Anthropology of women’s leisure in the GDR

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2020-51-3/213-230

Abstract

The article discusses the anthropology of women's leisure activities in the German Democratic Republic. Women's free time in a totalitarian society is defined as quasi-leisure, conventionally divided into public leisure, associated with state mass events, and personal leisure, the content of which was mainly determined by women. Factors that determine the amount of time free from labor and social activities were identified. An analysis of high informative sources, such as women's periodicals and family documentaries of the GDR, allowed to identify aspects of rationing leisure practices by the state and the nature of public response to propaganda methods. The female press is considered as a mechanism for transmitting the normative image of a woman; the content and specifics of publications on free time in various magazines are revealed. The study of family documentaries published on the Internet within the «Open Memory box» – a GDR-specific project, allowed to identify the most common and significant forms of women's leisure activities. Among them there is a unique German tradition of «Freikörperkultur», a free-body culture preserved under socialism. Such forms of leisure activities as external and internal tourism, as well as spending time in the countryside, is analyzed in the context of submission and willfulness strategies within restrictions on freedom of movement under the SED dictatorship. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of the traditional German festival culture, as well as the introduction of «new» socialist holidays, including alternative forms of life cycle rites (for example a widely-used rite of passage for youth). Components of the international image of GDR, such as the «reading country» or the «sports nation», are analyzed based on women's periodicals and family documentaries.

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