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Princess Maria Theresia of Thurn and Taxis

b. 1980

Born
28 Nov 1980, Regensburg
Country of birth
Germany

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

facts
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sources
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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Regensburg

    Birth, Regensburg

What was it like?

The world around Regensburg, 1980: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born the same year as Christina Aguilera, Chris Pine, and Ronaldinho.

Born the same year

  • Christina Aguilera

    American singer, songwriter and actress

  • Chris Pine

    American actor (born 1980)

  • Ronaldinho

    Brazilian associaton fooball player (born 1980)

  • Steven Gerrard

    English association football player and manager (born 1980)

  • Kim Kardashian

    American media personality, businesswoman, model and actress (born 1980)

  • Jacinda Ardern

    Prime Minister of New Zealand (2017–2023)

Fashion

Expensive blouse for a special trip

In 1986, a woman paid almost half a month's salary, about 200 DDR-Mark, for a petrol-colored blouse for a special cruise ship voyage.

The iconic blue shirt of GDR youth

The blue shirt of the Free German Youth, an iconic FDJ garment, was worn by young people in the GDR on special occasions like public holidays and the first day of school.

Music

East Berlin's political song festival

The Festival of Political Songs in East Berlin served as a major annual highlight from 1970 to 1990, where young people experienced international music and political connection. Tickets were scarce, and the festival provided a rare escape from everyday life with performances by artists from around the world.

Radio requests and family game nights

On Wednesday evenings between 1975 and 1999, families frequently gathered to listen to the four-hour radio show Vom Telefon Zum Mikrofon, where listeners called in to request songs while playing card games like Rummy at the kitchen table. During these evenings, music served as a social centerpiece at home, often recorded by teenagers onto cassette tapes.

Getting around

Car travel replaces rail for daily commuting

During the 1975–1999 period, Germany experienced a rapid increase in individual car ownership, which fundamentally replaced rail as the dominant mode of transport for ordinary people. By 1982, about 80% of commuting was done by private car.

Drastic reduction in long-distance travel time

For comparison, the travel time from Abensberg to Berlin by train in 1974 was 9 hours and 27 minutes, significantly faster than the 19th-century horse-drawn carriage time of nearly 72 hours.

Daily life

Affordable school lunches in the GDR

Eighty-five percent of children received a warm lunch at school, with parents typically paying 50 pfennigs per meal. Popular choices included Spirelli pasta with tomato sauce and Jagdwurst.

Coal heating and primitive amenities

Living conditions varied significantly; while newer prefabricated apartments often included bathrooms, many older homes required residents to heat rooms with coal stoves, which involved the physically straining task of carrying coal from cellars and disposing of ashes in winter. In some older dwellings, water connections were limited to the kitchen, and toilet facilities remained primitive.

Food

Expensive luxury food in East Germany

In East Germany in 1980, specialty shops called Delikat stores sold luxury items like raspberries and asparagus at high prices, such as 17 marks for 300 grams of raspberries. These shops were mostly inaccessible to ordinary people because their prices were prohibitively expensive.

Coffee as a luxury in East Germany

In East Germany, coffee was a rare luxury item, and a one-kilogram package of Rondo coffee cost 70 marks in the 1980s. People sometimes stretched their supply by mixing it with barley or sugar beet pulp, a mixture nicknamed Erich's Coronation.

Prices and wages

Average monthly wages in 1989

In 1989, the average gross monthly wage for an East German worker was 1,100 Mark, while in West Germany, the average was 3,300 DM.

Consumer electronics costs in East Germany

In 1989, East German consumers paid 2,300 Mark for a fully automatic washing machine and 4,900 Mark for a color television.

Work

Shopping During Work Hours

Due to shortages of materials and spare parts in East German state-owned factories, employees often performed private shopping during working hours.

Working Hour Reductions

Following long strikes, weekly working hours in the West German engineering industry were reduced in steps until 1995, reaching 35 hours per week.

News and letters

Faster parcel deliveries in the late 1980s

By the late 1980s, parcel delivery times between East and West Germany were reduced to between 12 and 24 hours, whereas they previously took four to six weeks.

Telegrams as the fastest communication method

Telegrams were the fastest way to send messages until well into the 20th century, with delivery taking only two to four hours between posting and arrival.

During their lifetime

  1. 1992

    Record asylum applications in 1992

    In 1992, the number of asylum seekers in the Federal Republic reached a record high of over 438,000, following the collapse of the Eastern bloc.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.