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This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

23. Jeans symbolized Western capitalism, which made them really popular

Levis fetched astronomical prices on the black market. Cool Material

Even though jeans-pioneer Levi Strauss came from Southern Germany, the SED saw jeans as a revolting symbol of US capitalism. For them, nietenhosen (‘studded trousers’) represented rebellion, non-conformity and freedom, which the SED didn’t want in the GDR. Thus schools sent pupils wearing jeans home and dance halls refused entry to nietenhosen wearers. But this, of course, just made jeans more popular with young people! Western jeans such as Levis sold for a fortune on the black market, smuggled in from West Berlin. Eventually, in 1974 the GDR began producing its own uncomfortable and impractical jeans to meet demand.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk