HI136 The History of Germany
Lecture 17
East Germany
Introduction
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Debates over the history of the GDR – objective
assessments are still difficult to arrive at.
Continuity with German history (especially with the Nazi
period)?
‘Periodization’ of East German history:
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Direct occupation by Soviet forces (1945-49)
From establishment of the GDR to the building of the Wall (1949-61)
‘Golden Age’ of consolidation & economic liberalization (1961-71)
Honecker Period (1971-89)
Disintegration & Collapse (1989-90)
The Socialist Unity Party (SED)
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Wilhelm Pieck (KPD) shakes hands with Otto
Grotewohl (SPD) on formation of SED, April
1946.
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June 1945: Soviets legalise political
parties.
Poor performance of Communists
elsewhere in Poland & Hungary leads to
pressure for ‘socialist unity’.
April 1946: Merger of SPD & KPD in the
Soviet Zone to form the SED.
1946 free elections: SED polls 48%
SED functions as hub of ‘Antifascist Bloc’
including Christian Democrats and
Liberal Democrats, and later National
Democrats and Farmers; elections also
fought as single Bloc list (aka National
Front).
1948-51: SED Stalinised into ‘New-Type
Party’; purge of former Social Democrats
& loss of parity principle.
SED membership: rose from 1.3 (1946)
to 2.3 million (1986), including many
careerist members.
Functionaries (i.e. officials) liked to list
themselves as ‘workers’ but had they
really become middle-class?
‘Politbureaucracy’
lived
sheltered
existence
in
Wandlitz
compound,
including all mod cons.
Politics
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1949 Constitution = ‘People’s Democracy’: bi-cameral parliament
elected every 4 years, Prime Minister & President. Guarantee of
fundamental human rights. In reality people just asked to approve or
reject pre-determined distribution of seats, ministries controlled by
SED.
Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973)
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Born in Leipzig, joined the Spartacist
League in 1918.
Co-founder of the KPD, elected as a
Reichstag Deputy in 1928.
1933-45: In exile in the USSR.
1949: Appointed Deputy Prime Minister
of the GDR.
1950: Became General Secretary of the
SED.
1960: Became Chairman of the Council
of State.
Favoured ‘hard line’ of constructing
socialism in half a country rather than
pursuing reunification; in 1953 under
heavy fire from Politburo colleagues, but
‘saved’ by 17 June uprising.
1960s: Limited economic reforms, but
unable to change with the times.
1971: Ousted by ‘palace coup’ by
Honecker, with Soviet backing.
June 1953 Uprising
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Growing unrest due to high
demands placed on workers and
poor living standards.
16 June: building workers on
Berlin’s
Stalinallee strike for
economistic reasons.
17 June am: spontaneous strikes
in cities; Berlin strikers march on
ministerial district.
17 June pm: more political
demands (free elections, national
unity); late afternoon Soviet tanks
impose martial law.
East German explanation: CIAorganised putsch (‘Tag X’) using
teenager thugs.
West
German
explanation:
people’s revolt against Soviet
tyranny.
Politics
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1949 Constitution = ‘People’s Democracy’: bi-cameral parliament
elected every 4 years, Prime Minister & President. Guarantee of
fundamental human rights. In reality people just asked to approve or
reject pre-determined distribution of seats, ministries controlled by
SED.
1954: Return of full sovereignty to the GDR.
1955: Formation of an East German army, foundation of the Warsaw
Pact.
1960: President Wilhelm Pieck died – the office of President
abolished & replaced by a Council of State (Staatsrat) dominated by
the SED.
1968 Constitution = Declared the GDR a ‘socialist state’ &
acknowledges the ‘leading role’ of the SED.
1971: Ulbricht replaced by Erich Honecker (1912-94). Hopes for a
more liberal regime, but Honecker unwilling to give up the SED’s
monopoly on power & politics stagnated under his rule.
The Economy
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1945-46: Wide-ranging land reform, expropriation of businesses &
nationalization of key industries: 40% of industry under state control;
100 hectares (247 acres) of land redistributed to peasants &
refugees.
GDR at an economic disadvantage compared to the West – had
only 30% of industrial capacity, few natural resources & a smaller
population.
Planned economy focusing on building up heavy industry at the
expense of essentials & consumer goods – meat, butter & sugar
rationed until 1958, luxury goods like chocolate almost unobtainable.
Growth fell from 8% in 1950 to 2.3% between 1960 & 1962.
1963: ‘New Economic System’ – more freedom for producers &
consumers = better living standards.
1961-70: Improved growth – the GDR became the strongest
economy in the Eastern Bloc.
1980s: Economic stagnation & financial crisis.
Emigration
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Republikflucht (flight from the
Republic):500,000 people left for the
West between 1949 & 1955.
By 1961 1.65 million people had
defected. 50% were under the age
of 25, most were skilled workers &
professionals.
1952: border between East & West
closed & fortified.
1961: Berlin Wall built.
‘Shoot to kill’: around 1,000 East
Germans killed while trying to
escape to the West.
Visits to the West strictly controlled.
Some liberalization in the 1970s.
The Wall led to a more stable labour
market & resignation to the way
things were.
The Police State
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Stasi HQ in Berlin-Lichtenberg.
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Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Weisler in
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006).
Ministerium für Staatssiicherheit (Ministry of
State Security, Stasi) founded as clone of
KGB under Soviet occupation.
Early on used mainly for counter-intelligence
(to keep out or kidnap western spies).
Markus Wolf’s Foreign Section scored notable
successes in planting moles with West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1970s.
1952 Stasi given control of border; later
policed the border troops.
Poor early warning for 1953 uprising &
temporarily demoted from ministerial status.
Central Evaluation & Information Group
(ZAIG) monitored popular mood.
Self-image as pro-active ‘social workers’ or
agents of the ‘invisible frontier’; ‘operative
missions’ included infiltration & decomposition
from within of suspected dissident groups.
1960s: MfS adopts more sophisticated
techniques & ‘total surveillance’.
Informelle Mitarbeiter (IMs) (‘informal
collaborators’ or informants: growing reliance
for ‘total surveillance’ on coopted members of
public.
By the 1980s had as many as 91,000 agents,
plus as many as 300,000 civilians informants.
Society & Culture
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Mass organizations extended the reach of the Party into everyday
life: Free German Trades Union Federation (FDGB), Free German
Youth (FDJ) and Democratic Women’s Association (DFD).
Membership not strictly speaking compulsory, but failure to join
could hamper employment prospects etc.
Religious education banned in schools & replaced with compulsory
classes in Marxism-Leninism. Schools & Universities teach history,
economics etc. from a Marxist viewpoint.
Jugendweihe – ‘coming of age’ ceremony in which children pledged
themselves to the Party and the socialist state.
1962: Compulsory 18 months military service for all young men
introduced.
Strict control of cultural life – ‘Socialist Realism’ – art has an
ideological message.
Anti-Fascism
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Buchenwald memorial: unveiled in 1958, this
group represents the KPD’s leading role in the
resistance, with a (historically dubious) myth of
the camp’s self-liberation. Buchenwald was the
GDR’s main memorial site for school visits &
veterans’ meetings.
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Marxist-Leninist
doctrine
always
interpreted fascism as an outgrowth of
capitalism; therefore antifascism linked
to anti-capitalism (big business as
Hitler’s stringpullers).
Fascism also interpreted as a political
class war (mainly v. KPD), rather than
racial war (v. Jews); GDR paid no
reparations to Israel & anti-Semitic
attacks on graveyards persisted.
West German Federal Republic
viewed as haven of former Nazis,
protected
by
Anglo-Americans
(especially in 1950s/60s); antifascism
thus had contemporaneous function of
anti-westernism (e.g. Berlin Wall
officially labelled ‘Antifascist Defence
Rampart’).
SED leadership (mainly Soviet exiles)
had ambivalent attitude to ‘real’
antifascist
veterans
(marginalised
‘inland’ resisters, dissolved veterans’
organisations).
Antifascism
an
affective
moral
argument for wartime generation; but
younger
generations
increasingly
indifferent to abstract antifascism.
Support for the Regime
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Initial support for the regime – many welcomed an anti-fascist and/or
socialist state, land reform & nationalization popular, many optimistic
for the future.
However, problems of identity: Germans or East Germans?
In the 1960s increased acceptance/tolerance of the regime, but little
enthusiasm for it.
Most people joined the Party in order to get on rather than because
they were committed Communists.
Increased dissatisfaction in the 1970s & 80s – Churches (one of the
few organizations which remained outside SED control) acted as
focus & sanctuary for opposition groups; growing environmental
movement; liberalization in USSR after 1985 had knock-on effect
(but not at state level).
Historiography
 Totalitarian
Interpretations
 A Modernising Dictatorship?
 Collective Biographies
Totalitarian Explanations
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Popular in 1950s West German interpretations; revival post-1989
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Stress illegitimacy of Soviet occupation & East German ‘puppets’
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State ideology of ‘socialist personality’ within collective
‘Leading role’ of ruling party enshrined in constitution
Stasi secret police
State control of economy
Control of media
Control of economy
Berlin Wall as epitome of state control of individual
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Comparisons drawn with brown dictatorship of NS
Breached UN human rights on freedom of travel
Also popular with many former GDR citizens; but is this because it denies
personal responsibility?
Authors: Klaus Schroeder, Der SED-Staat (1998), Eckard Jesse (ed.),
Totalitarismus im 20. Jahrhundert (1998), Anthony Glees, The Stasi Files
(2003)
A Modernising Dictatorship?
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Complex industrial economy required ‘rational’ not ‘ideological’ elite
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Economic reforms of 1960s (New Economic System)
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Special role of intelligentsia in GDR (see dividers on state emblem)
Precision engineering from Dresden & Leipzig
1980s gamble on microchip technology (too high investment costs)
Welfare dictatorship (Konrad Jarausch)
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Attempt at decentralisation and incentivisation of economy
Technological revolution
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More university graduates enter party apparatus from 1960s
Peter C. Ludz, The Changing Party Elite in East Germany (1968/72)
Indirect use of ‘social power’ to predispose groups to choose socialism
Full employment, hospitals, education system > fond memories
Educational dictatorship (Erziehungsdiktatur)?
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Party ‘in loco parentis’, knowing what was good for the people
Rolf Henrich, The Guardian State (1989); party man turned dissident
Collective Biographies
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Goodbye Lenin (2003): Alex with his
allegorical mother/motherland who
cannot survive the fall of the Wall.
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The GDR green man.
GDR lasted more than one
generation; post-1949 generation
‘born into’ socialism.
Are we patronising GDR citizens
by treating them all as ‘released
prisoners’ & victims?
Gaus, Locating Germany (1983):
‘niche society’, relatively normal
private life possible behind public
conformity.
Material culture: 1990s growing
interest in popular culture of GDR.
Ostalgie/’Eastalgia’: re-issuing of
GDR brands (see the Spreewald
gherkin episode in Goodbye
Lenin); fight to preserve minor
symbols of difference (traffic light
man).
Danger of ‘commodifying’ the
GDR past & relativising idealistic
motivations.