Housing program (GDR)
The GDR's housing construction program was decided by the Central Committee of the SED at its 10th meeting on October 2, 1973. The housing program was supposed to solve the housing shortage by 1990.
planning
At the beginning of the 1970s, the greatest war damage had also been repaired in the GDR. The economic situation, however, was by no means stabilized. Regardless of this, the party and state leadership of the GDR decided to ensure the basic supply of the population at the expense of economic investments of greater importance. In view of the comparatively high standard of living in the Federal Republic of Germany , the SED also had to direct its attention to a noticeable improvement in social conditions and the general standard of living . After the construction of the Berlin Wall and the closing of the borders, the population should finally be won over to the ruling system in order to maintain internal peace. The June 17, 1953 had taught the rulers that economic and social discontent can move quickly into political protest.
Therefore, the 8th Party Congress in 1971 decided on an extensive social policy program, which the government of the GDR adopted as a program. From 1972 a so-called housing construction program became its core element. Great achievements have been made in the reconstruction work so far after the war, but it also became clear that the pace so far was not sufficient to offer the entire population a time target at which better living conditions would be created for everyone. The new housing construction program should create the material prerequisites for a significantly higher construction output through industrial technologies (e.g. the prefabricated construction ) and with the complex housing construction also the entire surrounding social infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, sports facilities, polyclinics , shops, restaurants, cinemas etc.).
The living conditions of more than half of the GDR citizens should be improved. It was planned to build or modernize up to 3 million new apartments and to spend more than 200 billion marks of the GDR of the national income.
After: “Everyone has an apartment”, the slogan was: “Everyone has their own apartment”.
A resolution by the Council of Ministers on the promotion of private housing construction from 1972 was also published on October 21, 1971. That was the basis for the construction of many private homes, which could also be financed for normal wage earners. This should reduce the pressure on state housing.
realization
The housing program was followed seriously and indeed showed rapid and sustained results. Nevertheless, some information from GDR sources on the completed apartments can be viewed with skepticism, at least the sizes are correct:
In 1971, 86,700 residential units (= residential units) were built. On July 6, 1978, the millionth apartment since the Eighth Party Congress in 1971 was handed over to the tenants, the Großkopf family, in Berlin-Marzahn . In 1979, another 162,000 new or modernized apartments were created.
Between 700,000 and 800,000 apartments were built or modernized by 1980 and a total of 3 million prefabricated buildings were built by 1990 . Later, however, it turned out that the GDR government had embellished these numbers and actually only 1.92 million prefabricated apartments had been built.
The three millionth apartment built as part of the housing program since 1970 was ceremoniously handed over by Erich Honecker on October 12, 1988.
New housing estates were built in almost all larger cities, but also new building blocks in many villages, which mostly did not correspond to the rural character. The largest contiguous new city building was Halle-Neustadt with its more than 93,000 inhabitants (as of 1981) and its own mayor.
history
Of course, the housing problem in post-war Germany was superficial. Organized and individual reconstruction began in the GDR as well. In 1954 there were e.g. For example, around one billion DM are available from the state budget for housing construction , including 767 million DM for state and 120 million DM for rural and private housing construction. Another 150 million DM were given out as loans to workers' housing associations and individual home construction.
From 1951 to 1970 around 111,000 apartments were newly built as part of the reconstruction after the Second World War. B. also in new cities such as Eisenhüttenstadt or Hoyerswerda . In 1970 the number of apartments had risen to 5.9 million. With around 17 million inhabitants in the GDR, this corresponds to around 345 apartments per 1000 inhabitants.
From 1973 onwards, 750,000 to 800,000 apartments were to be built or modernized in the next five-year plan.
In April 1975 the 6th building conference of the Central Committee of the SED and the Council of Ministers of the GDR took place with workers from the building and supply industry, scientists and representatives of social organizations.
On February 3, 1976 the Politburo of the SED passed a resolution on the development of East Berlin . In it was u. a. the construction of 200,000 to 230,000 apartments and the modernization of approx. 100,000 apartments are planned. The construction of the new Berlin-Marzahn district was planned by 1985.
See also
Web links
- GDR knowledge history
- Housing construction program in the districts of Magdeburg and Halle / Saale ( Memento from May 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- »The GDR did not build any› other Berlin ‹« Interview with Bruno Flierl u. a. on the housing program, in Junge Welt on January 28, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steiner, André (2007): From plan to plan: an economic history of the GDR (= series of publications / Federal Center for Political Education, Vol. 625), Bonn, pp. 159–164
- ^ Meyers Universallexikon , Volume 4, p. 590, VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1980
- ↑ a b c Erich Honecker: From my life , Dietz Verlag Berlin 1981
- ^ Lexicon AZ in two volumes , Enzyklopädie Volkseigener Verlag Leipzig 1957, 2nd volume, p. 980
- ^ Author collective: History of the SED - Abriß , Dietz Verlag Berlin 1978, p. 643f