264 RÜDIGER HACHTMANN
but also allows them to steer internal discourses and introduce new ways
of managing performance.
Craft Trades, the “Creative Industry,” and Pseudo Self-EmploymentDigitalization has also transformed the one economic sector that seems to
embody tradition and perseverance more than any other, namely the craft
trades. For a long time, this trade was only undergoing a transition in the
West. Until the Wende in 1989/90, the gap between East and West wid-
ened across this sector. Since the 1950s, self-employed master craftsmen
in the GDR were encouraged to join the “production collectives” for their
trade. After 1976, the remaining independent craftspeople were given
better opportunities for development (cheaper loans, the appointment of
apprentices, and new trade licenses) in order to meet the dire need for
repairs and other services. As of 1988, only a minority of the country’s
craftsmen (165,000 employees) belonged to the production collectives,
while 265,000 continued to practice their trade independently.^54 Funda-
mental problems plaguing this sector were that productivity remained
low and trade practices were antiquated. If machines were used at all,
then they were usually “pre-war models” or ones that had been built by
the craftsmen themselves.^55
In contrast, the West German trade sector went through a fundamen-
tal transformation after the mid-1980s. At the beginning of this decade,
for example, 79 percent of all carpenters believed that electronic data
processing was superfl uous. By the turn of the century, only a “shrink-
ing minority” of them were still “grumbling” about “the new marvels of
the communication age.” Beginning in the mid-1990s, digital information
and communication technology made its way into the trades, and not just
for bookkeeping. CNC machines and computer-aided construction soft-
ware, for example, were put to use in the production process itself.^56 This
resulted in a revolution within the internal structure of the craft trades
that could only be compared in its intensity to the transformation of this
sector that occurred in the last third of the nineteenth century. The need
for capital (to acquire machinery or to remodel workshops, etc.) rose dra-
matically. In turn, the manifold increase in production output fostered by
the use of modern machines forced an expansion of the market and in-
tensifi ed competition among craftsmen; standardization and typifi cation
also began to leave their marks on everyday production.
This “industrialization” (Verindustrialisierung) of the craft trades was
reinforced by “outsourcing” in industry. Construction carpentry often
mutated into the end of the chain in a production process dominated by
industry. These companies degenerated into installation and service com-