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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

37. Recycling was a big business, and kids got paid for collecting litter

A recycling centre employee sorts through glass bottles, East Berlin, November 1981. East Germany Images

The GDR lacked raw materials, and so had a very sophisticated recycling system. The SED encouraged children to become ‘Young Pioneers’, and collect bottles, scrap metal, and paper. The Young Pioneers could exchange their hauls for money at recycling centers. The GDR used the exchanged items to make everything from cars to clothes. This had an unexpected environmental impact, and also encouraged children to act communally, simultaneously developing a socialist outlook. However, money seems to have been the chief motivation. When the payment system in 1990 after the Reunification of Germany, the intake of scavenged materials dropped 90%!

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