East Germany during the Post War Years: A brief History
By Sharon Thunder (Sixth Year)
East Germany was the name for the former republic of
Europe, bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea, on the east by Poland, on the
south by the Czech Republic, and on the south and west by West Germany.
It had an area of 108,178 sq km and was established
officially as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on October 7, 1949. The
republic named East Berlin as its capital, a decision that other powers refused
to recognize.
Walter
Ulbricht, a long-time member of the German Communist Party, ruled over East
Germany for more than 25 years. He helped found the Socialist Unity Party in
1946 and was General Secretary of the party from 1950 to 1971. He was Premier
of the republic from 1949 to 1950 and Chairman of the Council of State from
1960 to 1973.
Determined
to transform his country, ravaged by World War II, into a major Communist
power, Ulbricht designed a foreign policy to foster friendly relations with
other Communist states. In 1950 East Germany made a treaty with Poland and
joined the other Communist nations in the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance. In 1954 the republic’s stature grew when the USSR ended its demands
for reparations. In 1955 East Germany became of the Warsaw Pact. Ulbricht made a
pact with the USSR in 1964 to maintain Communism in Eastern Europe, and
negotiated a trade agreement in 1965 in return for Soviet political support.
In the 1950s East Germany’s
relations with West Germany became strained after the West German Chancellor Adenauer
claimed that all Germans were one nation. Relations became even more strained
with the division of Berlin into separate zones. Berlin lay deep within East
German territory, but had been divided into east (Communist) and west
(non-Communist) sectors. To stop the flow of dissatisfied East Germans to the
West. Ulbricht set up a well-guarded corridor along the country’s western
frontier, leaving Berlin as the only practical escape route.
However dissatisfaction with the economic and political conditions
(forced collectivisation of agriculture, repression of private trade, supply
gaps), increased the number of people who left the GDR over the period. From
January to the beginning of August 1961, about 160,000 refugees were counted.
The international political situation also.
In 1958, the Soviets (Khrushchev) delivered their Berlin ultimatum,
demanding that the wastern allies should withdraw their troops from West Berlin
and that West Berlin should become a "free city" within six
months. Rumours about a permanent
divion of the city began to appear. At
an international press conference however on June 15, 1961, Walter Ulbright
answered a journalist:”I understand your question as follows: there are people
in west Germany who want us to mobilise the construction workers of the GDR to
build a wall. I am not aware of any such plans…. No one has the intention of
constructing a wall.”
However early in the morning of Sunday, august 13, 1961, the GDR began
to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire
and antitank obstacles. Streets were
torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks gathered at crucial places. The subway and local railway services
between east and West Berlin were interrupted. Inhabitants of East Berlin and
the GDR were no longer allowed to enter West Berlin, amongst them, 60,000
commuters who had worked in West Berlin so far. In the following days,
construction brigades began replacing the provisional barriers by a solid wall.
In the second half of the 1960`s East Germany built a barrier twice as
high as the original wall. They also
put electrified fence a hundred meters behind the wall. On the inside, there were guard dogs and
guards with mercury lamps. An anti tank
ditch run along the length of the strip to prevent east German soldiers diving
across to the west. To deal with any
escaper who evaded the guards, the mines and tripwire-operated guns were set
up.
In
domestic affairs Ulbricht’s first concern was to rebuild the East German
economy. After World War II East Germany was left with only one-quarter of its
pre-war resources, but was required by the USSR to pay three-quarters of
overall German reparations to aid Soviet war recovery. Ulbricht attained his
goal by imposing an iron discipline. The Socialist Party completely controlled
the government, which had already taken over all heavy industry and agriculture
and which gradually took over all smallholdings as well. Emphasis was placed on
heavy industrial production to satisfy Soviet requirements. In 1953 increased
production quotas and food shortages caused worker revolts, which were put down
by Soviet troops.
With
the New Economic System of 1963, a policy characterized by partial
decentralization and planning, economic recovery in East Germany occurred
rapidly. As workers’ incomes and benefits improved, they became somewhat more
reconciled to the Communist government. A new, fully socialist constitution was
adopted in 1968.
From 1968 to 1989 East Germany was
governed under a constitution that said that the country was a sovereign
socialist state in which all political power lay with the working people. In
practice, power resided with the Socialist Unity Party. The 1968 constitution
guaranteed the party a leading role in national affairs, and its general
secretary, as head of the party’s political bureau, was the most powerful
person in the country. East Germany's parliament, the People’s Chamber
consisting of 500 deputies, met only for short sessions. To carry out its
functions at other times, the People’s Chamber elected a Council of State.
After
1971, when Ulbricht was succeeded by Erich Honecker as leader, Relations with
West Germany improved after West German Chancellor Brandt and East German
Premier Stoph agreed to ease West
German travel restrictions to West Berlin in 1972 and began formal diplomatic
relations in 1973. New trade, aid, and travel agreements were signed with West
Germany in 1984, and in 1987 Honecker became the first East German head of
state to pay an official visit to West Germany.
In the year
1989, there were more dramatic events such as a massive flight of inhabitants
of the GDR via Hungary and big demonstrations in Leipzig on Mondays. After
weeks of discussion about a new travel law, the leader of East Berlin's communist
party (SED), Günter Schabowski, said on November 9, 1989 in somewhat unclear
words that the border would be opened for "private trips abroad". An
onrush of East Berliner's towards West Berlin began. On November 10, demolition
works on the wall began.
On July 1 1990, an economic, monetary and social union between East and West Germany was formed, and all restrictions concerning travels were dropped. The wall vanished almost completely. On August 13 1998, a wall memorial was inaugurated at the Bernauer Strasse. It consists of a remainder of the Berlin wall with a length of 70 m, provided with slits in the inner wall and steel sheets at the ends.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grant, R.G:
The rise and fall of the Berlin wall, Bison books, London, 1991.
Fogarty, R:
History in the making: Europe 1870-1970, Educational Company, Dublin 1994.
Tierney, M:
Europe since 1870, Fallons, Dublin, 1988.
Fynes, E:
Europe: History 1870- 1966, Fallons, Dublin, 1999.
Review
of one of the sources
(1) Grant R.G. the Rise and
the fall of the Berlin wall.
The book contains a complete history of the Berlin wall from its
construction to its eventual deconstruction in 1991. It was a valuable source
because it tells us about the East Germany people and how the wall affected
their lives. That there plenty of photographs and illustrations in the book and
this gave a good visual sense about the wall. Finally it contained a good
bibliography which pointed the way to other soures.
By
completing the research topic, the following skills of the historian were
acquired:
(1) The ability to locate
suitable books in the school and local library (research skills)
(2) The ability to use the
internet to locate information (research skills)
(3) The ability to
critically examiat sources
(4) Information techiochgy
skills i.e. the topic was written up using m.soft word.
Why the
topic merited study? How did it add to your historical knowledge of European
History?
This topic
merited study because:
(1) The building of the wall shows the
hostility between the east and west during the cold war.
(2) This is the tenth year anniversary
of the knocking down of the wall and as such it’s a good time to reflect on the
event.