Consumer goods production in the GDR

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HO shopping center in Salzwedel (January 1990)

The production of consumer goods in the GDR was a task of the companies in the GDR to increase the level of supply and to satisfy the material and cultural needs of the population. The production of consumer goods in the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s could not increase the standard of living to the desired extent.

The term actually means the production of consumer goods in general . In the GDR, the production of consumer goods acquired a special significance. It wasn't just about the actual consumer goods industry or the consumer goods trade. Rather, the production of consumer goods became a central term when, in the planned economy , manufacturers who were actually foreign to the product were also used to a large extent for the production of consumer goods.

In the first five-year plan of 1950, the emphasis was placed on strengthening heavy industry . Industrial production should double during this time. The background was, in particular, the compensation for the separation of heavy industry in the Ruhr area and the need of the Soviet Union for heavy industry products for rearmament during the Korean War . After the uprising of June 17, 1953 , the GDR leadership began to rethink. The second five-year plan has begun to shift the focus to the production of consumer goods.

The SED defined the production of consumer goods from socio-political point of view as "basic social need to carry out the main task and the development of an effective export on the basis of its own raw materials and materials and their processing" . Its role as an essential element of the national economy should be strengthened and its weight in the economy should continue to grow.

Consumer goods industry and craft

The consumer goods industry and craft are traditionally responsible for the production of consumer goods for the end consumer. In the GDR, the following equipment inventory of selected durable, technical consumer goods was registered per 100 households:

year priv. car priv. motorcycles Refrigeration cabinets Washing machines TV
1961 4.7 14.9 9.0 9.5 25.1
1970 15.6 19.4 56.4 53.6 73.6
1980 38.1 18.4 108.8 84.4 105.0
1988 54.7 18.4 159.6 107.3 125.2

These numbers say nothing about the quality and value of the goods. The plan primarily defined quantities to be produced (" barrel ideology "). However, it was not certain whether they would actually meet the objective and subjective expectations of the customers in total. Even if the quality of the consumer goods was obviously not always given, it must be stated that the standard of living in the GDR after the war up to 1970 rose among the most within the Comecon .

Purchasing power surplus and shortage economy

In the GDR, the purchasing power of the population grew faster than the supply of high-quality consumer and luxury goods (excess purchasing power). The companies and combines producing consumer goods were nowhere near in a position to meet the increased consumer demands in the 1970s and to skim off the purchasing power of the population. On the one hand, fixed prices prevented prices from being adjusted to changing costs. On the other hand, especially under Erich Honecker, the consumption rate of national income continued to rise, which further and further reduced the amount of free investment funds that would have been necessary to increase and improve production. In addition, when the prices were set centrally, purchasing power and demand were often completely underestimated, i.e. unrealistically low prices were set. The consequence of this pent-up inflation was a shortage economy . High-quality consumer goods, in particular, were not only available as bulk goods or for money from the West . There were abnormal waiting times for many goods (also in the business sector), which prevented effective economic activity and demoralized consumers. The regular waiting time when buying a new car in the GDR was up to 18 years.

Priority of the export

A second goal was to produce high quality and exportable consumer goods. As a resource-poor country, the GDR was generally forced to import essential raw materials, but also food and beverages, for which an equivalent export was required. In order to open up the western market, the GDR agreed very low prices for exported goods. Many goods from the Neckermann and Quelle mail order catalogs, which are popular in West Germany , but also for Ikea , were manufactured in the GDR. In addition, there were exports in the chemical and mechanical engineering sectors, for example the flat knitting machines from Diamant . There was also a wide range of exports to emerging countries. Since the export of consumer goods produced in the GDR to the West was only possible at unfavorable prices, the possibilities of importing consumer goods from the West were severely limited. With the exception of coffee , they were often only available in small quantities, for a limited time or at high prices. With no waiting times, but only in exchange for freely convertible currency, western consumer goods were available in Intershop or via Genex .

Consumer goods production as a social mandate

In the post-war era under Walter Ulbricht , the motto was: “How we work today, we will live tomorrow!”, It became clear at the end of the 1960s that the population wanted to reap the wages of their work now, not sometime tomorrow. There were two reasons for this:

  1. After the years of reconstruction, the development of the standard of living in the GDR began to stagnate. Independent of political dissatisfaction, there was also material dissatisfaction, which was objectively based on the national economy, because it was mainly devoted to heavy industry and industrial agriculture.
  2. From the outside, the example of the economic miracle in the Federal Republic of Germany particularly affected the people of the GDR. On the one hand, they saw the growing industry and economic power, but also the rapidly growing individual standard of living in the Federal Republic. The situation in the GDR could not withstand this comparison.

The production of consumer goods therefore became one of the main tasks of society at the time in the 1970s. The eighth (8th) party congress of the SED in 1971 formulated the task of "making the needs of the population one of the decisive output variables for production and supply" .

It had a very political meaning. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the emergence of two German states in 1949, the Cold War , the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the barrier to the west, the people of the GDR should be able to experience the benefits of socialist society over capitalism in general - and the Federal Republic of Germany in concrete terms. The deprivations of recent years were to be replaced by a higher standard of living or, as it was officially called, "by better satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of the working people ". This was served by the resolved social policy program, the key points of which were the housing construction program and, among other things, the increase in consumer goods production.

The problem of the comparatively lower standard of living compared to the West existed in all socialist states. The party and state leadership tried to solve this problem through specialization and cooperation within the Comecon. In contrast to large-scale industry, in which certain productions were assigned to individual member states, there was no specialization in consumer goods production. A special exchange of consumer goods developed within the Comecon; in the GDR, the ko-impex Handelsgesellschaft für Konsumgüterausch mbH, Karl-Marx-Stadt, was responsible for this. Their trade turnover in no way came close to the consumer imports from the West, which could be purchased in all socialist countries in special shops for foreign currency (in the GDR in Intershop, in the CSSR in Tuzex, etc.).

In addition to the original consumer goods manufacturing companies and all others were asked, in addition to producing consumer goods in addition to their actual production tasks. The party and government formulated the social mandate to the combines and companies, which mainly supplied means of production, to manufacture five percent of their goods production as consumer goods. A real campaign emerged and the fulfillment of the planned tasks for the production of additional consumer goods was given great importance.

Examples

In 1989, computer-controlled fabric cutting was intended to create the conditions for higher and more effective consumer goods production in the furniture industry in the GDR.
Item description on an ironing board
Name plate on a spring base

At first, the companies looked for every opportunity to formally meet the requirements for consumer goods production. In the planned economy of the GDR this also took on grotesque features. While consumer goods production was actually increased in many predestined areas, many companies also produced alibi just to meet the plan. Below are some examples and forms of state-mandated consumer goods production:

Results

The production of consumer goods in the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s could not increase the standard of living to the desired extent. The expectations that a higher standard of living would increase the performance motivation of the population in the socialist economy were also not met. At the end of the 1970s, consumer goods production was therefore organized like an industry, independent of the incidental contributions made to it by unsuspecting companies and made a second production task. The overall economic fulfillment of the tasks set should document the increase in the material and cultural standard of living in the GDR. Since 1971 the GDR has devoted its own statistics to consumer goods production, with which it wanted to prove success over the years.

While the SED triumphantly reckoned in 1986 that consumer goods production in 1985 would be twice as large as in 1970 and that including twice as many newly developed consumer goods had been provided since 1980, the SED Politburo drew a bitter conclusion after the political change in 1989 : " ... the interest payments to the population amounted to 1,989 expected five billion M . That is more than the total annual growth of the commodity fund in 1989. The growth in savings deposits is on the one hand an expression of the population's confidence in social development and the desire to have personal reserves as the standard of living increases, but on the other hand is partly due to unrealizable purchase wishes. especially after long-lasting and high-quality consumer goods, together (cars, hi-fi systems, etc.) ... At the same time, measures to tie purchasing power by increasing the production of high-quality consumer goods and by refining, for example, own agricultural raw materials such as milk and meat, by developing services and to propose business or the formation of real assets through industrial home construction and the possible purchase of apartments ... "

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Directive of the XI. Party congress of the SED on the five-year plan 1986–1990 in: Minutes of the negotiations of the XI. Party congress of the SED 17. – 21. April 1986, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1986, p. 743, ISBN 3-320-00663-0
  2. ↑ '' Statistisches Jahrbuch der DDR 1989 '', Staatsverlag der DDR Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-329-00457-6 , p. 53
  3. ↑ Author collective: History of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Abriß , Dietz Verlag Berlin 1978, order no. 736 101 4, p. 558
  4. ^ Report of the Central Committee of the SED to the 11th party congress in: Minutes of the negotiations of the XI. Party congress of the SED 17. – 21. April 1986, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1986, p. 295, ISBN 3-320-00663-0
  5. ↑ http://www.bstu.bund.de/cln_030/nn_717728/DE/Regionales/Aussenstelle-Dresden/Regionalgeschichten/besteck/besteck.html__nnn=true  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link became automatic marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , download August 4, 2008 22:00@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bstu.bund.de  
  6. ↑ Dr. Klaus-Dieter Schmidt, chairman of an operating section of the Chamber of Technology (KDT) in Leipzig remembershttp: //www.uni-leipzig.de/fernstud/Zeitzeugen/index.htm? Zz100a.htm, accessed August 4, 2008 at 22: 00 o'clock
  7. ↑ http://www.iga-park-rostock.de/_cmsdata/_file/file_52.pdf download August 4, 02008, 23:00
  8. ^ Report of the Central Committee of the SED to the 11th party congress in: Minutes of the negotiations of the XI. Party congress of the SED 17. – 21. April 1986, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1986, p. 47, ISBN 3-320-00663-0
  9. ↑ Excerpts from the so-called Schürer paper - analysis of the economic situation in the GDR with conclusions. Submission for the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED on October 27, 1989. Authors were Schürer, Beil, Schalck, Höfner? und Donda ?, Berlin, October 27, 1989, degree of secrecy must not be changed; "Analysis of the economic situation in the GDR with conclusions"

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