Topic 1-Establishing and consolidating Communist rule in the GDR,c1949-61

Question 1

What was the GDR’s constitution said to be? (Government + Rights)

Answer 1

It was guaranteed that there would be fundamental human rights, freedom of speech and the freedom of press. The system of government was seen as democratic and elections were held and there was a choice of political parties voting by a secret ballot and proportional representation (number of voted + number of seats). However, in reality this wasn’t the truth as the system of government was very different in practice

Question 2

Initially what did the GDR constitution have? What happened to the role in the end?

Answer 2

Initially the GDR constitution had a head of state known as the prime minster or president but this role was only ever held by Wilhelm Pieck. When he died the position was abolished and replaced by the Staatsart or council of sate which was chaired by the SED leader

Question 3

Who are the Volskammar? What happened with the elections?

Answer 3

The Volskammar were the People Chamber. Elections were being held every four years in the original constitution. This first elections were held in 1952 but the 500 people in the Volskammer weren’t elected in the western sense of democracy. The GDR unlike the USSR allowed other parties to exist and each party put forward candidates which gave an appearance of democracy but there was no contest as the SED predetermined the number of seats for each political party and so obviously the SED had the largest number of seats.

Question 4

What did the elections give the appearance of?

Answer 4

The elections gave the appearance that members were elected by the democratic will of the people.

Question 5

What was the turnout like in the participation rate for voting? Why was this?

Answer 5

Turnouts in elections were very high often oveer 90% but this was in reality a reflection of the fact that voting was compulsory and there were fines or even prison sentences for those who failed to vote

Question 6

What was the actual voting like?

Answer 6

There was only one option on the ballot paper and if a voter didn’t want to approve the candidate they would cross out the candidates name but they had to do so in a separate voting booth without ay secrecy

Question 7

What would happen to a voter who didn’t want to vote for the one name on the ballot paper?

Answer 7

They would face the consequences which could be very severe such as loss of ones job, expulsion from university and close surveillance by the secret police

Question 8

What’s the Landerkammer?

Answer 8

The States Chamber. It represented the five historic German states within the GDR. It operated on the same principles as the Volkskammer with representives chosen from a range of political parties.

Question 9

What was the Landerkammer’s role?

Answer 9

Its role was that of the upper house: it had the power to suggest new laws and veto any of the laws approved by the Volkskammer

Question 10

When was the Landerkammer abolished?

Answer 10

It was abolished in 1958

Question 11

What was the Party Congress?

Answer 11

Party members in local and regional branches elected representatives to Party Congress where issues could be raised. Elected members of the Central Committee

Question 12

What was the Central Committee?

Answer 12

Smaller body of around 80-130 members. In theory it was the main decision-making body of the SED but this decision-making power was given to the Politburo.

Question 13

What was the Politburo?

Answer 13

A policy-making committee of the SED and this was where most political power and decision making lay. Around 15-25 people who did the Central Committee’s day-to-day work.

Question 14

Who was the first party secretary of the SED?

Answer 14

Walter Ulbricht

Question 15

What was the state of the GDR post war? What did this do for the economy?

Answer 15

The GDR suffered lasting damage from the war and Berlin lay in ruins by the end of the war. The impact of this damage was to severely reduce the prospects of the economic growth in the Eastern Zone of Germany due to the fact it contained so few industrial areas. This contrasted with the West which had large centers of industry

Question 16

How many lives had the USSR lost by the end of the Second World War? What was there also damage to?

Answer 16

An estimated 20 million lives and had suffered widespread damage to is industrial infrastructure.

Question 17

What amount of money did the Allied powers decide on?

Answer 17

$20 Billion

Question 18

What was the final decision about where the Allies could take their German reparations from?

Answer 18

They agreed to take their reparations from each of their occupying zones.

Question 19

What did taking the reparations from the zone do?

Answer 19

It placed a heavy burden on the Soviet Zone and had a detrimental effect on its economy

Question 20

What was the aim for the GDR state? (Ideology)

Answer 20

The aim was for the GDR state to be a Marxist-Leninists State. This was done by abolishing the land-owning class, private business and small farmers and in their place have central planning.

Question 21

What were the main reasons for the GDR’s bad economy?

Answer 21

-The post-war division which meant the GDR no longer had access to coal ad steel from the Ruhr area which was now a part of the FRG
-Until 1950 the USSR continued to take reparations which were 25% of all industrial goods produced in the GDR
-The GDR continued to lose valuable labour to the FRG through continued migration

Question 22

When was the first Five-Year-Plan? (Clue it spans over 5 years)

Answer 22

1951-55

Question 23

Why was the first five year plan introduced?

Answer 23

The First five-year-plan was introduced by the SED as they emphasized the need for industrial progress and resulted in the first plan being launched

Question 24

What did the first five year plan accelerate the move to?

Answer 24

Accelerated the move to a nationalization (State taking ownership of businesses) of industry

Question 25

What were factories and industries taken over and formed into?

Answer 25

People’s Enterprises (VEB’s) were a nationalized factory and industrial center that was run by the government. State-owned companies

Question 26

How much of the industrial sector did these People’s Enterprises (VEB’s) cover?

Answer 26

75%

Question 27

What did the plan emphasize?

Answer 27

The expansion of heavy industry but it faced the prospect of trying to achieve this with severe shortages of technology and equipment. Part of the solution was to try and meet production targets by increasing labour productivity

Question 28

Who was an example of being very productive and a role model to other workers?

Answer 28

The miner Adolf Hennecke was used as a role model for the increase in labour productivity. He was celebrated by the SED as a communist hero when he increased his daily output of coal by nearly 400 percent and EG workers were encouraged to match his achievements

Question 29

What increased as a result of the first five year plan? What decreased?

Answer 29

Significant increases in the production of lignite (brown coal), electricity, iron and cement. Although coal and steel production fell a long way short of the targets

Question 30

Was the first five year plan seen as a success or failure?

Answer 30

It was viewed as an overall success with targets in some areas bein exceeded. However, there were some fundamental problems

Question 32

What were the fundamental problems of the first five year plan?

Answer 32

Workers were put under immense pressure to work hard for long hours. This together with a lack of consumer foods led to widespread dissatisfaction with the government. The pressures of the plan caused an exodus (mass) of GDR citizens to WG.

Question 33

What was there insufficient investment on? What was there and emphasis on in production?

Answer 33

Modern technology and an emphasis was on quantity and not on quality.

Question 34

When was the Second five year plan?

Answer 34

1956-59

Question 35

What was the title of the Second five year plan?

Answer 35

‘Modernization, Mechanization and Automation’

Question 36

What did the Second five year plan focus on more?

Answer 36

focused more on consumer goods and improving living standards. It also included the development of nuclear energy and the first nuclear reactor in the GDR was activated in 1957

Question 37

What did Ulbricht claim needed to happen which changed the five year plan into a seven year plan?

Answer 37

He claimed that the GDR needed to overtake the FRG and so the plan was abandoned and a new seven year plan was launched instead

Question 38

When was the seven year plan launched?

Answer 38

1959

Question 39

What was wrong with the production aims?

Answer 39

They were very unrealistic such as the ambitious targets being increases of almost 200% in the manufacture of consumer goods. This was very optimistic by Ulbricht

Question 40

Who were Junkers?

Answer 40

Junkers were the class of wealthy German aristocratic landowners wo owned large areas of land especially in the eastern part of Germany

Question 41

Why was there widespread resentment to Junkers?

Answer 41

They were seen as having played a significant part in the rise of the Nazis as well as having a long history of exploiting agricultural workers.

Question 42

What was one of the most popular reforms that involved the Junkers?

Answer 42

Making Junker landowners with more than 100 hectares forfeit their land and this land was then redistributed to the peasants, small farmers and refugees

Question 43

Why did post war agricultural production suffer?

Answer 43

This was because there was a lack of machinery and livestock, resentment and then lack of farming experience by those who had been given land. This led to lots of farmers just abandoning their land

Question 44

What was a key problem in the late 1940s?

Answer 44

Agricultural production had become a serious concern for the SED.

Question 45

What did the SED begin in 1952?

Answer 45

Began voluntary collectivization in an attempt to increase food supplies with a more efficient use of rural workers and machinery. Yet within 6 years only 1/3 of GDR farmland had been collectivized.

Question 46

What is Collectivization?

Answer 46

The forcible taking over by the state of privately owned farms which are then joined together to make larger units of land where collective farms allowed the sharing of machinery, property and livestock to be organized

Question 47

What was the short-term impact of collectivization like?

Answer 47

Disaster in terms of output as this can be seen in the rapidly falling crop yields which between 1960 and 1961 fell by 30%. This fall in productivity was in many ways due to the sharp rise in migration of farm workers to the west. This led to some food rations being introduced in 1961 as a result of this

Question 48

Why was there widespread general dissatisfaction with the living standards in the early 1950s?

Answer 48

This was due to the food being heavily rationed, consumer goods being in short supply and the serious housing shortage. In addition tax was rising.

Question 49

How many migrated between Jan 1951 and April 1953?

Answer 49

Almost half a million of the GDR’s citizens were migrating

Question 50

When was the June Uprising?

Answer 50

June 1953

Question 51

What decision caused the June Uprising?

Answer 51

Ulbricht announced the need for industrial productivity to increase by 10% while workers wages would remain unchanged.

Question 52

What happened in the June Uprising?

Answer 52

On June 17th 300 builders working on a high-profile construction project to develop East berlin’s Stalin Allee (major street) went on strike demanding the reduction of the 10% increase in productivity. The builders marched to the governments House of Ministries where they were joined by thousands of other workers. By the following day strikes and demonstrations had spread throughout the whole of the GDR due to the EG’s listening to the WB radio stations

Question 53

How many tanks and soldiers did it take to suppress the revolts?

Answer 53

More than 20,000 Soviet soldiers and 600 Tanks

Question 54

How many protestors were killed?

Answer 54

21 Protestors were killed and many were injured

Question 55

What was the impact of the June Uprising?

Answer 55

Ironically it Allowed Ulbricht to strengthen his position. Ulbricht used the uprising to justify a purge of the SED with estimates of 20,000 SED functionaries being replaced

Question 56

Did Ulbricht make reforms as a result of the uprising?

Answer 56

It didn’t lead Ulbricht to make significant reforms instead it lead him to make more hardline policies

Question 57

When did emigration from the GDR to the FRG become illegal?

Answer 57

1952-This didn’t do much

Question 58

How many East German’s emigrated to the FRG between the formation of the GDR (1949) and the building of the Berlin Wall (1961)?

Answer 58

25 Million East German’s

Question 59

What were the characteristics most of those who emigrated? Why was this a problem?

Answer 59

Most of those people who emigrated were young, skilled and educated people which were the very people the GDR was most dependent on for its economic development

Question 60

What did the FRG give people who emigrated from the GDR?

Answer 60

Gave them an FRG citizenship immediately and they received generous financial and housing assistance.

Question 61

What did emigration threaten to do?

Answer 61

Decrease the available workforce by as much as 10% over the course of the seven year plan (1959-65)

Question 62

When did a second Berlin Crisis start?

Answer 62

1958

Question 63

On 15th June what did Ulbricht say in a his surprise public announcement?

Answer 63

He said ‘no one intends to build a wall’ but after intense and secret meetings with the Warsaw Pact it was decided that the only solution to solve emigration from the GDR was to seal the border between East and West Berlin

Question 64

What was Operation Rose? When was it?

Answer 64

On the 13th of August 1961 in the early hours of the night what was called Operation Rose was efficiently and swiftly carried out. By 6 o’clock in the morning the eastern sector of the city was completely block off from West Berlin and telephone lines between the two parts of the city were cut

Question 65

At first what was the wall made from?

Answer 65

Barbed Wire and Concrete Slabs

Question 66

What was the impact of the Berlin Wall? (Economy, Emigration)

Answer 66

The Berlin Wall worked. The flood of people leaving the GDR stopped overnight. The economy of the GDR now stood a better chance of improving. This led to the introduction of the NES in 1963. Behind the security of the wall the economy was able to grow with more goods being produced, including consumer goods and the amount of agricultural produce also increased

Question 67

What happened to the Standard of living after the wall was built?

Answer 67

The Standard of living for people living in the GDR improved in the 1960s

Question 68

What did the Berlin Wall also give the government?

Answer 68

Gave them more control as it was easier to control the loves of the people as there was much less contact between the East and the West

Question 69

Who was the building of the wall popular with?

Answer 69

Party members welcomed the chance to build socialism. WB’s coming into the East and snapping up subsidized goods at low process with their high waged and leaving the shop empty also stopped overnight. So not all people hated the building of the wall some people even thought it was a good idea and needed to happen

Question 70

What was the impact on families of the building of the Wall?

Answer 70

Separated family members some of whom were living in the west and who could no longer see their relatives in the East. Some children were visiting their family members in the West and couldn’t get back into the country easily.

Question 71

How many victims were there trying to escape the East and trying to get in the West?

Answer 71

136 Victims who all tried to flee but were unsuccessful over the 28 years the wall was up for

Question 72

Who was the leader that came into power after the death of Stalin in 1953?

Answer 72

Khrushchev

Question 73

What did Khrushchev put into place?

Answer 73

De-Stalinization which meant the reduction of terror and greater freedom

Question 74

Why were relations between the USSR and the GDR not very good when Khrushchev came into power?

Answer 74

This was because Ulbricht and Khrushchev never really had an effective personal relationship and so K’s influence on political developments in the GDR were limited

Question 75

What was Khrushchev’s foreign Policy called?

Answer 75

Peaceful Co-existence

Question 76

What was Peaceful Co-existence?

Answer 76

The idea that the Soviet Union could avoid the dangers of nuclear was by co-operating with the West where there were mutual interests

Question 77

What was Khrushchev’s Ultimatum?

Answer 77

Khrushchev’s ultimatum was issued in November 1958, giving the Western Powers six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free, demilitarized city. The Berlin Crisis began in June 1961 when Khrushchev reissued an ultimatum which demanded the withdrawal of all armed forces from Berlin, including the Western armed forces in West Berlin