Sponsor brigade

Young pioneers from the village of Etterwind undertake to study the history of the village and to write a chronicle. The chairman of the friendship council presented the chairman of the production cooperative with the certificate for the friendship agreement. (February 2, 1953)

Pioneers from Etterzüge write the village chronicle

A sponsor brigade in the GDR was a brigade or a comparable collective , mostly made up of industrial workers or from agricultural production cooperatives , which sponsored school classes and kindergarten groups, and in individual cases also through NVA units.

The purpose of the sponsorship was to give those concerned an insight into the world of work in the companies and to provide support in the development of career aspirations. Often material and personal support was provided with construction and renovation measures, transport tasks ( holiday camps , school trips ) were taken on, especially personal support here, and much more, often over a large part of the school time. This should strengthen the bond with the working class and contribute to the upbringing of a socialist personality among the children. In practice, the intensity of the sponsorship relationships varied. In various cases, however, regular connection to a sponsorship class was also a prerequisite for being recognized as a collective of socialist work in the company.

Sponsorships were also taken over by cultural workers, so that the artists should not lose touch with the workers. Looking back, for example, the opera singer Gunther Emmerlich characterized the relationship between godparents "children" and godparents as follows:

“ They showed interest in the opera and we showed interest in the packaging machines. "

Web links

Wiktionary: Patenbrigade  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ TV series WortSchatz DDR of the MDR, episode Patenbrigade November 5, 2011 ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.