From Ilmenau to Leipzig (3/1985)
My way to VEB RFT Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik „Albert Norden“ in Leipzig
It is noteworthy that in the GDR a job was guaranteed after graduation. Only where „the journey“ is going, was not clear. Before my studies, I committed to take up work in the republic „namely there where my fatherland needs me“: somewhere in the GDR! After the graduation there was (unfortunately) no more time for a few months for self-discovery or the discovery of e.g. Russia or Bulgaria. 😉 Anyway, wouldn’t have been able to travel around the world. But we had the prospect of material security that promoted rapid family planning for many of us.
Towards the end of my studies, I had to apply for one of the job offers. These were posted on a so-called „bulletin board“(„schwarzes Brett“) in the university’s section building.
You were obliged to take a job from this list and to work there for the next three years! That’s just the way it was! But: „nothing is eaten as hot as it is cooked“.
In 1984, I went to „Block F“, the building of the „Equipment Technology and Construction“ section (today „Mechanical Engineering“) and looked for offers for jobs near my home village, where my parents, grandparents and brother lived. I applied for the two offers in Leipzig. Perfekt. I was totally optimistic that one of the offers would certainly work. But it didn’t work out. The offers went to a married student couple! Gritting my teeth, I had to realize that it is certainly not very family-friendly if one partner gets a job in Rostock and the other one in Leipzig. But I didn’t want to go to Rostock either!
Growing up in a village of 160 inhabitants, I was shy and raised to be reserved. It cost me more than just a little effort to go to the VEB Nachrichtenelektronik in Leipzig and introduce myself there personally. I had completed an internship there many months before. They could still remember me. First, I put in the „coffee corner“ a delicious cake that my mother had baked. My mother was able to bake fabulously good cakes! 🙂 I can’t remember the following conversations exactly, but I know that days later I was standing in front of the „bulletin board“ again in Ilmenau, from which a new job advertisement from Leipzig finally shone at me. They had simply advertised another position for a software developer. So, that’s what I call „agile“! I had long since written my application neatly on a old typewriter and handed it in a few minutes later with heart palpitations in the secretary’s office.
In March 1985 I started working at VEB RFT Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik in Leipzig „Albert Norden“ as a software developer.
My first salary was (netto) 720 East German Marks. This was a low salary, but normal after a study. However – I was happy! We were a very young team more than 10 people: women and men, almost all of us fresh from university. I still have a smile on my face when I see us in my mind’s eye. The „baby boomers“ were on their way to saving the world, or at least their „folk-owned company“.
In my next article you can learn more about the work and life as a young Software Developer in 1985 in Leipzig.
Legend:
- VEB = VolksEigener Betrieb: folk-owned company
- RFT = Rundfunk Fernsehen Elektronik: Radio TV Electronics
- Kombinat: Group
- Nachrichtenelektronik: communications electronics
- Albert Norden: (*1904, †1982) was a German journalist and politician of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)