Exploitation by Design – Forced Labor in the East German Prison System

Synopsis

It is a dark chapter of the past: the systematic use of forced labor in the prisons of the German Democratic Republic. Tens of thousands of inmates – among them many political prisoners – were forced to work under often inhumane conditions. From as early as the 1950s, prison labor was compulsory for both men and women. Almost all were untrained, inadequately protected, and forced to risk their health.

One such prisoner was Edda Schönherz, once a well-known television presenter in the GDR. Because she wanted to leave East Germany with her children, she was convicted in 1975 of "establishing hostile contacts with the state." She spent two years in the notorious women's prison at Hoheneck in the Erzgebirge mountains, where she was forced to work in three shifts for the textile industry. The stockings she and other women sewed ended up as cheap goods in Western department stores – prison labor in exchange for urgently needed foreign currency. Holger Rossmann was sent as a prisoner to the Bitterfeld chemical plant, where he came into contact with toxic substances with barely any protection.

Terra X History places the practice of forced labor in the context of GDR history, examines the coming to terms with this chapter after reunification – and asks about the responsibility of West German companies such as Aldi, IKEA, and Deutsche Bahn, which profited from prison labor. Many former forced laborers continue to suffer the consequences to this day.

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