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Princess Elisabeth of Thurn and Taxis

Born St. Emmeram's Abbey, 24 Mar 1982

6 facts1 source

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 24 Mar 1982

    Born in St. Emmeram's Abbey

Family

See the tree

Parents

During her lifetime

She has lived through 5 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around St. Emmeram's Abbey.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1980s · Princess is born in St. Emmeram's Abbey

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

Car travel replaces rail for daily commuting

During the 1975–1999 period, Germany experienced a rapid increase in individual car ownership, which fundamentally replaced rail as the dominant mode of transport for ordinary people. By 1982, about 80% of commuting was done by private car.

At the table

Coffee as a luxury in East Germany

In East Germany, coffee was a rare luxury item, and a one-kilogram package of Rondo coffee cost 70 marks in the 1980s. People sometimes stretched their supply by mixing it with barley or sugar beet pulp, a mixture nicknamed Erich's Coronation.

The Berlin Wall falls. Berliners tore down the wall on 9 November; within two years communism had ended in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.Around the world · 1989

The Berlin Wall falls. Berliners tore down the wall on 9 November; within two years communism had ended in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Unknown photographer, Reproduction by Lear 21 at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0

Music

The Mundorgel songbook ritual

For many young people in the 1970s and 1980s, the Mundorgel, a small red book of folk songs, was an essential companion during church youth trips, campfires, and hikes. Its distribution was a ritual, with booklets often collected back after use to be reused by others.

Daily life

State-managed housing and low rents

In East Germany, housing was state-managed with very low, stable rents that remained frozen at 1936 levels, often costing households only about 5 percent of their income. Moving into a new apartment required authorization, and due to housing shortages, married couples often had priority for available units.

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.