State-owned enterprise: an institution at the heart of the German Democratic Republic

Résumé 0

This article casts a critical light on the stability of the East German dictatorship by focusing on state companies. Since 1949, these publicly owned factories were central not only to the overall economic system but also to the everyday routine of East German citizens. For four decades, they shaped the socio-professional identity of millions of East German citizens. Using a micro-historical perspective and focusing on Zekiwa, a factory in Zeitz (Saxony) specializing in the production of strollers, this article highlights the complex reality of communism. Companies like Zekiwa represent ideal “border areas” between state and society that were essential elements of the social-political experiences of communism at grassroots level. Lacking political legitimacy, the GDR developed a special form of society centered around state companies that operated as more than simply production sites in the context of shortages. They also represented a form of redistribution of social resources, ideological training, control and mobilization. In a company like Zekiwa, the working class, mostly composed of women under the supervision of male managers and foremen, was able to come to micro-arrangements with the local authorities of the company. This use of the sense of self was one of the keys to the everyday stability of the GDR.