Summer Vacation (1962) The Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) was part of the SED’s power apparatus. Its importance, however, went well beyond ideological work – one of its many responsibilities, for example, was organizing and allocating vacation spots in the GDR. Since trips abroad were possible only within the Eastern Bloc, spaces in the FDGB’s vacation homes on the Baltic Sea were particularly popular. Photo by Horst E. Schulze.