Joshua says:
September 29, 2023 at 10:38 am
Indeed, certain black/white models were of fine quality.
And their power suppliers weren’t such a Russian murks, either (see Junost TV internals juck).
Whoever wanted to get a large, but pure b/w TV back in late 20th century simply had to give them a try.

By the time, West Germany had stopped production of big b/w CCIR TVs and had focused on PAL color TVs.
So even West Germans had to think about importing a b/w TV from GDR.

Also interesting: The GDR was about the last county still operating pure b/w transmitters.
That’s because SECAM had reduced b/w quality, even if the source material didn’t have color. So pure b/w programme were being aired in plain CCIR norm, not SECAM.

Joshua says:
September 29, 2023 at 10:45 am
What’s also notable, East German products were also being used by us West Germans.
They were sold via Quelle catalog, albeit with their origin being hidden.

Which is kind of sad, because we had no problems using GDR appliances.
Their RG28 mixer wasn’t worse than our Krupp model.

In general, GDR products weren’t made with planned obsolescence in mind yet, because the GDR didn’t even thought about such business practices (too naive, I suppose).

So yes, a lot of West Germans grew up with East German products, either knowingly or unknowingly.

The tip of the ice berg was that many gifts from West German relatives were from Quelle catalog. So East Germans literally got their own products back, depending on how we see it. :)

milldude says:
September 29, 2023 at 12:07 pm
The “lack” of planned obsolescence was not out of naiveté, but born out of necessity. The scarce resources and low production volumes meant long-lasting products came naturally. Also, in the “Planwirtschaft” system theory, if there would be no further (or rater, reduced) need of a certain product, the state-owned factorys just would reduce output of that good and produce something else instead. There was also an extensive recycling system for glass and metal containers, much like we have today.

Joshua says:
September 29, 2023 at 2:29 pm
Yes, but GDR had produced twofold, as far as I know.
a) for own use, to satisfy the needs of the people
b) for export, to make good money (D-Mark)

Usually, it was the way that the norm that the ‘good’ products were sold for export and the stuff with small defects (scratches etc) was sold in GDR to the own people.

Same goes for sweets and chewing gum. The export version was being sold in a shiny package, while the version for the people was sold in a dull package.

Officially, the explanation was that this was a trick, to fight capitalism with its own weapons. Unofficially, it was clear that the own people were less being worth to the regime.

Dude says:
October 1, 2023 at 12:18 am
GDR was a Potemkin village of the soviet system in the first place, so the quality of products was higher for the show of it.

Otherwise the soviet system was searching for the lowest “socially necessary” cost. The reason why soviet products were built so robust was because of a quirk of the accounting system: not money but kilometer-tonnes. People had production quotas, which could be filled more easily if you put unnecessary amounts of material in the design. Whether the product actually works – who cares?