East Germany in 80s Homework

Life in East Germany in the 80s

-There were no bananas. You could only get them once or twice a year, and you’d only be notified of their availability by word of mouth. So you’d have to rush to the veggie store and stand in line to get your one banana per person in your household.
-You couldn’t buy strawberries from a store. If you wanted them you had to go and work in the fields picking them for hours. 
-You could only watch one of a few state channels, but radio waves know no walls, so those close to the border were able to pick up signals from the West.
-The books were very low quality compared to the fine paper and good bindings and modern cover-graphics that were in the West. 
-East German kids did generally have fewer toys and fewer opportunities to go on holiday
-People weren't allowed past the Berlin wall into the west so many tried to sneak into the country but many failed resulting in death.
-There was a lot of surveillance, and most people lived double lives, in the sense that they learnt early that what you say and do at home is one thing, but what you're allowed to say publicly or in school is quite another.
-Equal rights where good for the time. Most women worked. There was affordable child-care available.

Education

-Education was compulsory for 10 years from age six onwards.

-Unlike West Germany, East Germany accomplished large-scale education reform and introduced a dense network of high-standard education facilities, especially kindergartens.

-There was no teaching of reading, writing or arithmetic, but the fundamental concepts were taught to develop intellectual and motor skills.

Suspicion And Tension 

- Many east Germans were put under surveillance if the stasi thought that they were being rebellious by associating themselves with Western culture. 

- East Germany regarded the west as being run by old fascists and corrupted by big, international companies. They suspected the west to prepare for WW3. The west stated that the east deprived citizens of their human rights such as freedom of religion, speech and ability to leave the country. 

Why did people want to escape the East?

- The East was heavily run by the government which meant that people had a lack of freedom in how they lived their life. Everything was controlled, their social life, their work, what they said and what they did. People wanted to escape the East in order to have more freedom and the ability to express their views without being scared of being imprisoned or punished. 

Why did people like and respect the public?

- There was no unemployment as they didn't believe in the concept therefore there was no benefits and workers were afforded the safety of their jobs as they couldn't be fires unless they committed a serious offence. 

- They helped women in the workplace as they though the patriarchy was viewed as a symptom of capitalism. They implemented a strong foundation of laws to protect mothers and distribute childcare services. There was more equality as there was a smaller gender pay gap than in the West.

- They offered free health care, free places to kindergarten and school and had affordable housing.