Western packages in the GDR: "Stay away, that's all over there"

The GDR wanted to keep control. Immediately after the construction of the Wall and until the 1970s, the state laid down Prussia in ever-revised ordinances, what was allowed into the "gifts" that were sent from the consumer-blessed West to the underserved East:

"Foodstuffs are subject to the following quantitative restrictions: 250 g of coffee (uncooked, roasted, ground, mixed); 250 g of cocoa (also mixed); 125 g of tea; 300 g of chocolate in slabs or in other forms (whether or not filled or with admixtures); g tobacco or tobacco products. "

The FRG did not want to give up hope. From the mid-fifties onwards, her leaflets on the "packages over there" also included ideological ideas:

Answer: The single German today can do nothing better and nothing more effective in terms of reunification than to do his utmost to preserve the human unity of our people, and certainly we can not call for reunification, But, in any case, we can prevent the German people from falling apart humanly if we fail to recognize and fulfill this task, and one day our claim to reunification will become untrustworthy to the world, to ourselves, but especially for our compatriots in the zone. "

In the sixties father and mother came back on Saturdays from the weekly shopping, on the kitchen table as usual the fresh goods were spread out. Only there were two piles sometimes: on the right all the things we knew. Neatly separated but left brand products that we could bring children at most advertising. Chocolates, coffee, soaps, aftershave, perfumes or cans with colorful fruits - a stranglehold on our consume palette, and father said sternly: "Stay away, it's all over there."

photo gallery

12 pictures

Now, of course, we knew that we did not have such distant relatives in a near distance that seemed unattainable. We had heard of the "Iron Curtain": In Franconia, he separated us from his uncles and aunts in neighboring Thuringia. And "over there," we knew that, was beyond this limit, which would never have existed without Hitler and the Second World War. An uncle Hans probably lived near a city named after Karl Marx, an uncle Günter somewhere near Leipzig - and they were just "bad", as we were told.

Tropical fruits for the pineapple uncle

We called one "pineapple uncle" because in each letter he communicated his insatiable longing for a tin of tropical fruit. The bases and cousins ​​we had never seen there, but now they would get all the wonderful food and other things we only dreamed of. This border, we concluded childlike selfishly, must be an extremely unjust matter.

Then it was time to pack, an almost solemnly celebrated tradition. At a safe distance, we were always amazed. Father's nervousness was palpable now, he was careful not to make a mistake. An obscure fear of stern powers seemed to have afflicted him, he put the precious goods into the package with trembling fingers. In an unusual silence, Mother noted on a note exactly what her husband was putting into the box. You could hear sentences like "Hopefully the Stasi will not open the package again" or "If it's just a few grams too heavy, it will come back".

And yet, if there was a little gap between sultanas and tights, cream 21 and Eduscho's fine roast, Father sometimes stuffed it with crumpled paper, making his face as guilty as if he were committing an offense. It was only later that we learned that the filling material was usually the pages of the church's last communal letter, and understood how daring father went about claiming socialist rule. Then, neutralizing and peace-giving, a fresh fir branch came on top, along with thick new wrapping paper and strong twine around the package. Finally, father wrote in unreadable letters "Gift - No Merchandise" with bold exclamation marks on the front and back.

The walk to the post office was just as ceremonial. In the ticket hall colorful posters appealed threateningly to the conscience of the Westerner: "Your package over there - they are waiting for it!", "Have you already done that?", "Build a bridge - send books over there". And the leaflets around should make every shipper a hero:

"They need evidence as often as possible that we can think of them, empathize with their situation and give them pleasure, everything that 'brings some color into the gray everyday life' is what you want to participate in life and to enjoy something that is not necessarily part of the primitive need for life. "

Aura of the secrecy

In this sense, after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, about 25 million parcels and parcels crossed the inner-German border each year. The total value of the consignments already amounted in 1978 to 3.7 percent of the retail sales of the GDR and grew to 4.3 percent in 1988, as the cultural sociologist Bernd Lindner in the book "The West Package" aufschlüsselt. The average value of a parcel was 197 marks of the GDR.

For a long time, the GDR had included the close kin ties that persisted despite their death strip and ideological influence (on both German sides) in their economic balance sheet. The "government-planned supply size" could only guarantee the western packages for some products, especially for clothing. In 1988, for example, 13 million pairs of tights were sent from West to East, but also 13 million pieces of soap and 11,000 tonnes of roasted coffee and 9,000 tonnes of chocolate and chocolates.

photo gallery

31 pictures

In 1956, the GDR had even set up a bizarre mail-order business itself to supplement its state budget with foreign currency: The gift service and small exports GmbH, short Genex, made possible from then on the Western shopping for the underserved East German relatives. TVs or lawn mowers, even yachts, prefabricated houses, west cars - all available immediately.

Behind the "phenomenon Western Package" hide a meta-level, says Carola Jüllig of the German Historical Museum in Berlin. "One can read here the history of the Cold War, for example, the provisions of what products you could pack and send to the GDR, how the Stasi has dealt with how the FRG has propaganda operated: 'Your brothers and sisters in the East need the products, need the books' - the whole German-German history could theoretically tell based on the history of the West package. "

The West package has always surrounded an aura of mystery: contacts from one German state to another have been maintained, but mostly with the fear of being watched and spied on as a sender and recipient. Anyone who did not fulfill his "moral obligation" in the FRG and did not regard the inconspicuous package as a "question of the German fate" was considered an opponent of a reunification; Anyone who ran around in Levis jeans in the GDR or exhaled Tosca scent in the Combine was jealously eyed or immediately noted in the notebook of a Stasi spy.

Can you recycle everything?

"The package was opened almost ritually," recalls Stefan Gerisch, today pastor in Grünhain-Beierfeld in the Erzgebirge. "The rope was not allowed to be cut because it could be recycled, then the paper was loosened carefully, and of course that was lifted: they just turned it over and used it for the next package, and then, of course, when the package was opened Smell very special if coffee or cocoa was in it, maybe a perfume. "

Disappointment, says Pastor Gerisch, of course, has also happened from time to time. So his family should once pick up a package at the post office, so big and heavy that you had to transport it with the trolley. In the office and on the street they looked after them: "What did they get back from the West?" But in the package was nothing but tons of sugar, flour, gries and butter.

"We had butter and flour and grits and sugar in abundance and maybe you could have bought something else for the money, so we had the impression that people did not even grab it, but got it packaged" says Gerisch. "I do not know, I do not want to offend anyone there, but maybe there was an amount of money left in the department store saying, 'Send something to the East ...'

From the GDR regulation:

"Importation into gift consignments shall not include: personal documents and other identity documents ... records, other than those relating to works of cultural or contemporary cultural creation ... used textiles and footwear, unless accompanied by a certificate from the competent national health authority of the country of origin a disinfection is presented. "

From the BRD leaflet:

Answer: The mere fact that someone over there receives mail from the Federal Republic does not represent a danger for him. If anyone believes he is particularly vulnerable, he either finds one Way to let us know, or he also has the option of simply rejecting our program or slicing us an 'indignant' letter that is not intended for us but for the postal service censorship. "

Bridal gown as West import

And how did the "brothers and sisters" from the "zone" return the favor? In any case, thousands of "original Dresdner tunnels" made their way across the border unscathed in 40 years, although they could often only be baked when, in turn, the Orangeat and Zitronat, which was absolutely essential in the GDR, had arrived in the package , Small angels or light pyramids from the Erzgebirge were also popular.

However, Jena glass bowls, goose down or fresh eel were not allowed to be sent, as was expressly stated in one of the constantly changing meticulous regulations. Exempted from export under the GDR regulation:

"Works of art, archival material and other objects that are banned under the legislation protecting the artistic heritage of the German Democratic Republic and possessing scientific documents and materials ... Refractory and heat-resistant glassware of all kinds for household, science and technology ('Saale-Glas 'of the VEB Jenaer Glaswerk and other manufacturing companies), lead crystal, ornamental and use porcelain ... Footwear of all kinds ... "

Stories about the "West Package" belong since the turn of the past and to each very personal family treasure. For a long time, they sound like memories of an ancient time: hard to believe and yet strangely touching.

"When my husband and I got married in 1984," says Pastor Gerisch's wife Katrin, "the question of the wedding dress was in the room." There were not many models in the GDR, and they were not very attractive either. " Her godmother in the West had offered to send her stuff. Since Katrin Giersch did not have any idea about it, the aunt from a source catalog cut out little wedding dresses and sent me by letter: "One thing I liked, I told her that, and then she sent us the fabric, tulle, Flower wreaths, bows, all you need for it My aunt, who was a seamstress, made my wedding dress from this little picture from the source catalog. "

"And the bride," says her husband Stefan still today, looked in this German-German creation "charming".