Consumption in East Germany
The Seduction and Betrayal of Things
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2391378 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Milena Veenis (University of Amsterdam, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 79-112 |
| Publication date | 1999-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Material Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/135918359900400105 |
| OpenAlex | W2125154436 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 29 |
| References cited | 6 |
In this article the author focuses upon the feelings and expectations that pertained to Western material objects in East Germany, both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Before these things were actually there, most East Germans seemed to have high hopes with regard to a life surrounded by this material-consumptive abundance. But now that the East German material world is completely Westernized, most people express severe doubts and distinctly ambivalent feelings with regard to the material changes that have occured in their country. By analysing the history of (the ideology surrounding) material culture in East Germany, characterized by an enormous gap between attractive promises on the one hand and a harsh everyday reality on the other, Veenis asserts that the material world on the other side of the Wall seemed to be the ultimate realization of all those beautiful sounding socialist promises. Within a socialist ideology, material development was the most important anchorpoint for far-reaching promises, which - taken together - boiled down to the idea that in the wake of (material) growth, amelioration and success, it would eventually be possible to realize a completely harmonious state of being. And because of their beautiful appearance, the sense of harmony and prosperity, the wonderful fragrance, the shining colours and the deep gleam that exuded from them, Western consumer-goods were attractive in an almost irresistible sensuousaesthetic way. By emphasizing the sensuous characteristics of objects, Veenis uses the East German situation to further extend Daniel Miller and Colin Campbell's ideas with regard to the present-day place and role of consumption and the power of attraction of things in general
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Archaeology · Art · China · East Asia · Epistemology · Feeling · German · Harmony (color · Ideology · Miller · Political science · Politics · Prosperity · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Visual arts · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
Smelling Machine History
Introduction
November in Berlin
Cola in the German Democratic Republic. East German Fantasies on Western Consumption
Accumulative vs. Appreciative Expressions of Materialism
The Production of Consumer Society
Closet and Cabinet
When We Was Red
Performing New Values
Polgári lakáskultúra(bourgeois furnishings) and a postsocialist middle class in Hungary
Test the West”
The enchantment of western things
American Kitchens, Luxury Bathrooms, and the Search for a 'Normal' Life in Postsocialist Hungary
Magyar Denim
Opportunity and uncertainty
Cold War in the Kitchen
The Politics of Hope and Disappointment
One of my eyes was crying, the other was laughing
Iron Curtains
The Taste Remains
Bobbles and values
Iconic Brands
Managing, Learning and Sending
Actually existing post-socialism
The Rise and Decline ofLa Yuma
Creating a Consumable Past
Gendering unemployment in postsocialist Germany
The Things They Carried (and Kept)
Goods and States
| Unique citing works | 29 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,12 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2023 (24) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 28 |