„Brüderbund und Freundschaft mit den sozialistischen Ländern darf nicht spekulativ genutzt werden.“: Deutsch-polnischer Schleichhandel in Leipzig als Konsumkultur „von unten“

Abstract

„Brotherhood and friendship with socialist countries must not be used for speculation“. German-Polish illicit trade in Leipzig as consumer culture „from below“

During the communist rule in the Eastern Bloc the economy of shortage influenced everyday life in the GDR and Poland in a decisive way. While facing problems of supply, people in Leipzig developed informal practices like contraband trade to fulfil their needs and wishes of consumption. Transborder encounters between the societies of GDR and Poland in the seventies and eighties fuelled an exchange of goods of shortage in Leipzig’s contraband trade structures. Practices reached from spontaneous help by acquaintances to professionalized groups of smugglers and dealers. The grade of implicitness, stability and structure of this informal phenomenon can be described as an own “culture of consumption from below”. In the atmosphere of political and social difficulties and distrust this led to a negative perception by the government bodies and by the public sphere of Leipzig alike.