Our cities and towns are more beautiful
Better our cities and communities - join us! was one of the biggest actions of the National Front of the GDR and a form of the economic mass initiative . The action followed on from the national structure . The state-controlled citizens' initiative in the form of a socialist competition , which was developed from the “Torgauer Initiative” at the end of the 1960s, aimed to improve the quality of living and living. The GDR citizens were encouraged to do unpaid work in their free time and on weekends ( subbotnik ), especially in beautifying the living environment. The participation usually took place within the framework of house, residential or village communities, local organizations, sports or work collectives.
In the "Law on Local People's Representations", the organization of the citizens' initiative was assigned to the local city and community councils together with the local committees of the National Front. These named central objects such as parks or public playgrounds for which the state only had limited financial resources or construction capacities.
Successful cities and municipalities were awarded certificates, medals and cash prizes. Individual citizens and collectives were also honored for “exemplary performance”.
In the last years of the GDR, the response from the population decreased more and more and was mostly limited to the immediate residential area. The reasons for this included the lack of material and work equipment. The resignation of the citizens also led to the fact that in many places objects and facilities that had been put in order with great effort were then left to their own devices.
Varia
In the Sellerhausen district of Leipzig , at the beginning of the 1980s, individual members of the local evangelical parish there succeeded in having their voluntary hours spent on redesigning the Emmaus Church recognized as a NAW service (NAW = National Construction Work ). This led to the extraordinary circumstance for the GDR that in May 1981 the Emmaus community was awarded the medal of honor "Beautiful our cities and municipalities" by the National Council of the National Front of the GDR - together with a bonus of 100 GDR marks .
Take part - more beautiful our cities and municipalities - VMI property in the city districts of Dresden West, South and Central
Take part - nicer our cities and communities - VMI property of the southern district 1980/81
literature
- Jan Palmowski: The invention of the socialist nation: Homeland and politics in everyday life in the GDR. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-892-9 , p. 169f ( Google Books ).
- Birgit Wolf: Language in the GDR. Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 978-3-11-016427-5 , p. 197 ( Google Books ).
Individual evidence
- ^ National Council of the National Front. (No longer available online.) Federal Archives , formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 7, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Law on the local people's representations in the German Democratic Republic. July 4, 1985, accessed February 7, 2010 .
- ^ National Front. In: Back then in the East. Central Germany - 1945 to the present day. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, January 28, 2009, accessed on May 23, 2016 .
- ^ Helmut Caspar: Keyword GDR. With shovel, rake and broom to the Subbotnik. (No longer available online.) Nordkurier.de, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 7, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Church council of the Emmaus parish (ed.), Otti Margraf (ed.): 100 years Emmaus church 1900–2000. Leipzig 2000, p. 21. Brochure, DIN A 5, 28 pages, without ISBN.
