Service combine
Service combines were state service companies in the GDR that provided a variety of services for the population.
Service combinations (DLK) had existed in the GDR since the 1950s, and were expanded in the 1970s in connection with the socialization of the craft and small businesses. They were mostly district-led, some also district-led and had the legal form of a VEB .
Service combines originally comprised two routes: one urban and one domestic.
The urban economic route included many urban services, including water management, city cleaning, green spaces, and funeral services. This urban economic route was spun off from the service combines again in the 1970s.
The housekeeping route included, among other things, the repair of electrical household appliances, bicycle and motorcycle repairs, photo development , textile and chemical cleaning, picking up stockings ( repairs ) and battery service. There were also regional focuses. For example, the DLK Frankfurt / Oder had a doll clinic .
There were collection points for individual services (laundry, dry cleaning) or combined collection points, so-called complex collection points . In 1985 there were 2,800 such complex acceptance points in the entire GDR. They were mostly housed in so-called service cubes, in which there were, for example, post offices and department stores.
Most of the repairs could be carried out by the service combinations themselves. If this was not possible, the repair was carried out in a cooperation company. In the 1980s in particular, a lack of spare parts resulted in long waiting times for repairs.
literature
Rita Aldenhof-Hübinger: "Attention, dry cleaning!" Crafts and services in the GDR, in: Documentation Center for Everyday Culture of the GDR eV (ed.): Progress, Norm and Stubbornness, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-86153-190-9 , p. 105-112