Albert, 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis

What people wore

The iconic blue shirt of GDR youth

The blue shirt of the Free German Youth, an iconic FDJ garment, was worn by young people in the GDR on special occasions like public holidays and the first day of school.

Getting around

Drastic reduction in long-distance travel time

For comparison, the travel time from Abensberg to Berlin by train in 1974 was 9 hours and 27 minutes, significantly faster than the 19th-century horse-drawn carriage time of nearly 72 hours.

At the table

Expensive luxury food in East Germany

In East Germany in 1980, specialty shops called Delikat stores sold luxury items like raspberries and asparagus at high prices, such as 17 marks for 300 grams of raspberries. These shops were mostly inaccessible to ordinary people because their prices were prohibitively expensive.

Music

Radio requests and family game nights

On Wednesday evenings between 1975 and 1999, families frequently gathered to listen to the four-hour radio show Vom Telefon Zum Mikrofon, where listeners called in to request songs while playing card games like Rummy at the kitchen table. During these evenings, music served as a social centerpiece at home, often recorded by teenagers onto cassette tapes.

Daily life

Coal heating and primitive amenities

Living conditions varied significantly; while newer prefabricated apartments often included bathrooms, many older homes required residents to heat rooms with coal stoves, which involved the physically straining task of carrying coal from cellars and disposing of ashes in winter. In some older dwellings, water connections were limited to the kitchen, and toilet facilities remained primitive.

What it cost

Consumer electronics costs in East Germany

In 1989, East German consumers paid 2,300 Mark for a fully automatic washing machine and 4,900 Mark for a color television.