The Antifascist State HI290 History of Germany Organisation of the East German State Administrative districts of the GDR 1952 State apparatus Party apparatus The Sozialistische Einheitspartei ID: 477829
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Slide1
East Germany:The Anti-fascist State
HI290- History of GermanySlide2
Organisation of the East German State
Administrative districts of the GDR, 1952
State apparatus
Party apparatusSlide3
The Sozialistische Einheitspartei
Deutschlands
(Socialist Unity Party, SED)
Wilhelm
Pieck
(KPD) shakes hands with Otto
Grotewohl
(SPD) on formation of SED, April 1946
.Slide4
The Police State
Emblem of the
Ministerium
für
Staatssicherheit (MfS
, Ministry of State Security or Stasi)
Erich
Mielke
(1907-2000), head of the MfS, 1957-1989.
The East German
Volkspolizei
on parade, 1955Slide5
The Economy1945-46: Wide-ranging land reform, expropriation of businesses and nationalization of key industries: 40% of industry under state control; 100 hectares (247 acres) of land redistributed to peasants and refugees.
GDR at an economic disadvantage compared to the West – had only 30% of industrial capacity, few natural resources
and
a smaller population.
Planned economy focusing on building up heavy industry at the expense of essentials
and
consumer goods – meat, butter and sugar rationed until 1958, luxury goods like chocolate almost unobtainable.
Growth fell from 8% in 1950 to 2.3% between 1960 & 1962.Slide6
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.Slide7
June 1953 UprisingSlide8
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
and
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 and veterans meetings.Slide9
RepublikfluchtTroops of the 40,000-strong Grenztruppen der DDR (East German Border Guards) patrolling the inner-German border, 1971.
A Family Flees from East to West over the Border in the Bavarian Forest (1948-49) Slide10
Education, Culture and the Arts
Foundation of the FDJ in Berlin, Nov. 1947
Bertolt
Brecht (1898-1956)
Christa Wolf (1929-2011)Slide11
InterpretationsTotalitarian Interpretations
Popular in 1950s West German interpretations; revival post-1989
Comparisons drawn with brown dictatorship of National Socialism
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 individualBreached UN human rights on freedom of travelAlso popular with many former GDR citizens; but is this because it denies personal responsibility?
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