A reponse to Jan Lampe

There is much historiographical debate around the extent to which socialism was established within East Germany, and through the use of primary and secondary doc**ents, this blog aims to illustrate the extent to which Socialism was indeed established in Eastern Germany. This will be done through three main thematic levels of analysis. Exogenous factors, Cultural factors and economic factors.

By far the most important thematic level of analysis in the a****sment of East Germany’s achievement of a socialist state is the exogenous factors affecting the country, this manifests primarily in the ideological struggles between the United States and Soviet Russia. This clash of titans found a focal point in the split capital of Berlin, and as a result, Germany was the theatre for much of the European tension of the Cold War, peaking with the Berlin airlift. Unlike the rest of the Soviet Eastern Bloc, East Germany had been effectively handed over to Russian control, while Western Germany was shared by the French, British and Americans. with reference to the ideological battle for Europe, Levering illustrates the unsophisticated and suppressive nature of Russian imperialism:

“The American empire was generally pluralistic and open while the Soviet one was totalitarian and closed. To put it more colorfully, a Soviet “empire by rape” stood in contrast to an American “empire by seduction””1

The Russian dominance in East Germany was certainly a double edged sword for many in East Germany, but especially for the disparate left wing groups. Soviet politicians forcefully brought together the Communist Party of Germany and the SDP into the ‘Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands’ (SED) and ensured that they attained power through a hybrid of political pressure and anti-nazi propaganda. Young illuminates how this was the case in many Eastern European Countries;

“In the countries subjected to Soviet domination after 1945 indigenous communism was generally weak and revolution was enforced from above with Soviet assistance. The pattern was generally for the Soviets initially to support anti-fascist coalitions, of ’front’ governments, which included communists in important ministries.” 2

Once in power however, the SED quickly found that the Soviets aimed to take the entirety of their war reparations from East Germany. The Red army seized one third of Industrial Equipment and took a further ten billion dollars in agricultural and industrial produce. Not only was this to make up for losses in the War, but to realise Stalin’s aim of enfeebling Germany so as to never be a real threat for the foreseeable future. This shows that the East German Government were unable to operate independently as they had Moscow’s influence over their governance

East Germany was also prevented from enacting true socialism by Moscow’s desire to appear triumphant over Western ideals. This manifested in the rivalry between East and West Berlin, and the need for the cities to prosper. Therefore the Soviets mounted constant pressure on the SED to follow policy that would have intrinsic aesthetic outcomes, making East Germany look like the shining example of Communist Success. this was done in a number of ways, one of which Gray illuminates;

“To foster the illusion that the East German state was truly independent, the Soviets allowed the GDR to establish a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to exchange ambassadors with the socialist states of Eastern Europe.” 3

Despite this, the ‘Stalin Note’ suggested to the other powers that Germany be Reunited and Superpowers withdrew from it’s borders, but the US, paranoid of Soviet trickery refused this offer, and with Krushev assuming power, Eastern Germany was locked into a Soviet alliance for the foreseeable future.

The Second Thematic analysis of the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) sucess in establishing Communism is through cultural factors, and to what extent the SED were able to establish a communist mindset between 1949 and 1989.

The German Democratic Republic was declared on October 7th, 1949 after a flurry of Nationalisation and seizing of property. this was followed by a new constitution that gave the SED an advantage over any of it’s more moderate or right wing rivals. This dramatic change in national order was flanked by the SED’s breakdown of pre-war states in 1953 (and therefore pre-existing ideas of identity and local community structure) and replaced them with 14 smaller districts. This meant that citizens had a new local structure to understand and engage with. Erich Honecker entwined this with his re-wording of the constitution, dumbing down the use of ‘Germany’ and instead stressing the new “Republic of Workers and Peasants” . This shows how the East German Government attempted to rewrite the citizens’ perceptions of identity and nationalism.

It was not only adults however, who were targeted by the SED. The most famous children’s television show of the period 1949-1989 was “Sandmännchen” . The show is important in a****sing the propaganda element of East German Socialism, as it depicted an idealised version of communist society and technological progress in the GDR and other communist countries. When the first citizen of the GDR, Sigmund Jähn, travelled into space in 1978 he took with him a Sandman doll and beamed down a televised speech to the children of the GDR about his journey. In contrast to this idyllic view of the future, Blessing portrays a cynical view of East German life in claiming that;

“When Soviet zone young people were not gathering potatoes in the countryside, or dealing on the black market, or tucked in bed under a few thin blankets against the cold, they were in school. There, when they were not scrubbing desktops, crying for hunger or huddled round the classroom stove for heat, they were learning the lessons of antifascist democracy.” 4

This demonstrates the importance to the SED of propaganda and influence of what they felt was the socialist mentality.

It is easy to assume the ease of which these cultural changes were made, but until only recently, records were still kept secret of activities in East Germany. This is stressed by Olivio when he claims that;

“During East Germany’s ‘peaceful revolution’ of 1989, it seemed to many observers that widespread opposition against the forty year old communist regime had emerged virtually out of nowhere” 5

in 1953, the production quota for workers building the new Boulevard in East Berlin, the ‘Stalinallee’ and as a result, there was industrial action across much of East Berlin. The strike was echoed throughout Eastern Germany and within two days, more than one million workers were on strike and 700 communities had united against the SED, who, fearing their stranglehold over Eastern Germany would falter, requested the assistance of the Soviet troops who were occupying the region. this resulted in fifty deaths, 10,000 arrests, and most importantly the full establishment of the Stasi.

The Stasi were the SED’s method of maintaining absolute cultural control of the citizens of East Germany. their name stems from an abbreviation of Staatssicherheit, translating as ‘State Security’ but in reality, their role was much more than policing. The reign of terror that the Stasi held over the GDP meant that political action against the government was thought of as suicide. In reality however, while having sophisticated technology, the Stasi only employed 40,000 officials to listen in on the GDP’s population and the fear of them was mainly held and increased by the citizens themselves. Saadah states that;

“By the end of 1994, some 750,000 ex-East Germans had requested access to their Stasi files, a figure which suggests a preoccupation with betrayal, truth, and trust which had little to do with partisan calculations or media driven sensationalism” 6

As a result, the SED were able to use cultural changes to enforce their governance rather than push through more socialist policy, and appear to have used socialism as a thin veil of justification for their iron rule.

The Final thematic analysis of the GDR’s establishment of socialism is it’s economy, an important factor to the government if they were truly trying to achieve Socialism. Any optimism for the GDR was quickly dampened by the Soviet’s destruction of communication links, through dismantling the train lines of the country, and effectively relocating it’s factories to Russian soil. the GDR’s two main ports were also given to Poland as a result of the Oder-Neisse line. As a result of Russian influence, the GDR had a centrally planned economy in place, rather than the mixed economies that the Western powers enjoyed. Because the state set production targets and allocated resources, it was able to maximise it’s profit through it’s state owned means of production, a socialist aim, and in 1985, 95% of the state’s net income was to state-owned collectives. The state bore 80% of the costs of basic supplies, and this led to the one cent loaf of bread, famous at the time for it’s low cost.

The reality was however, that supplies were in constant shortage, much like the rest of the Eastern European Bloc, apart from what was known as the ‘Intershop’ which sold products from abroad, as well as GDR export goods. The Intershop only traded in hard currency, ( a reliable global currency like the dollar) was accepted. While this meant that the average East German could not shop there, it being a form of tourist attraction to visitors into the country, it had a negative effect for the SED as it allowed the citizens of East Germany to see what luxuries other countries enjoyed, and were able to compare it with the lack of luxury goods in their own county. Overall, the East German economy was to some extent socialist, having a centrally planned economy and a great amount of Nataionalisation that was reflected in an 80% absorption of basic supply costs, but the SED were not consistent in their left wing economic policy.

In conclusion, This blog has a****sed the extent to which the SED enforced socialism in the GDR through three main themes, Firstly, the external pressures that ensured that the SED could never act independently and were a proxy for Soviet might during the Cold War. This is reflected in the second theme of cultural shifts towards a more socialist mindset, but it was established that this was only a veil to justify the government’s dictatorship. The final theme, economy, is the best theme in illustrating an attempt at establishing socialism in the GDR, showing how state-owned production meant that living costs were brought down for those that were selling their labour, the Proletariat. While many historians would argue that the SED were effective in their establishment of socialism, the fact that when able, the citizens of the GDR voted for the SED to loose it’s majority in the Volkskammer ( East German Parliament) in favour of a party that would unify the nation and end the attempt at creating a Socialist republic.