HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 17

1. HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 17 East Germany

2. Introduction • 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: • 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)

3. The Socialist Unity Party (SED) • 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. Wilhelm Pieck (KPD) shakes hands with Otto Grotewohl (SPD) on formation of SED, April 1946.

4. Politics • 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.

5. Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) • 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.

6. June 1953 Uprising • 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: CIA-organised putsch (‘Tag X’) using teenager thugs. • West German explanation: people’s revolt against Soviet tyranny.

7. Politics • 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.

8. The Economy • 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.

9. Emigration • 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.

10. The Police State • 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. Stasi HQ in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Weisler in Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006).

11. Society & Culture • 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.

12. Anti-Fascism • 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. 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.

13. Support for the Regime • 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).

14. Historiography • Totalitarian Interpretations • A Modernising Dictatorship? • Collective Biographies

15. Totalitarian Explanations • Popular in 1950s West German interpretations; revival post-1989 • Comparisons drawn with brown dictatorship of NS • Stress illegitimacy of Soviet occupation & East German ‘puppets’ • 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 • 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)

16. A Modernising Dictatorship? • Complex industrial economy required ‘rational’ not ‘ideological’ elite • More university graduates enter party apparatus from 1960s • Peter C. Ludz, The Changing Party Elite in East Germany (1968/72) • Economic reforms of 1960s (New Economic System) • Attempt at decentralisation and incentivisation of economy • Technological revolution • 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) • Indirect use of ‘social power’ to predispose groups to choose socialism • Full employment, hospitals, education system > fond memories • Educational dictatorship (Erziehungsdiktatur)? • Party ‘in loco parentis’, knowing what was good for the people • Rolf Henrich, The Guardian State (1989); party man turned dissident

17. Collective Biographies • 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. Goodbye Lenin (2003): Alex with his allegorical mother/motherland who cannot survive the fall of the Wall. The GDR green man.