Abstract
Maren Hachmeister: Sozialpolitik als Selbstverpflichtung. »Komplexvereinbarungen« in der Altenfürsorge der DDR, in: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 2024. Berlin: Metropol Verlag, pp. 99–116.
In the GDR, complex agreements established new forms of cooperation between state and non-state care providers. In the written agreements, districts and cities shared their responsibilities for elderly care with public enterprises, the National Front, the Free German Trade Union Federation, the Red Cross, the Women's League or the People's Solidarity. The agreements dealt with the question of what contribution individuals should make to the care of the elderly and what contribution the state should make. The complex agreements were more than a formalisation of existing practices. They reflected a socio-political shift towards an activating welfare state that involved not only administrative levels but also local organisations, family members and neighbours in caring for the elderly. In the 'welfare dictatorship' of the GDR, complex agreements thus paved the way for more individual responsibility on the part of those who helped to solve social problems on the ground. At the same time, however, they perpetuated a negative image of old age. Older people became the subject of propaganda that sought to revive the socialist sense of community until the fall of communism in East Germany.
Über die Autorin
Dr. phil. Maren Hachmeister, geb. 1988 in Burgwedel. 2007 bis 2014 Studium der Europa-Studien und Osteuropastudien, bis 2018 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in der Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2018 Promotion. Seit 2020 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung e. V. an der TU Dresden (HAIT). Seit 2020 Mitglied der COST Action 18119 »Who cares in Europe?« Veröffentlichungen u. a.: »Care at home: voluntary care in the lives of those who provide and need help in three (post)socialist states«, in: Studia historica Brunensia 69 (2022), H. 1, S. 175–194; »Der Plan einer Rentnerkartei in der DDR Care-Arbeit zwischen Privatsache und staatlicher Aufgabe«, in: Deutschland Archiv, 12.11.2021, www.bpb.de/343297; Selbstorganisation im Sozialismus. Das Rote Kreuz in Polen und der Tschechoslowakei 1945–1989, Göttingen 2019.
