Socialist Advertising. Health Education in East German Television

Abstract

The chapter describes the history of popular health education in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) using personal interviews, television spots, published material, and documents from the State Archive of Saxony and from the German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) in Berlin. East German institutions did not have a concerted plan, how to coordinate and synchronise audiovisual health education efforts during the 1950s. There was only one thing, most authorities agreed upon: Nothing should remind the audience of the 1920s type educational Kulturfilms, which had once framed cinema evenings during the Weimar Republic with medical advice, campaigns for asceticism, and austerity. A debate emerged, about the role of health education within the concept of socialist advertising. Finally, the authorities created a Central Institute of Health Education, and submerged it with the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden. It will be investigated how health education was planned in the GDR or, more precisely, how the government intended to plan its health education policy. At the end of the chapter, the television series You and Your Health will serve as an example of how, in the late 1970s, an idea for a film developed into a concept that was finally turned into television spots.