second family (a home away from to understand how and why most East Germans home), with whom participants not only worked attributed a higher value to Western products but socialized and relaxed with after hours. than their own, even when the qualitative difer‐ Schuele notes that East German party ideologues ences were at times more a matter of packaging as well as Western-trained sociologists curiously than of substance. She begins by comparing concur on how the regime supposedly succeeded American CARE packages in the West with the in achieving complete control over the workers much leaner oferings from Soviet troops in the via workers' brigades. Schuele ofers a more dif‐ East after World War II. From the outset, East Ger‐ ferentiated perspective, drawing on Alf Luedtke's mans had to content themselves with basic food‐ now well-known concept of Eigensinn. Following stufs, such as bread and soup, while Western Luedtke, Schuele charts a broader range of reac‐ powers could impress those in their sphere of in‐ tions by participants in workers' brigades than fuence with more desirable items, like cigarettes, previously considered, including accommodation, cofee, chewing gum and chocolate, among other keeping a distance and the open rejection of the things. The introduction of the Marshall Plan also regime's agenda. In considering this range, contributed to an increasingly visible accumula‐ Schuele does not romanticize her research sub‐ tion of consumer goods in what became West Ger‐ jects. On the contrary, she concludes that despite many, while the fedgling East struggled to catch hopeful signs during the 1950s and 1960s, work‐ up. Over the four decades of the GDR's existence, ers' brigades did not represent workers' interests catching up became an uphill battle. It is refresh‐ to the company hierarchy. Most female employees

3 H-Net Reviews ing, however, to observe how Kaminsky ofers a sic products, like butter, in their gift packages. more complex understanding of East German eco‐ Naturally, the East German recipients of these nomic developments, paying attention to im‐ packages, expecting more exotic Western goods, provements in the East while also pointing out were often disappointed at such inclusions. Yet how these improvements, impressive as they East Germans failed to appreciate how their dis‐ were on their own terms, were always evaluated appointments were the result of their own out‐ by most East Germans in contrast to the more suc‐ ward projections regarding conditions at home. cessful West Germany (as opposed to the much Too often life within the GDR is examined in isola‐ less-developed Soviet Union or other Eastern Eu‐ tion, when, more accurately, it was symbiotically ropean countries). Kaminsky also takes note of linked with its West German counterpart. Moving change over time. During the early decades of the even beyond the East German/West German com‐ GDR, Western products were vilifed and even parative context, some implications of Kaminsky's used as a way to criminalize those portions of work have larger comparative implications. GDR society that the regime wanted to check, such When the author looks at East Germany's eforts as independent shop keepers and owners of bed- to hold its own in the radio music pop-cultural and breakfasts. Yet in later decades, the regime sphere, she points to the regime's seemingly came to realize a growing dependence on those quixotic eforts to permit only 40 percent Western gift packages--as their content compensated for content, thus defending 60 percent East German shortages in the East. A case in point was the so- musical content. Such eforts were not singular to called Cofee Crisis of 1977, when the regime com‐ East Germany. France and Canada also devised pensated for the dramatic increase in cofee somewhat similar policies to preserve their cul‐ prices by liberalizing the conditions for private tural autonomy. Finally, on a technical note, West-to-East cofee gifts. However this liberaliza‐ Kaminsky's contribution would have been more tion also further undermined the legitimacy of the user-friendly if it had included a more developed regime, inasmuch as Western products--and even bibliography. Some of the footnote sources need the emptied packages--became status symbols extra contextualization to be fully comprehensi‐ within East Germany. In order not to alienate East ble, such as on pages 100 and 106. German consumers who lacked the luxury of Ilse Nagelschmidt, a professor of literary stud‐ Western relatives and friends, the regime estab‐ ies at the University of Leipzig, looks at GDR fc‐ lished so-called Delikat stores, intended to ofer tion's references to everyday life through the lens higher quality and attractively packaged goods. of gender. She considers the emergence of an in‐ Yet these more expensive stores became a source terest in and discourse regarding everyday life in of discontent, as "ordinary" products disappeared East Germany since the 1960s. Whereas the cul‐ from normal stores and resurfaced in the special‐ tural climate of the 1950s emphasized heroic sto‐ ty outlets. rylines, interest in the ordinary became more im‐ Among the many strengths of Kaminsky's es‐ portant with Brigitte Reimann's 1961 watershed say is her tendency to look at developments in the short story "Ankunft im Alltag." After a brief ex‐ East within an all-German and West German con‐ cursion into how the subject matter of daily life text. She makes this comparison especially when was explored by East German literary theorists, probing how excessive East German complaints to historians, sociologists and cultural anthropolo‐ Western relatives in letters led the latter to as‐ gists, Nagelschmidt turns to a more detailed ex‐ sume that East Germany continued to lack even amination of Reimann's literary development in basic goods decades after the end of World War II. the 1950s and 60s. The enigmatic writer is placed Thus well-meaning Westerners included more ba‐ into a context with several of her well-known

4 H-Net Reviews peers, foremost Christa Wolf and Irmtraud tive participation in the events he now studies, Morgner. Nagelschmidt proceeds to link the Sachse has succeeded in balancing both. health problems of Wolf, Morgner and especially He carefully considers how the theory and Reimann with the pressures of political and aes‐ practice of paramilitary education and training thetic conformity as demanded by the East Ger‐ supported as well as undermined the regime's le‐ man state. Reimann struggled to accommodate gitimacy, and he is mindful of changes within the herself to life in the GDR but paid a high price, structure and function of such training. During eventually succumbing to cancer in 1973. the formative years of the GDR's existence, para‐ Nagelschmidt's theoretical perspective is shaped military training was meant to mobilize the popu‐ largely by Judith Butler's approach to gender and lation behind the regime and encourage extraor‐ the gendered body; she argues for the centrality dinary eforts--especially when it came to the con‐ of the culturally encoded body to gender roles. struction of otherwise unfeasible projects, such as She also makes brief references to other thinkers, the Sosa water reservoirs. Voluntary construction such as Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. How‐ brigades were organized along military command ever, Nagelschmidt's discussion of theoretical is‐ models. Paramilitary units were also among those sues is less developed than her exploration of deployed to build the Wall in 1961. Military disci‐ Reimann's writings. There she focuses on classic pline and a chain-of-command-style attitude were examples of Reimann's prose, the novel Franziska desirable to the regime in its eforts to construct a Linkerhand and Reimann's diaries, published dur‐ Socialist society along Soviet lines. Yet starting in ing the GDR's existence as well as after its fall. the mid-1960s, the regime refned its tools for These pieces deal with issues of loss, alienation, maintaining power and relied less on the coarse identity confusion and Reimann's struggles with threads of physical intimidation: carrot dangling the physical and emotional violence of life within replaced the earlier, more militant approach. East Germany but also as a part of modernity Generous support, including professional promo‐ more generally. tions, wase awarded to those who served in the While Nagelschmidt's essay is rich in promis‐ paramilitary units integrated in most East Ger‐ ing ideas, her discussion of Reimann needs to be man companies. Individuals who voluntarily ex‐ more efectively integrated into her general re‐ tended the mandatory one-and-a-half year mili‐ marks on GDR discourses of daily life. One would tary duty to three were far more likely to attend also wish for a more developed conclusion than university in lucrative areas, such as medicine. the one currently provided. However, these short‐ Yet certain forms of militarism continued to in‐ comings do not overrule the overall readability of trude into diverse aspects of life. A case in point is her essay as an engaging introduction to the school system, which introduced mandatory Reimann's place in the literary and cultural land‐ civil defense courses and summer paramilitary scape of East Germany. camp training programs. Elementary and high Christian Sachse, a Protestant minister in the school students frequently had to assemble in mil‐ former GDR who has since become a political sci‐ itary-type formation before classes and listen to entist with research interests in right-wing radi‐ rehearsed tirades about the "aggressive potential" calism has contributed a chapter dealing with of the Western imperialists, as contrasted with the East German mandatory paramilitary training. benign and peace-loving countermeasures of the Given his personal involvement as a scholar ana‐ . lyzing a now-historical phenomenon and his ac‐ Curiously, the GDR's emphasis (on bringing about new socialist personality traits via militariz‐

5 H-Net Reviews ing signifcant parts of society) collided with its of‐ er and ideologue Enver Hodja. This party (as hos‐ fcial rhetoric about peace, disarmament and the tile to the West as to the Soviet Union and its East longstanding socialist pacifst tradition. Sachse, German satellite) worked towards a revolutionary whose paper is much stronger in terms of general transformation of both German states into a "pro‐ observation than specifc case studies, could have letarian" republic. Wunschik focuses on the vari‐ examined such innate conficts by looking at par‐ ous ways in which the KPD/ML sought to under‐ ticular situations, such as the one that occurred mine the East German regime, which the party re‐ during the late 1980s at the Ossietzky high school garded as "revisionist" and at odds with a true in Berlin. There a group of students was expelled workers' state. This tiny party possessed a disci‐ for criticizing the regime from a pacifst vantage plined circle of activists, who recruited members point. Interestingly enough, the regime had paid in the East with considerable energy and ingenu‐ homage to pacifsm by naming this school after ity, establishing a clandestine network of cells. the pacifst activist Carl von Ossietzky. Thus the Nevertheless, all of this was done on a very small students argued in their own defense that the scale. For example, in 1976, the KPD/ML had only GDR with its militaristic practices was betraying about ten followers in the GDR, despite the party's its own ideals. eforts to found an East German section. This Another issue that Sachse could have engaged number increased to less than forty by 1980, to‐ at least in passing is how East Germany's mili‐ gether with about sixty sympathizers. They re‐ tarism was situated within the larger context of ceived instruction from about ffty Western party Communist and, here especially, German Commu‐ operatives, who crossed into East Germany dis‐ nist traditions. After all, the party had placed its guised as visitors or business people. The GDR eforts into the tradition of Communist paramili‐ regime responded by massively penetrating this tary units, such as the Weimar Republic Rotfron‐ party with informants, who either posed as new tkaempferbund. Similarly, given that the GDR was converts or were established KPD/ML cadres not just part of the Soviet sphere of infuence but "turned" by the Stasi. If one adds the number of also a German state, Sachse could have consid‐ informants to that of full-time secret service per‐ ered what continuities and discontinuities linked sonnel who worked on the KPD/ML, one learns East German practices with those of, say, Prussian that those people involved in spying on this party militarism. In short, engaging a somewhat broad‐ outnumbered its actual members. Thus one has to er context would have benefted this otherwise ask why the East German regime devoted such re‐ very interesting piece. Finally, one again would sources to a numerically insignifcant enemy with also have hoped for a more sustained conclusion. next to no infuence on either side of the Iron Cur‐ tain. The answer is two-fold. The GDR was a high‐ Tobias Wunschik (an expert on left-wing ex‐ ly ideological state and could not tolerate alterna‐ tremism, terrorism, and the Stasi secret service) tive groups. Since the KPD/ML competed with the has contributed a chapter on the activities of the ruling SED regime over the claim of knowing and West German-based, Maoist Communist Party of pursuing the best course toward socialism and Germany/Marxist-Leninists (KPD/ML) in East Ger‐ communism, it was perceived as an especially in‐ many. This tiny party, established in 1968, boasted sidious challenge. few more than eight hundred members and about eight thousand voters. Infuenced by a mixture of Another consideration might have elucidated the thought of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as why the regime found this numerically insignif‐ well as that of Stalin and Mao, the KPD/ML came cant group so dangerous. While most East Ger‐ increasingly under the spell of the Albanian lead‐ man dissidents were on the Left and thus commit‐ ted to maintaining the GDR as a socialist alterna‐

6 H-Net Reviews tive to capitalist West Germany, the KPD/ML well-known re-emigrants as the historians Alfred thought and acted according to an all-German Meusel and Juergen Kuczynski. While both were agenda. They were truly interested in creating a Marxists, deeply committed to the GDR, they also united Germany along their utopian lines, and resisted the narrowness of life there. this outlook was repugnant to the ruling East Ger‐ Unter dem Deckel der Diktatur is exactly man party. On the whole, Wunschik's contribu‐ what it promises to be in its foreword. Its chapters tion is well written and engaging. Among its ofer preliminary research results regarding a va‐ strengths is a longer conclusion. riety of aspects of daily life in the GDR. One can In addition to being the editor and contribut‐ look forward to more developed versions of those ing the frst essay, Mertens also ofers the last papers in future publications, which will hopeful‐ chapter in this collection. As an expert in Jewish ly also confront, in a more systematic fashion, the history, but also in science, education, and the ex‐ theoretical issues of East German history in its perience of exile, Mertens provides a well-orga‐ wider context. At this point, however, the present nized overview of the return of some anti-Nazi volume is best for those interested in and already scholars and intellectuals to postwar Germany-- familiar with East German history. Within those more specifcally to the GDR. Hitler's rise to power parameters, I recommend it. in 1933 amounted to Germany's intellectual self- decapitation, as many of its best scholars, writers and artists were forced out due to antisemitism and political repression. Mertens provides de‐ tailed biographical sketches (especially in the ap‐ pendix) and quantitative data, examining issues such as which universities and, more specifcally, what departments were afected by the forced emigration of professors. He also considers what countries were most preferred by those emi‐ grants, and in what sequence emigrants returned to Germany after the defeat of the Nazis. Mertens reminds us that only a small portion of these pro‐ fessors and assistants returned to Germany. Out of those who did, many chose to wait for several more years in order to ascertain whether post- war Germany would really break with Nazism. While Mertens is certainly correct in pointing out how the East German regime sought to instru‐ mentalize the returned scholars, artists and intel‐ lectuals for its own ideological ends, he could have engaged the very rich literature on the dif‐ culties that returned exiles had experienced in the West. After all, East German history cannot fully be understood without correlating it to events in the West. One strength of this chapter lies in Mertens' willingness to allow for complexity and nuance. A case in point is his treatment of such

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Citation: Axel Fair-Schulz. Review of Mertens, Lothar. Unter dem Deckel der Diktatur: Soziale und kulturelle Aspekte des DDR-Alltags. H-German, H-Net Reviews. March, 2006.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11575

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