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"Make up your mind, colleague!": Citizens' Forum on the GDR "Neuererbewegung"

The University of Erfurt and „automobile welt eisenach“ invite GDR contemporary witnesses and other interested parties to a citizens' forum on the GDR "Neuererbewegung" (newcomer movement) on Friday, 30 September. The event starts at 4 p.m. in the Ehrhard Hall of the „automobile welt eisenach“ museum, Friedrich-Naumann-Straße 10.

Under the motto "Make up your mind, colleague!", the GDR leadership called on all citizens to participate in the so-called "Neuererbewegung". Within the framework of this political mass organisation, workers were supposed to bring suggestions for improvement to the state-owned enterprises.

What experiences did GDR citizens have with the "Neuererwesen"? Who was a committed innovator or consciously decided not to participate? These questions will now be explored in the citizens' forum of the same name in the museum "automobile welt eisenach". The discussion in a relaxed atmosphere is intended to facilitate an exchange between contemporary witnesses, historians and other interested parties and to offer the opportunity to talk to former colleagues as well as to contribute to historical research on the GDR by recounting personal experiences. The event is being held as part of the city of Eisenach's application for a "Future Centre for German Unity and European Transformation". It is a cooperation between the Foundation "Automobile World Eisenach", the research group "Voluntariness" and the Professorship for Modern and Contemporary History and Didactics of History at the University of Erfurt, which work together with the Oral History Research Centre at the University of Erfurt and the research network "Dictatorship and Transformation" in the field of contemporary witness research.