ABSTRACT
GDR. According to the official census of 1981,1 the last to be conducted in the GDR, a married couple living with one or more children accounted for 56.4 per cent of families, closely followed by spouses with no children (31.2 per cent). Of those families with children, 55 per cent had one child, 37.6 per cent two, 5.6 per cent three and 1.5 per cent four or more children. This conventional nuclear family unit accorded with the communist regime's own notion of the ideal family as set out in the Family Code. Promulgated in 1966, the code, although modified from time to time, remained the politico-ideological basis of family policy until the end of the Honecker era. In the preamble to the code, it was alleged that a new and lasting quality in family relations had become feasible, since socialism had eliminated exploitation at work, enhanced educational opportunities and fostered the equality of women. Although the family was deemed to be irreplacable for the upbringing and socialisation of children, the latter function was not regarded as the sole reponsibility of parents but was to be undertaken in close co-operation with state and party bodies.
