Consumption in East Germany

Abstract

In this article the author focuses upon the feelings and expectations that pertained to Western material objects in East Germany, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Before these things were actually there, most East Germans seemed to have high hopes with regard to a life surrounded by this material-consumptive abundance. But now that the East German material world is completely Westernized, most people express severe doubts and distinctly ambivalent feelings with regard to the material changes that have occured in their country. By analysing the history of (the ideology surrounding) material culture in East Germany, characterized by an enormous gap between attractive promises on the one hand and a harsh everyday reality on the other, Veenis asserts that the material world on the other side of the Wall seemed to be the ultimate realization of all those beautiful sounding socialist promises. Within a socialist ideology, material development was the most important anchorpoint for far-reaching promises, which - taken together - boiled down to the idea that in the wake of (material) growth, amelioration and success, it would eventually be possible to realize a completely harmonious state of being. And because of their beautiful appearance, the sense of harmony and prosperity, the wonderful fragrance, the shining colours and the deep gleam that exuded from them, Western consumer-goods were attractive in an almost irresistible sensuousaesthetic way. By emphasizing the sensuous characteristics of objects, Veenis uses the East German situation to further extend Daniel Miller and Colin Campbell’s ideas with regard to the present-day place and role of consumption and the power of attraction of things in general.