ABSTRACT
One of the many political jokes I heard in the g d r in the mid-1960s was that in which a man expressed doubt to his friend about the sense of buying the s e d daily Neues Deutschland because it contained little news and few, very few, thought-provoking commentaries. His friend agreed but claimed that the paper was still good value for money considering it was cheap and could be used as packaging material or as ersatz toilet paper. This complaint about the poor quality of Neues Deutschland's contents is still valid today. Happily, its alternative use is now more limited because of some improvement in the supply of packaging material and toilet paper. What is true of the s e d organ is also true of all the East German press. For those who find the s e d paper a bore there is no alternative, for what goes into the mass media of the g d r is ultimately decided by the Politburo of the Unity Party. T his ensures uniformity, conformity, a lack of topicality and a general lack of variety.
