see here:
Hintergrund: Das Wohnungsbauprogramm der DDR
1973 beschloss die SED-Führung deshalb das ehrgeizige Wohnungsbauprogramm: Der Bevölkerung wurde versprochen, bis 1990 die «Wohnungsfrage als soziales Problem» zu lösen. Es galt als «Kernstück der Sozialpolitik der SED». Rund drei Millionen Wohnungen sollten bis dahin gebaut oder modernisiert werden, wobei der Neubau von Plattenbauten eindeutig dominierte. Großsiedlungen - im Volksmund «Arbeiterschließfächern» und «Schnarchsilos» genannt - wie Berlin- Marzahn, Leipzig-Grünau oder Rostock-Lichtenhagen entstanden. Bereits in den 60er Jahren begonnene Satellitenstädte wie Halle-Neustadt wurden erweitert.
Translation with DeepL, and revised
In 1973, the SED leadership ... adopted the ambitious housing construction program: the population was promised to solve the "housing question as a social problem" by 1990. It was considered the "centerpiece of the SED's social policy. Around three million apartments were to be built or modernized by then, with the new construction of
prefabricated houses clearly dominating. Large housing estates - popularly known as "workers' dormitories" and
"snore silos" - such as Berlin- Marzahn, Leipzig-Grünau or Rostock-Lichtenhagen were built. Satellite towns that had already been started in the 1960s, such as Halle-Neustadt, were expanded.
So it is a kind of new satelite cities with mostly similar houses and flats.
I know the Russian movie "Die Neubauwohnung" (the flat in a new town) - one was in Moscow, one in Leningrad, the houses and flats were the same. A worker missed the correct flight and came into the wrong flat, it had even the same interieur and the same streetname but was in the wrong town. He was wondering why a woman was in his bed. Later he found that he was in the wrong town.
You can find the word "Schlafsilo" and pictures. This was quite common. I just do not know "Silostadt". But Town of Schlafsilos makes sense for me.
- in English you can compare it with the song "little boxes".
Little Boxes - Wikipedia from
Malvina Reynolds Source
Lyrics:
Little boxes on the hillside/Little boxes made of ticky-tacky/Little boxes on the hillside/Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one/And a blue one and a yellow one/And they're all made out of ticky-tacky/And they all look just the same/
The principle is the same, only the silos are higher.
Please tell us, if it fits the context.
I also can't find definitions. Let's see what others say.