The Legal Claim for Modern Holidays and Tourism: Appropriations of the Social Contract from Below in Late Socialist East Germany

In 1971, East German leader Erich Honecker proclaimed the "unity of social and economic policy," a doctrine that embodied the GDR’s version of the “social contract” and prioritized meeting citizens’ needs and desires—prominently including modern holidays and tourism, which had become one of the main global markers of modernity and prosperity. With vacation enshrined as a constitutional right and quality tourism positioned as a cornerstone of the social contract, citizens used state legal mechanisms, particularly the Eingaben (petition) system, to demand better holiday provisions. In the 1970s, such legal complaints surged, placing increasing pressure on the East German government. To maintain internal legitimacy, the government could not ignore these demands and chose not only to sustain but to significantly expand its holiday budget, a decision that would prove fatal for its economic stability and contribute to the bankruptcy East Germany faced in the late 1980s. Through the example of holidays and tourism, this paper argues that the practical functioning of the social contract triggered a dynamic that led to governance shifts in late-socialist East Germany. Far from being a mere façade, it generated a quasi-binding interaction between state and society, where legal mechanisms enabled citizens to push for better vacations, and services in general, and the government was compelled to respond to uphold the social contract’s credibility.