‘The Black Sea Is Our Mallorca’: The Making of the Tourist Experience in the German Democratic Republic

Abstract

This article analyses the construction of the East German holiday experience in the 1960s and 1970s, when tourism became a mass phenomenon on both sides of the Iron Curtain. First, it discusses the role played by the West in shaping the expectations of GDR tourists. Mallorca was the ultimate, but not sole, destination, that influenced how East Germans imagined tourism abroad. Secondly, the article tackles how expectations compared with actual experiences. State surveillance, scarcity and lack of means were common challenges that East Germans had to face and clashed with the glittering image of tourism with which they were inundated from West Germany. The Bulgarian Black Sea emerged as a substitute for that Western tourism as other possibilities, such as socialist Cuba or Yugoslavia, were limited. Touring in Bulgaria became a long-lasting experience. The article approaches the multiple meanings of this type of vacation abroad. Political, experiential and personal implications shaped East Germans’ holidays and entangled experiences and expectations, and the article provides a broad understanding of the meanings of vacation and tourism for citizens of East Germany.