The German Democratic Republic

HI136: History of Germany

Totalitarianist interpretations• 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

• Klaus Schroeder, Der SED-Staat (1998)• Eckard Jesse (ed.), Totalitarismus im 20. Jahrhundert (1998)• Anthony Glees, The Stasi Files (2003)• Also popular with many former GDR citizens; but is this because it

denies personal responsibility?

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

Collective biographies & everyday histories• 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

• Mary Fulbrook, The People’s State (2005)• 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

The Children of Golzow (7-up TV biography, 1961 ff.)

Born in Year One, Wierling’s 2002 collective biography

Goodbye Lenin (2003): Alex with his allegorical mother/motherland who cannot survive the fall of the Wall

GDR green man – is nothing sacred?

The Achievements of Socialism

First GDR cosmonaut in 1976; from the 1960s astronomy was on all GDR school curriculums

Charité hospital, Berlin: GDR polyclinics are one of the few legacies adopted by united Germany

Katarina Witt, Olympic ice-skating champion & GDR ‘ice princess’: the GDR measured its success against the FRG in gold medals

East Germany’s ‘honours system’: the state was adept at rewarding participation with a mania for badges

Walter Ulbricht, SED leader 1946-71• Reliable but uncharismatic functionary• Weimar KPD leader in Berlin in 1930s• Nazi exile spent mainly in Moscow,

avoiding purges of later 30s; viewed as Stalinist even after Stalin’s death

• 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

• Activist role in pushing Khrushchev into aggressive stance over Berlin Crisis; WU devoted most of later time to foreign pol.

• 1960s attempted to play the moderniser, with focus on technology

• 1971 ousted by ‘palace coup’ by Honecker, with Soviet backing of Brezhnev; died in 1973

Erich Honecker, SED leader, 1971-89• Spent most of Third Reich in prison• 1946 leader of Free German Youth• From late 1950s responsible for internal

affairs in GDR• 1971 acquired Moscow’s backing to

remove Ulbricht• EH formed an unwritten ‘social pact’ (the

Unity of Economic and Social policy) which subsidised popular standard of living (at height in mid-70s); increasingly paid for by loans from West, turning GDR into loan junkie by 1980s

• Gorbachev’s arrival as a Soviet reform communist leader in 1985 caused SED a succession crisis as ‘gerontocracy’ hung on to power; EH was hospitalised at crucial points of the 1989 crisis

• Famous in GDR for panama hat & natty pale suits; died 1994 in exile in Chile

Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)• June 1945 Soviets relegalise political parties• Autumn Communists decide on merger with Social

Democrats; local resistance from some SPD, but pressure from SMAD

• United workers’ party of SED founded April 1946 (debates: was this the spontaneous will of workers, learning lessons of divided labour movement in 1933, or creature of Soviets?)

• 1948-51: SED Stalinised into ‘New-Type Party’; purge of former Social Democrats & loss of parity principle

• 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)

• SED membership: rose from 1.3 (1946) to 2.3 million (1986), including many careerist members; women’s shared only reached 35.5%; functionaries (i.e. officials) liked to list themselves as ‘workers’ but had they functionally become middle-class?

• ‘Politbureaucracy’ lived sheltered existence in Wandlitz compound, including all mod cons

• ‘Foot soldiers’ often true believers, working hard & living frugally (see Landolf Scherzer, Der Erste/Number One, 1988, shadowing hardworked local party secretary)

Wilhelm Pieck (KPD) shakes hands with Otto Grotewohl (SPD) on formation of SED, April 1946

Propaganda poster for unity

The Stasi (MfS): Shield and Sword of the Party• 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

• ‘Destasification’: prominent cases show difficulty of proving if suspect was indirectly reported or IM (Manfred Stolpe, minister-president of Brandenburg)

• Timothy Garton Ash, The File (1997)• Mike Dennis, The Stasi: Myth and Reality (2003)

Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security, 1957-89

Manfred Stolpe, dogged by IM accusations

Stasi HQ at Normannenstrasse, Berlin

17 June 1953: A People’s Uprising?

• March 1953: Stalin dies; power vacuum?• May: new Moscow leadership order more

liberal ‘New Course’; Ulbricht criticised• But workers excluded from some reforms

(ration cards, work quotas increased)• 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

‘The People’s Uprising of 17 June’, West German poster

The Open Border

Potsdamer Platz, 1952, before the Wall

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Republikflucht

(FRG figures)

Emigrants

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Returnees

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Westbound

17 June crisis

Collectivization

Army recruitment begins

Pass Law

Khrushchev ultimatum

Berlin Wall

Movements across German-German border, 1949-61: note peaks in 1953, mid-50s when tourist viasa available, & eve of Wall

• 1945 interzonal borders policed by Allies•Berlin: quadripartite city with access via U-Bahn & S-Bahn• Grenzgaenger (border-crossers): by 1961 50-60,000 E. Germans commuted to W. Berlin; others simply shopped there• Currency speculation across Berlin-Berlin border at 1:5 East:West marks• Republikflucht (flight from the Republic): defection by ca 1 in 6 of GDR population• 1952 Stasi fortify inner-German border; tourist visits to FRG cut drastically• 1953 travel liberalised, but abused for more defections; 1957 plans to leave criminalised with 3 years’ prison; Berlin became chief exit point• Hirschman’s ‘exit/voice’ model of flight & protest; remaining E. Germans could blackmail system for goods such as housing; regime unable to introduce conscription

The Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961• Failure of 1958 economic drive to overtake West

German consumer production• 1960 economic problems & growing E. European

subsidies• 1961 Warsaw Pact states agree to seal off W. Berlin;

initially fences were erected (see right) to test the West’s response; since the barrier was within E. Berlin territorial limits it was treated as internal affair

• 1964 old age pensioners allowed to visit West• 1971 Berlin Agreement permits ‘grade-1 relatives’ to

visit West; in the 1980s West German loans were tied to the human rights liberalisation

• Shoot to kill: all told approx. 1,000 persons died at the inner-German border; it was also mined until 1984; after fall of the Wall border guards who shot received suspended sentences fro manslaughter; those higher up in the Army or Politburo received prison sentences

Temporary barriers on 13.8.61

Border troops’ sketch of Berlin Wall (post-1975 version): a double wall with a sandy area between & alarmed fences & anti-grip final wall

Antifascism: a legitimatory ideology• 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 & antisemitic 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; with unification to FRG’s public culture of atonement many East Germans had difficulties accepting ‘collective guilt’

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

Socialist nationalism?• Early Stalinist/SED policy stressed national unity

(Stalin 1945: ‘The Hitlers come and go; the German people remains’; Stalin Notes of March 1952 offering a neutral united Germany cf Austria)

• GDR inferiority complex towards FRG (FRG’s ‘sole representation’ of German nation & refusal to recognise GDR in Hallstein Doctrine); all East German citizens reaching FRG automatically entitled to West German passport

• ‘Peaceful coexistence’: 1955 Khrushchev signals two German states in one nation; from 1980s policy of ‘demarcation’ (Abgrenzung) from FRG

• Socialist humanism stressed heritage of classical greats (Goethe & Schiller at National Theatre at Weimar)

• 1980s GDR rediscovery of tradition (national poets Goethe & Schiller of Weimar; Luther anniversary; Bismarck biography; Frederick the Great statues in Berlin & Potsdam)

• 1987: East Berlin celebrates its 750th anniversary, including historical reconstruction of Nikolai quarter & its church, as well as 19th-century Sophienstrasse

Thomas Müntzer, leader of 1525 peasants’ revolt in a GDR biopic: a proto-socialist?

East Germany rediscovers its Prussian heritage: statues of Frederick the Great come out of mothballs on Unter den Linden, 1980s

GDR flag of 1949: identical with FRG!

GDR flag of 1959: with added hammer, dividers & wheat sheaves

‘The Friends’: Relations with the Soviets• Official propaganda stressed the liberation in

1945, GDR ‘brothers in arms’ within Warsaw Pact; slogan: ‘Learning from the Soviet Union means Learning to Win!’

• Day-to-day relations tarnished by mass rapes of women lasting for years after 1945

• Dismantling of factories: ca. 30% of East German plant was removed

• Russian was compulsory in schools but not pursued by many to a high level

• Membership of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship was automatic in the mass organisations

• Gorbachev: belongedto new generation ofreform communists

• Renounced Brezhnevfor ‘Sinatra’ Doctrine

• ‘If your neighboursre-wallpaperedtheir flat would youfeel obliged toredecorate yours?’Kurt Hager

Communist poster:

‘This is how the Soviet Union is helping us to realise the New Course:Handing back SAG factoriesCancelling reparationsLowering occupation costsCancelling postwar debts’

Anti-communist poster:

‘Count me out’, alluding to rape of women by Red Army

Mikhail Gorbachev, face of reform communism

Economic decline• Honecker’s subsidies at cost of western loans;

increasing pressure to liberalise in return for loans• Microchip gamble: East Germany invested billions

in flawed silicon experiment• Switch from Soviet oil to East German brown coal

(environmental problems)• 9 November 1989: SED Politburo collectively

resigns over exposed debt crisis• Crisis deepened into spring 1990 with emigration

to West of key workers, including doctors• Key voting issue in March 1990 fast union with D-

mark zone in West (occurred 1 July 1990)• Since reunification GDR suffered approx. twice

unemployment rate of other FRG• Treuhand (Trustee) agency set to privatise East

German industry; beset by corruption (even Chancellor Kohl indicted)

• Validation of Adenauer’s 1950s ‘magnet theory’ that West Germany would draw GDR into its orbit?

GDR’s ‘money man’, Schalck-Golodkowski, meets Bavarian minister-president, Franz Josef Strauss

Bitterfeld, most polluted area of the GDR & heart of her chemicals industry

Civil society• SED state claimed monopoly of

representation; even strikes illegal• Artists & writers as substitute

‘Öffentlichkeit’ (public sphere)?• Wolf Biermann case: singer-

songwriter & left critic of SED (which he saw as travesty of socialism); 1976 effectively deported from GDR

• Earliest civil disobedience over freedom of travel (1973 GDR joined UN – human rights issues); beginnings of illegal contacts & groupings; white as dissident colour

• Churches as sanctuaries for alternative groups

• Environmental issues: pollution• Political issues: vote-rigging exposed

in May 1989 local elections• Sept. 1989: several citizens’ groups

emerge, including New Forum, Democratic Awakening & Initiative Peace and Human Rights

Wolf Biermann, GDR’s enfant terrible

Umweltbibliothek activists

Jens Reich & Bärbel Bohley, founders of New Forum in Sept. 1989

‘Namenlos’ punks perform in churchyard, 1983

Round table between SED & opposition, Dec. 1989

9 October 1989: Leipzig

The Fall of the Wall• May 1989: Hungarians breach iron

curtain• Mass exodus begins; frustrated

leavers seek refuge in Prague & Warsaw embassies of FRG

• Leipzig peace marches from Nikolaikirche swell from hundreds, to thousands to hundreds of thousands; 9 October Berlin decides not to use violence

• 18 October Honecker relieved for ‘health reasons’; successor Egon Krenz not trusted by most as genuine reformer

• Planned staged opening of Wall mishandled & becomes stampede for border crossings; GDR border troops relinquish control

Günther Schabowski, Politburo member, at the famous press conference, 9 Nov. 1989

GDR citizens seek refuge in West German embassy in Prague