Fighting Fat

This chapter looks at the obesity epidemic that emerged in East and West Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. It compares the ways in which socialist and capitalist nutritionists and economists diagnosed and attempted to treat the new problem of widespread overweight. Despite expressing different attitudes toward fatness, East Germany and West Germany attempted to solve the problem of obesity using similar strategies, including expanding food options for private purchases and modifying the caloric content of institutional meals, especially in canteens. However, in both states these projects failed to reverse the population’s steady weight gain. When it came to fatness, the two states were more similar than not, despite deeply held beliefs that their populations consumed quite different diets.