Honecker's Germany (RLE: German Politics)

Moscow's German Ally

David Childs

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138846104
• eBook ISBN: 9781317540359
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Picking up many of themes of David Childs' earlier book, The GDR: Moscow's German Ally, this book discusses the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1971 until the mid 1980s. Written at a time when the GDR was one of the most modern and successful socialist states, with a growing importance within the socialist bloc and the global stage, this books examined a number of important topics such as GDR relations with the USSR and the USA, the GDR Navy, the church in the GDR and the economy of the GDR.

1
The Socialist Unity Party

HERMANN WEBER

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands - SED) is, with 2.2 million members, not only the biggest party in the two German states but, with the exceptions of the Soviet Communist Party, the Romanian Communist Party and the British Labour Party, in the whole of Europe as well. In addition, it is a party whose claim to leadership in the state is constitutionally secured. The 1974 constitution of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) proclaims that the state is led by the working class and its Marxist-Leninist party (article 1). Thus it is written down that the SED is the state party of the GDR. But its claims go further. The SED aims to control all areas of public life. Thus it is both the leader of the entire social life of the GDR and is responsible for the whole system of political, ideological, scientific, technical, economic and cultural work.¹

This SED claim to total leadership, which the party has tried to achieve since the 1950s, primarily means the domination of the GDR political system. Because the non-communist parties, allowed in 1945, have officially recognized the SED's claim to leadership,² because the mass organizations - such as the trade unions, the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend - FDJ), the Democratic Women's Federation (Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands - DFD), and so on - are totally dependent on the SED, and, finally, because state policy is determined by the SED, the party is the leading political organ of the GDR. Because of this role numerous factors, with which the GDR has got to deal continuously, become the SED's problems. There are two main problems in this connection, problems which for decades have created difficulties for the GDR. First, the GDR is only a part or constituent state (Teilstaat) of the German nation. It has evolved from a common history and, in addition, it remains with its gaze always fixed on West Germany. Secondly, in the 1950s the Stalinist system of the USSR was transplanted to the GDR. But Stalinism, a centrally directed state economy and political dictatorship (including the violence of despotic arbitrary rule), had grown out of the USSR's backwardness. The GDR was thus formed from a model which, in Marx's terms, emanates from a lower socio-economic formation, which stood in contradiction to Germany's socio-economic development.

In accordance with these two basic problems the SED's strategy was to concentrate first on German unity. Since the end of the 1960s, on the other hand, it has striven for 'demarcation' (Abgrenzung) vis-à-vis West Germany. Basically, the function, programme and structure of the SED was modelled on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Admittedly, the historical development of the SED did not run in a straight line; there were breaks in the continuity.

Continuity and Change

The present-day SED can only be correctly understood if its growth over nearly four decades is taken in account. Tradition still has a considerable influence on SED policy, and its leadership's way of acting is now, as ever, stamped by its origins and experience. A look at the history of the SED enables us to discern five periods in which the SED (at first under the direction of, and with the support of, the Soviet occupying power) erected a Soviet-style 'socialist' system. Through radical changes to the economic, social and political structures the old propertied and ruling strata were expropriated and deprived of power. In their place a new ruling stratum under the direction and control of the SED appeared. The five phases were:

1. From 1945 to 1948 structures were changed and the preconditions for a new society were created by various reforms (land reform, educational reform, reform of the judiciary and industrial reform). The political and, above all, the party system remained strongly oriented towards the traditions of the Weimar Republic. The transformation of the SPD into the communistic SED produced an organization which was still not a cadre party in the Leninist sense, but was a mass party in which the former Social Democrats had parity with the Communists in its leading committees. It wished to follow a German road to socialism and did not identify itself with the Soviet model.
2. Between 1949 and 1955 the GDR took over the Stalinist system of the USSR. Total power in political life and society was exercised by the SED (which itself had been transformed into a Stalinist 'party of a new type'), albeit under the direction of the USSR. The party ran and controlled society with bureaucraticdictatorial methods and was opposed by the majority of the population (proved by the numbers of refugees and the revolt of 17 June 1953).
3. In the period between 1956 and 1961 the SED carried out a half-hearted deStalinization. In the GDR further structural changes, such as the collectivization of agriculture, were carried through and the Stalinist base was conserved. The SED had more room for manoeuvre in shaping its own policy, but under Ulbricht the GDR remained a loyal ally of the USSR.
4. From 1961 to 1970 the economic stabilization of the GDR was carried out. Due to deStalinization, on the one hand, and the demands of modern industrial society, on the other, the SED transformed its methods of ruling. It switched more and more from terror to the neutralizing and manipulation of the masses. The new aim of rationalizing and modernizing the economic system pushed the efficiency of the economy to the centre of party activity and consequently the role and function of the SED was changed. In the 'socialist' achievement (Leistung)³ and consumer society the SED began a process of transformation from a bureaucratic Apparat party to a state party with a technocratic style of leadership. The SED also attempted to free itself from an uncritical acceptance of the Soviet model and the total predominance of Soviet policy.
5. After the removal of Ulbricht in May 1971 the SED under Honecker revised its efforts at independence. The GDR remained, however, the junior partner of the USSR. Internally, the SED turned away from a technocratic emphasis and gave priority once again to ideology. It was felt that flexible methods of leadership would strengthen the power of the state party and enforce its claims to leadership.

In considering these stages of the SED's development and the GDR's history three turning-points are of particular significance. The first was in 1948-9 when the SED was transformed into a 'party of a new type', with which the Social Democratic traditions, structures and influences were to be overcome. The special German road to socialism was abandoned. The party was centralized and transformed into a communist party to enable it to play its role as the state party of the GDR. The second turning-point was in 1961 when the SED reached its goal of transforming the GDR according to the Soviet model and, by building the Berlin Wall, sealing it off. But now the party faced a new situation. Up until 1961 ideological norms and programmatic aims had determined the SED's policy of changing the structures of the GDR according to the Soviet model, but by that date the changed reality of GDR society had more influence on the SED and the weight of facts forced the SED to change its policies within a system which had become 'conservative'. The end of the Ulbricht era in 1971 brought about a third significant change. The SED, under its new first secretary (from 1976 general secretary), Erich Honecker, again recognized the leading role of the USSR and the Soviet model as absolutely binding. Even if this did not signify a repeat of the total dependence of the GDR as in the 1950s, it had to subordinate itself to the general strategy and tactics of the USSR. Because of increasing difficulties with the more self-confident working class in communist-ruled states (the Polish disturbances of 1970 were an extreme example), the methods of leadership had to be changed. Under Honecker the social concerns of the lower-income groups were more seriously taken into account through 'social measures', the style of party work became more businesslike. Attempts were made to encourage participation from below in order to solve the increasingly complicated problems of the GDR. This did not mean, in anyway, a reduction of the SED's 'leading role' for, on the contrary, the party continued to extend its dominating role in politics, society and the economy. All sectors of public life were to be more strongly regulated and controlled, admittedly with more flexible methods.

At the same time, the SED underlined the change of 1971 by concealing Ulbricht's role, indeed turning him into a 'non-person'. (Only in the last two years has Ulbricht been given greater prominence again.) Nevertheless the changes in the years since 1971 have not been as great as the continuity in the SED's development. A comparison of the changes in the SED since 1971 with the complete development of the party indicates that continuity has been maintained in its approach to decisive questions.

Problems under Honecker

In 1971 Honecker replaced Ulbricht. The most recent phase, therefore, already comprises a third of the SED's history. The SED leadership under Honecker has loudly proclaimed that democracy has been realized in the GDR and socialism is being built. Now, as before, the legend is maintained that the SED is carrying out the aims of the German working-class movement. Yet in the most recent period under Honecker the SED has not taken a single step in the direction of democracy and socialism. As in 1970, before the fall of Ulbricht, the GDR is once again in a state of crisis. Although the GDR has managed to become one of the twelfth largest industrial states in the world and has reached the highest living standard of any of the communist-ruled states, and although its citizens are materially better off than before, there has been an increase in dissatisfaction. This is connected, first, with the fact that the hopes of bettering material standards, awakened by Honecker, have not been fulfilled (also because of the world ecortomic crisis). In addition, the living standard of the East Germans is stiil only about half as high as in West Germany. Because of the orientation of the citizens of the GDR towards West Germany, as well as the stagnation of living standards in 1977-9, this has remained a ground for continuous dissatisfaction.

The crisis was, however, not only sparked off by economic difficulties. New unrest among artists, intellectuals and young people had already begun after Wolf Biermann was deprived of his GDR citizenship in 1976, which signalled the end of the period of liberal cultural policy. So once again, nearly thirty-five years after its founding, the GDR proved itself to be a state whose stability was based not on the broad support of its citizens but on the instruments of power, guaranteed by the USSR, vis-á-vis the population. The SED's answer to this new crisis was, and is, measures of repression, reprisals against writers, the arrest or expulsion of opponents, the perfecting of the surveillance state (Uberwachungsstaat), or preventive regimentation such as the amendment of the criminal code by which every critical word can be suppressed.

During the course of its history the GDR had, by taking over the Soviet model, fully established the rule of the Communist Party, the SED. On the other hand, numerous reforms were carried through. Some of these reforms were, without doubt, of a progressive nature. These social achievements indicated the rudiments of a society based on solidarity, but the political dictatorship, the regimentation of all areas of life by the SED, the attempt to stamp out any nonconformism, are indications of just how much the GDR swings between modernity and outmoded methods of ruling.

SED: Way of Working and Structure

According to its own view of itself the SED is 'the conscious and organized vanguard of the working class and of the working people of the GDR'.⁴ The structure of the party is based on 'democratic centralism'. According to a still-valid interpretation by a leading SED member this principle means: a united party programme, strategy and tactics being decided by the party congress as its highest organ; between congresses the Central Committee (ZK) determines the party line; the decisions of higher bodies are absolutely binding on lower ones; the elective principle for all leading bodies from top to bottom and the accountability of party organs to their organizations; strict party discipline and subordination of the minority to the majority. 'Conscious party discipline is for all comrades equally binding.'⁵

The SED is, however, a party ruled by a party Apparat, that is, by full-time functionaries. There can be no talk of either free democratic elections or of the accountability of these functionaries in decisive political questions. Moreover, many full-time officials are not elected. Even formally, only the members and candidates of the leading organs (from the ZK down to the basic organizations) and the secretaries are elected. Directors and other employees of the departments of the party Apparat at all levels, instructors and party organizers, editors, teaching staff at party schools, functionaries of the mass organizations and the state apparatus nominated by the party, are appointed, not elected, and are only accountable to higher, not lower, bodies. The structure of the party (Bezirk, Kreis, Ort, that is, the organization at regional, small town and village level respectively) is not built up from below but, on the contrary, instructions are issued from above. The party organization is regimented through a strict, but in no way democratic, centralism.

For the most important leading positions in the Bezirke and Kreise only obedient, disciplined cadres are selected and employed in appropriate functions from which they can be removed at any time by those higher up. In this way a core of functionaries is created which attempts to carry out the decisions of the leadership and to influence the members and lower functionaries in the spirit of the party leaders. This is executed without reference to the members, under the sole direction of the authoritative, full-time Apparat. Members of the SED are thus virtually powerless, for within the party organization they can scarcely go beyond the boundaries set by the leadership and the Apparat's activities cannot be checked by them.

Because the SED, as the leading organ of the GDR, asserts its right to total leadership, a united and powerful party organization is in fact decisive and the inner party structure essential. The iron discipline of party members and the strict hierarchical centralism are, for that reason, the true principles underlying party structure.

Because the party under Honecker asserted with renewed emphasis the role of the working class, this ought to be reflected in its social structure which has considerably altered between the Ulbricht era and today. Between 1966 and 1981 the proportion of workers rose from 45 per cent to 57.6 per cent and the proportion of the intelligentsia from 12 per cent to 22 per cent. At the same time the proportion of white-collar employees and farmers declined. Of the party members and candidates, 34 per cent are graduates of either a university or a Fachschule (primarily concerned with training technicians). Among full-time functionaries the main trend is towards employing graduates. For instance, 64 per cent of all party secretaries, including all secretaries in the Bezirk and Kreis leaderships, were graduates in 1981 according to Honecker in his report to the Tenth Party Congress. The claim to control all fields forces the SED leadership, therefore, to be more 'objective' in its methods and to require its officials to have better professional qualifications. Only in this way can it exercise strict centralism within the party and realize its claim to the leading role in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Contents
• Map
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The Socialist Unity Party
• 2 The Written Constitution - the Basic Law of a Socialist State?
• 3 The Economy of the German Democratic Republic
• 4 Education under the Honeckers
• 5 The Church in the German Democratic Republic
• 6 The Significance of East German Intellectuals in Opposition
• 7 Woman, Myth and Magic: On Christa Wolf's Kassandra and Irmtraud Morgner's Amanda
• 8 Youth-Not So Very Different
• 9 East German Naval Build-Up
• 10 The German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union
• 11 The German Democratic Republic and the United States
• Selected Bibliography
• Index of Persons
• General Index