Vertragsarbeiter

Vetragsarbeiter (Contract workers) were foreign workers and trainees who worked in GDR. They were living in the countries long-term, without integration intention as guest workers. However, this did not include employees of foreign companies, foreign students in the GDR, as well as members of Soviet armed forces and their families, refugees or foreign trainees. Contract workers also worked in economically more advanced Comecon-countries such as Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of Hungary.
Contract workers were brought in to reinforce understaffed areas of work, such as light industry or the consumer goods industry. The respective conditions, length of stay, rights and number of contract workers were negotiated individually with the respective government (by a so-called state contract). The duration of the residence permit varied between two and six years depending on the origin. A permanent stay, however, was not provided for by contract or by law. The move of family members was excluded. At the end of the contractual period, contract workers usually had to leave the countries and return to their home country. In the GDR, the contract workers lived during their stay in separate dormitories, mostly set up by GDR businesses and clearly separated from the local population.