A History Shared and Divided. East and West Germany Since the 1970s

308 CHRISTOPHER NEUMAIER AND ANDREAS LUDWIG

the existing parallel consumer regimes based on fi xed-priced goods and
luxury items.
A look at consumer culture in the GDR thus reveals an increasing
level of diff erentiation among lifestyles, but also a still-lagging kind of
catch-up consumerism that was moving the country in the direction of a
consumer society. This dynamic is refl ected in the following table, which
also gauges the chances of whether consumer desires could be met in the
GDR. It also indirectly provides indications about consumer priorities in
East Germany after 1990.

Table 6.1. Household Possessions and Planned Acquisitions in the GDR, 1988
(in percent of households)

Item Owned

Planning

to buy

Not available

to purchase

Not

needed

Color TV 53.0 13.9 24.6 8.5

Stereo 52.8 11.0 17.9 18.3
VCR 3.3 3.7 55.6 37.5

PC 5.9 4.5 34.6 55.1

Telephone 29.5 18.9 40.0 11.6

Weekend/vacation home 26.5 5.5 27.5 40.6

Source: Gunnar Winkler, ed., “Sozialreport DDR 1990. Daten und Fakten zur sozialen Lage
in der DDR.” Stuttgart: Bonn aktuell, 1990, 268.

The development of consumption in East Germany after reunifi cation
was in fact marked by a doubled frame of reference that sometimes
clearly diff ered from that prior to 1989/90. Catch-up consumerism cer-
tainly applied when it came to cars, stereo systems, and then later fur-
niture and household eff ects. The percentage of household expenses
spent on transportation and mobility almost tripled between 1989 and
1991, but began to decline again slightly in 1992. The same fi gure for
furniture and household eff ects also rose signifi cantly between 1989 and
1992, almost doubling during this time. When it came to other consumer
goods such as clothing, however, the amount spent remained stable for
the most part.^77 A similar catch-up process took place in terms of peo-
ple’s living situations. After the push to build apartment housing within
the framework of the planned economy came to an end, the preference
shifted toward building one’s own home in East Germany, despite the
fact that Germany has typically been a “renters’ country.”^78 This, in turn,
led to growing social segregation, especially since the number of empty
apartments in East Germany doubled between 1995 and 1998 as a result
of migration.