»Sozialistische Wohlfahrt«

Public welfare played an important part in overcoming the enormous social problems in the post-war period. For the first time, Matthias Willing outlines the development of state social welfare from its beginnings in the Soviet occupation zone up to the collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1990 and analyzes the transformation of the basic socialist welfare system into the social landscape of the Federal Republic of Germany. In doing so, he deals with the financial and the legal situation of the welfare recipients in East Berlin and the GDR as well as the homes dominated by the state. This also included the non-governmental institutions such as the Home Mission, charitable organizations, the German Red Cross and the » Volkssolidarität «, the socialist welfare institution. He also studies the aid given to socially disadvantages persons in the GDR and the way the state party of the GDR dealt with so-called antisocial persons.