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This Christmas will be different from what the Germans were used to.
Restaurants and cafes have been closed for weeks, there are long queues in front of the shops, and many prefer to stay at home than in festively decorated ones
Shopping malls to look for gifts.
In October and November, the number of retail customers was around a quarter lower than in the previous year.
Christmas 2020 is a reminder of the old days.
In the GDR, too, queuing in cold temperatures was part of the pre-Christmas season.
The restaurants were not closed, but signs saying “You will be seated” prevented many from entering.
There were certainly no glittering shopping malls in the workers-and-farmers state.
Actually, the whole of Christmas was a thorn in the side of the SED.
Because celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ did not fit into the ideological program of the East German communists.
"Religion", as the leader of the Russian Bolsheviks, Vladimir I. Lenin, taught, "is a kind of intellectual booze in which the slaves of capital drown their human face and their claims to a reasonably decent life."
The birth of Jesus was almost never officially mentioned
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While Christmas in the Soviet Union was therefore a completely normal working day and the celebration with the Christmas tree and gifts was moved to New Year's Eve, the SED was less successful in the fight against Christian tradition.
Although she succeeded in largely replacing confirmation and confirmation with the communist youth consecration, the East Germans stubbornly held on to Christmas.
Even the Politburo took a two-week break from meetings at the end of the year.
The GDR leadership therefore shifted to decoupling the festival from its religious roots.
The birth of Jesus or the Christ Child was officially almost never mentioned.
Instead, the state media only spoke of Christmas or simply of the holidays.
The nativity play became a Christmas play, the Christmas bonus was called the end-of-year bonus, and the Christmas party in the company was called the end-of-year party.
The term `` year-end wing figure '' for the chubby angels from the Ore Mountains, which has been rumored again and again, has not yet been found in any document.
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The silent acceptance of Christmas meant that the SED had to struggle with enormous economic challenges every December.
In contrast to capitalism, where producers and traders vie for buyers for their Christmas trees, gingerbread or children's toys, under socialism the state is responsible for production and trade - even during the Christmas business.
Since this can quickly become a political matter when it comes to the distribution of resources or gaps in supply, the SED leadership itself had to regularly deal with the question of whether there were enough Christmas trees for the almost 17 million GDR citizens , Gingerbread or children's toys were available.
The “holiday supply” was a challenge
In the 1950s, a meeting on the subject of "Christmas supplies" was held at the Minister for Trade and Supply by September at the latest.
Mostly it was about the numerous gaps in supply and how to fill them.
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In the 1960s, the documents mostly only refer to “festive provisions”, a term that the Politburo and Council of Ministers also adopted in the 1970s.
Politicians like Kevin Kühnert, who want to reintroduce socialism in Germany, would like to recommend reading the documents from these consultations, as they clearly reveal the problems of any non-capitalist economy: too few goods, too little productivity, too much Bureaucracy, hardly any innovations - and as a result rigid import restrictions and horrific foreign debt.
"Hollow figures" cause problems
How much the SED leadership struggled to get the goods ready for Christmas is illustrated by a secret "Report on the Status of Preparations for the Holiday Supply in 1974" for the GDR Council of Ministers.
On ten pages, the incomplete supply situation is described, whereby the authors were faced with the problem that, according to the self-image of the SED, such difficulties should not actually exist under socialism.
The supply shortages are therefore only hinted at - with formulations such as that the supply will be “further improved” or that the demand “cannot yet be fully satisfied”.
The latter was the case, for example, with "hollow figures" - as Santa Clauses and chocolate balls are called in the report.
The same can be said for the popular F6 cigarette type in the GDR, for ladies' blouses, for high-quality shoes and for electromechanical and wooden toys.
Even with fashionable women's clothing, watches, tape recorders and cutlery, a stable offer is “not yet guaranteed”.
In the case of synthetic fiber sweaters, the demand is also "even higher than the provision of goods".
The constant use of the word "noch" in the report is reminiscent of the old GDR joke that asks about the difference between socialism and a fairy tale.
The answer: a fairy tale begins with "Once upon a time", socialism begins with "Once upon a time".
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The authors talk less about the bush when it comes to grain and vodka, where the demand simply “cannot be met”.
The demand for winter coats in clear colors could also "not be satisfied".
In the case of purses and leather cases, it is also not possible to “secure a constant supply”.
Anyone planning to buy a television set for Christmas also had bad cards because the contractually guaranteed delivery of almost 50,000 sets from the Soviet Union had not arrived on time.
Nuts were deliberately withheld
In order to cover up the consequences of the shortage economy, the socialist planners resorted to various tricks.
Wholesalers' stocks of wine and spirits were unceremoniously plundered, which delayed the shortage.
Products such as nuts or tropical fruits, on the other hand, were deliberately withheld and only brought into the shops in the weeks before Christmas.
This “concentrated sale”, so it says in the report, “guarantees an adequate supply”.
Thirdly, the scarce goods were distributed differently from region to region.
The "priority supply" of East Berlin, where the majority of the functionaries lived, had to be "guaranteed" for all product ranges according to a Council of Ministers resolution of November 14, 1974.
The Deputy Minister of Commerce has been specially appointed as Special Representative for this purpose.
The rural regions, on the other hand, went away empty-handed - an unequal treatment that continues to affect the mistrust of many East Germans towards the political elite in Berlin.
If goods were in short supply in the capital, they were “concentrated” for sale in the district towns, workers' centers and the GDR army locations.
However, there were problems not only in production, but also in trade.
Many products simply did not arrive in the shops - which is nebulously described in the resolution of the Council of Ministers as "unpacking and delivery backlogs".
In order to eliminate this, administrative staff from the retail sector should also be deployed temporarily to focus on the handling of goods.
In addition, company sales for toys and winter goods should be organized.
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Another problem was that some state-owned shops simply left the old summer goods on display.
"Assortment controls" should therefore be carried out more intensively and "old stocks removed" - so that "the performance of the working people ... is fully reflected" in the shops.
Strong tendency to whitewash
Ten years later, the supply situation had apparently improved - at least if one believes another report on holiday supplies.
In any case, the report approved by the Politburo and the Council of Ministers in September 1983 comes to the conclusion that the supply of many products for Christmas is “stable”.
For others - for example almonds, oranges, cabbage or toys - at least the same quantities would be provided as in the previous year.
One must take into account, however, that the tendency to whitewash had increased under SED leader Erich Honecker.
In addition, the workers-and-peasants state lived beyond its means more uninhibited than ever.
In the summer of 1983 the GDR was on the verge of insolvency - until the federal government guaranteed a billion-dollar loan.
Purses, briefcases and travel bags were still in short supply.
In the case of pyramids, nutcrackers and candlesticks from the Ore Mountains, the demand “cannot be fully met as in previous years”.
Even with electric fairy lights and wooden and mechanical toys, “the demand is higher than the possible supply”.
In the case of kitchens and complete bedrooms and living rooms, it will also not be possible to guarantee a constant supply.
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For downhill and touring skis, as well as figure skating sets and cigarettes, improvements over the previous year were achieved, according to the report.
Bananas and toys were wanted to be withheld again, so that they could then be “concentrated” on the market in the run-up to Christmas.
Apparently there were also problems with glass balls for the Christmas tree, because the Minister for the Glass and Ceramics Industry was commissioned to "immediately" close a gap in the supply worth 1.9 million GDR marks.
Many East Germans remember stunted spruce trees
The documents do not reveal whether this was successful.
In general, the preparations for Christmas were much more difficult in practice than the reports suggest.
The number of Christmas trees on offer rose from 2.5 to 3.3 million between 1974 and 1983.
But the leadership did not find out what these looked like.
Many East Germans, however, remember well that often only pines or stunted spruce were sold - so that one bought two trees to attach the branches of one to the bare parts of the other.
The magnificent fir trees, however, were exported to West Germany.
The allegedly sufficient supply of stollen also turned out differently in practice. Many bakers demanded that customers procure the ingredients themselves.
Anyone who had not looked for the scarce almonds, sultanas or currants months beforehand had bad cards.
Even the state-owned large bakeries couldn't get enough lemon peel and orange peel, so they had to use green, candidate tomatoes and carrots instead.
There was plenty of tinsel in the GDR, but it was made of aluminum and therefore didn't hang from the tree.
Anyone who owned heavy western tinsel made of tin and lead kept it carefully and often ironed it smooth again on Christmas Day.
The “concentrated” sale of tropical fruits in December also did not mean that at least during this period oranges could be bought at will.
Rather, the purchase was limited, and in the country there was only one bag of oranges for each family.
The same applied to salted herring for the herring salad so popular in the GDR.
Queuing for New Year's Eve bangs
Above all, however, it was time and again to rummage around the shops and queue outside to buy the teddy bear they wanted for the children or the goose they had ordered on Christmas day.
You only got products in high demand if you knew the seller personally - the so-called "Bückware" because they were not on the shelf but under the counter.
Those who were not among the chosen had to think of something else, for example sewing cuddly toys themselves.
Even after the party, it was time to queue up again for - strictly limited - New Year's Eve bangs and rockets from VEB Pyrotechnik Silberhütte
to get what many were lining up for that night.
After all, there were certain particularly popular products - except in the Intershop for foreign exchange - in the GDR at all: Jeans from Levi's, chocolate from Trumpf, hand cream from Nivea or soap from the Fa brand.
These things were only available to those who were on good terms with relatives in the West, because they were busy sending parcels to the GDR in the 1980s - around 25 million per year.
The parcels had to bear the label "Gift shipment - no merchandise", but the planned economy received free imports worth around five billion GDR marks.
The 12,000 tons of coffee that were sent to the East every year via the “West Package” reduced import requirements by 20 percent.
In 2020, too, the parcel delivery company will be busy Santa Claus more than ever.
Unlike in GDR times, however, today everyone can decide for themselves what the online retailer should deliver to their home.
And the state security service no longer checks whether there are any forbidden magazines, books, sound carriers or medication in the parcels - as it did at Christmas time in the GDR.
Hubertus Knabe is a historian. He researches the GDR state security and the opposition movement in the Eastern Bloc. From 2000 to 2019 he was director of the memorial in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen.