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MARXISM- IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC STUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN HISTORY

Phyllis Auty and Richard Clogg (editors) British Policy Towards Wartime Resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece

Elisabeth Barker British Policy in South-East Europe in the Second World War

Richard Clogg (editor) The Movement for Greek Independence, 1770-1821: A Collection of Documents

Olga Crisp Studies in the Russian Economy before 1914

D.G. Kirby (editor) Finland and Russia, 1808-1920: Documents

Martin McCauley The Russian Revolution and the Soviet State, 1917-1921: Documents (editor) Khrushchev and the Development of Soviet Agriculture Communist Power in Europe 1944-1949 (editor) -Leninism in the German Democratic Republic: The Socialist Unity Party (SED)

Evan Mawdsley The Russian Revolution and the Baltic Fleet Marxism-Leninism in The German Democratic Republic

The Socialist Unity Party (SED)

Martin McCauley

in association with Palgrave Macmillan © Martin McCauley 1979 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-25828-6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission

First published 1979 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

McCauley, Martin Marxism-Leninism in the German Democratic Republic -(Studies in Russian and East European history) 1. , East- and I. Title II. Series 320.9'43'1087 DD261 ISBN 978-1-349-04375-0 ISBN 978-1-349-04373-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04373-6

This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement FOR VICTOR AND GWEN Contents

Preface IX

Introduction xi

Glossary and List of Abbreviations XV

Tables and Figures xviii

Maps XXI

The German Road to The International Context-The Domestic Scene- Party Mem• bership in the SBZ-The SED Programme-The SED: Internal Developments-Cultivating the Electorate-The Oder-Neisse or Not?-The SED and the KPD One Germany or Two?

2 A Party of a New Type 47 The Allies Go Their Separate Ways-The Remodelling of the SED -The SED Becomes a Cadre Party Inside a Mass Party - The SED and the State-The Chistka- The Economic Base- the Uprising of 17 June 1953

3 The Factious Fifties 82 The Kremlin and Its German Policy-The -The Party and the Plan- The XXth Congress of the CPSU and Its Impact on the SED-The Economic Debate-Ulbricht the Master-'A Scar Across the Face of '

4 Socialism with a German Face 118 The New Economic System of Planning and Management of the Economy-The Political Thaw- The ESS-The Scientific• Technical Revolution- The GDR and the STR-The Evol• ution of the Party- Relations with the - A New View of Socialism- Dropping the First Secretary

Vll Vlll Contents 5 The Honecker Era 180 Changes in Personnel-Social and Economic Developments• Youth- Foreign Policy-The IXth Congress- Changes in Personnel-The Social Structure of SED Membership-The New Programme-The New Statute-The SED and the Berlin Conference- Relations with the Yugoslavs and the Euro• communists

Appendix: Short Biographies 229

Select Bibliography 249

Index 259 Preface

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) has the highest living standards in the socialist world. She is also ahead of many non-socialist countries, as she is one of the top ten industrial nations in the world. She has achieved her pre-eminent position in the socialist bloc by dint of her own unsparing efforts. Born of chaos, destruction and great suffering in 1945, she has demanded much of her population, many of whom have not been willing to pay the price. Defeat in war cost her dear• occupation, reparations, sequestration and the knowledge that her political culture and institutions were to be influenced by Soviet practices. It was not the first time that Berlin had been occupied by Russian forces. Whereas in 1760 the local burghers had been able to buy out the occupiers, the prospect in 1945 was quite different. This time the foreign army had political ambitions as well. There was another key factor to be considered. Contrary to 1760 when there were practically no locals who wanted a Russian-style political system adopted, there were many in 1945 who wished for a socialist Germany. Although there may have been as few as 50,000 members of the of Germany (KPD) in the Soviet zone, support for fundamental reforms which would remove the power base of the Junkers and factory owners was very significant. The question in the Soviet zone was not whether socialism would prove victorious but what face socialism would show to the world-German or Soviet? This study argues that if the working class in the Soviet zone had carried the day, German socialism would have been born. What are the distinguishing marks of this version of socialism? Traditional social-democratic views but more radical than in pre-1933 days and incorporating some KPD policies as well. Precisely since the Soviet authorities, aided by a majority of the KPD leadership, wished to prevent this, the Socialist Unity Party (SED) was brought into existence in April 1946 by fusing the KPD and the SPD, to guide the Soviet zone in the direction of Soviet socialism. Hence the SED has also had within its ranks those who would have preferred a different interpretation of socialism. The SED has often borne this in mind; for instance, untill948 the German road to socialism was official policy and ix X Preface in the late 1960s launched socialism with a German face. This study concentrates on the evolution of the SED but is always mindful of the international context. Without the Soviet connection the SED would not have become the Staatspartei-the state party-in the GDR, and the GDR would not have received international recognition and entry to the UN. This has made the SED, of necessity, mindful of Soviet wishes and developments. Since the GDR has evolved her own economic system and recorded many successes, considerable attention has been paid to the economic policy of the party. Nowadays the party fails or succeeds according to the fate of its economic policy. Culture, education and religious affairs, unfortunately, have not been accorded the space they merit. They are mentioned in passing but the dictates of space have not permitted party thinking to be examined in depth. The aims of this book are modest. It does not claim to be definitive or all-embracing. Since the author has never been permitted to sit under the table at Politburo meetings, many of the judgements must remain speculative. Regrettably Geschichte der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands (-am-Main, 1978) was published too late to be considered in detail. However it does not appear to contain anything which would lead the writer to change radically any of his opinions. I am indebted to Hartmut Zimmermann for all his help and counsel during the writing of this study. Of course, he is in no way responsible for its shortcomings. I also want to thank Francis Carsten for his helpful comments on a previous draft of the Introduction.

MARTIN McCAULEY June 1978 Introduction

The of Germany (SPD) was the leading Marxist party in the world before 1914. At the onset of war the vast majority of SPD members heeded the Kaiser's call to battle but the few who vehemently opposed the war formed the Gruppe Internationale (later called the Spartacus League) in 1914. These radicals joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) in 1917. After the end of hostilities the Spartacus League dissociated itself from the USPD and together with some radicals in Bremen formed the core of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which came into being on 30 December 1918. Karl Liebknecht and were the acknowledged leaders of the KPD during the early days. The November revolution placed power in the hands of the SPD. However it was almost totally unprepared to govern. It feared the KPD and waged a protracted struggle with the radical left. At its first congress the KPD adopted a programme which called for contacts with fraternal parties so as to put the socialist revolution on an international basis and to secure a lasting peace. First and foremost was the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RKP), but the tactics and habits of the Bolsheviks did not please everyone, especially Rosa Luxemburg. Fate took a hand and removed her, and Karl Liebknecht from the scene. The KPD was the first party to join the , the Comintern. Revolutionary hopes were high in Germany, and had not Lenin said that the natural home for the Comintern executive was Berlin? Dissent was endemic in the KPD and it had little success. However the fusion of the KPD and wing of the USPD in December 1920 transformed the KPD into a mass party. The leadership consequently dropped its cautious approach in March 1921 after police were sent to disarm workers in central Germany. Communists were called upon to resist with all the force at their disposal. Nevertheless the contest was one-sided and much blood was spilt. French and Belgian troops marched into the Ruhr in January 1923 and set in motion a train of events which, arguably, produced the most

XI xii Introduction propitious circumstances for revolution in Germany since 1918. In August 1923 the Politburo of the RKP decided that the moment for revolution in Germany had arrived. The Soviets sent civil war veterans and military specialists. All that was needed now was a pretext for an uprising. This the Reich government provided in October 1923 when it removed the government of from office and ordered troops into central Germany. The CC plumped for armed resistance but decided to await the outcome of a conference of works' councils in Chemnitz. The conference poured cold water on the appeal for a and revolutionary action; so the CC of the KPD backed down. Only in Hamburg did the uprising take place and it was suppressed without much trouble. This debacle ended the period of hope and promise when the KPD could realistically argue that revolution was a possibility. Not untill930 would the party be in such a position again, but by then it had been thoroughly bolshevised and was to be misled from Moscow during the critical period before the National Socialist seizure of power in January 1933. By 1929 the KPD leadership had been purged of independent elements and was firmly in the hands of those who believed that comrade Stalin could walk on water. Typical of this trend was Ernst Thalmann, the party leader. Well-meaning, earnest, genuinely believing that a true was being built in the , he was dull and safe and just the man to suit Stalin. The KPD, whose membership never exceeded 400,000, became the third strongest party in the Reichstag in November 1932, when it captured 6 million votes (16·9 per cent). Its rise had been meteoric between May 1928, when it polled 3·3 million votes, and the end of the . It was only exceeded by one party, the NSDAP. But it was a chimera. The KPD regarded the SPD and the Weimar republic as the principal enemies. It claimed that there was really no substantial difference between the fascism of the NSDAP and that of the SPD, but the main barrage had to be concentrated on the SPD. In association with Moscow the KPD evolved a slogan that one could only fight fascism if one sought to wipe out social-democracy. The KPD did not succeed in doing this but the NSDAP finished the job the communists had begun and revealed the true strength of the KPD by demolishing it as well with breathtaking ease. The KPD and the republic were born together and they died together. In the long, agonising night of Nazi rule, communists had ample time and opportunity to reflect on the errors of the past. No longer could democratic forces tear one another apart to the ultimate benefit of their Introduction xiii enemies; the proponents of a new and better society had to unite in order to build secure foundations. The overwhelming majority of communists and social-democrats in Germany welcomed such sentiments. Although most of the KPD leadership fled the country in the course of 1933 and peregrinated thereafter between , and Moscow, in the main the lower level functionaries stayed put. However, such was the effectiveness of the Gestapo that the vast majority of Bezirk secretaries, for example, were under arrest by the end of 1933. True to its analysis, the KPD had been extremely sanguine about the prospects of revolution in Germany after 1933 but by 1935 the cold water of reality had dampened its spirits. Henceforth until the defeat of the KPD was only capable of offering token resistance to the oncoming fascist tide. At the Berne conference (it actually met just outside Paris) in January/February 1939, the leadership painted a gloomy picture of events in Germany and outside. The resolutions passed did contain one which was to prove of great significance after 1945:

The new democratic republic will not repeat the weaknesses of the Weimar republic vis-a-vis reaction; it will carry out a thorough democratisation of the state apparatus and will adopt such meas• ures in the defence of the newly won as are necessary to render the return of a fascist tyranny once and for all impossible.

These prescient words were to find expression in the first KPD programme after the war and in the Agreement. The German attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 was a bitter and humiliating blow for the KPD leadership in Moscow. If their position was weak before, it now became almost untenable. Henceforth German communists would have to be the handmaidens of the Soviets and would have to become Soviet patriots rejoicing in every setback the suffered. They would have to put to the back of their minds the knowledge that KPD members were fighting in some of the Wehrmacht formations. The KPD saw to it that it was well prepared for the tasks ahead. As early as January and February 1943 consultations took place on future policy in Germany and work groups, each specialising on a specific aspect of policy, were established. A commission, composed of the leading figures in K.PD circles in Moscow, was set up in February 1944. Walter Ulbricht was made responsible for political leadership in postwar Germany. Anton Ackermann was to look after economic XIV Introduction affairs and Erich Weinert was to elaborate ways of ideologically re• educating the German population. Other leading functionaries con• centrated on other aspects of policy. In October 1944, the 'action programme of the bloc of fighting democracy', drawn up by , Walter Ulbricht and Anton Ackermann, was put before the party leadership. A special commission, chaired by Ulbricht, to look into the problems of the work of anti-fascists in areas occupied by the Soviet Army, was called into being in February 1945. About 150 key communist emigres were brought together in Moscow in the spring of 1945 and briefed on the political situation and their future tasks in Germany. They were informed that the German people were to be held responsible for the crimes committed by Nazi Germany; anti-fascists were to support the armies of occupation which would be stationed in Germany for a long time; as long as armies of occupation remained in Germany, there could be no question of establishing socialism; Ger• many was to go through a bourgeois-democratic phase, which would complete the revolution of 1848; left sectarian views that socialism should be constructed immediately after the war were to be energetically opposed. The demands of the peoples, oppressed by Hitler, for guarantees that such attacks would not re-occur were just. Reparations and new frontiers, including the Oder-Neisse line, had to be accepted. When political organisations were again permitted in Germany a 'bloc of fighting democracy' should act as an anti-fascist democratic mass organisation. It appears that the refounding of political parties was not envisaged since no agreement was reached before the Potsdam Agree• ment. The concept of collective guilt was aimed not merely at eradicating national socialism and the system it created, but at carrying out thorough-going social and political reform as well. A was held to be necessary, the educational system had to be purged of fascist teachers and new teaching aides produced. Material from the Weimar era, according to Ulbricht, was not to be used. There could be no return to a Weimar-type republic because it had not been capable of halting the progress of fascism. The message was clear that the 'power of the war criminals, war profiteers and other reactionaries has to be smashed once and for all'. The administration had to be purged and landowners, factory owners and bankers, the promoters of militarism and fascism, had to be rendered impotent. The guidelines, for the short• as well as the long-term, were all prepared before the first Soviet soldier put his foot on German soil. Glossary and List of Abbreviations

ABI Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate ACC Allied Control Commission AGL Executive of a Section in a Large Enterprise APO Party Organisation of a Section in a Large Enterprise Bezirk County Bezirkstag County Parliament BGL Trade Union Executive in a Factory BPCC Bezirk Party Control Commission BPO Enterprise Party Organisation cc Central Committee (of the Party) ccsc Central Commission for State Control CDU Christian Democratic Union CEMA Council for Mutual Economic Aid (also Comecon) Comecon Council for Mutual Economic Aid (also CMEA) CP Communist Party CPCC Central Party Control Commission CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union csu Christian Social Union DBD Democratic Peasants' Party of Germany DDR German Democratic Republic (also GDR) DFD Democratic Women's Association of Germany DKP German Communist Party DSU German Writers' Union DWK German Economic Commission DZV Central German Administrations EDC European Defence Community ESS Economic System of Socialism FDGB Free German Trades Union Association FDJ Free German Youth Movement FRG Federal Republic of Germany (also )

XV XVI Glossary and List of Abbreviations GDR German Democratic Republic (also DDR) GO Primary Party Organisation IG Trade Union Representing All Workers in One Industry JP Young Pioneers KAP Co-operative Section-Crops (a large collective farm devoted entirely to field husbandry) KB Cultural Association KdT Chamber of Technology KJV Communist Youth Association KPD Communist Party of Germany Kreis District Kreis tag District Parliament KVP People's Police in Barracks (later NVA) Landtag Land (Province) Parliament LDPD Liberal Democratic Party of Germany LPG Agricultural Co-operative (also kolkhoz) MTS Machine Tractor Station ND Neues Deutschland NDPD National Democratic Party of Germany NF National Front NES New Economic System NKFD National Committee for a Free Germany NKVD People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (USSR) NSDAP German National Socialist Workers' Party (also Nazi Party) NVA National People's Army (see KVP) PCE PCF French Communist Party PCI Italian Communist Party RKP(B) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (now the CPSU) SAG Sowjetische Aktiengese/lschaft =Soviet Limited Company SAP Socialist Workers' Party SBZ Soviet Zone of Occupation SED Socialist Unity Party of Germany SEW Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin SMAD Soviet Military Administration in Germany SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany SPK State Planning Commission Glossary and List of Abbreviations xvii USPD Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany USSR Union of Soviet Socialist (also Soviet Union) VEB Nationalised Enterprise VEG State Farm (also sovkhoz) People's Chamber (GDR Parliament) VVB Administration of Nationalised Enterprises 1952-58 VVB Association of Nationalised Enterprises 1948-52, 1958- WPO Residence Party Organisation Tables and Figures

Table l.l Party membership in the SBZ. 17 Figure l.l Organisational framework of the SED according to the 1st Statute (22 April 1946) and the guidelines for the organisational structure of the SED laid down by the Central Secretariat on 24 December 1946. 27 Figure 2.1 Organisational framework of the SED in 1950 according to the lind SED Statute adopted at the Illrd Congress, July 1950. 62 Table 2.1 Percentage distribution of the uses of the East German real GNP. 70 Table 2.2 Real GNP growth. 71 Table 4.1 System of Social Management. 123 Figure 4.1 Organisational framework of the SED in 1958 according to the Illrd SED Statute adopted at the IVth Congress, as amended by the Vth Congress. 125 Figure 4.2 Organisational framework of the SED in 1963 according to the IVth SED Statute adopted at the Vlth Congress. 126 Figure 4.3 The organisation of GDR industry after 1965 (simplified). 130 Table 4.2 The Social composition of the party. 140 Table 4.3 The age structure of the party, 1966. 142 Table 4.4 Members and candidates of the CC m 1963 according to the function they were performing when elected; and the proportion of graduates. 145 Table 4.5 Members and candidates of the CC in 1967 according to the function they were performing when elected; and the proportion of graduates. 145 Table 4.6 Members and candidates of the CC in 1971 according to the function they were performing when elected; and the proportion of graduates. 146

XVlll Tables and Figures XIX Figure 4.4 Organisational framework of the SED in 1971. 148 Table 4.7 Members and candidates of the Politburo and the CC Secretariat (elected at the Vlllth Congress, June 1971). 152 Table 5.1 Members and candidates of the CC in 1976 according to the function they were performing when elected; and the proportion of graduates. 213

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