Abstract
One important focus of East German news reporting was the planned
economy and its successes. This clip from the state-controlled TV news
program Aktuelle Kamera from April
1960 reports on the nationalized tractor factory in Nordhausen, which
had surpassed its quarterly work quota. Employees in nationalized firms
(VEB) were divided into brigades (the smallest organizational units of
an enterprise), each of which was led by a brigadier. The brigades
competed against each other in “socialist competition,” which was
organized by the SED and the trade union to increase worker productivity
and guarantee the fulfillment of the national economic plan. This
brigade at the tractor factory also includes a female mechanic, which
illustrates the greater integration of women into the workforce in the
GDR.