National construction
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The GDR's National Reconstruction Organization ( NAW ), founded in November 1951, was originally intended to implement building projects in East Berlin ; it was then extended to the entire GDR. This “mass initiative” for voluntary, non-profit and unpaid work was supported by the National Front . In the 1960s, the NAW was replaced by the “join in movement” (slogan: More beautiful cities and communities - join in! ) And the national economic mass initiative (VMI).
history
The predecessor of the NAW was the “national development program Berlin”. The Central Committee of the SED decided in November 1951 to establish a national structure from January 2, 1952 and published the call for a foundation on November 25, 1951 in the SED central organ Neues Deutschland . The focus should be the East Berlin Stalinallee . There and in other parts of East Berlin an action to clear the rubble was to begin; the aim was to remove the large areas of ruins and to extract building material from the rubble. In the article it was suggested that a construction lottery should raise the funds for the construction of the representative residential buildings designed as workers' palaces . The construction workers did over four million hours of voluntary work on Stalinallee in 1952 .
The national structure was then extended to the whole of the GDR. National Front committees directed the unpaid work of citizens in clearing away rubble, rebuilding, and maintaining buildings. The respective projects were announced in the daily press and through banners and notices in the residential areas. The legally prescribed construction planning, coordination and provision of material and construction equipment was the responsibility of the responsible municipality or city administration.
What all NAW projects had in common was the realization of projects of common interest, e.g. B. swimming pools, clubhouses or parks. Fire stations , sports fields, gyms and athletes' homes, cultural centers and schools were built in the NAW . The Tierpark Berlin in the Lichtenberg district was built from 1955 by construction workers from the National Reconstruction Agency from Berlin and the surrounding area. The Ostseestadion in Rostock was also built as part of the NAW. Because of the small amount of money that was available for the project, the Rostock population was asked to provide support in the form of voluntary work and donations. In the early 1950s, thousands of people worked on the stadium and worked over 230,000 hours. According to a memorial stone in front of the stadium, these hours of work saved 928,018.20 GDR marks.
Build-up lessons
Those involved in a project put in “build-up hours”. The hours worked were documented with adhesive stamps in a "deployment card". For the number of hours worked, the participants were awarded a pin to pin and a certificate. The badges, which were not uniform in appearance, were awarded in gold, silver or bronze depending on the number of hours. Sometimes the hours were also noted on the badges.
literature
- Jan Palmowski: The invention of the socialist nation: Homeland and politics in everyday life in the GDR. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-892-9 .
Web links
- National structure at ddr-museum.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Adelheid von Saldern , Alice von Plato: Staged unity. (= Contributions to urban history and urbanization research. Volume 1). Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-515-08301-4 , p. 194.