housing

• • As much as 2/3 of the housing stock in major cities such as berlin and dresden had either been destroyed or severely damaged during the war 
  • Where it had been renovated, by the 1970s it was often dilapidated and falling once more into disrepair 
  • Most complaints in Eingaben throughout the existence of the GDR related to poor quality housing 
• rents positives

  • Rents, subsidised by the state, were cheap - no more than 4% of income 
  • This was often offered as one of the big advantages of living in the GDR 
• new towns and states

  • Many new homes and towns needed to be built at the centre of new industrial development
  • the chemical industries around frankfurt-an-der-oder near the border with poland, which therefore attracted polish migrant workers
  • In the new towns Schwedt,eisenhüttenstadt and Guben, 75-83% of residents worked in the new chemical and petrochemical factories around the area
  • Berlin-marzhan comprised 64,000 dwelling units, leipzig-grunau 34,000 and halle-neustadt 33,000
  • Much of the accommodation was shoddily built , with damp conditions and unreliable lifts
• continued problems

  • 3 million new builds target was not reached 
  • Figures of new construction between 1971-90 vary from 1.7-1.9 million 
  • 1990- 34% of housing stock predated 1919 and much of it had not been renovated 
  • By the 1980s, 44% of older homes had no hot water - while 60% lacked a bath or shower and 65% an indoor toilet
  • In 1984 1 in 7 older houses in leipzig lacked any of those amenities 
  • By 1989, there was a waiting list of 800,000 for repairs to accommodation and a thriving black market in circumventing this 
• • Ulbrichts policy had been to renovate existing stock wherever possible; he took a personal interest in architectural design and development of new satellite towns.
• Honecker was more concerned with quantity and the 1970s saw extensive building of accommodation
• • In a leipzig survey of people's goals in october 1984, 53% of respondents replied their priority was to acquire a decent home
• Dresden , 1980, a survey of living standard satisfaction found that only 35% were happy in older accommodation while the figure rose to 76% of those living in newer housing