Figure 2: Typical GDR Housing in Dessau
Source: Original
On March 7th 1945, just a few months before the end of the war, the allies bombed Dessau, destroying approximately 80% of the city [2]. In one night, the city which had, for several centuries, served as a local seat of government, was essentially leveled [3,4]. In the GDR era rebuilding the city was focused on housing. The emphasis on housing was partly practical and partly symbolic- housing was a symbol of success of the GDR government. Re-development during this time largely ignored the city’s pre-existing structure and the homes built were primarily communist era apartment blocks [1]. One of the fundamental tenets of GDR socialism was that housing was not treated as a commodity [5]. From the early years of optimism about the promises of socialism to the GDR to the later years wrought with public discontent with living standards, the availability and quality of housing remained central to government policy in the GDR.
The period from 1949 to 1961 (the end of direct Soviet occupation to the construction of the Berlin Wall) was a period of consolidation of power for the GDR and the Socialist Unity Party (SED). During this time, housing and city development were emphasized as a means to both expand industry and consolidate power of the new government. The year 1956 marked the beginning of mass production of industrial housing. Early GDR housing typically consisted of prefabricated high-rise housing settlements made of concrete slabs (see Figure 2) [2,6]. In the early years, these housing settlements were viewed as a symbol of optimism and hope for growth.
1961 to 1969 was a period of stabilization in the GDR; SED gained legitimacy and continued to work towards making the country an industrial powerhouse. This period saw the greatest investment in developing infrastructure. From 1969 to 1980 the GDR sought greater social legitimacy. With the election of Erich Honecker as the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, the GDR shifted from an ideological to more pragmatic approach [7]. By this point, much of the optimism of the early years of the GDR was starting to dwindle and citizens were increasingly becoming more discontent with their declining quality of life, particularly in the realm of housing. A 1971 housing survey reported that only one-fifth of dwellings were without damage and one-sixth of all dwellings were completely dilapidated. Honecker made housing construction a central tenet of his government, establishing the Honecker Housing Construction, directing most of the country’s construction resources towards housing. The housing program was declared the “centerpiece of social policy” and in 1973, the government adopted a goal to eliminate the housing problem by 1990 [8].
This intense focus on housing development led to a continuation of the use of prefabricated housing. But this style of house, which had once been a symbol of optimism, now became a symbol of the government’s inability to lead and provide for its citizens [8]. While some architects attempted to initiate new projects in the mid-1980s that would have helped to revive inner city life in Dessau, these projects were never realized [2]. As such, the period from 1980 to 1989 was mostly marked by stagnation. The economy slowed, investment in modernization and infrastructure declined and dissatisfaction with housing policies grew. These challenges were not exclusive to housing. Infrastructure such as telephone lines and roadways were severely lacking; by 1989 18% of roads in the country were rated as unusable and 72% of telephone technology was more than 30 years old. In this context, it is not surprising that with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the re-unification of Germany in 1990 and the collapse of Dessau’s industrial sector, many people took advantage of their newfound ability to leave and began to seek other opportunities elsewhere [7].
[1]History : Visit Dessau. (2017). Retrieved July 25, 2018, from http://www.visitdessau.com/the-town/history.html [2]Kähler, G. (n.d.). The path of modernism : architecture 1900-1930 : from the World Heritage of Wrocłow to that of Dessau. [3]Sword, R. (n.d.). Dessau in 1975. The Bulletin of the Decorative Arts Society 1890-1940, 44–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/41806016 [4]Zimmerman, N. (2016). German city Dessau experiments with rewilding. Retrieved July 25, 2018, from https://www.dw.com/en/german-city-dessau-experiments-with-rewilding/a-19351244 [5]Schmidt, M. G. (2013). Social Policy in the German Democratic Republic. In The Rise and Fall of a Socialist Welfare State (pp. 23–166). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22528-4_2 [6]Melzer, M. (1984). The GDR Housing Construction Program: Problems and Successes. East Central Europe, 11(1), 78–96. https://doi.org/10.1163/187633084X00064 [7]Carter, F., Turner, B., Hegedus, J., & Tosics, I. (1992). The Reform of Housing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, 74(2), 147. [8]Pugh, E. (2014). Collapsing Borders: In Architecture, Politics, and Identity in Divided Berlin (pp. 283–328). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7zwbqb.13