Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen____ Empirischen______Literaturwissenschaft

Herausgegeben von Reinhold Viehoff (Halle/Saale)

Jg. 25 (2006), Heft 2

Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft

SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2

Popular Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television

hrsg. von / ed. by

Uwe Breitenborn (Berlin) & Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Die Heftbezeichnung SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2 ist produktionstechnischen Gründen geschuldet und bezieht sich nicht auf das tatsächliche Erscheinungsjahr dieses Bandes, 2009. Dafür bittet die Redaktion um Verständnis. Das Heft wird zitiert: Uwe Breitenborn & Sascha Trültzsch (Hg.), 2009: Populär Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. (= special issue SPIEL, 25 (2006), H. 2).

Owing to technical reasons of production, the title SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2 does not refer to the actual year of publication of this issue. The editorial team asks for the readers’ indulgence. The issue is cited as follows: Uwe Breitenborn & Sascha Trültzsch (Hg.), 2009: Popular Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. (= special issue SPIEL, 25 (2006), H. 2). Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft

Contents / Inhalt SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2

Uwe Breitenborn (Berlin)/Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Cold War, Cool Screens? Researching Popular Culture in East German television. A Short Introduction and preface 177

Henning Wrage (Berlin) A Hitchhikers Guide to East German Television and to its Fictional Productions 179

Ulrike Schwab (Halle) Fictional History Broadcasts in the GDR Television and their Concept of „Nation“ 191

Uwe Breitenbom (Berlin) Areas of the Past, Present and Future - Urban Landscapes in Non-fictional East German Entertainment Shows 201

Edward Larkey (Baltimore, Maryland) Popular Music on East German TV: Pop as Propaganda 207

Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Changing Family Values from Strict Socialist to Bourgeois on East German TV 225

Thomas Wilke (Halle) Turntablerockers behind the Wall: The Early Years of Disco in the GDR between 1970 and 1973 235 Lutz Warnicke (Potsdam-Babelsberg) Sports on Television in the GDR in the 1980s. A Movement between the Political-driven Olympic Boycott 1984 and Growing Popularization 249

Markus Schubert & Hans-Jörg Stiehler () Program Structure Analysis of the GDR Television 1956 to 1991 259

RUBRIC

Anne Bartsch (Halle) Kinder, Medien und Familie Zur Sozialisation von Emotionen in der Mediengesellschaft 273 10.3726/80108_225

SPIEL 25 (2006) H. 2, 225-234

Sascha Triiltzsch (Halle)

From Strict Socialist to Bourgeois. Changing Family Values on East German Television

Die Führung von Staat DDR und Einheitspartei SED hatte von Beginn an sehr klare Vorstellungen davon, wie Familienstrukturen in der neuen sozialistischen Gesellschaft auszusehen hatten. Ul­ brichts „Zehn Gebote der sozialistischen Moral und Ethik“ wurden rasch durch das konkretere Familienleitbild ersetzt, weiches unter anderem im Familiengesetzbuch der DDR von 1965 formu­ liert war. Neben den anderen Medien kam dem staatseigenen Fernsehen unter anderem die Aufgabe zu, dieses Familienleitbild zu vermitteln und die Menschen im Sinne der SED-Ideologie zu beein­ flussen. In diesem Falle hieß dass, sie zu sozialistischen Familien zu ‘erziehen’. Der Aufsatz stellt die Entwicklung der Familienserien des DDR-Fernsehens vor diesem Hintergrund dar. Dazu wird zunächst kurz auf das ideologische Leitbild und den empirisch dokumentierten Alltag eingegangen. Das Bild in den Serien wandelt sich deutlich: Bis zur Mitte der 1970er Jahre stehen vorbildliche sozialistische Familien im Mittelpunkt der Geschichten, die ihr Umfeld im Sinne der neuen Ord­ nung zu beeinflussen. Danach und besonders deutlich in den 1980er Jahren werden die Familien näher am Alltag dargestellt. Abweichungen vom Familienleitbild können nun ,stehengelassen' werden anstatt sie wie zuvor explizit negativ zu bewerten. Die Familien auf dem Bildschirm wan- deln sich von prototypisch sozialistischen mehr und mehr zu solchen mit bürgerlichem Charakter.

Introduction

In order to understand the development of the family series in East German television, two issues are important to bear in mind. Firstly, GDR television was state-owned and was used by the Socialist Party and the leading state institutions for the purpose of propaganda. For example, the first broadcast was symbolically scheduled to begin on Stalins 74th birthday. Television was instrumentalized by the Socialist Unity Party which sought the most effective use of its “sharpest weapon” (Holzweißig 2002). Especially with the help of entertaining formats, citizens were to be convinced of the dictatorship’s ideology and shown that life under the regime was worth living. Nevertheless, television makers were always able to make use of what little creative freedom they had to find niches which could not be covered by censorship. Several different organs of control were given the task of ensuring that the ideology of the leading party was communicated via telecasts. Wide-ranging censorship cut out any critical elements authors might have intended to bring into the show. Although scrutiny and censorship lasted until the end of the GDR, one can detect a change in the TV shows in this period: increasingly the room for manoeuvre resulting from the developments in new broadcasts permitted ways to undermine the narrow interpretation of ideological guidelines.1 But how did this change l For a detailed elaboration of GDR television history, see Steinmetz/Viehoff 2008. 226 Sascha Trültzsch take place, and what circumstances made it possible? These are the central questions to be discussed in this paper. The second issue involves how family series are defined in this research and why they are of particular importance. If the story of a serial TV show is mainly based on the struc- tures of family or, alternatively, if the principal characters are situated within a family context, it can be termed a family series. This genre makes up a big share of all enter- tainment programs. Although when seen in an international perspective family series seem to have become differentiated, with fewer and fewer shows broadcast and a decline in significance since the 1990s, for television in the GDR they constituted an important genre. For the East German broadcasting organization family series were a crucial ele- ment in the overall ideological plan to create a new socialist type of family. (Trultzsch 2007 and 2008) Several propagandist attempts at manipulation were aimed at the social institution of family. In 1961 the Socialist Party SED under its head Walter Ulbricht published the “ten commandments of the socialist morality and ethics” (party manifesto of the SED, see SED 1963, 122ff.) - a pseudo-religious code of conduct. For example the 4th commandment says: “You shall do good actions for socialism, because socialism leads to a better life for all workers.” Or in the 8th commandment one can read: “You shall raise your children in the spirit of peace and socialism to all-round educated, stead- fast, and toughened human beings”, (both quotations SED 1963, 122ff, author’s transla- tion) Even if it was met with amusement by most of the citizens, it became a guideline for the party and had an influence on telecasts. Only a little later, in 1965, this guideline was replaced by a definition of the socialist model family, included in the new family code of law. (Code of family law, Ministerium der Justiz 1982, 17ff.) The bourgeois structures were to be removed from families, so they could be transformed to socialist ones. While this code and the officially prescribed role model applied until the end of the GDR in 1990, they were no longer propagated in public after the 1970s. In the analysis of the family series on East German television both aspects are of im- portance and lead to the following research questions: How is the ideological model family placed within the TV series? How strictly do the families on screen follow the guideline and how is it propagated? And: How do these aspects change in the course o f time? Another vital aspect makes TV programs designed for entertainment very significant for authoritarian regimes such as the GDR. Entertaining TV series are especially popular with wide audiences. Thus these programs reach larger numbers of viewers than the non- fiction variety, such as the news, documentaries, etc. In addition to their popularity fic- tional programs have a great advantage regarding their relation to reality: By convention non-fictional telecasts are judged by the authenticity of their image of everyday life real- ity - the Lebenswelt. Additionally, the picture shown in non-fictional programs of East German television could be compared with that represented in West German programs. Technically, West German TV channels could be received in most parts of the GDR - with the exception of East in the south and Western Pomerania in the north. Since programs from the west were indeed watched by the majority of citizens, East Germans were able to compare the western coverage with the news programs broadcast on their channels. Under these circumstances ideological distortions were soon widely discovered, resulting in the loss of credibility of most of the East German broadcasts. It Changing Family Values on East German Television 227

can be assumed that this lack of credibility made most non-fictional programs question- able, and not simply the most propagandist ones such as (The Black Channel, which discussed West German programming with the focus on western propa- ganda) and the Aktuelle Kamera (the news show). For fictional TV shows the situation is quite different: conventionally they are not judged by criteria such as credibility but simply by whether they are boring or entertain- ing. Moreover, they do not have to refer to actual events or facts of everyday life. Their aim is to create fictional social realities in which the narrative takes place. Since the crite- rion of credibility is not applied to these programs, it makes it easier to place ideological issues within the TV shows. But even if they are not judged by their correspondence with reality, they have to create believable fictional realities for the involved characters. Following this line of argument, the fictional programme is more vital than the non- fictional for transmitting ideological images. Ideological components undermine the comparison with reality and therefore could be more effective in reaching the audience.

The Official Model Family of the Socialist Party

The requirements of the abovementioned socialist commandments had been displaced by the model of the socialist family in the mid 1960s. The pseudo-religious style was no longer used and the model became much more pragmatic. The following five points serve to briefly sum up the official model family. (Cf. Gysi/Meyer 1993 and Pfau/ Raue/ Trültzsch 2004) (1) The family has to be based on marriage. (2) There should be two to three children. (3) Women are employed fulltime - despite having children. (4) The man and the woman have completely equal rights and share the household chores equally. And (5) the family is integrated into the society - meaning it is only one collective among others and open to cooperative influence. There is a close interaction between family and the socialist insti- tutions and collectives. Especially in the 1970s this role model was regularly propagated in several media and in speeches by party officials. This model family is important in the analysis of family series because one can as- sume that the families on screen correspond to these patterns. The gap between model family and reality makes it easier and more credible to identify and discuss references to the ideology. Just a cursory look at empirical data regarding family-life in the GDR re- veals the separation between ideology and reality for a large number of the families (for a detailed discussion see Trültzsch 2008). Most couples in the GDR got married - for un- married couples to get a flat was virtually impossible. But the GDR had one of the high- est divorce rates, due to the easy legal procedure. In 1980 it was the fifth highest in the world, (see Gysi/Meyer 1993, 145) Compared with Western at the time this was a very high rate. Thus, marriage was only partly important - mostly for economic reasons. Moreover, after 1975 the number of children did not exceed 1.9 per family, (see Geißler 2002, 53)2 The third element of the model family must also be seen as ambiva-

2 In 1975 1.5; in 1980 1.9; in 1985 1.7; in 1989 1.5 children per family, (see Geißler 2002, 53) 228 Sascha Trültzsch lent: nearly every woman had a job; however, a large number of them were only em- ployed part-time. And the pay gap, which was smaller than in , remained at 20 to 30 percent lower than that of their male East German counterparts, (see Soren- sen/Trappe 1995, 219) Gender equality was soon announced in terms of the law, but in the private sphere it did not become a reality. For example, in 1970 nearly 80 percent of women reported that they did all the housework without any help from their husbands, (see Kahl/Willsdorf 1984, 95ff.) The integration into society took place through the work collectives and especially in state-owned preschools and day-homes at school where children spent most of the day. But in fact even social research in the GDR found that after the mid-seventies families sealed themselves off from the public, (see Schneider 1994, 25 and Sparschuh/Koch 1997, 101) Over the years the private place of retreat be- came more and more important. These few indicative examples illustrate the gap between the ideological guidelines and the reality of the East Germans’ Lebenswelt. As a consequence of these specific framework conditions, the East German family se- ries were unique in their style, especially with respect of their clearly defined model family that was to be transmitted. At the same time it is surprising how fast the socialist family on screen changed to resemble the bourgeois family at the end of the seventies. The content and televisual aesthetics of the series increasingly approximated the western productions - especially in the late eighties. It is this process of change I want to outline using some typical examples. At the same time, I will provide some answers to the abovementioned questions.

Family Series in Flux

From 1961 to 1990 more than 60 fictional entertainment series were produced, 40 of which involved a narrative focused on family. The total number of episodes reached nearly 400, not including bought-in TV shows. In 1961 the first family series Heute bei Krügers (Today at the Krüger''s) was broad- cast/ Reflections of the commandments of socialist morality and ethics can be found in every episode. The Kruger family has already incorporated the socialist values and thus becomes the archetype of the socialist family. Neighbours and colleagues have issues with the new ethics and still have to undergo the transformation towards socialist behav- iour. The Krügers make it their business to inform all of these people of the new way of living and thinking. In order to achieve this aim they also invade the private sphere of others. For example, they hold a kind of court case to investigate the costs of absenteeism from work, (episode 11,19 November 1961) Or in another episode they explain the nega- tive impact of listening to western radio and watching western television to their next- door neighbour Mrs. Schmidt, (episode 10, 1 November 1961) She enjoys the entertain- ment programs, but also watches western news. The Krügers draw a parallel to the Olympic Games of 1936: in a way similar to the Nazi-regime of the Third Reich, the

3 25 episodes, broadcast October I960 to June 1963= Changing Family Values on East German Television 229

government of West Germany now uses entertainment to eclipse the problems existing in people’s everyday life. Instead of mentioning the USA or Western Germany by name, in this context Mr. Krüger just refers to them as ‘the devil’. As we can see, a very strong propagandist message is placed in this short extract, but the episode goes even further. Because of information spread by western news reports and in fear of an upcoming short- age of goods, Mrs. Schmidt has been hoarding washing powder and other goods. As reported by the West German media, this shortage may result from the possibility of war resulting from the confrontation of Soviet and American forces at the Berlin border in October 19614 and the dispute between the US and the Soviet Union on nuclear weap- ons5. By hoarding goods, Mrs. Schmidt (and perhaps others too) has in fact caused the bottlenecks in shops, for instance with regard to soap. At the end of this sequence, Mr. Krüger points out that the coverage in western news is a lie - it is propaganda. Only East German news is trustworthy and provides the truth. The Krüger family acts like an agent of the state or as a deputy of the Socialist Party - they fight for the implementation of the new Weltanschauung. All of the Krügers are members of the Socialist Party: they have positions in the city council, in the union, and other official institutions. The inner circle of the family, of particular importance in bour- geois thinking, is not a theme of the episodes - it is not even represented as a private place of retreat. Instead, the story stresses the duty of the socialist family to take care of those who have not internalized the new way of life. Contemplative family life must stay behind in order to fulfil the socialist task of shaping a new society. Somehow it seems that the neighbours are included into the family - or in other words the socialist collec- tive replaces the traditional family. This early series focuses on the re-education of the people and the responsibility of every member of the Krüger family to help with this project. This focus soon changes in the course of the further development of TV series production. On one hand the TV shows are rendered more humorous and entertaining. On the other hand the educational elements are disguised and better integrated into family stories more closely resembling everyday life. The first changes can be found in a series called Die lieben Mitmenschen (Our Be­ loved Neighbours) broadcast in 1972.6 Still, the family is only secondary for the storyline of the episodes, which instead focuses on the establishment of the new socialist social order. Whereas the Krüger family was the pioneer socialist family surrounded by many (still) bourgeois-oriented people, now this relation has inverted: on screen we see just exactly what was officially propagated by the government. Nearly everybody has mean- while turn ed into a socialist personality, internalizing the new morality and living in a socialist family, conforming to the ideologically-prescribed model. Already the opening sequence of the series refers to that. One can see that different people from every milieu

4 On October 27th 1961 Soviet and American tanks stood face to face at Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin. 5 Culminating in the Vienna Summit on June 4th 1960. 6 Ten episodes, broadcast from November 1972 to January 1973 (first seven episodes) and Au­ gust/September 1974 (final three episodes). 230 Sascha Trültzsch of society are happy to live in the socialist GDR state. Episodes show the diversity of the developed socialist society. The focus is on the challenge to overcome the few remaining relics of the traditional bourgeois order. The main character, an aged widow of a profes- sor of medicine in a high position, Carola Barenburg, still has strong ties with the old order and its values. Her young nephew Hans comes into town to go to university and lives in a room in Mrs. Barenburg’s flat. Time and again he confronts her with the socialist point of view and the values and conventions of the new society. Because of his pointing out the advan- tages of the GDR, and with the help of the neighbours, Mrs. Barenburg increasingly turns into a socialist herself and is, moreover, integrated into her neighbourhood community. Families themselves are not the key topic of the family series. However, the families that can be seen in the episodes are depicted strictly in accordance with the official role model: based on marriage or at least the intention of marriage, with two or three children, with women working fulltime and - most importantly - open to collective, societal influ- ence. In the episodes families are not shown together at home. Instead, the focus is set on the activities of single members to overcome the few remaining bourgeois residues. The themes of the 1976 series Die Lindstedts are similar, but the scene is set in agri- cultural country life.7 The Lindtstedt family, of course, is a convinced socialist family, especially because of the blessings of modem collective farming. The advantages of the farmer cooperations (the so-called LPG) are mentioned again and again, and farming based on small private property is marked as antiquated and unprofitable. Farmers still working that traditional way must be convinced to give their property to the state-owned collective farms - thus one of the Lindstedt’s aims. The opening sequence - as an outline of the whole series - shows the benefits of modernization through collective farming. First a traditional farming village is shown, with dilapidated houses, muck heaps, and carts drawn by horses. The images that represent the superseded bourgeois era have a strongly negative connotation. A leap in time shows the new village with modem com- bine harvester, modem houses, grain silos, and large, modem animal breeding facilities. The propagandist message that is pointed out here is clearly the superiority of the social- ist economy and way of life. This message dominates all the episodes. At the beginning of the eighties significant changes in the East German TV series took place with regard to characters, content, and aesthetics. These were caused by the change of policy in 1971, when the head of party and state, Walter Ulbricht, was replaced by . With some years’ delay the producers of TV shows changed their programs. Ever since Honecker lamented the lack of entertaining programs on East Ger- man television (see Hickethier/Hoff 1998, 384), series attempted to be more humorous and entertaining in style, which resulted in the focus on propagandist issues taking a back seat. This new focus gave authors, dramatic advisors, and directors more scope to vary the storylines for new series and diverge from the strict ideological role model. At the same time, in reality family life became more important than social concerns. This development peaked in the early eighties. The family became a sheltered place of retreat - separated and in splendid isolation from outside influence. There are two main reasons

7 Seven episodes broadcast in October and November 1976. Changing Family Values on East German Television 231 for this development. The first is that citizens were disappointed by the project of social- ism under Ulbricht, due to the lack of visible progress. The second reason is that they did not see their hopes for improvement under the new head of state Honecker being fulfilled either. Indeed, he had promised more artistic freedom and prosperity, but soon the former was suspended by censorship and the ban on movies and artists. Moreover, because of the dire condition of the country’s industry prosperity did not spread to the people to the desired extent (even if it did in fact increase). The progressive retreat into the family was connected with the shielding against so- cietal issues. Only the work collectives remained important because their character had changed to be more like a circle of friends. Among other things these tendencies resulted in a lack of applicants for positions in the mass organizations and the union, so the people needed to be persuaded to apply for one. Another reason is that unsalaried, voluntary positions did not provide the opportunity to change anything for the better in the political or economical sphere. Positions of importance were given to eminent members of the Socialist Party top-down and were linked with privileges. The family series mirror these changes, especially the retreat of people from the pub- lic sphere and positions. In the television shows this is connected to the absence of the socialist model family and the revival of traditional bourgeois values. The series Familie Neumann, broadcast in 1984, gives an impression of how impor- tant the small inner circle of the family became not only in reality but also on screen.8 The episodes draw pictures of an idyllic family life, which became typical for most of the following series. The plot of every episode is situated in the so-called nuclear family. Problems of parenting, relationships, housework, and other minor difficulties of everyday life are dealt with and solved in each episode. Neither problems at work, within the work collective, nor neighbourhood issues are of importance - those were typical of the series of the sixties and seventies. Bourgeois and patriarchal structures characterize the Neu- mann family, quite similar to many West German productions. The socialist morality and way of life are no longer taught to children. Traditional values such as honesty, thrift, and modesty gain in significance - socialist and proletarian values (solidarity, unity, etc.) disappear. At the same time this tendency toward a bourgeois lifestyle is promoted by the chang- ing professions of the main characters in the series. While in the sixties and seventies mainly working-class or upwardly mobile individuals were shown, this shifts towards middle-class people with traditional bourgeois tendencies. For example, the Schon family - principle characters of the series Barfufi ins Bett {Barefoot to Bed) (1988 and 1990)9 - come from a long line of physicians. With their habits, artistic tastes, lifestyle, attitudes, and values they can surely be labelled as bourgeois middle class. Other examples can be found in several telecasts.

8 Seven episodes broadcast from August to October 1984. 9 14 episodes: Seven broadcast from June to August 1988 and seven more from March to May 1990, 232 Sascha Trüitzsch

Only one series partly diverges from these shifts: the series Fridolin from 1987 tells stories of a male preschool teacher named Fridolin.10 In a time when nearly every pre- school teacher was female, diverging from reality was a good way to create entertaining TV shows. But the episodes also seem to try to stop the retreat of people from social into private family life. The families in the series are connected through the protagonist Fri- dolin, the preschool, and their work at the local transportation authority. In the first epi- sodes the families appear very similar to the Neumanns discussed above. But Fridolin can persuade them to do voluntary work for the preschool in their spare time - even though in the beginning the men especially are reluctant to do so. But step by step he induces them to help with different projects for the public good. This way they discover the importance of their personal work for society, and it turns out that they return, to a certain degree, to the image of the early years. The families become more receptive to cooperative and public issues. In small steps the typical constellation of the eighties in the beginning of this series is partly transformed to the ideological image of the socialist society (as it was typical for the seventies). Because the families’ commitment to volunteer work seems to be temporary, Fridolin must be seen as exceptional and not as a change in trend towards more bourgeois families on screen.

Conclusion

The East German family series reflect the changes of society in general. At the beginning of the production of TV series in the sixties the uniqueness of the socialist society is particularly stressed. There are perfect socialist families on screen, closely connected with the institutions and helping to develop the socialist society. These families are - just as defined in the party’s model family - one collective among others and receptive to social (including ideological) influence. Thus, the early series have a unique East German style - the stories are exclusively located in the GDR with its organs of control (the state but also neighbours), its lack of consumer goods and services, as well as its social wel- fare benefits. With the change from Ulbricht to Honecker as head of party and state in 1971, many things changed significantly in the GDR, and these changes are reflected in television of the era. The influence of overt ideological propaganda upon the private sphere was re- duced. Accordingly, the political instrumentalization of family life is reduced, causing the retreat of the families from public life and their shielding in privacy. The new eco- nomic and welfare policy under Honecker gave a little more wealth to the people and therefore unintentionally promoted this development - at least for a short period. The changes also deepened the social stratification producing visible disparities. These differ- ent aspects led to the more conservative, traditional, and bourgeois values and structures of families. Even though the prescribed model of the socialist family was never officially an- nulled by the party, it was rarely propagated in public after the end of the seventies. A

10 Seven episodes broadcast in July and August 1987. Changing Family Values on East German Television 233

television programme reform in 1972 was supposed to help make television more enter- taining and popular with the people, in order to prevent them from watching western programs. As a result of these guidelines TV shows changed. In the family series the model family is somewhat disguised and better integrated into stories of everyday life - it is set into the background of humorous storylines. Additional pressure on East German television came from the western media, where the number of entertainment shows on television, especially series, rose from the beginning of the eighties - and reached a large audience also in the eastern part of Germany. State-owned East German television saw its only opportunity to keep its recipients from watching western programs in a turn to the international development of entertain- ing TV series. Hence, the uniqueness of families in socialism had to be abandoned in order to orientate firstly within international trends of TV entertainment and secondly on the reality of everyday life in the GDR. This resulted in the separation of the families on screen from the socialist collectives and a more bourgeois lifestyle - including the loss of the strict socialist Weltanschauung. Content, character constellations, and conflicts of the family series in the eighties are quite similar to the ones in the West German media. Also international aesthetic trends find their way into the East German productions: more episodes of one series were broadcast, the strands are interwoven, and cliffhanger drama- turgy is used, that is, the narrative is interrupted in a suspenseful situation at the end of each episode. To summarize, there are the following tendencies, and these give the answer to the initially posed questions. From the end of the seventies the family series begin to lose their unique and typical socialist East German traits. The TV families differ partly or sometimes completely from the party’s prescribed model; the style becomes similar to other European (even western) productions. Even the precise localization in the socialist society of the GDR loses importance and remains only as a frame no longer explicitly referred to in the storyline. The unique East German family series transform into television shows quite akin to the western and international genre of family series. The themes change from ideologi- cal-socialist to general everyday life problems of families with a distinct tendency to- wards bourgeois values and lifestyle. The main characters move from socialist pioneers in the sixties, to established socialists in the seventies, finally to quite bourgeois in the eighties.

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Holzweißig, Gunter, 2002. Die schärfste Waffe der Partei: Eine Mediengeschichte der DDR. Köln et al. Kahl, Alice/ Wolf Wilsdorf, 1984. Kollektivbeziehungen und Lebensweise. Berlin (DDR). Ministerium der Justiz (Hg.), 1982. Kommentar zum Familiengesetzbuch der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik vom 20. Dezember 1965 und zum Einfuhrungsgesetz zum FGB der DDR. 5. überarbeitete Fassung Berlin. Pfau, Sebastian/ Burkhard Raue/ Sascha Trültzsch, 2004. Der Traum vom neuen Men- schen: Sozialistisches Menschenbild und Familienleitbilder in der DDR. In: Vie- hoff, Reinhold (Hg.): „Die Liebenswürdigkeit des Alltags“. Die Familienserie Rentner haben niemals Zeit. Leipzig. Schneider, Norbert, 1994. Familie und private Lebensführung in West- und Ostdeutsch- land. Stuttgart. Sorensen, Annemette/ Heike Trappe, 1995. Frauen und Männer: Gleichberechtigung - Gleichstellung - Gleichheit? in: Huinik, Johannes/ Mayer u.a.(Hg.): Kollektiv und Eigensinn. Berlin, 189-222. Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), 1963. Programm der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands. Einstimmig angenommen auf dem VI. Parteitag der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands, Berlin, 15-21. Januar 1963. Berlin (DDR). Sparschuh, Vera/ Ute Koch, 1997. Sozialismus und Soziologie: Die Gründergeneration der DDR-Soziologie. Opladen. Steinmetz, Rüdiger/ Reinhold Viehoff (Hg.), 2008. Deutsches Fernsehen Ost: Eine Pro- grammgeschichte des DDR-Femsehens. Berlin. Trültzsch, Sascha, 2007. Abbild - Vorbild - Alltagsbild. Thematische Einzelanalysen von Familienserien des DDR-Femsehens. Leipzig. Trültzsch, Sascha, 2008. Kontextualisierte Medienanalyse: Mit einem Anwendungsbei- spiel zum Frauenbild in DDR-Familienserien. Wiesbaden.

Author’s address:

Sascha Trültzsch Martin-Luther- Universität Halle- Wittenberg Dept. Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften MMZ, Mansfelder Str. 56 06108 Halle (Saale) E-mail: [email protected]