Das Ende der DDR

1
Das Ende der DDR

• Introduction to German Studies
• 7th November 2008
• Paul Joyce

2
1945 1949 Der Anfang der DDR

• Soviet Zone of Occupation was characterised by
  chaos and East-West hostility (Cold War)
• Soviet Union initially wanted to see a unified,
  demilitarised Germany
• But USA, Britain and France introduced new
  currency into their occupation zones (D-Mark)
• Federal Republic founded in May 1949
• Soviet Union responded by founding the Deutsche
  Demokratische Republik (DDR) in October 1949

3
Die DDR eine Demokratie?

• GDR leaders were Communists who had fought
  Fascism, or spent exile in Moscow
• Walter Ulbricht others mistrusted Germans
• To lead them into a socialist future, they used
  the repressive methods of Stalinism
• Democratic Centralism, a form of political
  control modelled on Soviet Communist Party
• Es muss demokratisch aussehen, aber wir müssen
  alles in der Hand haben (Ulbricht)

4
Sozialistische Einheitspartei (SED)

• Under Soviet pressure, the Communist Party (KPD)
  merged with the Social Democrats (SPD) to form
  the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands
  (SED) in April 1946
• Social Democrats gradually purged by SED
• Other parties allowed, but only to give the
  semblance of pluralism (Nationale Front)
• They agreed to let SED candidates have lions
  share of candidates on ballot sheets

5
Voting in the GDR

• Single-list elections every five years
• Only one set of (Nationale Front) candidates!
• SED candidates hidden in other parties
• In 1986 Volkskammer elections, 99.94 of votes
  went to Nationale Front candidates
• Flawed voting procedure you drew attention to
  yourself if you rejected a candidate
• Heavy pressure from co-ordinators at home and at
  work to vote

6
Das Politbüro centre of power

• Volkskammer only met a few days per year
• It ratified decisions passed by the Council of
  Ministers and the Politburo
• Both were dominated by the SED
• Only ever one woman minister Margot Honecker,
  who was Erich Honeckers wife!
• Government by old men. By 1989, Honecker was 76,
  Stasi boss Erich Mielke 81
• Intellectual lightweights unable to change

7
SED in control of all aspects of life

• SED controlled all GDR bodies military, police,
  security, economy, education, media
• Censorship of political expression
• Party directed you into a job, or certain study
  areas
• 2.3 million SED members out of an adult
  population of 12.5 million
• Many of them careerists as it was impossible to
  get anywhere without it

8
Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ)

• Membership of youth movement Freie Deutsche
  Jugend almost compulsory
• ¾ of those between 14-25 were members
• Most young male adults had to join the military
  sports organisation GST
• Needed to do four week military camp before you
  could go to university
• Chances of attending university rose if you did
  three years of military service

9
Enforced nationalisation

• The GDR confiscated property and land belonging
  to those implicated with Nazism
• The property of the 7,000 largest landowners and
  Junkers were nationalised
• These were re-allocated into collective farms
• Industries were centralised and run by large
  inefficient bureaucracies
• Result Stagnation of economy

10
Reparations to the Soviet Union

• 29 of Nazi Germanys industry was in the East
• BUT the need to pay war reparations to USSR meant
  that much of this was dismantled
• Key personnel had to work in Soviet Union for up
  to 10 years!
• Lacked raw materials iron and steel
• From 1950s, GDR poor compared to BRD
• Still food rationing in 1958

11
Mass exodus to West Berlin Wall

• By June 1961, 3,099,000 Germans had left the
  Soviet Zone GDR for West Germany
• There were a further 2,766,000 refugees from the
  lost German territories
• Who left the GDR?
• Young, educated and skilled workers
• Farmers after collectivisation of farms
• People of religious persuasion
• Solution Berliner Mauer (13.08.1961)

12
Berlin Wall a problem solved?

• Building of Berlin Wall in 1961 forced people to
  try and change the GDR rather than leave
• A more liberal cultural policy and the remaining
  private sector were encouraged
• The unpopular Walter Ulbricht was replaced by
  Erich Honecker as SED leader in 1971
• Promised no taboos on artistic expression
  provided writers supported socialism
• He failed to deliver (Wolf Biermann expulsion)

13
or a problem postponed?

• A Wall cant solve the central problem the lack
  of a GDR identity
• Positives Limited support for guaranteed
  employment, low-rent housing, career
  opportunities for the working-class,
  denazification
• Some successes in space travel (Sputnik, Sigmund
  Jähn) and sport
• BUT at most 30 of people supported the state,
  usually much less (Valentin Falin)

14
Travel restraints a problem doubled

• Only retired people could visit the West
• Felt inferior when they arrived, as GDR pensions
  very low. Given few marks by FRG.
• As 1980s developed, other people allowed to go
  West on urgent family business
• Even so, spouses had to stay behind
• Usually holidays had to spent in GDR holiday
  resorts or other Eastern bloc countries

15
Access to West German media

• Berlin Wall only blocked physical movement
• By 1970, most East Germans were able to receive
  West German TV
• Could hear different political opinions
• Could see that the West had a higher standard of
  living
• In 1985, 25 million phone calls to GDR from West
  Germany
• Westerners encouraged to visit East for currency

16
Lack of consumer products

• GDR concentrated on industrial goods
• Constant shortages of everything queues
• Pensioners boosted income by queuing for other
  people
• Fruit (esp. bananas) hardly ever available
• Needed to wait years for phone or car
• Cheap GDR replacements (Spreewaldgurken,
  Rotkäppchensekt)

17
unless you had Western currency!

• From 1955, Intershops were set up offering
  Western and Soviet bloc imports
• From 1970s, US jeans Japanese cameras
• BUT you needed Western currencies such as
  Deutschmarks or dollars
• Interhotels for foreign tourists too with food
  you couldnt get in shops
• East Germans felt like second class citizens in
  their own country

18
Poor housing

• Propaganda promised housing for all
• But most buildings were built before 1914
• Many were shabby and lacked amenities
• Only 68 of homes had toilets in 1989!
• Newer housing was in depressing blocks of flats
  with few amenities
• Water and refuse disposal very poor

19
GDR finances get worse in 1970s

• GDR got most of oil from USSR which raised prices
  in 1978 after Arab-Israeli crisis
• All imports now cost more GDR needed 11 billion
  marks in 1978 to make interest payments and pay
  back foreign credits
• but only earned 9.3 billion marks in exports!
• By 1984, GDR defence budget 7.7 billion
• Defence cost more per capita than in West Germany
  and all Warsaw Pact allies but USSR

20
and GDR bankrupt by 1989

• GDR invested heavily in new technologies such as
  robotics and microelectronics in 1986
• Wanted to become Japan of the Soviet bloc
• Much-needed funds were moved from economy for a
  policy that failed miserably
• In October 1989, Gerhard Schürer told Politburo
  that GDR was virtually bankrupt
• Productivity 40 lower than in FRG
• GDR would need to reduce standard of living by
  25-30 to survive!

21
Why didnt the GDR fall earlier? (1)

• Because West Germany helped it financially
• Loan of DM 1 billion in 1983
• Loan of DM 3.5 billion between 1964-1989
• FRG bought out 33,755 political prisoners between
  1964-1989 for DM 3.5 billion
• Legitimised GDR government by 1987 state visit of
  Honecker
• In May 1989, Gerhard Schröder called CDU hopes
  for re-unification out-of-date

22
Why didnt the GDR fall earlier? (2)

• You couldnt vote the SED out
• Formation of political parties banned
• Omnipresence of secret police (Stasi)
• Up to 2 million GDR citizens were informers
• Phones tapped regularly, post opened
• Stasi boss Erich Mielke also controlled police
• 202,000 organised in factory militias
  (Kampfgruppen)

23
Why didnt the GDR fall earlier? (3)

• Because of the support of Soviet troops stationed
  there
• Uprising in June 1953 in several East German
  cities crushed by Soviet tanks
• Soviet Union also intervened in Hungary in 1956
  and Czechoslovakia in 1968 to topple liberalising
  governments
• Removing the SED by popular unrest seemed
  impossible

24
The catalyst Mikhail Gorbachev

• In 1985, Gorbachev elected General Secretary of
  Russian Communist Party aged only 54
• Had reformist aims of glasnost (openness) and
  perestroika (reconstruction)
• Open discussion of Stalins crimes in media
• Move from command economy to incentives
• Contested elections in March 1989
• Encouraged all Eastern bloc countries to follow
  suit

25
The brick wall Erich Honecker

• Gorbachev started to get on well with West German
  Chancellor Helmut Kohl
• Many Soviet politicians were spending time in the
  West and revising their opinions
• This worried the SED, who always feared that
  Soviets would sell them out to the West!
• Rejected Soviet reforms, even banning the liberal
  Soviet periodical Sputnik from the GDR for its
  distorted history contributions

26
Kein Tapetenwechsel in der DDR?

• Würden Sie, wenn Ihr Nachbar seine Wohnung neu
  tapeziert, sich verpflichtet fühlen, Ihre Wohnung
  ebenfalls neu zu tapezieren? (Kurt Hager, 1987)
• Glasnost ist das Gequake wildgewordener Spießer,
  die die Geschichte im bürgerlichen Sinne
  umschreiben möchten. (Erich Honecker, 1987)
• It was as if I had been speaking to a brick
  wall. (Gorbachev about Erich Honecker)

27
Reform in the GDR Peace movement

• Gorbachev gave hope to reformers in the GDR
• In the 1980s, a peace movement started supported
  by the Evangelical Church
• Protested against Wehrkunde, preparatory military
  instruction in schools
• Demanded a non-military option for conscientious
  objectors
• Wore Swords into Ploughshares badges
• Gradually became civil rights movement

28
Reform in the GDR Green Issues

• Protestors criticised damage caused by GDRs
  heavy industry to the environment
• Half the river mileage unsuitable for bathing
• Industrial area around Leipzig, Bitterfeld and
  Halle endured permanent smog conditions
• Brown coal for heating produced sulphur dioxide
  emissions 3 times higher than FRG
• Asthma and lung cancer widespread
• 40 of forests affected by Waldsterben

29
Reform in the GDR Open protest

• In 1988 and 1989, dissidents held a silent march
  in memory of Liebknecht Luxemburg, and calling
  for free speech
• June 1989 After blatant vote-rigging in May
  local elections, 160 protestors try to complain
  to Council of Ministers
• Leipzig emerges as the focal point for the
  protest movement. Prayers for Peace are said
  regularly in the Nikolaikirche

30
Voting with their feet

• While others tried to reform the GDR, others just
  tried to leave
• 1980 21,500 applications to leave the GDR
• 1988 113,500 applications to leave GDR
• GDR bound by 1975 Helsinki Treaty to allow legal
  emigration
• Parents who applied were threatened that their
  children would be taken away and would lose their
  jobs but ever more people tried!

31
The dominos Hungary Poland

• Reforms in Poland had been demanded by
  Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, from 1970s
• Ban lifted on Solidarity in April 1989, which
  wins 160 of the 161 seats in June election
• Reforms in Hungary too where Western-style
  banking was introduced in 1987
• May 1988 most of Hungarian old guard are removed
  from Communist Party
• January 1989 multi-party elections promised

32
May 1989 Holes in the border

• 2 May 1989 Hungarian guards dismantle barbed
  wire on border to Austria
• Many East Germans on holiday in Hungary now able
  to flee to West
• 11 September 1989 Hungarian government allows
  East German visitors to cross to Austria
• Tens of thousands of GDR citizens then went via
  Vienna to West Germany
• Others tried to get to Hungary without a visa
  i.e. via Czechoslovakia

33
Escape route W. German embassies

• Summer 1989 East Germans occupy West German
  embassies in Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and in East
  Berlin
• 30 Sept. Refugees in Prague (5,500) and Warsaw
  (800) embassies allowed to emigrate
• 3 October 5,000 more refugees in Prague embassy
  allowed to leave. As their train goes through
  Dresden, crowds try to jump on board
• 3 Oct Border closed with Czechoslovakia, which
  angers East Germans trying to get there

34
40 Year Celebrations Turn Sour

• 6 October 1989 Gorbachev attends GDRs 40-year
  anniversary celebrations
• Hand-picked crowd of FDJ youth attend, but some
  shout Gorbi, hilf uns!
• 7 October Crowd gathers in East Berlin, chanting
  Wir bleiben hier! Keine Gewalt!
• Police break up demo, make 1,047 arrests
• Verbal abuse and gratuitous violence employed on
  protestors

35
Wer zu spät kommt

• Gorbachev has private talks with Honecker on
  October 7, telling him Wer zu spät kommt, den
  bestraft das Leben
• Honecker refuses to listen and continues to
  praise the achievements of the GDR
• After Honecker praises the Tianenmen Square
  massacre in China, there are fears that he will
  use violence to disrupt the demonstration planned
  for Monday 9 October in Leipzig

36
The Miracle of Leipzig

• On 9 October, 70,000-100,000 people take part in
  traditional Monday demonstration
• Although security forces were on stand-by, the
  demonstration proceeds peacefully
• It emerges that Soviet forces had been instructed
  not to intervene from August 1989
• The threat of bloodshed starts to diminish

37
New political parties dialogue?

• The new parties appearing from September 1989
  wanted to reform, not abolish, the GDR
• Neues Forum, formed by Bärbel Bohley and Jutta
  Seidel, called for ein echter Dialog mit der
  Bevölkerung and press freedom
• Demokratie Jetzt, an alliance of Christians and
  critical Marxists wanted the GDR to think about
  our future, about a society based on solidarity

38
The SEDs failed attempt at dialogue

• Both Neues Forum Demokratischer Aufbruch were
  initially denied legal status by SED
• Even though Honecker (belatedly) spoke about
  dialogue, he was unable to deliver
• Honecker is forced to resign on 17 October
• His replacement, Egon Krenz, is too tainted by
  his involvement with the previous regime to be
  accepted
• 4 November one million people listen to writers
  and academics in East Berlin

39
9 November Accidents will happen

• 8 November The Politburo resigns
• 9 November A new travel law is agreed. GDR
  citizens could now visit (or stay in) the West
  without having to justify themselves
• Passport applications would however take 4-6
  weeks, and an exit visa would be needed
• Politburo member Günter Schabowski was given a
  press statement to read out but what it
  contained was not properly discussed

40
9 November Schabowski blunders

• Trying to say that law comes into force
  immediately for those who want to leave for
  good, people listening think that Schabowski
  means that everyone can leave immediately!
• Hordes of people gather at Berlin frontier posts
  shouting Open the gate!
• Afraid for their own safety, guards open the
  border despite having no orders to do so.
• By 0100 all borders to West Berlin and West
  Germany are open

41
10 Nov. Germany meets Germany

• On the first weekend over 800,000 East Germans
  crossed into West Berlin
• Within the first four days, 4.3 million people (¼
  of the GDR population!) crossed border
• They were given 100 marks welcome money
• The attempt to stabilise the situation by opening
  the border had clearly failed
• New GDR government formed under Hans Modrow on 18
  November Egon Krenz resigns as head of state on
  6 December

42
Can Modrow save the GDR?

• Hans Modrow had been hyped as a reformer
• But he was no orator, and himself was 61
• Although his government had new(-er) people, the
  population didnt trust SED functionaries
• 7 December Modrow launches Round Table with
  other (now tolerated) parties
• Round Table unrepresentative of mood of GDR
• People asking for release/destruction of Stasi
  files and punishment of corrupt SED officials

43
Reunification gathers speed

• 28 November West German Chancellor Kohl speaks
  of possible German confederation
• 20 December Talks between Kohl Modrow on a
  treaty of community for GDR FRG
• 30 January Gorbachev tells Modrow The
  majority of people in the GDR no longer support
  the idea of two German states and it seems it
  has become impossible to preserve the republic

44
Free elections of March 1990

• 18 March 1990 first free elections in the GDR
• Won by Helmut Kohls Allianz für Deutschland
• They promised the fastest route to unity
• SPD argued for unification in gradual, carefully
  negotiated stages, but only got 21.8
• Biggest losers were the GDR-specific reform
  parties Bündnis 90 only got 3.0
• Seemed austere and disorganized compared to slick
  Western parties and their campaigning

45
July 1990 Monetary union

• In July 1990, two German states formally joined
  in monetary, economic social union
• Money in GDR accounts was converted at 11
• A generous rate, as in December 1989 exchange
  rate was 101.
• Could the German economy afford this?
• East Germans went on shopping spree for Western
  consumer goods often exploited
• GDR products ignored, which hurt economy

46
Treuhand successes failures

• Treuhandanstalt set up in March 1990 to oversee
  sale or restructuring of GDR industries
• Some successful buyouts (Carl Zeiss, DEFA)
• Poor infrastructure and disputes over land
  ownership meant it was hard to find investors
• Many sales were controversial and ended with GDR
  firms being closed high unemployment
• After strikes and protests, Kohl agreed to put DM
  115 billion into East German infrastructure

47
3 October 1990 Unity at last

• 23 August 1990 Volkskammer voted for the entry
  of the GDR to the area of jurisdiction of the
  West German constitution
• 20 September Unity treaty ratified by both West
  and East German parliaments
• 3 October Official unification celebrations in
  front of the Brandenburg gate
• 7 November 2008 Are the two Germanies truly
  unified yet? How can we tell?