Loading...
The ‘People’s Sport’: Petty Theft in the German Democratic Republic, 1963-1985
Millington, Richard
Millington, Richard
Advisors
Editors
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Publication Date
2023-04-24
Submitted Date
Collections
Files
Loading...
Article
Adobe PDF, 267.46 KB
Other Titles
Abstract
This article examines petty theft in the GDR. It considers offences committed from the early 1960s to 1985. It shows that GDR citizens stole a range of items including money, vehicle parts, clothes, food, cigarettes, alcohol, and construction materials and/or equipment from places such as factories, construction sites, shops, staff rooms, private homes, and colleagues’ bags. Many of these thieves were apparently motivated by a lack of money to buy the things that they desired. Though petty theft did undermine the vision of socialist society that the Party hoped to create, there is little evidence to support the conclusion that it constituted an act of outright resistance. Thieves stole for personal gain rather than in order to thumb their nose at Party bosses.
Citation
Millington, R. (2023). The ‘People’s Sport’: Petty theft in the German Democratic Republic, 1963-1985. East Central Europe, 50(1), 14-36. https://doi.org/10.30965/18763308-50010002
Publisher
Brill
Journal
East Central Europe
Research Unit
DOI
10.30965/18763308-50010002
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0094-3037
EISSN
1876-3308