302 CHRISTOPHER NEUMAIER AND ANDREAS LUDWIG
creasing production fi gures for some consumer goods and the stagnation
or decline in the numbers for others.
As part of the idea that making housework easier would increase lei-
sure time for women, the mechanization of the kitchen stood for a mod-
ern lifestyle. In reality, however, the amount of physical work may have
decreased in well-equipped households, but women did not enjoy more
free time, in part because more was expected in terms of hygiene and
cleanliness.^44 Similar arguments appeared in the GDR, but the emphasis
was put on relieving women from the duties of housework so that they
could seek paid employment outside the home.^45
Beginning in the 1960s, televisions, as a household consumer good,
changed the everyday lives and domestic culture of entire families in
West Germany. By 1968, 80 percent of all West German households al-
ready had a black-and-white TV.^46 In the GDR, it was not until the end
of the 1970s that most households had a TV. The replacement of black-
and-white models by color TVs mostly occurred in the 1980s in East Ger-
many; the percentage of color televisions increased from 16.8 percent in
1980 (50 percent in West Germany) to 46.5 percent in 1987 (96 percent in
West Germany).^47 The GDR only partially kept up with other new trends
in consumer electronics. The fi rst cassette recorder hit the market in East
Germany as early as 1969 (1968 in the FRG), for example, but the GDR
never manufactured video recorders. As part of a one-time deal, the GDR
did import 50,000 VCRs from Japan, but they were sold at a price of 7,300
marks, which was equivalent to six or more monthly paychecks for most
people.^48
Telephone connections were yet another technological consumer
good marked by this distinctive pattern of diff usion. Whereas only a fi fth
of all four-person-employee households had a telephone in 1970, 86 per-
cent had one in 1980. West Germany, however, still lagged behind Swe-
den, Switzerland, and especially the United States. Compared to East
Germany, on the other hand, the FRG was clearly in the lead. In 1973,
51 percent of West German households had a telephone compared to 9
percent in the East due to problems in providing the infrastructure; in
1983, the ratio was 88 percent in the West to 13 percent in the East.^49
All together, radios, televisions, and telephones changed the way people
lived and communicated with one another: “The home became part of the
world with the radio as its ear, the television as its eye, and the telephone
as an interactive link.”^50 Not too long thereafter in the 1980s, stereos,
VCRs, and then PCs found their way into West German homes. The home
developed a dual purpose as a place to retreat into the private sphere
and to communicate with the outside world.^51 The spread of consumer