"DER SUBBOTNIK" The infinite cleaning celebration
If you belong to those, who do not know what "the Subbotnik" is, then you were probably too young to travel to the former GDR before 1989. The dictionary helps to a certain point in giving a first indication to this cleaning custom.
Subbotnik; - a special task, which was volunteered and free of charge in the former GDR.
According to the dictionary, the Subbotnik was the volunteered, free of charge and collective work of soviet workers on work-free days or in unpaid overtime. The Subbotniks found far spreading during the civil war and the foreign military interventions in Soviet Russia.
The GDR term Subbotnik was taken from the Russian Soviet and signified an activity, which was accomplished outside of normal work times, in particular on weekends (from Russian words "subbota" for Saturday and "voskresenye" for Sunday). This was always free of charge.
Less in the socialist production, these work assignments took place ever more in the populated residential area. Initially "organized" by national social positions, during the course of the existence of the GDR the Subbotnik grew into an independent institution.
The GDR citizens gathered together in larger and smaller communities, to clean and renew their living area during the Subbotnik. This usually ended with a huge celebration due to the fact that the Subbotnik gave the individuals of the communities a feeling of togetherness. These celebrations usually lasted into the morning hours and ever so often left traces that needed to be removed, which already initiated the next Subbotnik.