Oldal 412 [412]
OCR
410 Christoph Lorke ing measures. On the other hand, all the various sociopolitical measures for large families had to be promoted in the public sphere, not least because of a negative attitude amongst the population: images of "good" families as new homeowners were depicted," as well as helpful and very obliging children. The aim was to present the parents of these families as responsible, educated, hardworking, busy, and tidy persons. Other accentuations were important, too, such as cleanliness, edifying leisure and sobriety, norms of sexual behaviour, childrearing, a solid secondary level of education, and an obsession with efficient labour, which was never understood as an individual right under socialism but always as everyone's duty. We also find visual requests for new gender ideas. Fathers are very frequently presented as essential family members when it comes to domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, or buying food, which refers to the imagination of new and ideal gender models in the 1970s and 19805." These forms of representation can be understood as an attempt not only to upgrade the public social image of large families and thereby construct a powerful image of a societally accepted “self”; these positive model biographies may also be interpreted as a highly symbolic, didactically presented reference for the Other: the socially deviated families or individuals. Placing these observations in the context of the Cold War, the representations of the Other were often connected with a negative attribution of the “other side”, above all decadent, superficial, and materialistic life style, consuming so-called trash and pulp literature and other “typical” Western products, which are “poisoning” young people’s minds. Hence, the permanent reference to the situation of large families in the “capitalistic countries” had to be omnipresent—especially representations of West German homeless shelters were often used in order to demonstrate social injustice and inequality and, thus, drastically to outline the mercilessness and drawbacks of the capitalistic system.” The combination of pro-natalist policy and clumsy propagandistic affirmation was not a feature specific to GDR society. We may find many similarities to textual, visual, and symbolic representations of this social group in other societies of 1° N.N., “Unsere Bewährte Politik: Soziale Geborgenheit für alle” (Our Well-Proven Policy’), Neue Berliner Illustrierte, no. 41, 1976; H. Behrend, “Kinderreich” (“With Many Children’), Neue Berliner Ilustrierte, no. 19, 1976; for the sceptics among the GDR population, see Lorke 2015. 5 A. Döpke, “Eine junge Frau, fünf Jungen und die Post” (A Young Lady, Five Boys and the Post’), Berliner Zeitung, July 2, 1972; “Eine kinderreiche Familie und ihre Bilanz der letzten fünf Jahre” (A Family with Many Children and Their Balance of the Past Ten Years’), Neues Deutschland, October 9 and 10, 1976; C. Wiedl, “Das Sechste meldete sich dreifach an” (“The Sixth Came Three Times’), Berliner Zeitung, February 21 and 22, 1981; G. Sindermann, “Vier plus sechs—eine große Familie” (Four Plus Six— a Large Family’), Für Dich, no. 29, 1983; J. Tronicke, “Vierlinge” (‘Quadruplets’), Fir Dich, no. 45, 1985. 0 E.g. see N.N., “Eine halbe Million Obdachlose für Bonn normal. Bunker, Baracken, Nissenhütten— Attribute der Wohlstandsgesellschaft” (“Half a Million Homeless People for Bonn normal. Bunker, Barracks, Nissen Huts—Attributes of the “Affluent Society”’), Neues Deutschland, October 17, 1968; G. Böhme, “Die Verlorenen in der Domstadt” (‘The Lost in the Cathedral City’), Neues Deutschland, February 28, 1970.
