East and West German Cultural Changes: 1950s Music, Fashion, and More

NARRATOR: It's the one millionth VW Beetle. The economic upturn transforms the 50's. Bolstered by the economy, the waves roll in - the fashion wave, the good eating wave, the travel wave, and the home furnishings wave. The cosily furnished home replaces the post-war emergency shelters. The kidney-shaped table conquers the German living room. But the rigid mores remain. Correct manners for approaching the opposite sex are taught in dancing schools. Procurement and adultery are punished according to a harsh sexual morality. But that is only one part of the reality.

ALICE SCHWARZER: "The stuffy 50s is a total cliché. Those were also years of change. We were the first youth to rebel. There weren't just Heimatfilms, there was jazz, rock 'n' roll – both were there."

NARRATOR: The New World infects Europe with a New Fever. Young people search for freedom to the beat of syncopated rhythms from across the ocean. The GDR tries to prescribe what the trends will be. The comrades invent a new socialist dance called the Lipsi. It's a flop.

LOTHAR BISKY: "The Lipsi was probably only danced by the Politburo. They couldn't make it work. When rock arrived from the West, that was my music. In the village, they looked at me like I was peculiar, when I wore the right clothes and only listened to this music."

NARRATOR: Elvis Presley - the transnational personification of rock 'n' roll. In 1958 he is stationed in West Germany as a soldier. Only very few get this close to the King.

ANGELIKA SPRINGAUF: "I chatted to him and told him something – I can't remember what it was, but he must have liked it because he stroked my cheek it and I didn't wash for a week."

NARRATOR: The 1950s - the dawn of the modern era. New music, new technology, new prosperity, new luxury. A new spirit for a new age.