| While depictions of post-1945 Eastern Europe often emphasize dreariness, the story of leisure and nature enjoyment in East Germany is less well known. This dissertation investigates the complex relationships that linked tourism, nature, and political legitimacy in a communist state. In attempting to manufacture loyalty, the regime promised better living standards, including more vacation opportunities in the mountains, at lakes, and along the coast. The dissertation shows that unfulfilled desires for nature enjoyment during vacations conditioned popular ideas about the environment by the late 1970s. Relying on archival sources from East German ministries, leisure organizations and county governments in Berlin, Dresden and Marienberg, as well as complaint letters, opinion surveys, and tourist magazines, it reveals a struggle over the meaning of nature and leisure. The ruling Socialist Unity Party aggressively pushed to eradicate romantic nature enthusiasm and make tourism a means to political indoctrination. Despite this politicization, however, a dream of a “green,” therapeutic regime captivated the imaginations of landscape architects, tourism planners and doctors. Inspired by the science of social hygiene, these critics believed the state should play a greater role in reforming leisure, diets and lifestyles to improve public health. While planners hoped to enlighten vacationers through purposeful tourist activities, they struggled to come to terms with actual popular tourist behavior. Enticed by images of West German prosperity, vacationers increasingly hoped for nature experiences rich with consumer comforts. In fact, the enjoyment of relatively unspoiled green spaces became a symbol of the good life, and the emergence of social inequality and shortages at holiday retreats only confirmed fears that socialism had failed to live up to its promises to provide health and happiness—each ultimately dependent on the preservation of unpolluted and “green” vacation destinations. The environmentalism of the 1980s cannot be understood without taking these popular leisure expectations into account. |
