New publication: "The damaged childhood"

Desperate letters from worried mothers, protests and criticism from pediatricians, and shocking study results from scientists - previously unprocessed sources show the day-to-day life in the GDR, which is still perceived as family-friendly, in a gloomy light. In his new book, Florian von Rosenberg gives a scientifically well-founded and at the same time touching account of how the republic's smallest children had to pay a high price for the socialist prestige project.

Happy infants and toddlers dominated GDR coverage of daycare centers: playing together, singing and being happy. These beautiful images of childhood fade as soon as one takes a look behind the state propaganda and picks up the files of the responsible Ministry of Health. They reveal the conditions under which children actually lived between 1949 and 1989. Why did infants so often die after their mothers returned to work? Why were children in state care often underweight, small and sick? Why was the emotional, linguistic, and mental development of children worse in the nursery than in the family? The Ministry knew the answers to these questions, which were not allowed to be asked publicly...