To examine these questions we conducted two interviews, each with two persons from Halle (Saale) who worked at Buna Werke in the 1970s as part of their secondary school programme. Their work at Buna was part of their normal school schedule. During 9th and 12th grade, i.e. four years, they spent one day every two weeks there. The first two years they worked there as part of the subject School day in socialist production [Unterrichtstag in der sozialistischen Produktion], later renamed to Productive work [Produktive Arbeit], which was kind of an internship, which pupils in GDR needed to do in industry, agriculture or construction. In the cases of our interviewees the whole school worked at Buna. In the last two years of school they had to do a scientific internship called Scientific-practical work [Wissenschaftlich-Praktische Arbeit], some at Buna, others in other institutions like the university. Additionally, some of the interviewees worked at Buna for holiday jobs.

The interviews were semi-structured, guideline-based, all conducted on June 21, 2021, and ranging in length from 25 to 45 minutes. They were recorded, transcribed, anonymized and their content analysed. For the purposes of this toxic tour we focus on the following topics: (1) (sensual) impressions of the chemical plant, (2) working conditions and safety at work, (3) the image of Buna during the GDR era, (4) the handling of toxicity by the population in the GDR and (5) personal handling of toxicity today and (6) today’s state of reflection and remembrance of the toxic legacy. Each paragraph begins with a short quotation that illustrates the narration of our interview partners.

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