A ‘Call to Tools’: DIY between State Building and Consumption Practices in the GDR

Abstract

This article discusses state attempts to politicize do-it-yourself activities in order to strengthen the regime of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in East Germany. To be sure, for many East Germans DIY practices were a hobby and a pastime. Given the notorious shortage of consumer goods and the slow progress in improving standards of living in the GDR, however, it was also a strategy to overcome the shortcomings of the socialist society. The SED attempted to make a virtue out of this necessity by reinterpreting DIY practices as a personal contribution to the building up of the GDR and socialist society. Performed in the right way, practices of DIY were supposed to contribute to both the material and the ideological consolidation of the GDR. In order to direct DIY activities towards undertakings defined as most important by state and party officials, the regime developed particular organizational structures. The annual competition ‘Join in!’, on which this article focuses, addressed the housing situation and therefore one of the most pressing problems of the GDR. Calling upon the East German population to devote their leisure time to the creation of housing spaces, the renovation of state-owned apartment blocks, and the erection and preservation of parks and playgrounds, however, caused new problems. While the East German state tried to generate pride in communal facilities and in public goods rather than in private possessions, this ideal competed with practices of DIY where citizens used their handiwork to improve their private standard of life.