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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

15. GDR flats were uniform and functional

A typical living room in East Berlin. Awesome Berlin

Much of East Germany lay in ruins after World War II. Thus in 1951, the SED launched the National Restoration Scheme to solve the housing crisis. They built Plattenbau, cheap blocks of flats made of prefabricated concrete slabs. Though a necessity, this also gave the socialist SED the perfect opportunity to make uniform homes for everyone. Though they solved the housing crisis, the GDR froze rent prices to ensure no one made a big profit. This seemed in favor of renters, but it actually meant essential repairs went undone, and some blocks had shared toilets and no hot water.

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