Marriage loan
A marriage loan was granted to newly married couples in the GDR since 1972. It was initially a slang term that later became official. A similar family policy measure, there was a marriage loans in the period of National Socialism . Between 1972 and 1988 1,371,649 marriage loans with a total volume of 9.3 billion marks were granted, about a quarter of which was "deducted".
Credit terms
On application, married couples in which both partners were not older than 26 years (official term: young marriage, this affected 80% of the marriages concluded in the GDR) and whose joint income did not exceed 1,400 marks at the time of marriage, received an interest-free loan from the Sparkasse from only 5,000, from 1986 7,000 GDR marks . The repayment was made in monthly installments of 50 marks.
Childbearing
When one or more children were born, the loan amount to be paid was either reduced (for the first child by 1,000 marks, for the second child by a further 1,500 marks) or was deemed to have been repaid when the third child was born. At the same time, the monthly repayment fell, so that the loan term remained the same. If the credit was already overpaid after the reduction at the time of the birth of a child, the overpaid amount was paid out again. With three children, the entire loan amount was converted into a grant.
After the turn
With the monetary, economic and social union , marriage loans, like all loans, were halved on July 1, 1990. The interest rate adjustment law converted them to standard market interest rates. In order to avoid hardship, this interest was paid by the federal government on application until December 31, 1992.
Individual evidence
- Birgit Wolf: Language in the GDR: A dictionary, 2000, ISBN 3-11-016427-2 , keywords "Abkühlen", "Ehekredit" and "Jungehe", page 2, 48 and 112
- Klaus-Dieter Stamm: Keywords from A to Z: On education, youth and society in the GDR 1949–1990, 2010, ISBN 383-9165334 , keyword "Abkühlen", page 40, online
Web links
Image of a loan agreement for a marriage loan in the GDR
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz (Ed.): Welfare State in the GDR: Social Policy Developments in the Field of Tension Between Dictatorship and Society 1945 / 49-1989, 2005, ISBN 3486578049 , page 70, online
- ^ Journal of Laws of I No. 15, p. 244