ABSTRACT
East Germany prided itself on its expertise in large-scale Prefabricated Housing Techniques. 1 Yet by the early 1980s, it had become clear that the state’s singular emphasis on suburban Plattenbau settlements had led to a range of social, economic, and design problems. Anecdotal evidence, formal letters of complaint, and secret police reports revealed profound dissatisfaction with the suburbs’ monotonous appearance and their lack of basic infrastructure and consumer services. Critics identified that dissatisfaction as one of the main reasons why East Germans were emigrating to the West. Those who left were disproportionately well educated and upwardly mobile, leading to a pronounced brain drain that exacerbated the deteriorating economic situation. 2
