The New Socialist Man in the Plattenbau: The East German Housing Program and the Development of the Socialist Way of Life
Abstract
This article argues that the importance of housing and the urban environment in East Germany in the second half of its existence grew in tandem with a new vision of socialist society and the means that the state should employ to create it. The East German Housing Program, inaugurated in 1971, made space the primary category in which individual and social transformation was envisioned, replacing the pedagogical processes that had originally stood at its heart. In doing so, architects and urban planners drew on three strands of urban planning that have often been seen in conflict in other contexts: the Soviet concept of the Mikroraion or socialist neighborhood, the modernist housing ensemble of Le Corbusier, and the new urbanism of Jane Jacobs.
Repository Citation
Sammartino, Annemarie. 2018. "The New Socialist Man in the Plattenbau: The East German Housing Program and the Development of the Socialist Way of Life." Journal of Urban History 44(1): 78-94.
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Publication Title
Journal of Urban History
Department
History
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0096144217710231
Keywords
Housing, East Germany, Communism, Jacobs, Jane
Language
English
Format
text
