Difference between revisions of "German Democratic Republic"
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[[Image:Ddr.jpg|thumb|200px| 40 years of the '''German Democratic Republic'''.]] | [[Image:Ddr.jpg|thumb|200px| 40 years of the '''German Democratic Republic'''.]] | ||
| − | The '''German Democratic Republic''' (GDR) (German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'', abbr. ''DDR''), usually called '''East Germany''', was the Communist state that controlled the eastern third of Germany (as well as most of Berlin) from 1949-89. It had its own governnment and army, which were controlled by the East German Communist Party. That party in turn was controlled by Moscow, making the DDR a satellite of the Soviet Union. East Germany was the [[Cold War]] counterpart of '''[[West Germany]].''' | + | The '''German Democratic Republic''' (GDR) (German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'', abbr. ''DDR''), usually called '''East Germany''', was the Communist state that controlled the eastern third of Germany (as well as most of Berlin) from 1949-89. It had its own governnment and army, which were controlled by the East German Communist Party. That party in turn was controlled by Moscow, making the DDR a satellite of the Soviet Union. East Germany was the [[Cold War]] counterpart of '''[[West Germany]].''' The capital was Berlin (that is, East Berlin). |
| − | During [[World War II]], the Allies (U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union) agreed on dividing a defeated Germany into occupation zones<ref>http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm</ref>, and on dividing [[Berlin]], the German capital, among the Allied Powers as well. Initially this meant the construction of three zones of occupation American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved | + | |
| + | In 1989 a popular uprising overthrew the Communists, Tthe Soviets refused to intervene, and the country soon was taken over by West Germany and is now part of Germaany. | ||
| + | |||
| + | During [[World War II]], the Allies (U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union) agreed on dividing a defeated Germany into occupation zones<ref>http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm</ref>, and on dividing [[Berlin]], the German capital, among the Allied Powers as well. Initially this meant the construction of three zones of occupation American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved out of the American and British zones. | ||
==Origins== | ==Origins== | ||
| + | In 1945 the Soviet armies swept into the eastern parts of Germany, and destroyed both the Nazi government and the local political, religious, business, landowning and cultural leadership. All land was taken over and turned into collective farms; all businesses, banks and factories were nationalized. Most of the leadership that escaped execution fled to the west. A ruthless Communist dictatorship, backed by Soviet armies took control. No forms of popular democracy was allowed, and all media were tightly controlled by the state. A powerful secreta police called the "Stasi" infiltrated every part of society, and used hundreds of thousands of secret informers to ensure that bad ideas were immediately identified and rooted out. | ||
| + | ==DDR created 1949== | ||
| + | As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from the occupation, Stalin lifted the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49 and established the German Democratic Republic, also in 1949. The creation of the two states made permanent the 1945 division of Germany.<ref>http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the Communist Party, headed by Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960), who remained in power until his death in 1960. The old Socialist Party was taken over by the Communists, and Socialist leader Otto Grotewohl (1894-1964) became prime minister. | ||
| − | + | West Germany saw itself as the legal successor to the Third Reich, shouldering the burdens of legal responsibility for its crimes, East Germany renounced ties to the Nazi past, styling itself the "anti-fascist rampart" and proclaiming itself the first socialist state on German soil. It refused to admit the existence of anti-semitism and refused to recognize Israel or reimburse victins of the [[Holoicaust]]. | |
| − | + | The existence of two German states created questions of legitimacy for both states, particularly in the 1950s when the outcome of the Cold War and the future of Germany remained much in doubt. Both German states used consumerism to promote their unique visions of ''Germanness'' (''Deutschtum''). For West Germany, the resumption of prewar patterns of consumption would signify a return to normalcy. This meant not only an end to the difficult shortages of the "hungry years," but also the curtailing of female employment outside the home. Ideal economic roles were gendered in West Germany. The phenomenon of widespread female wage labor was associated with the crisis years of the Third Reich and the devastated condition of Germany after the war, when "rubble women" (''Trümmerfrauen'') were seen literally rebuilding Germany brick by brick. By trying to enable women to return to their traditional roles as homemakers (where they were also expected to be primary household consumers), West German political and cultural elites sought to put the dislocations of fascism and war behind them. East Germany, by contrast, found the phenomenon of female employment outside the household less problematic. Indeed, female employment was officially promoted by the ruling SED (''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'': united socialistic party of Germany) regime, since gender equality in the field of labor was one of the ideals of socialism. But equality in employment (which was limited largely to the proportion of women employed outside the home, since women were relegated mainly to textile, craft and other "feminine" occupations, and remained vastly underrepresented in management jobs and professions other than teaching) did not bring equality in consumer patterns. East German elites still expected women to be the primary household consumers, creating what scholars and many of the women themselves term a "double burden" where women participated in the economy as both consumers and workers. Moreover, consumption consistently proved more challenging in East Germany, owing to the endemic shortages of consumer goods and basic household items, and the unofficial and informal patterns of procuring goods, which required a great deal of effort on the part of women. Female consumers also had to devote large amounts of time to waiting in long lines for limited quantities of goods, and many women complained that this was compounded by the failure of most East German men to pick up the slack in other household chores. | |
===1953 uprising=== | ===1953 uprising=== | ||
One of the first major upheavals in the Eastern bloc occurred in East Germany. After the SED regime announced an unreasonable increase in production norms for workers, strikes and demonstrations erupted in East Berlin and other industrial centers around East Germany. The disturbances, known as the East German Uprising, began on June 17, 1953, as a spontaneous outburst of discontent, and quickly spread to more than 400 locations around the country. Coming so soon after Stalin's death in March 1953, the Uprising left the SED leadership reeling. Gradually the workers' protest turned more explicitly political, with chants of "Down with communism!" and "Long live Eisenhower!" The response from Moscow was swift repression, with Soviet tanks and troops crushing the protests and killing at least 125 people. The East German Uprising and its brutal suppression caused international disgrace to the Soviet Union. Because the border between East and West Berlin was fairly open at the time, a number of Western observers knew of the events and spread the news around the world. Nonetheless, East Germany's geopolitical and strategic importance to the Soviet Union made the Kremlin more willing to tolerate world condemnation in keeping the GDR on a short leash. Indeed, the Soviet response to the East German Uprising set a pattern followed in Soviet-led interventions against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Prague Spring of 1968, and the overthrow of a Communist regime in Afghanistan in 1979.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB50/</ref> | One of the first major upheavals in the Eastern bloc occurred in East Germany. After the SED regime announced an unreasonable increase in production norms for workers, strikes and demonstrations erupted in East Berlin and other industrial centers around East Germany. The disturbances, known as the East German Uprising, began on June 17, 1953, as a spontaneous outburst of discontent, and quickly spread to more than 400 locations around the country. Coming so soon after Stalin's death in March 1953, the Uprising left the SED leadership reeling. Gradually the workers' protest turned more explicitly political, with chants of "Down with communism!" and "Long live Eisenhower!" The response from Moscow was swift repression, with Soviet tanks and troops crushing the protests and killing at least 125 people. The East German Uprising and its brutal suppression caused international disgrace to the Soviet Union. Because the border between East and West Berlin was fairly open at the time, a number of Western observers knew of the events and spread the news around the world. Nonetheless, East Germany's geopolitical and strategic importance to the Soviet Union made the Kremlin more willing to tolerate world condemnation in keeping the GDR on a short leash. Indeed, the Soviet response to the East German Uprising set a pattern followed in Soviet-led interventions against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Prague Spring of 1968, and the overthrow of a Communist regime in Afghanistan in 1979.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB50/</ref> | ||
Revision as of 17:24, July 19, 2009
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, abbr. DDR), usually called East Germany, was the Communist state that controlled the eastern third of Germany (as well as most of Berlin) from 1949-89. It had its own governnment and army, which were controlled by the East German Communist Party. That party in turn was controlled by Moscow, making the DDR a satellite of the Soviet Union. East Germany was the Cold War counterpart of West Germany. The capital was Berlin (that is, East Berlin).
In 1989 a popular uprising overthrew the Communists, Tthe Soviets refused to intervene, and the country soon was taken over by West Germany and is now part of Germaany.
During World War II, the Allies (U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union) agreed on dividing a defeated Germany into occupation zones[1], and on dividing Berlin, the German capital, among the Allied Powers as well. Initially this meant the construction of three zones of occupation American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved out of the American and British zones.
Contents
Origins
In 1945 the Soviet armies swept into the eastern parts of Germany, and destroyed both the Nazi government and the local political, religious, business, landowning and cultural leadership. All land was taken over and turned into collective farms; all businesses, banks and factories were nationalized. Most of the leadership that escaped execution fled to the west. A ruthless Communist dictatorship, backed by Soviet armies took control. No forms of popular democracy was allowed, and all media were tightly controlled by the state. A powerful secreta police called the "Stasi" infiltrated every part of society, and used hundreds of thousands of secret informers to ensure that bad ideas were immediately identified and rooted out.
DDR created 1949
As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from the occupation, Stalin lifted the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49 and established the German Democratic Republic, also in 1949. The creation of the two states made permanent the 1945 division of Germany.[2]
In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the Communist Party, headed by Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960), who remained in power until his death in 1960. The old Socialist Party was taken over by the Communists, and Socialist leader Otto Grotewohl (1894-1964) became prime minister.
West Germany saw itself as the legal successor to the Third Reich, shouldering the burdens of legal responsibility for its crimes, East Germany renounced ties to the Nazi past, styling itself the "anti-fascist rampart" and proclaiming itself the first socialist state on German soil. It refused to admit the existence of anti-semitism and refused to recognize Israel or reimburse victins of the Holoicaust.
The existence of two German states created questions of legitimacy for both states, particularly in the 1950s when the outcome of the Cold War and the future of Germany remained much in doubt. Both German states used consumerism to promote their unique visions of Germanness (Deutschtum). For West Germany, the resumption of prewar patterns of consumption would signify a return to normalcy. This meant not only an end to the difficult shortages of the "hungry years," but also the curtailing of female employment outside the home. Ideal economic roles were gendered in West Germany. The phenomenon of widespread female wage labor was associated with the crisis years of the Third Reich and the devastated condition of Germany after the war, when "rubble women" (Trümmerfrauen) were seen literally rebuilding Germany brick by brick. By trying to enable women to return to their traditional roles as homemakers (where they were also expected to be primary household consumers), West German political and cultural elites sought to put the dislocations of fascism and war behind them. East Germany, by contrast, found the phenomenon of female employment outside the household less problematic. Indeed, female employment was officially promoted by the ruling SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands: united socialistic party of Germany) regime, since gender equality in the field of labor was one of the ideals of socialism. But equality in employment (which was limited largely to the proportion of women employed outside the home, since women were relegated mainly to textile, craft and other "feminine" occupations, and remained vastly underrepresented in management jobs and professions other than teaching) did not bring equality in consumer patterns. East German elites still expected women to be the primary household consumers, creating what scholars and many of the women themselves term a "double burden" where women participated in the economy as both consumers and workers. Moreover, consumption consistently proved more challenging in East Germany, owing to the endemic shortages of consumer goods and basic household items, and the unofficial and informal patterns of procuring goods, which required a great deal of effort on the part of women. Female consumers also had to devote large amounts of time to waiting in long lines for limited quantities of goods, and many women complained that this was compounded by the failure of most East German men to pick up the slack in other household chores.
1953 uprising
One of the first major upheavals in the Eastern bloc occurred in East Germany. After the SED regime announced an unreasonable increase in production norms for workers, strikes and demonstrations erupted in East Berlin and other industrial centers around East Germany. The disturbances, known as the East German Uprising, began on June 17, 1953, as a spontaneous outburst of discontent, and quickly spread to more than 400 locations around the country. Coming so soon after Stalin's death in March 1953, the Uprising left the SED leadership reeling. Gradually the workers' protest turned more explicitly political, with chants of "Down with communism!" and "Long live Eisenhower!" The response from Moscow was swift repression, with Soviet tanks and troops crushing the protests and killing at least 125 people. The East German Uprising and its brutal suppression caused international disgrace to the Soviet Union. Because the border between East and West Berlin was fairly open at the time, a number of Western observers knew of the events and spread the news around the world. Nonetheless, East Germany's geopolitical and strategic importance to the Soviet Union made the Kremlin more willing to tolerate world condemnation in keeping the GDR on a short leash. Indeed, the Soviet response to the East German Uprising set a pattern followed in Soviet-led interventions against the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Prague Spring of 1968, and the overthrow of a Communist regime in Afghanistan in 1979.[3]
The Berlin Wall
Throughout the 1950s, the border between East and West Berlin remained fairly open. Many residents of East Berlin went back and forth to West Berlin. Othere did not come back and instead emigrated to West Germany. From 1949 to 1961, 2.6 million East Germans defected to the West via West Berlin. A large number of these emigrants were talented professionals and intellectuals, facilitating a sort of "brain drain" from the GDR. As the rate of defections rose to unbearable levels, the Communist leaders of Eastern Europe decided to put a stop to it. In early August 1961, members of the Comecon decided to seal the border between East and West Berlin. The SED leader Walter Ulbricht signed the order to seal the border on August 12, 1961. On the night of August 13, East German troops sealed the border, and construction began on a massive barrier that became known as the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer).
The Wall generated international outrage and became one of the most poignant symbols of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War division of Europe and Germany. The Wall actually existed in three different incarnations, each intended to make breaches of the border more difficult. Nonetheless, escapes through, around, over and under the Berlin Wall occurred throughout its existence. Some ingenious methods were devised for circumventing it, many of which are on display at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin. From the sealing of the border on August 13, 1961, to the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989, 192 people were killed in escape attempts, and at least that many were wounded.[4]
Collapse of Communism, 1989
As reforms in Hungary in 1989 led to the dismantling of the secure border between Hungary and Austria, large numbers of East Germans began taking "vacations" to Hungary, from which they never returned, using vacation visas to travel to Hungary, and from there via Austria to West Germany. As East German authorities began blocking travel to Hungary, East Germans began going to other Eastern bloc countries, especially Czechoslovakia, where they stormed the compounds of the West German embassy in Prague and refused to leave until granted permission to leave for West Germany. The GDR regime relented and allowed those East Germans camping out at West German embassies to travel on sealed trains through the GDR to West Germany.
At the same time, protest movements in East Germany began to growth, fueled in large part by the explosive growth of the "Prayers for Peace" demonstrations help every Monday evening at the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. This rising protest, along with the exodus of GDR citizens to West Germany, led to pressures for liberalized travel permissions. The SED Politburo discussed such measures in early November 1989, promising to ease restrictions. However, when Gunther Schabowski, SED chief for East Berlin, read the Politburo report on East German television at 7 p.m. on November 9, 1989, he looked surprised as he read the vague language in which the party promised the border would be opened for "private trips abroad." Immediately, thousands of East Germans began to flood the border checkpoints and crossings in East Berlin, and the torrent of people opened the borders in effect, leading to joyous celebrations around the Berlin Wall. Many Germans began to destroy the Wall literally, using sledgehammers, axes and other tools to chip away at the concrete. The symbolic and then literal fall of the Berlin Wall marked an end to an important psychological barrier separating the two Germanies, leading to widespread desires for unification of East and West Germany. On July 1, 1990, an economic, monetary and social union of the two Germanies was created, preparatory to the incorporation of East Germany's six Bundesländer (federal states) into the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, when the GDR became part of the FRG.[5]
Leadership
Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) was the party boss and dictator, 1950-71. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Ulbricht fled to Moscow, serving as a Comintern agent loyal to Stalin. As the war was ending Stalin assigned him the job of designing the postwar system that would centralize all power in the Communist Party. Ulbricht became deputy prime minister in 1949 and secretary (CEO) of the Socialist Unity (Communist) party in 1950. His harsh regime provoked an open rebellion in 1953 and a stream of refugees to West Germany, stopped only by the Berlin Wall, built in 1961. The wall prevented the exodus of talented Germans and allowed East Germany to far surpass other satellites, although remaining poverty-striken in comparison with West Germany. Ulbricht lost power in 1971, but was kept on as a nominal head of state.
Honecker and Stoph
Erich Honecker (1912-1994), was party boss and dictator from 1971 until his regime collapsed in 1989. In 1946-55 he headed the Free German Youth organization. He became a member of the Central Committee of the ruling Socialist Unity party in 1946, a member of its Politburo in 1958, first party secretary in 1971 (succeeding Ulbricht) and chairman of the Council of State in 1976
Willi Stoph (1914-1999), was chairman of the council of ministers (prime minister) of East Germany from 1964 to 1973 and from 1976 to 1989. He became minister of the interior (1952-55) in charge of the Stasi, the dreaded secret police, and minister of defense (1956-60). A close associate of party boss Erich Honecker, Stoph was forced out in November 1989.
Ostalgie
The end of the Cold War division of Germany and unification in 1990 inspired initial euphoria. But for many East Germans, this joy quickly turned to dismay. West Germans often acted as if they had "won" and East Germans had "lost" in unification, leading many Ossis to resent Wessis. Additionally, the dislocations associated with the end of communism, the disappearance of East Germany and German unification were hardest for East Germany, where unemployment skyrocketed and many East German professionals quickly fled for better jobs in West Germany. These and other effects of unification led many East Germans to begin to think of themselves more strongly as "East" Germans rather than simply as "Germans." This produced in many former GDR citizens a longing for certain aspects of the former East Germany, such as full employment and other perceived benefits of the GDR state, termed "Ostalgia" (Ostalgie), and depicted in the Wolfgang Becker film "Goodbye Lenin!"
