Topic 1: Establishing and consolidating Communist rule in the GDR 1949-1961

Creation of the GDR
1. The SED
  1. On 30th April a group of German Communists, previously shunned by the Nazis, arrived in Berlin
    1. The majority had been in exile in Moscow for the duration of the Nazi regime
    2. Their Priority was to ensure the KPD (German Communist party) had the most positions of power in local administrative positions as well as secure popular support for the party
      1. It was soon clear that the SPD (The German Social Democrat party) had a much larger base of popular support
        The KPD had about 600,000 members whereas the SPD had nearly 700,000
        In April 1946, the SPD and the KPD merged to create the SED (Socialist unity party of Germany)
        This led to the first edition of the NEUES DEUTSCHLAND, the SED newspaper
        This happened due to the extreme Soviet pressure placed on the SPD to merge with the KPD and to avoid having two Socialist groups competing for votes
        SED leaders rapidly ensured that key roles in the party were taken up by hard line Communists
        In 1948 the SED officially announced that they followed Marxist-Leninist principles
        This led to approximately 5000 former SPD members being arrested and sent to Soviet prisons in 1950, because they were not seen as loyal to the Communist ideology the SED had put in place
      2. The KPD was seen as the tool of the Soviets and so they were largely unpopular. Equally, in the final days of the war the Russian army looted and raped many German women and so there was a lot of hatred for anyone deemed to be associated with them.
2. Role of the West
  2. There were only four roads, two railways and three air corridors linking West Berlin sectors to West Germany sectors
    1. This became a source of tension as the West relied heavily on Russia in order to reach Berlin
3. The Second world war
  2. Having won the Second world war, the Allies were entitled to reparations from Germany
    1. In February 1945 the leaders of the big three powers, America, Britain and Russia, met at the Yalta conference to discuss what would happen to Germany as a result of the Second World war
      1. One decision which was made was that each of the US the USSR and Britain would receive a portion of Germany as well as a portion of the capital Berlin
        The three powers met again in Potsdam in July 1945 here it was decided that they could take their reparations from the zone which they occupied
        Potsdam conference
        It became clear at the conference that relations between the three powers were very tense
        Tensions between Victorious countries
        The massive demand for reparations from the USSR caused a lot of tension between the allied forces as the Western forces didn't want to bankrupt Germany
        This is because the Western forces believed that a weak economy would lead to low living standards and therefore ruin life for the innocent German population
        Roosevelt died in 1945, his successor, Truman, was much more Anti-Communist
        Another aspect which caused tension was the Eastern border between Poland and Germany. Western powers believed it was too far west as it contained lots of displaced Germans. Stalin disagreed
        from 1947 onwards tensions continued to grow and the relationship between the East and the West deteriorated due to contrasting economic policies
      2. All of these decisions were implemented in the first few months following Germany's defeat
4. The USSR
  1. Stalin Began ruthlessly extracting reparations from Germany almost immediately
5. Bizonia and the Truman doctrine
  1. In January 1947 the zones of Germany occupied by Britain and America combined to form "Bizonia" after nearly a year of secret negotiations
    1. Stalin was unhappy about this as he felt that he should have been involved in the discussions
    2. Once again after many secret negotiations, the Bizonia decided to implement a new currency in Germany, the Deutschmark. Stalin had wanted the Ostmark to be implemented across Germany and so saw this as a betrayal and an act of aggression
      1. They did this as a means to boost trade, increase industrial production and eradicate the black market
  2. In March 1947 the Truman doctrine stated that any democratic nations under threat from a Communist regime would receive political, economic and military support from the US
    1. To follow this up, America gave $13 billion to European countries to aid with their post war recovery
    2. Obviously this annoyed the USSR
6. The Berlin Airlift
  1. Since Bizonia came into being, the USSR had decided to make it increasingly difficult for the West to reach West Berlin by blocking roads and diverting trains
    1. This meant that they couldn't get vital provisions to the people stuck there such as food
    2. On 23rd June 1948 the USSR severed all links from West Berlin to the Western zones via rail, road, or canal
      1. As a result the Western allies decided to airlift in all the vital provisions for the people of West Berlin
        Though this was expensive for the Western allies it was even more so for the Soviet Union
        This meant the airlift was eventually abandoned in may 1949
        Impact of Berlin airlift
        It demonstrated the West's commitment to the people of West Berlin
        In return, it meant that the people of Western Germany and Berlin were supportive of an economically stable Germany allied to the West
        The new West German state came into existence (the FRG) in May 1949 with Adenauer as the first chancellor
        The West decided to coordinate their military as a result, this lead to the creation of Nato
        At its peak, the Western allies were landing a plane in West Berlin every 90 seconds and delivering 8000 tonnes of supplies each day
7. Eventual formation of the GDR
  1. Following the creation of the FRG a meeting was held in Moscow in August 1949 to discuss creating a German state in the Soviet zone
  2. The SED already held a huge role in domestic politics, implementing the nationalisation of industry and reforming agricultural land
    1. The GDR was set up in 1949, though many Western states refused to acknowledge its existence until the 1970's
The System of governance in the GDR
1. The Volkskammer (The People's chamber)
  1. Under the original 1949 constitution, elections were to be held every 4 years, but not in the Western sense of democracy
    1. The SED allocated a certain number of the 500 Volkskammer seats to each party, obviously giving themselves the majority to maintain power
      1. Also included representatives from key organisations such as the FDJ, Free German trade union federation and the Democratic Women's federation
        All of these were coordinated by the SED
    2. Voting was compulsory and therefore the turnout was higher than 90% as people didn't want to face fines or jail
      1. The elections made it look like the people had some power in choosing who was there leader
        In reality, each ballot paper had one name on it, if someone disagreed with having that candidate they could cross them out however this was not in secret so they swould often lose their job or be put under surveillance as a result
  2. The equivalent of the British house of Commons
  3. The Volkskammer passed legislation however this was largely just agreeing with decisions which had already been made by the Politburo
2. The Landerkammer (States chamber)
  1. Represented the 5 states in the GDR (the lander). It was made up of representatives of each of the 5 states
  2. Members were predetermined by the SED, like with the Volkskammer and the SED were dominant
  3. It had the power to suggest new laws and veto any laws approved by the Volkskammer, though this never happened as both of them had an SED majority
    1. In 1952, these Lander were replaced by 14 "Bezirke" (districts) each of which was under the control of an SED officer
      1. Having smaller districts made it easier for the government to deal with dissent, centralise power and prevent any strongholds of regional power
3. The Central Committee
  1. A smaller body of about 80-130 members, it varied over the years, theoretically it was the key decision making body of the SED. However, this wasn't always the case
    1. The party considered the Central Committee too large to function effectively and so delegated most of the decision making to the much smaller Politburo
      1. As a result the Central committee barely ever met
4. Party congresses
  1. Party members in local and regional branches elected representatives to attend party congresses where issues could be raised
    1. The party congresses had very little influence, there were only 4 from 1950-1963
      1. The one power the party congresses did have was electing members of the Central Committee of the party
5. Walter Ulbricht
  1. Dominated East German politics from 1950-71, he was "Moscow's main man" and the first secretary of the party, giving him power over the central committee
    1. This position also made him chairman of the Politburo
      1. A series of purges took place in 1951 to secure his position and by the end of the 1950's his position was very secure with the new generation of young loyal SED members who came through the FDJ
        A huge majority of the population adored Ulbricht and this resulted in a Cult of Personality for Ulbricht
6. Party organisations
  1. The party extended its power by creating organisations such as the FDJ
    1. These included the Free German Youth (FDJ) The German Gymnastics and Sports Association (DTSB) and the Democratic Women's Federation (DFD)
      1. These organisations had huge memberships because they improved life opportunities as well as providing incentives
        75% of young people joined the FDJ and the DTSB had 2.8 million members by 1970
7. The Politburo
  1. The policy-making committee of the SED, where most of the power really lay, often referred to as the "Council of Gods"
    1. Chaired by the party's first secretary, it was a small circle of senior party officers, comprised of 15-25 members
      1. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Volkskammer were also members of the Politburo
        The Council of Ministers was required to implement the decisions of the Politburo
    2. Decision-making started in the Politburo and was passed down through carefully selected regional officers to ensure all decisions made in the Politburo were approved at each level
      1. This meant it appeared as if the Politburo represented the people when really they were imposing their decisions on the population
Development of the economy 1949-1961
1. Agricultural collectivisation
  1. The collectivisation of agriculture is a common feature in a socialist regime wherein farmers join together their plots of land to create a much larger farm which they farm together with shared ownership. Ulbricht tried to implement this in the GDR in 1952
    1. There was widespread hatred for the Junker (wealthy landowners) because people believed they had helped the Nazis come to power
      1. For this reason, one of the most popular policies from the SED was that any Junker with more than 100 hectares of land had to forfeit it
        This land would have then been redistributed amongst peasants, small farmers and refugees
    2. Although post war land reforms had been reasonably popular, the overall agricultural production suffered due to the lack of machinery, livestock and experience of those who had inherited the land
      1. This had become a serious concern for the SED by the 50s
    3. When Ulbricht first introduced collectivisation in 1952, it was voluntary. However, after 6 years only one third of all farmland had been collectivised
      1. huge numbers of farmers emigrated to the west in the early 1950s
      2. Once again Ulbricht tried collectivisation in early 1960, this time he denied reluctant farmers access to collective machinery as an incentive to join a collective as well as increasing targets so that it was almost impossible to survive not being in a collective
        Individuals who continued to oppose the SED were arrested and their land was taken by force
        Crop yields fell drastically after collectivisation, this was because huge numbers of farmers decided to migrate to the FRG
        Rationing was introduced in 1961
        There was huge opposition to this because of falling living standards for farmers, heavy rationing, the short supply of consumer goods, the shortage of housing and an increase in tax
2. The USSR's seizure of reparations from 1945
  1. The allies managed to agree a $20 billion figure as the reparations Germany had to pay to them however they disagreed about the method of extracting these reparations and the timescale in which this would happen
    1. The final decision was that each power could takereparations from their own zone, with the USSR receiving 10% of the reparations from the West in exchange for delivering food from the East
    2. The USSR dismantled factories, transport infrastructure and took a large portion of the Soviet zone's production in order to pay for their reparations as well as some trophies such as fine art or furniture
      1. It's estimated that 1500 industrial plants as well as half of East Germany's railways were taken by the USSR
        This made the people of East Germany very hostile towards the USSR, it also shows that perhaps Stalin felt Germany wouldn't remain divided for a long time so he felt he should take advantage of their resources while he had the chance
        It wasn't until 1953 that the USSR announced reparations would cease as of 1st January 1954
3. The First five year plan (1951-55)
  1. Accelerated the move towards the nationalisation of industry, in this way factories and industries were taken over and formed into "people's enterprises" (VEB- nationalised factory and industrial centre which was run by the government)
  2. The plan emphasised the need to expand heavy industry but it was faced with severe shortages in technology and equipment
    1. It used workers such as coal miner Adolf Hennecke as role models, he had increased his daily output of coal by 400%
    2. Production of lignite (brown coal), electricity iron and cement did increase however steel and coal production fell way below the targets which had been set
      1. Because industry did increase it was seen as a general success however workers were put under immense strain to work harder for longer hours for the exact same pay which caused huge anger towards the government
        This in turn led to more and more people migrating to the West, especially skilled workers
  3. Focused on quantity not quality which made it difficult to sell goods to the West because they were all a very low standard
4. The Second five year plan (1956-1959)
  1. Entitled "modernisation, mechanisation and automation". Aimed to focus more on consumer goods and improve living standards as a response to the huge immigration to the West and general worker dissatisfaction
    1. eventually called off after Ulbricht announced the GDR must overtake the West which led to a new seven year plan in 1959
  2. Included the development of nuclear energy
  3. centralised control tightened by theSED
5. The June rising 1953
  1. In June 1953, Ulbricht announced that there must be a 10% increase in industrial productivity without an increase in the wages of workers
    1. In response, on 17th June 1953, 300 builders on a high profile construction project went on strike demanding that the 10% increase in productivity was reduced
      1. They marched towards the house of ministries and were joined by thousands of other workers. By the following day, strikes had spread across the whole of the GDR
        This was due, in part, to the fact that workers heard about the strikes through Western media coming out of West Berlin
        The government conceded to the demands to reduce the work norms however they did not change anything due to the political demands
        The uprising revealed that there was huge public dissatisfaction in the GDR and was an embarrassment for the SED but Ulbricht did not make significant reforms. In fact, he made his policies more hard-line, arresting masses of people as well as increasing the purges
        Some concessions were made, there was an increase in pensions, an increase in consumer goods production and a reduction in the price of everyday commodities such as milk and butter
        Ulbricht wasn't certain that the East German police would support him so instead he called on the USSR to intervene
        More than 20,000 Soviet soldiers and 600 tanks were stationed in the GDR to suppress the protests
        21 demonstrators were killed with many more injured. After the protests another 20 protesters were executed and around 500 were given prison sentences
      2. Protesters chants had a political tone with people calling for the end of the SED, other political parties being allowed to stand in elections, the return of the SPD and the release of political prisoners
        They also included anti-soviet messages
6. Impacts of socialist economics
  1. East Germans compared themselves unfavourably to West Germans however in East Germany everyone was guaranteed full employment, even though this was not always the employment of choice or employment which matched a workers skill set
  2. The GDR also had a much higher proportion of women in work than the FRG
  3. Basic foodstuffs, housing and transport were all heavily subsidised
7. Economics and planning
  1. The principal aim of the SED was to convert the GDR into a Marxist-Leninist Communist state. This meant the complete abolitioon of the land-owning class, private businesses and small farmers
  2. Central planning was key to ensuring the complete nationalisation of industry as well as the collectivisation of farmland and agriculture
    1. To manages this, a state planning commission was established to plan and supervise the implementation of five year plans
8. Issues faced
  1. GDR faced many difficulties due to damage to germany during WW2
  2. The Soviet zone didn't contain many industrial areas so production was low compared to the West, which had the Rhineland etc.
  3. Reparations were paid to the USSR until 1953
  4. The GDR continued to lose valuable labour to the West as people migrated due to the greater quality of life
Why the Berlin wall had to be built
1. The influence of Khrushchev
  1. Khrushchev became leader of the USSR in 1953 after Stalin's death. He encouraged a more liberal approach to politics and tried to pursue a more peaceful relationship with the West, he wanted to avoid another war
    1. In 1958 he gave the West the ultimatum of either removing troops from West Berlin or facing war, the West refused to remove their troops and this increased tension between the East and the West
      1. The ultimatum was renewed in June 1961 when Khrushchev met Kennedy but once again the West refused to remove their troops however Kennedy insinuated that he would not intervene in the USSR's plans in the GDR which effectively allowed Khrushchev to give the go ahead for the creation of the Berlin wall
2. The building of the Berlin wall
  1. although Ulbricht had wanted to close the Berlin border for a long time, the USSR refused to let him as they believed that this could lead to the West restricting trade or taking military action
    1. By 1961 the GDR was facing a crisis due to the mass emigration to the West. Finally, on 13th August 1961 operation rose began, construction of the Berlin wall had started
      1. The wall was made of concrete slabs and barbed wire, Khrushchev urged Ulbricht to ensure the sealing of the border was gradual so as to avoid military intervention or confrontation from the West
        When there was no reaction from the West, the wall was made more concrete and permanent
        Impact of the wall
        The flood of people leaving the GDR was stopped which meant the economy had a better chance of recovering
        It became easier to control the lives of ordinary people however Western influences still remained through radio and Television broadcasts from the FRG and West Berlin which could be picked up in the GDR
        The wall stopped people from the West travelling to the East to buy subsidised goods and then returning to the West, taking away from the GDR's economy and reducing the supply for GDR citizens
        It seperated family members as often children would have been visiting relatives in the West and would not be able to return
        People who lived in the East and worked in the West lost their jobs
3. Crisis 1960-61
  1. In 1958, Khrushchev demanded that Western troops be withdrawn from Berlin so it could become a free state. Rather than accept this, America offered to negotiate howeverpresident Eisenhower and Khrushchev couldn't resolve their differences
    1. A follow up meeting was planned in Paris in May 1960 however this was cancelled by Khrushchev following the u-2 crisis earlier that month when a US plane flying through Russian airspace was shot down by a Soviet missile
      1. Khrushchev eventually met president Kennedy in the summer of 1961 and threatened war unless the Berlin question was settled. Kennedy held his ground and said he would continue to support West Berlin however he also said he wouldn't intervene with the USSR's influence in the GDR which gave Khrushchev the green flag to allow the construction of the Berlin wall
4. Emigration in the 1950's
  1. Emigration from the GDR to the FRG was illegal from 1952 onwards however 2.5 million people still managed to emigrate to the west before the Berlin wall was built (1961)
    1. Most of these people were young, skilled workers who were essential to the GDR's economy
    2. To prevent the emigration of doctors, the GDR offered them special privileges such as the right to travel abroad and preferential university places for their children
    3. The border between the two states was closed in 1952
    4. East Germans who migrated to the FRG were instantly entitled to FRG citizenship and were giving financial and housing assistancce
    5. operation vermin was instigated by Ulbricht to prevent migration. A 5km restricted zone was created on the border with watchtowers, minefields and barbed wire fences to deter anyone who tried to escape. whole villages had to be destroyed in order to creat this restricted area
      1. Berlin remained divided between East and West and so it was easy for people to travel from one to the other without having to cross the restricted area

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Topic 1: Establishing and consolidating Communist rule in the GDR 1949-1961

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