Sepulchral culture in the GDR
The sepulchral culture in the GDR showed clear differences from the sepulchral culture in West Germany from the beginning of the 1960s. These differences still have an impact today, especially with regard to the proportion of cremations .
Ideological background
The traditional burial system with burial in individual graves, including grave monuments and church accompaniment, was in multiple conflict with the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the SED .
First of all, the role of the church and the Christian faith was problematic from the SED's point of view: many cemeteries were owned by the Christian churches, the funeral service was mostly attended by the pastors and the tombstones mostly showed Christian symbols, especially in the form of grave crosses . In 1949 92% of the population were members of Christian churches. The atheistic Marxism-Leninism, the state ideology of the GDR, postulated a disappearance of religion on the way to communism , on which the SED saw itself. For this reason alone, the churches were ideological opponents for the state (religion as the “ opium of the people ”), even if there were always harmonizing tendencies in the GDR church policy. A major goal of the SED's cemetery policy was therefore to suppress religious influence and religious symbols.
In addition, the existing cemetery culture was in conflict with the desired ideal of equality : the grave monuments were designed in very different ways. They ranged from simple row graves to representative mausoleum. And the effort that went into the grave monuments reflected the social status and, above all, the wealth of the deceased. From the SED's point of view, these differences reflected the class contrasts of the past. Accordingly, the aim was to create uniform graves that, in line with the aim of a classless society, no longer allowed any conclusions to be drawn about the status and assets of the deceased.
Finally, from the regime's point of view, the cemeteries had to serve the official culture of remembrance of the GDR.
Economic background
In addition to ideology, economic factors also played an essential role in the organization of the East German burial system. The GDR's economy in shortage struggled with a lack of resources from the start. The lack of efficiency in the planned economy led to excessive demand for workers and products in all areas. The cremation and uniform grave design made it possible to reduce the area of the cemetery, the number of employees in the funeral service and the number of coffins, tombstones required, etc. In 1960, for example, only 180,000 coffins were produced for over 230,000 deceased.
Recourse to existing currents
The cemetery policy in the GDR was able to fall back on currents in the sepulchral culture that had existed since the beginning of the 20th century, among other things based on the rejection of the churches to cremation. The cemetery reform movement had already developed in the German Empire and aimed for a cemetery aesthetic that was characterized by order and homogeneity. The first urn community facilities were built in the Weimar Republic .
Instruments and methods
Dresden Institute for Municipal Economy
The Dresden Institute for Communal Economics (IfK) was founded in 1962 and formulated the goals of socialist burial culture in a large number of publications: cremation, regulation and standardization of the design of tombs, urn community arrangement and the privilege of commemorating deserving workers in socialist honor groves.
Cremation
The promotion of cremation was probably the most successful part of the SED's cemetery policy. At the end of the GDR, 90% of burials took place in this form. The cremation of the body, which symbolically ruled out an afterlife, was in clear contradiction to the Christian tradition of burial of the body. At the same time, cremation was resource-efficient. The small size of the graves encouraged a de-individualization of the grave design. There was never a formal obligation to cremate. However, this form was promoted in many ways. In particular, employees of the cemetery administrations received some bonuses for increasing the use of cremation and urn community facilities. Since 1963, the cemetery administrations had a lecture entitled “Cremation Today” to promote cremation.
Regulation and standardization of the tomb design
The aim of the regulation and standardization of the design of the tombs was primarily to suppress the individual commemoration of the deceased. The brochure Design of our cemeteries by the IfK from 1963 assessed the cemetery culture under capitalism as follows:
- "The hereditary burial , the family and elective grave becomes the burial form of the ruling class, the row grave the symbol of the exploited classes."
It is therefore worth striving to "specify the same types of execution as possible in order to really achieve the expression of the common".
On April 1, 1967, the Ministry for District Industry and Food Industry published the model cemetery regulations for communal cemeteries in the GDR. The main requirement was to set up “more grave forms with uniform designs”. For these grave fields, drafts for grave signs and plantings were kept by the cemetery administrations. Recumbent grave slabs should be preferred to standing grave monuments. If the relatives wanted a standing gravestone, it was strictly regulated. It was not allowed to exceed a size of 1 meter (60 cm for row graves), gold, silver and brightly colored fonts were forbidden, as was individual plant basins. The main design principle was "the greatest possible simplicity and simplicity".
At the main cemetery in Erfurt , which was regarded as a model and role model, the blacksmith and metal designer Günther Reichert from Friedrichroda (* 1935) created a series of metal grave signs that dispensed with Christian symbols and that should be considered as prime examples for other cemeteries. At the International Horticultural Exhibition (IGA) in Erfurt in 1961, a sample grave field was laid out in the main cemetery in Erfurt, which corresponded to the principles mentioned. The center of this facility was the sculpture Mother Earth by the sculptor Kurt Lehman based on a design by Fritz Cremer .
In 1964 a model system was built on the north cemetery in Halle (Saale) , the principle was the smallest possible graves, with uniform tombstones (a structure resulted from the use of red and gray tombstones) with uniform maintenance by the cemetery administration. This model system has been a listed building since 1991 .
Urn community facility
At least in the larger cemeteries, entire cemetery fields were regulated so that only horizontal grave slabs were allowed to be used. In addition, around 140 urn community facilities were built by 1985. The acceptance was lower in the north than in the south.
Around 800 family graves, 1,200 earth graves, 2,400 urn sites or 100,000 urns in communal areas could be found on one hectare. The small number of 140 complexes therefore meant a thousand times more burials. These were marked in different ways by monuments, plates or steles. The largest facility was on the Heidefriedhof in Dresden, where 40,000 people found their graves. A monumental, 5.5 meter high monument by the sculptor Rudolf Sitte formed the focal point.
Communalization of the cemeteries
The policy of transforming church cemeteries into communal facilities resulted in 60% of church cemeteries being communalized.
Honor groves
In every district capital and also in other cities, honor groves were created for the socialists, like the memorial of the socialists . In addition, honorary grave fields were created for deserving residents.
See also
literature
- Barbara Happe: Grave monuments in the GDR - The forced farewell to the personal grave. In: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal, Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Kassel (Hrsg.): Grave culture in Germany: history of tombs. 2009, ISBN 978-3-496-02824-6 , pp. 189-214.
- Martin Venne: Demand-oriented strategies for the use of urban cemetery areas. 2010, ISBN 978-3-924447-45-8 , pp. 26-27. (on-line)
- Felix Robin Schulz: Death in East Germany 1945–1990. 2013, ISBN 978-1-78238-013-9 . (Partial digitization)