From Cradle to State Care - East Germany's Socialist Nursery System

The GDR in the mid-50s. A 6-day week is in force. The young socialist republic needs workers, especially women.

But what to do with the many babies when the mothers have to go back to work just six weeks after giving birth? The idea that saves the day seems simple and efficient at the same time: weekly nurseries are created. Anyone can now drop their child off at one of these facilities from 5 a.m. on Monday morning and pick it up again around 6 p.m. on Friday.
At least one hundred thousand children were accommodated in such weekly childcare centers between 1950 and the end of the GDR. The former nursery children take us back to the past and tell us about the long-term consequences and the fears they still carry with them today. Affected mothers and nursery teachers describe their views on the now controversial facilities that the GDR held on to until the end. A pediatric psychiatrist, an ethicist, an educationalist and a social scientist shed scientific light on the 40-year history of the GDR nurseries and examine the consequences for those affected.