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I guess when the government furnishes everything there is no room for extras

Not at all, as already written these apartments offered a lot of luxuries unheard of before : central heating, bathroom, indoor toilet, etc. There were always long waiting lists of people wanting to rent one of these apartments

And above is a 1970s edition of the Wohnraum Fibel, for many years standard reading about interior decoration in the DDR. Not different from any western book of that period, not considering the mandatory snear at western decadence.

I prefer this original documentation while it's "down to facts and figures", modern books about East-German subjects dwell too often into (n)ostalgia. Besides the book there are a few pages with cut-out models and drawing paper to start planning before dragging around real furniture. With all the measurements you need.

And as a bonus I even got the original bill (Rechnung) from 1977.

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