Walter Ulbricht 19491971

1
Walter Ulbricht 1949-1971
2
Nature of the GDR

• Insecurity mixture of paranoia and paternalism.

3
Why?

• Problems with legitimacy, sense of identity and
  permanence.
• Unelected, controlled by Moscow
• West Germany a thorn in the GDRs side
• Unfair comparisons with successful west.
• Open borders loss of trained labour
• Hallstein Doctrine no international role
• Soviet Union apparently considering Unification.

4
Response

• Attempt to control all aspects of life Stasi
• Paranoia about foreign influence, intolerance of
  dissent.
• Attempt to prove superiority in fields open to
  them, such as sport, culture etc.
• Lies about own performance and that of the west
• Überholen ohne einzuholen

5
Stasi 1951 -1989

• Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter
• Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser.
• Nischengesellschaft family and Church the only
  safe places
• Stasi-Beamter auf der Strasse "Wie beurteilen
  Sie die politische Lage?" Passant "ich denke..."
  Stasi-Beamter "Das genügt - Sie sind verhaftet!"

6
17th June 1953
7
Russian tanks support the government
8
Die Lösung(1953)

• Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni
• Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbandes
• In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen,
• Auf denen zu lesen war, dass das Volk
• Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe
• Und es nur durch doppelte Arbeit
• Zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da
• Nicht einfacher, die Regierung
• Löste das Volk auf und wählte ein anderes?
• Bertold Brecht

9
13th August 1961Der Antifaschistische Schutzwall
wird errichtet13. August 1961 Elsenstrasse
Sektorengrenze
10
Why was it built?

• Instability caused by open borders
• Workers fleeing to the West
• Forced collectivization raised the amount of land
  in cooperative hands from 45 percent to 85
  percent in the first five months of 1960. It also
  led to a new exodus of disgruntled farmers to the
  West.
• At the same time the pressure for increased
  industrial output was alienating factory workers.
  From a total of 144,000 in 1959, its lowest
  annual figure since the GDR's foundation, the
  number of refugees rose to 199,000 in 1960.
• In the first seven months of 1961 the flow almost
  doubled to 207,000. The exodus included hundreds
  of professional people, a brain drain which few
  countries could have afforded.
• In 1960 688 doctors, 296 dentists and 2,648
  engineers went West.
• By July 1961, 1,000 people per day were leaving
  the GDR via Berlin.

11
Cold War tension

• 1958 Kruschev Ultimatum
• Kennedy elected US president
• Show of force at the Brandenburg Gate as Soviet
  tanks face US tanks.

12
Soviets feared that the GDR would not survive
with open borders

• What will it mean, if the GDR is liquidated? It
  will mean that the Bundeswehr will move to the
  Polish border,...to the borders with
  Czechoslovakia, ....closer to our Soviet border.
  Kruschchev, August 3-5th 1961.

13
Wall erected overnight

• Many took this last opportunity to flee

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Kennedys Berlin Speech 1963

• Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is
  not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall
  up to keep our people in, to prevent them from
  leaving us.
• Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is
  enslaved, all are not free. When all are free,
  then we can look forward to that day when this
  city will be joined as one and this country and
  this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and
  hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it
  will, the people of West Berlin can take sober
  satisfaction in the fact that they were in the
  front lines for almost two decades.
• All free men, wherever they may live, are
  citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free
  man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein
  Berliner".

15
Did the Wall stabilise the GDR?

• GDR able to build Socialism without losing
  trained workforce.
• Tension between East and West reduced as neither
  claimed Berlin for themselves
• Wall represented failure of Socialism and
  superiority of the West although the GDR
  claimed the wall was built to keep enemies of
  Socialism out.

16
Fall of Ulbricht

• Ulbricht had achieved what even his enemies
  fifteen years earlier had hardly thought
  possible. A man without personal charm, admired
  and trusted by few, he had created a state out of
  a rump territory, a quarter the size of pre-war
  Germany. He had ensured its continuity. He had
  pushed aside all domestic opposition. He had
  endowed the country with a sense of permanence,
  which its people could feel themselves. And he
  had given it an industrial potential which its
  allies envied. Nikolai Fadeyev, the
  secretary-general of Comecon, the Council for
  Mutual Economic Assistance, put it like this in
  1964"At present the GDR is one of the
  strongest industrial states in Europe and the
  world. It has a highly developed modern industry,
  particularly in machine building, chemicals and
  energy. With its industrial production the GDR
  occupies fifth place in Europe and eighth in the
  world. With its per capita production of
  electricity it is third in Europe, and of
  chemical products second in the world (after the
  United States)".

17
So why did he fall?

• Ostpolitik called for a more conciliatory
  approach to the West.
• Soviet Union removed the hardliner from power and
  replaced him with Erich Honecker.

18
The Honecker era 1971 -1989

• Welche drei großen Katastrophen gab es 1912?
• Die "Titanic" ging unter, in Asien explodierte
  ein Vulkan, und in Neunkirchen wurde Erich
  Honecker geboren.

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Features of the era

• A good start Ostpolitik legitimacy, stability
  and Devisen.
• Consumer Socialism
• Liberalism and openness to the outside world

• 'Wenn man von festen Positionen des Sozialismus
  ausgeht, kann es meines Erachtens auf dem Gebiet
  von Kunst und Literatur keine Tabus geben. das
  betrifft sowohl die Frage der inhaltlichen
  Gestaltung als auch des Stils - kurz gesagt die
  Fragen dessen, was man die künstlerische
  Meisterschaft nennt.' (Erich Honecker, Parteitag
  der SED, 1971).

20
1973 World Youth Festival in East
Berlin25.600 participants from 140 countries8
million visitors to East Berlin in nine days

21
What did the Ostpolitik mean to the East?

• Recognition on the international scene
• BRD relinquished claim to represent all Germans
• Separate Olympic teams in 1971
• UN membership 1972
• Normal relations between citizens of both
  countries

22
The darker side of openness

• Abgrenzung delimitation or restriction of
  contact with the West.
• Surveillance Stasi grows from 52,700 to 91,000
  informers
• 1975 cultural openness reversed
• Biermann expulsion 1976

23
GDR in the 80s Rising costs and growing debt
yes, we have no bananas (or coffee, come to
that).

• Failure of consumer Socialism
• Foreign debt rises from 2 billion to 50 billion
• Only West Germanys financial generosity prevents
  collapse
• Consumer goods inferior or unavailable
• Comparisons with West via Western TV

24
Internal Opposition grows

• Peace
• Environment
• Reforms freedom of thought, speech and movement
• Freiheit der andersdenkenden. Rosa Luxemburg

25
A new Voice Gorbachev

• Glasnost
• Perestroika

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Wer zu spät kommt, den bestraft das Leben!

• GDR turns its back on reform frustration
  reaches boiling point.
• Open Protest
• Increasing desire to leave the GDR
• Gorbachev makes it clear he supports the
  protesters.

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Things look bad for the GDR..

• By 1989 the GDR had reached a position where many
  of the stabilising influences had gone
• The SU would no longer crush internal dissent
  indeed the inspiration for the dissent was coming
  from Glasnost and Perestroika.
• The economy was no longer maintaining the
  citizens standard of living
• The borders were no longer secure following
  Hungarys opening of the border with Austria in
  July.
• Thank heavens the wall was still in place, or the
  GDR would really be in trouble!