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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

12. Western goods were really expensive and had to be imported

Bananas and other exotic fruits sold for high prices. Cosmos

Despite alternatives such as Vita Cola, western foodstuffs were still very much in demand. Better varieties of coffee and sugar, for example, could be purchased on the black market for exorbitant prices. Due to the foreign currency shortage, the SED established shops selling Western goods for foreign visitors which did not accept East German currency. GDR citizens were forbidden from holding foreign currency, and so could not use them. Eventually, the law changed and State-owned shops such as Intershop and Exquisit allowed East Germans to purchase expensive foreign goods. Stasi employees often worked undercover as cashiers to monitor shoppers.

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