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2. Recent work on consumer culture in East Germany has begun to revise these assumptions, providing a more nuanced picture of socialist “consumer society.” See the articles in Exhibition Catalogue, , Wunderwirtschaft: DDR Konsumkultur in den 60er Jahren (Cologne, 1996)Google Scholar; Merkel, Ina, Utopie und Bedürfnis: Die Geschichte der Konsumkultur in der DDR (Cologne, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kaminsky, Annette, Kaufrausch: Die Geschichte der ostdevtschen Versandhäuser (Berlin, 1998).Google Scholar

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13. On rationing, see Zank, Wolfgang, Wirtschaft und Arbeit in Ostdeutschland 1945–1949 (Munich, 1987)Google Scholar; Gries, , Die Rationen-Gesellschaft.Google Scholar On Order no. 234, see Naimark, , The Russians in Germany, chap. 3.Google Scholar

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16. On the anniversary of the issuing of Order no. 234, Adolf Hennecke performed his feat of labor heroism, mining 387 percent of his normal shift quota, albeit under specially prepared conditions. On the movement, see Naimark, , The Russians in Germany, 198–204.Google Scholar

17. Warnke, Herbert, “Die Hennecke Bewegung,” Einheit (12 1948): 1127.Google Scholar On Stakhanovism in the Soviet Union, see Siegelbaum, Lewis, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR 1935–1941 (Cambridge, Mass., 1988).Google Scholar

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19. Besprechung bei der SMAD über die Ernchtung von staathchen Läden, 5 October 1948, SAPMO-BA, SED Abt. Wirtschaftspolitik, DY 30/IV 2/602/76.

20. On the blockade, see Stivers, William, “The Incomplete Blockade: Soviet Zone Supply of West Berlin, 1948–1949,” Diplomatic History 21, no. 4 (Fall 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Koop, Volker, Kein Kampf um Berlin? Deutsche Politik zur Zeit der Berlin-Blockade 1948/1949 (Bonn, 1998)Google Scholar. On the transformation of the SED, see Hurwitz, Harold, Die Stalinisierung der SED: Zum Verlust von Freiräumen und sozialdemokratischer Identität in den Vorständen 1946–1949 (Opladen, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Malycha, Andreas, Partei von Stalins Gnaden? Die Entwicklung der SED zur “Partei neuen Typs” in den Jahren 1946 bis 1950 (Berlin, 1996).Google Scholar

21. Ganter-Gilmans, to Handelsorganisation HO, 31 01 1949, Bundesarchiv, Abteilung DDR (hereafter BA-DDR), HVHV, L-1/739.Google Scholar

22. Stenographische Niederschrift der Rede des stellvertretenden Ministerpräsidenten Walter Ulbricht auf der Feierstunde anlässlich des einjährigen Bestehens der HO am 17 November 1949 in Berlin im Babylon, 1–2, SAPMO-BA, Abt. Handel, Versorgung und Aussenhandel, DY 30 IV 2/610/93.

23. SED Abt. Werbung, Presse, Rundfunk, to Ulbricht, , 1 12 1948, SAPMO-BA, SED Abt. Wirtschaftspolitik, DY 30/ IV 2/602/76.Google Scholar

24. Roesler, Jörg, Die Herausbildung der sozialistischen Planwirtschaft in der DDR (East Berlin, 1978), chap. 1–3Google Scholar; Kopstein, Jeffrey, The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945–1989 (Chapel Hill, 1997), chap. 1Google Scholar; Roesler, Jörg, “The Rise and Fall of the Planned Economy in the German Democratic Republic, 1945–89,” German History 9, no. 1 (1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Christoph Buchheim, “Wirt-schaftliche Folgen der Integration der DDR in den RGW” in Wirtschaftliche Folgelasten des Krieges in der SBZ/DDR, ed. idem (Baden-Baden, 1995).

25. Staritz, Dietrich, Geschichte der DDR, expanded edition (Frankfurt am Main, 1996), 50.Google Scholar

26. Ganter-Gilmans, Hans Paul, “Der Zweijahresplan und die Versorgungswirtschaft,” Die Versorgung. Amtliches Organ für die gesamte Ernädhrungswirtschaft, für Handel, Handwork und Genossenschaften (herafter Die Versorgung) (08 1948): 1.Google Scholar

27. Schmincke, Heinz, “Versorgung der Werktätigen mit Textilien und Schuhwaren,” Die Versorgung (05 1948)Google Scholar; also by Schmincke, , “Der Handel mustert die Produktion,” Die Versorgung (09 1949)Google Scholar, and “Die neuen Aufgaben des volkseigenen und genossenschaftlichen Handels,” Die Versorgung (06 1950).

28. Werner, Carl Artur, “Funktionen des Handels in der Versorgungswirtschaft,” Die Versorgung (12 1948).Google Scholar

29. See, for example, Striegan, Hans, “Bedarfsfeststellung und Produktionsplanung im Rahmen der Tätigkeit der Hauptverwaltung für Handel und Versorgung,” Die Versorgung (05 1949)Google Scholar. East German Verkaufskultur represented the adoption of a Soviet concept that scholars of Soviet trade have translated as “cultured trade.” See Hessler, Julie, “Culture of Shortages: A Social History of Soviet Trade,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1996), chap. 6.Google Scholar

30. In the immediate postwar years, denunciations of the black market were often tinged with overtones of anti-Semitism and racism, as those Jews and foreigners remaining in Germany were alleged to be associated with the larger black market operations. See Pence, , “From Rations to Fashions,” 104–8.Google Scholar

31. Säckl, Dorte, “Verkaufskultur — kein Schlagwort — sondern ein Begriff,” Der Handel: Zeitschrift für den gesamten Binnenhandel in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (hereafter Der Handel), (04 1951): 16–17.Google Scholar

32. Kelch, Werner, “Neue Arbeitsmethoden in der Zusammenarbeit von Industrie und Handel,” Die Versorgung (10 1950), 230–32.Google Scholar

33. Prof. Michel, Horst, “Guter Geschmack oder ‘Geschmacksache’: Em Problem, das ernsthaft diskutiert werden sollte,” Der Handel (12 1951): 280.Google Scholar

34. Seghers, Anna, “Schönheit und Planung,” written for the regular column, “Das Schaufenster unserer Zeit,” Die Waage (10 1951): 13. Die Waage was an accompanying insert in all issues of Der Handel, starting in October 1951.Google Scholar

35. Meuschel, Sigrid, Legitimation und Parteiherrschaft in der DDR (Frankfurt am Main, 1992), 39.Google Scholar

36. Wittkowski, Grete, “Die Entfaltung der Masseninitiative im volkseigenen und genossen-schaftlichen Handel,” Einheit (12 1951): 1592.Google Scholar From 1946–1947, Wittkowski served as an editor at Neues Deutschland; from 1947–1949, leader of the Main Administration for Economic Planning; in 1950, leader of the Central Planning Office in the Ministry of Planning; from 1951–1954, president of the Association of Consumer Co-ops; from 1954–1961, deputy to Bruno Leuschner, head of the State Planning Commission. Wittkowski's Lebenslauf and Kurzbiographie, SAPMO-BA, ZK, Abt. Kaderfragen, DY 30/ IV 2/11/v. 1820.

37. Wittkowski, , “Die Entfaltung,” 1589.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., 1592.

39. To the extent that there was any kind of already existing regular attention to consumer demand, it was limited to the narrowly motivated efforts of state-owned wholesalers to fulfill their plans by moving as much merchandise as possible along to retailers, unburdened by any direct contact with consumers. See Pfrieme, Werner, “Zur Bedarfsermittlung im Handel,” Der Handel (04 1951)Google Scholar; Kelch, Werner, “Zur Marktbeobachtung im Einzelhandel,” Der Handel (01 1952).Google Scholar

40. “Die Ergebnisse der ersten Monate des Fünfjahrplans. Entschliessung des Zentralkomitees der sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands auf der 6. Tagung am 13., 14. und 15. Juni 1951,” Neues Deutschland, 23 June 1951, p. 4.

41. See, for example, DrLast, Gerhard, “Marktbeobachtung und Bedarfsanalyse,” Die Versorgung (08 1949): 1–2Google Scholar; DrRiedel, Carl, “Die Submission als ein fortschrittlicher Faktor für die Versorgung mit gewerblichen Gebrauchsgütern,” Die Versorgung (10 1949): 41–42.Google Scholar

42. Kelch, , “Zur Marktbeobachtung,” 19. Unfortunately, very little is known about Kelch himself.Google Scholar

43. Heinrichs, Wolfgang, “Zu einigen Problemen der marxistisch-leninistischen Theorie der Bedarfsforschung,” Der Handel 9 (06 1952): 220Google Scholar. (As of April 1952, Der Handel was published twice monthly.) Heinrichs, an economist, produced the most elaborated theoretical text on demand research in East Germany, Die Grundlagen der Bedarfsforschung: Ihre Bedeutung für die Planung des Warenumsatzes und der Warenbelieferung im staatlichen und genossenschaftlichen Handel der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (East Berlin, 1955). He went on to become a deputy to the minister for trade and provisioning and perhaps the ministry's most distinguished advocate for economic reforms in the 1960s. See Heldmann, , “Konsumpolitik in der DDR,” 151.Google Scholar

44. Kelch, Werner, “Die Organisation der Bedarfsermittlung im gesellschaftlichen Einzelhandel,” Der Handel 12 (08 1952): 289.Google Scholar

45. On the Nazi goal of Verbrauchslenkung, see Hartmut Berghoff, “Von der Reklame zur ‘Verbrauchslenkung.’ Werbung im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland,” in Konsumpolitik, ed. idem. The Soviet source invoked for demand research was a work by the economist Serebryakov, translated into German and published under the title, Organisation und Technik des Sowjethandels. On this work, see Bloch, Hans, “Einiges zu den Richtlinien für eine systematische Bedarfsermittlung,” Der Handel 18 (11 1952): 434Google Scholar. Also see excerpts from a speech of Mikoyan, A.I., “Ermittlung des Bedarfs — Kampf um Steigerung der Qualität in der UdSSR,” Neues Deutschland, 11 06 1953, p. 5Google Scholar. On the deeply conflicted Soviet consumerist idiom, see Fitzpatrick, Sheila, Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (New York, 1999), 90–95.Google Scholar

46. The system of rationing in East Germany was dismantled gradually over the course of the 1950s. Not until May 1958, however, did rationing cease entirely, as sugar, meat, eggs, butter and other fats were removed from the constraints of coupons and customer registration. In contrast, rationing came to an end in West Germany in January 1950. See Roesler, Jörg, “Privater Konsum in Ostdeutschland 1950–1960,” in Modernisierung im Wiederaujbau: Die Westdeutsche Gesellschaft der 50er Jahre, ed. Sywottek, Arnold and Schildt, Axel (Bonn, 1993).Google Scholar

47. On industrial relations in the GDR, see Hübner, Peter, Konsens, Konflikt und Kompromiss: Soziale Arbeiterinteressen und Sozialpolitik in der SBZ/DDR 1945–1970 (Berlin, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kopstein, , The Politics of Economic Decline.Google Scholar

48. See Marx's chapter on commodity fetishism. Marx, Karl, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 1 (New York, 1990), chap. 1.Google Scholar

49. Marx, Karl, “Critique of the Gotha Program,” reprinted in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Tucker, Robert C. (New York, 1978), 531.Google Scholar

50. Ibid., 530.

51. Conversely, with the introduction of certain kinds of new consumer goods (i.e., synthetic textiles) in subsequent years, prices remained high in relation to costs which, though initially high, soon declined. On this phenomenon in the 1960s, Heldmann, Philipp, “Negotiating Consumption in a Dictatorship: Consumption Politics in the GDR in the 1950s and 1960s” (unpublished manuscript), 18.Google Scholar

52. This is not to suggest that there was no connection between prices and demand. Generally speaking, the lower the prices, the greater the demand. More often than not, low prices were responsible for inflating demand to such an extent that shortages resulted. Consequently, the most in-demand goods often became the most scarce. For an economist's discussion of the actual functioning of demand and “demand adjustment” in socialism, see Kornai, , The Socialist System, 234–40.Google Scholar

53. See Kelch, , “Die Organisation” parts I & II in Der Handel 12 & 13 (08 1952)Google Scholar. On guidelines passed down to the local levels, see Betr.: Arbeitsrichlinien für GB 1 — Bedarfsermittlung, Aufgaben der Abt. Bedarfsermittlung, 13 June 1952, HO-Industriewaren, Landesleitung Sachsen, BA-DDR, KKB, DC-5/9; Richtlinien für den organisatorischen Aufbau einer systematischen Bedarfsermittlung im gesellschaftlichen Handel, 15 July 1952, Baender, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/3297; Richtlinien für die Abteilungen Handel und Versorgung bei den Räten der Bezirke und Kreise für die Verbesserung der Arbeit auf dem Gebiet der Bedarfsforschung, 28 February 1953, Bl. 1–3, MfHV, Abt. Bedarfsforschung und Umsatzplanung, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2603.

54. It is a sad loss for historians and other scholars of East Germany that these books no longer exist. Stored temporarily in local archives, they were periodically disposed of. One can assume, however, that the information they contained about the complaints and opinions of consumers is more or less reproduced in many of the countless letters of complaint (Beschwerdebriefe) still sitting in German archives, federal and regional. Other sources suggest that the books were alternately ignored, used for communicating complaints, or used for making “provocative observations.” See, for example, Hilger, Wilhelm, “Der HO in das Stammbuch geschrieben,” Der Handel (12 1951): 278; Die Einwirkung des Handels auf die Produktion, 16 December 1954, 1, Staatliche Handelsinspektion, BA-DDR, MR, DC-20/1640.Google Scholar

55. As they did with so many aspects of economic administration, planners began tinkering almost immediately with the system just described. But their modifications were never so drastic as to alter its basic character. See, for example, Richtlinien für den organisatorischen Aufbau einer systematischen Bedarfsermittlung im gesellschaftlichen Einzelhandel, 6 November 1952, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2600; Anleitung für die monatliche Benchterstattung ausgewählter Verkaufsstellen über die Bedarfserrnittlung, 25 February 1953, Bl. 8–9, MfHV, Abt. Bedarfsforschung und Umsatzplanung, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2603; Richtlinien für die Bedarfsforschung in den Abteilungen Handel und Versorgung, Bl. 198, MfHV, Abt. Bedarfsforschung und Umsatzplanung, Kelch to Herrn Staatssekretär Schneiderheinze, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2604; Richtlinien für die Abteilungen Handel und Versorgung bei den Räten der Bezirke und Kreise zur Durchführung der Bedarfsforschung, 6 October 1954, Bl. 142–43, MfHV, Abt. Umsatzplanung, Bedarfsforschung und Handelsstatistik, same file.

56. See, for example, Bedarfsermittlung Februar 1953, 1–12, MfHV, Kelch, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/27359; Bedarfsermittlung Februar 1953, 1–26, MfHV, Kelch, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/27358.

57. See, for example, Bedarfsforschung für Monat Juli 1953, 3 September 1953, Bl. 1–2, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2602; Bericht über die Bedarfsermittlung im September 1953, 19 October 1953, Bl. 159–171, 186–193, MfHV, Abt. Bedarfsforschung und Umsatzplanung, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2604.

58. Describing the woeful state of affairs in a particular furniture fabric store, one report concluded, “One can hopefully imagine the kinds of scenes that occur in the store; the customers become very nasty (gemein).” Ergebnisse der Bedarfsforschung im III/54 (not dated), 21, MfHV, Abt. Umsatzplanung, Bedarfsforschung und Handelsstatistik, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/27357.

59. Were market researchers in West Germany concerned with these questions? The paucity of literature on West German market research makes direct comparisons impossible for the moment, though one can assume that these questions were asked since market researchers in prewar Germany had posed them in questionaires and interviews with consumers. See Bergler, Georg, Die Entwicklung der Verbrauchsforschung in Deutschland und die Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung bis zum Jahre 1945 (Kallmünz/Oberpfalz, 1959/1960)Google Scholar. For an interesting, though tendentious, attempt to cast West German market research in the Foucauldian language of discipline and surveillance, see Carter, Erica, How German Is She? Postwar West German Reconstruction and the Consuming Woman (Ann Arbor, 1997), chap. 3Google Scholar. For their part, East German demand researchers began to utilize questionaires and interviews in later years. These efforts are briefly mentioned in Merkel, , Utopie und Bedürfnis, 144–47.Google Scholar

60. Bedarfsermittlung für den Monat November 1953, 18 December 1953, Bl. 11, VdK eGmbH, Berlin, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/28639.

61. See, for example, the editors introduction, “In den zweiten Jahrgang,” Die Versorgung (August 1947), 1–2; “Funktionen des Handels mit gewerblichen Gebrauchsgütern,” Die Versorgung (September 1947), 24–25; Friedländer, Paul, “Zwei Jahre Konsumgenossenschaften in der Ostzone,” Die Versorgung (01 1948), 88–89Google Scholar; Schmincke, , “Der Handel mustert die Produktion,” 17–18Google Scholar; Kelch, , “Neue Arbeitsmethoden,” 230–32.Google Scholar

62. The system was based on two laws adopted in December 1951: Verordnung über die Einführung des allgemeinen Vertragssystems für Warenlieferungen in der volkseigenen und der ihr gleichgestellten Wirtschaft vom 6. Dezember 1951, and Verordnung über die Bildung und Tätigkeit des staatlichen Vertragsgerichtes vom 6. Dezember 1951, Gesetzblatt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (17 December 1951), 1141–45. On the courts, see Meador, Daniel John, Impressions of Law in East Germany: Legal Education and Legal Systems in the German Democratic Republic (Charlottesville, 1986), 159–68.Google Scholar

63. Die Analyse auf dem Gebiete des Handels, 16 September 1955, SAPMO-BA, ZK Abt. Handel, Versorgung, und Aussenhandel, DY 30 IV/2/610/108; Vermerk! Betr.: Globalverträge, 1 February 1956, HA Warenumsatz- und Warenbereitstellung, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/25185; Ergebnisse der Beratung der Kommission für Handel und Versorgung über das Entstehen und die Verhinderung von Überplanbeständen in Konsumgütern, probably late 1955, 1–2, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/24104.

64. Performing “too well” was likely to encourage central planners to maintain, if not increase, the pressure on the firm to show optimum output with minimum inputs. The result was a perpetual process of vertical bargaining within the system, in the course of which information about production capacity and input requirements became increasingly distorted. Kornai, , The Socialist System, 118–24.Google Scholar

65. See, for example, “Funktionen des Handels mit gewerblichen Gebrauchsgütern,” 24–25; Kemmer, Anton, “Versorgung der Bevölkerung mit Textil- und Schuhwaren,” Die Versorgung (11 1947): 50–52Google Scholar; Schmincke, , “Versorgung der Werktätigen mit Textilien und Schuhwaren,” 145–46.Google Scholar

66. The official figure is 27.9 percent. In addition to traditional private retailers, private craftsmen who sold their wares directly to consumers accounted for 9 percent of total retail sales in 1952. In 1959 private retailers and craftsmen still accounted for 24.7 percent of total retail sales: retailers with 17.1 percent, craftsmen with 7.6 percent. Statistisches Jahrbuch der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1959 (East Berlin, 1960), 239.

67. On the development of wholesale trade, see Grosshandel: Strukturelle Entwicklung seit 1945, (Vertrauliche Dienstsache), Bl. 42–43, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/3534.

68. Ibid., Bl. 42–43; Vorlage über Massnahmen zur weiteren Entwicklung des soziahstischen Grosshandels mit Konsumgütern in der DDR, 10 June, 1958, Bl. 201, SPK, Abt. Handel und Versorgung, Hieke, Stellvtr. des Vorsitzenden & Leiter der Abt. Versorgung, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/7329.

69. On the DHZs, see Verordnung über die Verbesserung der Arbeit der Deutschen Handelszentralen vom 6. Dezember 1951, Gesetzblatt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (17 December, 1951), 1145–47; Manz, Günter, “Zur Entwicklung des staatlichen Grosshandels,” Der Handel (12 1951): 271–73.Google Scholar

70. MfHV, HA Staatlicher Einzelhandel, Abt. HO-Industriewaren, Hauptabteilungsleiter Iwanik to Staatssekretariat für Koordinierung des Binnenhandels, Staatssekretär Strampfer, 23 June 1952, 2–3, BA-DDR, KKB, DC-5/8. In addition, the report pointed out, the DHZ often sold goods cheaper to private retailers, waiving the sales tax it normally passed on to the HO.

71. Bericht über die Kontrollfahrt nach Berlin, Chemnitz und umliegende Orte mit Textilindustrie vom 30. August bis 6. September 1952, 8 September 1952, Bl. 29, BA-DDR, SKHV, DC-6/20. In response to trade rejecting its deliveries, industry also turned to foreign trade organs, channeling goods originally intended for domestic consumption into exports. See, for example, Protokoll der Beratung zwischen den leitenden Funktionären des Ministeriums für Handel und Versorgung und des Ministeriums für Leichtindustrie beim Stellvertreter des Vorsitzenden des Mimsterrates Prof. Oelssner, Fred, 24 06 1957, 1–6, BA-DDR, MR, DC-20/1278.Google Scholar

72. Der Handel, Ehrenpfordt (presumably one of the editors) to MfHV, Koll. Schacher, 9 February 1954, Bl. 37, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2903.

73. At the crucial 15th Tagung of the SED Central Committee in July 1953, Elli Schmidt, in her capacity as head of the State Commission for Trade and Provisioning, endorsed the transfer: “Then the state wholesale organ will no longer try to sell what industry produces, but will instead force industry to produce in a manner corresponding to the actual demand and desires of the population.” Stenographische Niederschrift der 15. Tagung des Zentralkomitees der SED vom 24.-26. Juli 1953, 3. Verhandlungstag, Sonntag, Bl. 157, SAPMO-BA, ZK, DY 30/ IV 2/1/120. On Schmidt's role at this moment, see Pence, “‘You as a Woman Will Understand.’”

74. The draft explicitly recognized the need for a “better and demand-appropriate supply of retail” and a “strengthened influence of trade on the production of commodities of individual consumption.” Beschluss Betr.: Überleitung des Grosshandels mit Waren der individuellen Konsumtion in die Verantwortlichkeit des Ministeriums für Handel und Versorgung, October 1953, Bl. 227, Präsidium des Ministerrats, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2905. Also see Breitbarth, Gerhard, “Zur Verbesserung der Arbeit des staatlichen Grosshandels,” Der Handel 20 (10 1953): 530–32.Google Scholar

75. The one exception to this rule was the GHK Haushaltswaren, which came into being through a Council of Ministers directive of 22 January 1952. Grosshandel: Strukturelle Entwicklung seit 1945, (Vertrauliche Dienstsache), Bl. 42–43, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/3534.

76. Vorlage über Massnahmen zur weiteren Entwicklung des sozialistischen Grosshandels mit Konsumgütern in der DDR, 10 June 1958, Bl. 202, SPK, Abt. Handel und Versorgung, Hieke, Stellv. des Vorsitzenden & Leiter der Abt. Versorgung, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/7329. The Ministry for Trade and Provisioning had long wanted to draw private retail into its control, thereby removing the competition. See Vorlage für einen Beschluss des Politbüros des Zentralkomitees der SED, 1–2, MfHV, Office of the Minister to Sekretariat Prof. Fred Oelssner, 10 July 1957, BA-DDR, MR, DC-20/1285.

77. It is no coincidence that these were the years in which the regime expanded its consumer credit offerings, introduced the mail order catalogue, and developed plans for establishing self-service stores. See Kaminsky, , KaufrauschGoogle Scholar; Merkel, , Utopie und BedürfnisGoogle Scholar; Landsman, “Dictatorship and Demand,” chaps. 4, 6. By 1956, even Khrushchev came to see the need to turn the GDR into a “showcase” of socialist splendor in the Cold War contest of consumer abundance. See Lemke, Michael, Die Berlinkrise 1958 bis 1963: Interessen und Handlungsspielräume der SED im Ost-West-Konflikt (Berlin, 1995), 46–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78. Sywottek, Arnold, “TheAmericanization of Everyday Life? Early Trends in Consumer and Leisure-Time behavior,” in America and the Shaping of German Society, 1945–1955, ed. Ermath, Michael (Providence, 1993), 150.Google Scholar Also see Wildt, Michael, Vom kleinen Wohlstand: Eine Konsumgeschichte der fünfziger jahre (Frankfurt am Main, 1996)Google Scholar, originally published as Am Beginn der “Konsumgesellschaft” (Hamburg, 1994); Schildt, Axel, Moderne Zeiten: Freizeit, Massenmedien und “Zeitgeist” in der Bundesrepublik der 50er Jahre (Hamburg, 1995).Google Scholar

79. Every day, 53,000 “border crossers” (Grenzgänger) from East Berlin and the surrounding countryside went to work in West Berlin. In addition, 25 percent of West Berlin's university students lived in East Berlin. As of 1953, East Germans wishing to visit the Federal Republic required official permission. Still, in 1956 2.5 million East Germans did so, visiting West Berlin and West Germany. And although in 1957 East German officials made it more difficult to travel to West Germany, approximately 700,000 GDR citizens were still able to visit in 1958. Ribbe, Wolfgang, Geschichte Berlins vol. 2 (Munich, 1987), 1086–88.Google Scholar

80. Sywottek, , “The Americanization of Everyday Life?” 149Google Scholar; Wildt, , Vom kleinen Wohlstand, 172–76.Google Scholar

81. Wildt, , Vom kleinen Wohlstand, 167–70.Google Scholar

82. Ibid., 156–61.

83. Sywottek, , “The Americanization of Everyday Life?” 148–49.Google Scholar

84. Wildt, , Vom kleinen Wohlstand, 53.Google Scholar

85. Bergler, Georg, äDas Verhalten des Verbrauchers im modernen Markte,”Google Scholar in idemVerbrauchsforschung zwischen Mensch und Wirtschaft (Nuremberg, 1961), 92.

86. Ibid., 90–91.

87. Analyse über den Stand der Konsumgüterproduktion, 1–5, SPK, HA Maschinenbau, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/29159.

88. Ibid., 3–4.

89. Abschrift der Rede des Stellv. des Vorsitzenden des Ministerrates, Gen. Fred Oelssner, in der Ministerratstagung vom 16.8.56, 2–3, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/12769.

90. Ibid., 2.

91. The commission (Regierungskommission für Konsumgüterproduktion und Versorgung der Bevölkerung) was created at the end of 1955.

92. Protokoll über die konstituierende Sitzung der Regierungskommission für Konsumgüter-produktion und Versorgung der Bevölkerung am 12.12.1955, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/24201.

93. Berichterstattung über die Probleme der Textilindustrie und ihre angestrebte Lösung, 14 May 1956, 7, SAPMO-BA, SED Abt. Leicht- und Lebensmittelindustrie, Sektor Leichtindustrie, Textil, DY 30/ IV 2/609/8. The author of another report from the same SED department complained bitterly that GDR investment in the textile industry in 1955 and 1956 amounted to about 70 million DM yearly, while in West Germany the comparable figure came to more than 400 million DM. Zu einigen Fragen der Textilindustrie im 2. Fünfjahrplan, 7 March 1956 (streng ver-trauhch!), 8, SAPMO-BA, SED Abt. Leicht- und Lebensmittelindustrie, DY 30/ IV 2/609/94.

94. Die Entwicklung des Einzelhandels in Westberlin, 16 March 1956, 7–10, Landesarchiv-Berlin, Magistral von Gross-Berlin, Abt. Handel und Versorgung, Rep. 113/480. They believed, however, that by 1956, the outflow of Eastmarks to West Berlin had been reduced to between 100 and 150 DM million annually due to improvements in domestic supplies of consumer goods. But this belief seems overly optimistic. Also see MfHV, Brünnel to Wach, 2 July 1956, Bl. 12–13, BA-DDR, MfHV, DL-1/2561.

95. Draft of Verordnung über die Durchführung der Statistik des Lebensstandards der Bevölkerung, 1, SZS to SPK, 9 December 1954, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/12766.

96. Redaktion Die Wirtschaft, Abt. Leichtindustrie, Dr. Hanke to Oelssner, 23 May 1956, BA-DDR, MR, DC-20/478. Dr. Hartwig's article was entitled, “Vermeidung von Überplanbeständen und Qualitätsverbesserung bei Konsumgütern,” 1, 5.

97. Ibid., 4.

98. Ibid., 6–8. In addition, Hartwig was skeptical of trade's ability to ascertain demand with any real precision due to the need to conclude contracts months in advance of deliveries. What was required, he believed, was a far more flexible system, allowing for swifter communication and reaction time between trade and industry. Ibid., 4–6.

99. Protokoll der Beratung zwischen den leitenden Funktionären des Ministeriums für Handel und Versorgung und des Ministeriums für Leichtindustrie beim Stellvertreter des Vorsitzenden des Ministerrates Prof. Oelssner, Fred, 24 06 1957, 1–6, BA-DDR, MR, DC-20/1278.Google Scholar

100. Diskussionsbeitrag: Beseitigung der sprunghaften Annahme der Waren durch den Handel, typewritten note following a handwritten note signed by Hoepner, 28 June 1956, BA-DDR, SPK, DE-1/25185.

101. Jeffrey Kopstein has suggested that one of the results of the uprising was an “implicit ‘labor agreement,’” according to which “production could rise so long as norms remained low and wages high, relative to productivity.” Earlier attempts to impose discipline on the shop floor were abandoned, and labor unrest remained limited and sporadic. Although Kopstein discusses primarily enterprises in heavy industry, it is reasonable to posit a similar pattern for enterprises producing consumer goods, which after all occupied a much lower place on the list of SED priorities. Kopstein, , The Politics of Economic Decline, 38.Google Scholar

102. Such a system would still have faced the regime's limited ability to ensure a steady supply of raw materials, the lack of incentive for individual firms to perform as required, and the problem of insufficient discipline among industrial workers.

103. The story of the Main Economic Task is a complicated one, inextricably bound up with the second Berlin Crisis and the regime's accelerated campaign to collectivize agriculture. For a full discussion, see Landsman, “Dictatorship and Demand,” chap. 6.

104. Heldmann, “Konsumpolitik in der DDR”; Merkel, , Utopie und BedürfnisGoogle Scholar; Poutrus, Patrice, “Lebensmittelkonsum, Versorgungskrisen und die Entscheidung fur den ‘Goldbroiler,’” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 39 (1999)Google Scholar; Steiner, Andre, Die DDR-Wirtschaftsreform der sechziger jahre: Konflikt zwischen Effizienz- und Machtkalkül (Berlin, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105. On East Germany's soaring foreign debt in the 1970s and 1980s, and on efforts to supplement the GDR's foreign currency reserves, see Kopstein, , The Politics of Economic DeclineGoogle Scholar, chap. 3; Maier, Charles, Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (Princeton, 1997), chap. 2Google Scholar; Ash, Timothy Garten, In Europe's Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (New York, 1993), 141–62Google Scholar; and Jonathan Zatlin, “Consuming Ideology: Socialist Consumerism and the Intershops, 1970–1989,” in Arbeiter in der SBZ-DDR, ed. Hübner and Tenfelde.