HIST 312-05 Memory and Material Culture in Eastern Europe (Spring 2023)

The article examines the acoustic history of East German everyday life based on the two-stroke engine noise of the Trabant automobile as well as the engine noise of automobiles from the Dacia company when run on ersatz or diluted gasoline. Social, cultural, and economic aspects of automobile industry and ownership in socialist East Germany are explored.

Because of its Marxist ideological distinction between "real" and "false" consumer needs, the East German government consistently underestimated the political repercussions of shortages and of the inferior consumer goods that the population compared against those of West Germany. The long waiting periods for and low quality of the Trabant and Wartburg automobiles thus fueled the discontent that led to the collapse of East Germany.

The article discusses the nature and characteristics of consumer culture in a socialist society. That consumer culture is specifically viewed through the example of the valuation of the automobile in in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Romania and the privilege of owning a vehicle. The use of autos as part of a state-run reward system for loyal citizens is examined, as well as questions of whether such consumer goods could be bought freely or rented from state companies. The influence of the West in creating a culture built around the private car and mass motorization under socialism are investigated.

There is perhaps nothing so commonplace and yet so mystifying as money. But to European communists, money was clearly an instrument of economic exploitation and spiritual alienation. In this groundbreaking study, Jonathan R. Zatlin explores the East German attempt to create a perfect society by eliminating money and explains the reasons for its failure. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including unpublished communist reports, secret police files, literature, jokes, letters written by ordinary people, and conversations with key German politicians, this book shows how the communist regime undermined the political authority of socialism and created the material conditions for its demise. By exploring both the economic and the cultural function of money, Zatlin challenges traditional approaches to economic planning by offering a novel explanation for the collapse of communism in East Germany and a highly original interpretation of German unification. Written in an engaging and lucid style, The Currency of Socialism brings to life the scurrilous competition for power among communist officials and the everyday burdens experienced by ordinary East Germans.

Cambodia is a long way from Germany - thousands of miles, as it turns out. And in between are some of the world's highest mountains, most inhospitable deserts and least welcoming countries. Trying to make the journey overland was always going to be difficult. But one group of twenty-somethings, bored with the predictable wanderings of the backpacker generation, thought they'd spice things up a little. They would go by car. The worst car in the world. The infamous Soviet-era Trabant.