External + Internal Problems on the Collapse of the GDR Flashcards
the growing national debt (internal long term)
1970 - DM 2.2 billion
by 1980 - DM 30 billion
by 1989 - DM 46 billion
like other COMECON members the GDR…
imported western technology financed by credits to be paid later - for example in a years time
what was the goal of importing western technology?
the goal was to modernise and develop economic growth, with increased production helping to repay the credits
what happened to GDR debt between 1977-81?
GDR debt to the west doubled between 1977 and 1981
the USSR faced its own significant economic problems in the 1970s and decided that…
it could no longer afford to subsidise COMECON members.
what did the Brezhnev say in 1981?
supplies of raw materials would be cut when existing arrangements ran out and that the USSR would raise prices to world market levels
(threatened collapse for the GDR)
what percent of raw materials did the GDR buy from the USSR?
70 percent
what did Brezhnev complain to Honecker?
that COMECON members were exploiting the Soviet Union by buying cheap oil from it and often selling the oil on to Western markets at great profit
what did the USSR announce in 1981 and what did this lead to?
in 1981 the USSR announced it would reduce oil deliveries
the GDR response was to develop lignite ( cheap brown coal )
extraction of lignite rose from
256 million tonnes in 1980
312 million tones by 1985
(40 percent of the world’s total)
what we’re the negatives of lignite
inefficient and caused tremendous pollution because of its high sulphur levels
in 1981 Poland was faced with its own internal problems and announced it was…
cutting coal exports
an example of lignite coal disrupting the health of east germans
.according to UN criteria, one industrial town, bitterfield, was no longer fit for human habitation
.children were twice as likely to develop breathing difficulties there + life expectancy in bitterfield was 5 years less for men and 8 years less for women than anywhere else in the gdr
how did perestroika lead to the fall of the berlin wall?
undermined honeckers leadership because he did not want perestroika (claimed they already had economic restructuring in the 1960s)
the younger generation supported gorbachevs reform
increased opposition
how did glastnost lead to the fall of the berlin wall?
glastnost increased nationalism (velvet protest) - people in the GDR saw what was happening (domino effect) also wanted reform
