TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93CT1697> <link 93TG0098> <link 90TT2633> <link 90TT1779> <link 90TT0799> <link 89TT3065> <link 89TT2711> <title> Germany (East)--History </title> <history> Compact ALMANAC--CIA Factbook Europe Germany </history> <article> <source>CIA World Factbook</source> <hdr> History </hdr> <body> Upon the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allies on May 8, 1945, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union occupied the country. They, and later France, assumed responsibility for its government. Under the terms of international agreements, the four commanders in chief exercised supreme authority in their respective zones of occupation and, sitting as the Allied Control Council, acted on questions affecting Germany as a whole on the basis of unanimous decision. At Potsdam in August 1945, 103,600 square kilometers (about 40,000 sq. mi.) of former German areas to the north and east were placed under Polish administration, and a smaller area in East Prussia was assigned to Soviet administration. Formation of the German Democratic Republic In the zone governed by the Soviet Military Administration, the Social Democratic Party (led by Otto Grotewohl) was forced in 1946 to merge with the Communist Party (led by Walter Ulbricht and Wilhelm Pieck) to form a new party, the Socialist Unity Party (SED). The October 1946 elections resulted in coalition governments in the five Laender (state) parliaments with the SED as the undisputed leader. The Laender governments were balanced by a number of central administrative departments directly responsible to the Soviet authorities. An economic commission set up in 1947 largely took the place of the central administrative departments and served as a nucleus for the future central government. A series of people's congresses were called in 1948 and early 1949 by the SED. Under Soviet direction, a constitution was drafted on May 30, 1949, and adopted on October 7, and is now regarded as the national day when the German Democratic Republic was proclaimed. The People's Chamber (Volkskammer), the lower house of the G.D.R. Parliament, and an upper house, the States Chamber (Laenderkammer), were created. (The Laenderkammer was abolished in 1958). On October 11, 1949, the two houses elected Wilhelm Pieck as president. Ulbricht became secretary general of the SED in 1950 and first secretary in 1953. An SED government was set up under Otto Grotewohl, and the Soviets formally turned over to it the functions of the government in East Germany. The Soviet Union and its East European allies immediately recognized the G.D.R. Apart from its communist neighbors, however, the country remained largely unrecognized by non-communist countries until 1972-73. It now has diplomatic relations with 133 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and since September 4, 1974, the United States. Internal Development in the G.D.R. The internal and foreign policies of the new East German state conformed to the Soviet mold. On July 23, 1952, the traditional Laender were abolished, thus strengthening centralized control, and in their place 14 Bezirke (districts) were established along the Soviet administrative pattern. Each Bezirk had 15 to 16 Kreise (countries). That same year, the collectivization of agriculture was begun, the judicial system was revised along Soviet lines, and important elements of the economy were nationalized. Economic pressures, confusion within the party leadership after Stalin's death, and increased Sovietization in East Germany eventually triggered the only largescale uprising that has occurred in the G.D.R. On June 16 and 17, 1953, East Berlin workers sparked a spontaneous uprising that rapidly spread to much of the G.D.R. It was quickly suppressed by the Soviet military authorities, and even stricter internal security controls over the population were introduced. Political Conditions The development of political conditions in the G.D.R. has been controlled by the SED. Walter Ulbricht was the leading personality in East Germany from 1945 until he retired as SED first secretary in 1971. A Politburo member of the prewar Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Ulbricht fled Nazi Germany in 1933, spent the war years in the Soviet Union, became a Soviet citizen, and returned to Berlin with the Red Army in 1945. His successor in 1971 was Erich Honecker, who also became head of state. The SED was formed in the 1946 forced merger of East Germany's KPD with the Social Democratic Party. The party leadership set about expanding the party to give it a mass base, and in the next 2 years party rolls swelled to 2 million. Despite these numbers, however, it was clear that the party was unable to generate broad popular support. When Yugoslavia broke with the Soviet Union in 1948, the reaction throughout Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe was to tighten control within the national communist parties. This caused the SED to abandon its attempts to create a mass party organization, and over the ensuing years it imposed ever- increasing discipline on its members. After 1948 the party patterned itself on the narrower, more elitist cadre example of Lenin's "vanguard" party. Two significant purges has occurred within the East German party: one following the workers' uprising of June 1953, the other after an internal SED power struggle in 1958. In both cases, Ulbricht emerged victorious, with strengthened control. The SED organization parallels that of its Soviet model. According to SED statutes, the Party Congress functions as the party's highest organ. The congress, which is supposed to meet ever 5 years, elects the members of the Central Committee and typically gives pro forma approval to the decisions of the party leaders, i.e., the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Despite written provisions for partly elections from the lower levels upward, the party is controlled from the top, with the Politburo of the SED Central Committee--and within the Politburo, the 11-member Secretariat--making party and government policy. The Central Committee meets about twice a year. The SED pervades all aspects of life in the G.D.R., and the best assurance of personal success is a set of impeccable party credentials. Between the ages of 6 and 14, children are encouraged to join the "Ernst Thaelmann Pioneers" (named for the head of the prewar German Communist Party, who was executed by the Nazis in 1945), which provides the child's earliest political indoctrination. The Free German Youth seeks members between the ages of 14 and 26. Almost 4 million East German youths belong to these organizations. The G.D.R. maintains the facade of the multiparty system. The National Front is the umbrella organization nominally consisting of the SED, four other political parties controlled and directed by the SED, and the four principal mass organizations (youth, trade unions, women, and culture). Behind this multiparty appearance, however, control is clearly and solely in the hands of the SED, which directs the other political parties and organizations--the Christian Democratic Union with 80,000 members, the Liberal Democratic Party with 75,000, the Democratic Peasants Party with 80,000 and the National Democratic Party with 85,000. The National Front determines the makeup of the People's Chamber. It apportions the 500 seats, nominates the candidates, and presents the ballot--which has only one slate of candidates--to the electorate. Balloting is not secret. East German elections, like those in other communist countries, consistently have high electorate participation and result in nearly unanimous approval of the candidates proposed. Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, June 1987. </body> </article> </text>