Tourism in the GDR
The tourism in the GDR served the rest of the citizens of the GDR and should strengthen by the state support, the socialist attitude of GDR citizens. Popular holiday destinations were the Baltic islands of Rügen and Usedom, as well as Saxon Switzerland , the Ore Mountains, the Harz Mountains and the Thuringian Forest . Foreign trips were essentially only allowed to friendly socialist countries; For a long time without a permit , for example to Poland and Czechoslovakia (ČSSR), with a travel permit also to Hungary , Romania , Bulgaria , the USSR or (even more rarely) to Cuba .
deals
Around 60 percent of GDR tourism was handled by companies and state institutions. The largest tour operator was FDGB-Feriendienst with its own FDGB vacation homes (up to 2 million trips per year). The second largest provider was the state campsites . In addition, there was a state-owned enterprise (VEB), the travel agency of the GDR and in 1975 Jugendtourist , the youth travel agency of the Free German Youth (FDJ).
According to official statistics from the GDR, the overnight stays in 1989 were divided as follows:
| Accommodation type | Share of overnight stays |
|---|---|
| Company recreational facilities | 34% |
| State campsites | 26% |
| FDGB institutions | 19% |
| Youth recreation facilities | 17% |
| Intercamping places | 4% |
Individual trips and overnight stays in private accommodation, which were often offered through classified ads, are not taken into account. These accommodations made up the majority of the overnight stays in the holiday season in many places with high tourist traffic. These overnight stays were available from simple to luxurious (swimming pool and western television) but generally with self-catering. Therefore, in popular places on the Baltic Sea coast, for example on the Darß or on Usedom , these “unofficial” tourists repeatedly experienced noticeable delivery bottlenecks in the supply of food and everyday goods.
Camping holidays were also very popular, as they offered more options for individual vacation planning.
Vacation home of the VEB Arzneimittelwerk Dresden in the Ore Mountains , 1976
FDGB holiday home "Fritz Reuter" in Schwerin- Zippendorf , 1985
Ruin of the holiday home "Fritz Heckert" in the former FDGB holiday resort of Gernrode , 2009
hike
The cultural association of the GDR with its specialist group "Tourism and Hiking" was responsible for hiking. The most famous hiking trail was the “shortened” Rennsteig , which you could only hike from the Hohe Sonne to Lauscha , as both ends led through the border area and out of the GDR. The only long-distance hiking trail leading through the GDR was the International Mountain Hiking Trail of Friendship Eisenach-Budapest . Well-known supraregional hiking trails were also the long-distance hiking trail Ostsee-Saaletalsperren and the long-distance hiking trail Zittau-Wernigerode .
Western tourists
Tourism naturally also included the trips of Western European foreigners to the GDR, which increased the state's foreign exchange income. They had some privileges, especially the use of the Intershops , in which there were western goods and in which you could not buy with the GDR mark , but only with convertible currencies and from 1979 GDR citizens only with forum checks .
Trips abroad
In principle, foreign tourist trips for GDR citizens were only possible in countries of the then Eastern Bloc . GDR citizens were only able to travel to non-socialist countries in exceptional cases. For trips to the socialist brother states of the GDR there was initially still a visa requirement . From 1968 the GDR government set up an alternative route through the USSR for trips to the Balkans. You needed a transit visa , which was valid for three days. With the help of this visa, the borders of the USSR became permeable for individual tourists, which occasionally led to unauthorized trips to the east ( see: Unrecognized by Freundesland ). Travel to Cuba was also possible from 1973 onwards. However, these were very expensive.
The political scientist Stefan Appelius dealt extensively with tourism in the GDR and in 2011 published a lengthy essay entitled The GDR's travel agency at the Federal Agency for Civic Education . Well known in the GDR, it plays “no role in research literature”. If it is mentioned "usually with an ostalgic wink", although it deserves more attention, "it still functions as a kind of disguised branch of the State Security." Appelius shared the results of his research with the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi files and summarized that Citing material there, together:
“The history of the 'GDR travel agency' has little to do with the winking campfire romance. Most of the permanent representatives and chief representatives of the 'Travel Agency of the GDR' and the volunteer tour guides worked together on behalf of the Ministry for State Security to 'secure and control travel and tourist traffic to socialist countries'. "
literature
- Heike Wolter: "I wait out in the country and go foreign to him." The history of tourism in the GDR . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-39055-0 . (About the 1970s and 1980s.)
- Friedrich Ebert Foundation (ed.): Vacation and tourism in both German states. 2nd revised edition. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1985 ( The GDR - Realities, Arguments 45, ZDB -ID 184191-9 ).
- Hasso Spode (ed.): Goldstrand and Teutonengrill. Cultural and social history of tourism in Germany. 1945-1989. Moser - Verlag für Universitäre Kommunikation, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-928077-14-7 ( Institute for Tourism, Berlin. Reports and materials 15).
- Thomas Schaufuß: Holiday leisure time with games, sports and adventure. Child and youth social tourism. The company holiday camp in the GDR and its predecessors . OEZ Berlin Verlag, March 2017, ISBN 978-3-942437-28-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Statistical Office of the GDR, Berlin 1990, quoted after 100 years of DTV, page 46 ( Memento of the original of December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Documents Online, College Oldenburg: Travel in the GDR. Possibilities of individual travel to the USSR
- ^ Stefan Appelius : The GDR travel agency. In: Germany Archive. Federal Agency for Civic Education, July 19, 2011, p. 1 , accessed on April 15, 2019 .
- ^ Stefan Appelius: The GDR travel agency. In: Germany Archive. Federal Agency for Civic Education, July 19, 2011, p. 6 , accessed on April 15, 2019 .
