GDR - Unit 1 - Establishing Communist Rule in the GDR

Question 1

Context - February 1945 - 2 Points

Answer 1

• Yalta Conference in Crimea
• Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill plan out future after the war, agreeing that free elections would be held in Eastern Europe and the Division of Germany and Berlin into occupation zones of each power

Question 2

Context - July 1945 - 3 Points

Answer 2

• Potsdam Conference outside Berlin after Germany’s surrender
• Truman, Stalin and Churchill all agree on the reparations each power would take and USSR to receive 25% of industrial equipment
• Germany should be given the chance to rebuild on a democratic basis

Question 3

Creation of the SED April 1945 - 9 Points

Answer 3

• 2 socialist parties in the Soviet Zone - the SPD and the KPD
• Summer elections showed that the SPD had more popular support than the KPD because the KPD had Soviet support
• Soviets harassed and looted Germans during WW2
• April 1946 - 6,000 KPD and 7,000 SPD merged to form the SED coalition
• Result of Soviet pressure for the SPD to disband
• Next day, the first Neues Deutschland SED newspaper established
• Former SPD members in the SED were purged
• 1950 - 5,000 former SPD members imprisoned in Soviet prions
• 1948 - SED announced their commitment to Marxist-Leninist policies

Question 4

What was the SPD?

Answer 4

Democratic Socialist Party

Question 5

What was the KPD?

Answer 5

German Communist Party

Question 6

Why Did the Events in 1945 - 1949 Lead to the Division of Germany? - 5 Points

Answer 6

• Creation of the SED April 1945
• Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid 1947
• Bizonia and New Currency 1947
• Berlin Blockade and Airlift 1948 - 1949
• Creation of the FRG and GDR

Question 7

Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid 1947 - 6 Points

Answer 7

• Truman Doctrine March 1947 - a policy to contain the growth of communism by providing financial, political and military support to all democratic nations under the threat of communism
• US government allocated $13 billion to help European countries in their recovery from WW2
• Believed a weak economy and low living standards would increase the appeal of communism
• Aid gave economic stability
• Conference in which the aid was discussed was not attended by Satellite countries
• Showed the formal division of Europe into Soviet and Capitalist zones of influence

Question 8

Bizonia January 1947 and New Currency June 1947 - 5 Points

Answer 8

• US and British zones were merged into one economic unit, after a year of secret negations
• Stalin saw this as an attempt to create a deliberately capitalist West German state
• Stalin believed that France and the USSR should have been involved in decisions to develop economic unity
• Britain and USA then announced the introduction of the Deutschmark to help boost trade successfully, increase industrial production, and remove the need for a black market
• USSR believed that the new currency was an act of aggression to undermine the Soviet zone by disrupting Berlin’s economic unity and disregarding the point of joint-Allied decision making

Question 9

Berlin Blockade and Airlift 1948 - 1949 - 6 Points

Answer 9

• 6 days after introduction of Deutschmark, Stalin imposed a total blockade of Berlin as means of coercing the Western powers to surrender their sectors in Berlin
• 23 June 1948 - all rail road and canal links into West Berlin were severed
• Stopped Western allies from supplying their sectors with food and supplies
• 26 June 1948 - the Airlift began
• At its peak, aircraft were landing every 90 seconds, and a total of 8,000 tonnes of supplies were delivered
• May 1949 - Stalin called off the blockade

Question 10

Impacts of the Berlin Blockade and Airlift - 2 Points

Answer 10

• Showed the West was committed to protecting its population from communism and maintain a military presence in West Berlin
• NATO was formed with all the Western Allies

Question 11

Creation of the FRG and GDR - 6 Points

Answer 11

• May 1949 - new Western German came into existence as the FRG
• Konrad Adenauer was elected the first Chancellor of the FRG
• October 1949 - GDR was established
• Ulbricht became the first Secretary of the Politburo
• Only the USSR, Eastern Bloc and North Korea would enter into diplomatic relations with the GDR
• Many Western countries refused to acknowledge its existence until the 1970s

Question 12

4 Areas of Government

Answer 12

• Head of State
• Volkskammer
• Landerkammer
• Dominance of SED/Ulbricht

Question 13

Head of State

Answer 13

Known as President or Prime Minister

Question 14

How was the Head of State Not Democratic? - 3 Points

Answer 14

• Purely a ceremonial role
• Only ever held by Wilhelm Pieck
• After he died in 1960, it was replaced with Council of state which was chaired by SED leader

Question 15

How was the Volkskammer Democratic? - 6 Points

Answer 15

• Meant to represent the people
• Allowed political parties to exist
• Turn outs for elections were often over 90%
• Elections held every 4 years
• Passed legislation
• President of Volkskammer was usually from a party other than the SED to give the appearance of a coalition

Question 16

How was the Volkskammer Not Democratic? - 4 Points

Answer 16

• Number of seats for each party was predetermined by the SED before the election
• Largest number of votes and seats allocated to the SED to maintain its leading role
• Ballot paper when voting had only one name/party and just had to be dropped in the ballot box
• Voting was compulsory, and there were fines or prison sentences for those who didn’t

Question 17

How was the Landerkammer Democratic? - 2 Points

Answer 17

• Represented the 5 historic states in Germany
• Power to suggest new laws and veto any laws approved by the Volkskammer

Question 18

How was the Landerkammer Not Democratic? - 4 Points

Answer 18

• Acted as a rubber stamp for laws already decided by the Politburo
• Never used its power of veto
• 1952 - 5 states were abolished and replaced by 14 districts under the control of the SED
• Chamber abolished in 1958

Question 19

How was the Dominance of the SED/Ulbricht Not Democratic? - 5 Points

Answer 19

• CC delegated decision making to the Politburo as it was too large to function effectively
• Mass purges in 1956 - 1958 was used by Ulbricht to secure his position
• Cult of personality developed
• Power/influence extend to population via social organisations
• Personal power from building the wall

Question 20

SED Structure - 3 Points

Answer 20

• Party Congress - local branches that are elected and raised issues
• Central Committee - main decision making body of the SED with 80 - 130 members
• Politburo - policy making committee of SED with democratic centralisation

Question 21

When was the Stasi Formed?

Answer 21

1950

Question 22

When did the GDR Join COMECOM?

Answer 22

1950

Question 23

Attempts to Develop the GDR’s Economy - 5 Points

Answer 23

• Soviet Economist Planning
• First FYP
• Second FYP
• Seven Year Plan
• Agricultural Collectivisation

Question 24

Soviet Economist Planning - Aim

Answer 24

To transform the GDR into a Marxist-Leninist state by abolishing landowning class, private business, and small farmers

Question 25

Soviet Economist Planning - Reality - 10 Points

Answer 25

• Government could harness the economy to the needs of the state
• Social over personal needs emphasised
• Nationalisation of industry and collectivisation of agriculture
• Too centralised meant reduction in innovation and creativity
• No profit motives like supply and demand
• Quantity over quality
• Opposition to socialist economies
• Early 1950s - Food was heavily rationed and consumer goods were in short supply
• Taxation was rising
• Considerable amounts of farmer resented collectivisation

Question 26

First Five Year Plan 1951 - 55 - Aims - 2 Points

Answer 26

• Develop heavy industry, iron, steel, energy and chemical
• Increase living standards to pre-war levels

Question 27

First Five Year Plan 1951 - 55 - Reality - 11 Points

Answer 27

• Nationalisation of industry covered 75% of the sector to become People’s Enterprises
• Propaganda was used to improve productivity
• Significant increase in coal, iron, electricity and cement production
• Most targets were met and exceeded
• Shortages of technology and equipment
• Increase in labour productivity to meet targets
• Workers were under great pressure and had to work long hours
• Workers lacked consumer goods which led to wide spread dissatisfaction with the government
• Quantity over quality
• General discontent led to emigration to FRG
• Inefficient investment in modern technology

Question 28

Second Five Year Plan 1956 - 59 - Aim

Answer 28

Focused placed on consumer goods and improving living standards

Question 29

What was the Motto of the Second Five Year Plan?

Answer 29

Modernisation, Mechanisation, and Automation

Question 30

Second Five Year Plan 1956 - 59 - Reality - 5 Points

Answer 30

• SED offered 50% initiatives for transforming their firms into People’s Enterprises
• By 1960, private enterprises controlled only 9% of industrial production
• Increase in consumer goods available
• Centralised control tightened by SED
• Ulbricht’s call for the GDR to overtake the FRG meant that the plan was abandoned and replaced by the Seven Year Plan

Question 31

Seven Year Plan - 4 Points

Answer 31

• Aim was to increase the manufacturing of consumer goods by 200%
• Production increased
• Steel and iron production fell way off target
• Impacted living standards as workers had to increase productivity by 85%

Question 32

Agricultural Collectivisation - 11 Points

Answer 32

• Junker landowners with more than 100 hectares were forced to forfeit their land which was then redistributed to peasants, small farmers and refugees
• 1/3 of farmland was reallocated to 500,000 people
• Lack of machinery and livestock, resentment at some forced requisitioning of food, and lack of farming experience by those given the land
• Many farmers abandoned their land
• 1952 - Introduction of voluntary collectivisation
• 1/3 farmland collectivised by early 1950s
• 15,000 farmers emigrated to FRG in 1950s
• 1960s - ‘socialist spring’ launched by Ulbricht as a second attempt at collectivisation
• Enforced by denying farmers access to collectives equipment, arresting those who opposed the SED, and their land was forcibly taken by the State
• Crop yields fell by 30% in 1960 - 1961
• Led to introduction of food rationing of some food items in 1961

Question 33

June 1953 Uprising - 10 Points

Answer 33

• Shows that economy development was unsuccessful
• Ulbricht announced the need for workers to increase productivity by 10% whilst their pay would remain the same
• 17 June - 300 builders working on Stalinallee went on strike and were joined by thousands as they marched to the government’s House of Ministries
• By the next days, protests and demonstrations were wide spread across the GDR
• Ulbricht appealed to the USSR for help, and were sent 20,000 soldiers and 600 tanks
• 20 people were killed and many injured
• Ulbricht used this as an excuse to purge opposition and SED, to consolidate his position
• 20 people were executed and 500,000 were arrested
• Hundreds of ‘anti-communists’ were sent to Siberia
• 20,000 functionaries in the SED were replaced

Question 34

2 Reason why the Berlin Wall was Built

Answer 34

• Emigration
• 1958 Crisis

Question 35

Emigration Before the Wall - 6 Points

Answer 35

• 2.5 million East Germans emigrated to the FRG
• Population went from 18+ million to 17 million
• Those emigrating were young, skilled and educated, and the GDR could not afford to loose them if it was to rebuild its economy
• 1/4 of doctors emigrated
• Threatened to decrease workforce by 10%
• Allowed the FRG to undermine the GDR’s credibility as an example of the failings of socialism

Question 36

Reasons for Emigration - 8 Points

Answer 36

• Poor living standards
• Housing shortages
• Food rationing and lack of consumer goods
• SED’s repressive nature
• FRG was more prosperous than GDR
• East German migrants were recognised as refugees, and were given free FRG citizenship and financial aid
• Western agents were known to enter East Berlin to recruit skilled workers for their labour shortages
• Better job opportunities

Question 37

1958 Crisis - 10 Points

Answer 37

• Berlin Ultimatum - withdrawal within 6 months of Western troops from their sectors in Berlin so it becomes a demilitarised free city state
• West did not agree, but USA offered to negotiate however, the two powers were unable to solve their differences
• A follow up meeting was planned in Paris May 1960, but this was cancelled after the U2 crisis
• During 1960, 200,000 more people left the GDR
• Khrushchev renewed the ultimatum again
• JFK replied by making a public announcement that the USA was prepared to defend West Berlin and that he had no intentions of challenging the USSR’s influence in the GDR or East Berlin
• Operation Rose August 15th 1961 - Ulbricht made a public announcement that no-one intends to build a wall
• Operation was shrouded in secrecy and carried by Honecker
• 16th - Berliners found that travel was no longer possible
• Ran for 97 miles around the 3 western sectors, and 27 miles through the centre of Berlin

Question 38

Impact of the Wall - 11 Points

Answer 38

• Offered a stable border
• Easier for GDR to control the lives of its people
• Build socialism without being undermined by a depleting workforce
• Ulbricht and the SED could make plans for the future of the economy, and it began to grow
• More goods being produced, and consumer goods
• Living standards improved
• Families were split
• People who had previously worked in the West but lived in the East could not get to work
• Many had to change schools
• Cost of the border for the GDR was estimated to be 2.5 - 3 million Ostmarks
• 136 fatalities from attempted escapees