People's Solidarity
Encyclopedia
People's Solidarity, or Volkssolidarität in German, was an organisation for elderly people in East Germany from 1949 to 1990. It was one of many important non-parliamentary mass organisations in the former socialist country. The organisation required that members pay a "certain amount of money to support senior homes and organized cultural events for seniors." Within the Politics of the German Democratic Republic, People's Solidarity "nevertheless played a key role in East German society."

In "Civil society in transition: The East German Third Sector Ten Years After Unification", Anheier, Priller, and Zimmer state, "Unlike Diakonie and Caritas, the Volkssolidarität, a genuine welfare organisation of the former GDR without
any counterpart in West Germany and the Red Cross had a more difficult time adjusting to the new political and
social environment after unification. The local population, at first largely rejected the Volkssolidarität burdened
with leaders burdened with an SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

) past. Nevertheless, Volkssolidarität and the Red Cross successfully
managed to democratize and establish a new image. Both organisations have become fairly established social
service providers (Tangemann, 1995)."
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