Well-stocked buffets, with dishes that are difficult to find in the country, a swimming pool on the main deck, comfortable cabins, coffee-cognac in the middle of the afternoon, well-watered evenings, exotic stopovers: the cruise has fun. But those who, in the 1960s and 1970s, took advantage of this cruise tourism aboard the Fritz-Heckert or the comically named Friendship-between-the-Peuples were not wealthy capitalist tourists. They are East German citizens, rewarded by the government of the Democratic Republic for their loyalty to the communist ideal.

The workers’ and peasants’ state that spends fortunes to send a few hundred of its deserving citizens across the waves? And thus allows them to discover exotic places (Cuba, Egypt…), while the borders of the GDR are hermetically closed? It is this historical reality that this original documentary describes, using filmed archives from the period and testimonies from former crew members or passengers.

In June 1953, after the bloody popular riots in East Berlin, the East German authorities sought a way out of the crisis. How to reconcile his people with the regime? Head of the FDGB, the state trade union organization, Herbert Warnke (1902-1975) proposed to Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973), who ran the country, the start of construction of a… cruise ship.

Funny idea? It is a question of offering passengers chosen from among those who are called “socialist labor activists” (in other words the most deserving workers and executives) a trip out of the ordinary. Or how the cruise can embody the promise of a bright communist future…

Files studied by the Stasi

On May 1, 1961, after eighteen months of construction, the Fritz-Heckert (named after one of the founders of the German Communist Party, in December 1918) left the port of Warnemünde near Rostock for Helsinki, Leningrad and Riga with 190 crew members and 350 hand-picked passengers whose records were carefully studied by the Stasi. On board, the luxury is unusual for these lucky ones who rush on pork puff pastries or crab salads. Soon a popular expression would become famous in the GDR: “It’s not the Fritz-Heckert here!” The equivalent, in a way, of “It’s not Versailles, here!” ” contemporary.

On the Amité-entre-les-Peuples, 560 passengers can take place. Over time, cruises aboard her will increasingly be reserved for the elite of the party and its senior members.

Then came the cruises aboard the Arkona, before the GDR disappeared. But, for nearly three decades, the communist regime will have spent fortunes to maintain its cruise ships. Nothing is too good for the deserving worker.