562 FRANK BÖSCH AND CHRISTOPH CLASSEN
as Mosaik, Bummi, and Atze, the latter of which had more of an ideo-
logical bent. Generally speaking, the children’s and youth press in East
Germany was much more political in its outlook than in West Germany.
Interestingly the Junge Welt put out by the FDJ (Free German Youth) was
the subscription magazine with the highest circulation in all of Germany
in the 1980s.^42 To a certain extent, the SED permitted East German adap-
tations of popular cultural magazines directed at a young audience, such
as the West German Bravo, which promoted stars, music records, and
brand name items while off ering advice and sex education, but without
providing much political content in a strict sense. Even the highly popular
monthly FDJ magazine Neues Leben moved beyond its political educa-
tion mission to become more like Bravo, complete with photo stories on
puberty questions and a section called “Professor Bormann explains,”
which was modeled after the “Dr. Sommer” Q & A section in Bravo; it
also began to include posters, personal ads, readers’ forums, and some
seminude photos.^43 With a circulation of over fi ve hundred thousand cop-
ies, Neues Leben was even more widespread (per capita), and it was in
much higher demand. These magazines helped to bring the sexual rev-
olution to the youth in both countries, breaking down the taboos that
had surrounded homosexuality or contraception. At the same time, they
introduced teenagers in the West especially, but also in the East, to a
generation-specifi c consumer and music culture, although the political
subtext never disappeared in the GDR.
The “do-it-yourself” trend also made its way into the magazine market
in the two German states in the 1970s. Garden work, cooking, and hand-
icrafts became more signifi cant again in this era of automation. Their
revival accompanied a process of individualization within daily life as well
as the formation of new shared lifestyles. In the West, these advice-giv-
ing publications were linked to new sales techniques developed by the
consumer industry (including home and garden stores, fashion chains,
and supermarkets) and the production of nondurable, modular prod-
ucts (such as IKEA furniture).^44 Although the GDR lacked such a huge
selection of products, the magazines still gave ideas about how to make
something creative and new out of the resources that were available, and
they also praised the value of goods made in the GDR. Simultaneously,
these magazines bridged classic social divides on both sides of the Wall,
in part through “special interest” formats. Such special interest groups
were addressed in the GDR, for example, in the guise of magazines such
as Der Modelleisenbahner for model train hobbyists, Wohnen im Grünen
for gardeners, and Der Hund for dog lovers. In West Germany, free mag-
azines and those put out by associations grew to be the most popular in
terms of circulation; magazines such as the Apotheken Rundschau, which