THEMES IN MODERN GERMAN HISTORY SERIES The Fall of the GDR Already published in this series: Social Democracy and the Working Class in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Germany Germany's Road to Unity STEFAN BER6ER Ethnic Minorities in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Germany: David Childs Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Turks and Others PANIKOS PANAYI An imprint of Pearson Education Harlow, England • London • New York • Reading, Massachusetts - San Francisco • Toronto • Don Mills, Ontario - Sydney Tokyo • Singapore • Hong Kong • Seoul • Taipei • Cape Town • Madrid • Mexico City • Amsterdam • Munich • Paris • Milan PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY V -• 32101041603927 Contents c tr Pearson Education Limited List of abbreviations - - Edinburgh Gate IX Harlow Preface xi Essex CM20 2JE Acknowledgements England xvi and Associated Companies around the world 1 The GDR in 1988 - a stable state? Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.pearsoneduc.com Geriatrics lead the SED 1 Who were the 'prisoners' of Wandlitz? 2 00 Lenin: 'not deceived by ... slogans like freedom' 8 First published in Great Britain in 2001 or The Politburo 9 © Pearson Education Limited 2001 Democratic Centralism 11 The right of David Childs to be identified as author of The SED's leading role 12 this work has been asserted by him in accordance with H The 1986 XI Congress of the SED 14 the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Allies of the SED 16 All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored V9 Reagan (1987): 'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' 17 in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior Sputnik banned 18 written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. 2 The GDR's flawed development 22 ISBN 0 582 31569 7 PPR A modern economy - in 1945 22 Lack of raw materials 23 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Ulbricht's unrealistic targets 23 A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library Oil imports and defence burdens 25 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Childs, David, 1933- West German help to the GDR 27 The fall of the GDR : Germany's road to unity / David Childs. Intershop resentment 28 p. cm. — (Themes in modern German history series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Poor housing 30 ISBN 0-582-31568-9 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-582-31569-7 (ppr : alk. paper) Lack of GDR identity? 30 1. Germany (East)—Politics and government—1989-1990. 2. Socialism—Germany (East) 3. Protest movements—Germany (East) 4. Opposition (Political science) The views of youth 32 5. Germany—History—Unification, 1990. I. Title. II. Series. DD289 .C45 2000 3 The Stasi and the internal security of the GDR 36 943'. 10878—dc21 36 00-061359 From K-5 to MfS 10 987654321 The Stasi and the police 37 06 05 04 03 02 01 The Stasi, the SED and education 39 Typeset by 35 in 10/13pt Sabon Literary informers 40 Produced by Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd Printed in Malaysia, PJB The cases of Fuchs, Havemann and Biermann 40 'Swords into ploughshares' 43 The Fall of the GDR ' * Contents 'Let us leave!' >. 43 Poland: 'The wheel of history will not be turned back' 94 Mielke's Potemkin village 45 Washington: 'profoundly uneasy with the idea' 95 Mielke and Krenz 47 Mitterrand: T am not afraid of German re-unification' 97 Isolation of 'enemy negative persons' 48 Gorbachev: JWe had finally^ crossed the Rubicon' 98 4 Coping with Gorbachev 51 9 Modrow's fight to save the GDR 102 Gorbachev, 'a sharp debater' 51 Modrow's coalition government 102 Moscow, Bonn and East Berlin 52 Demonstrations continue "" " 104 Perestroika and glasnost 54 Round Table talks 105 Hungary changes course 56 Exit the SED, enter the SED-PDS 106 Solidarity wins in Poland 58 Public opinion tested 108 In Prague a 'velvet revolution' 59 The Brandenburg Gate opened 109 Ceau§escu goes in Romania 60 The SED-PDS dissolving? 111 China resists democracy 61 Modrow's 'government of national responsibility' 112 Gorbachev seals the GDR's fate 114 5 Gorbachev 1989: 'Life punishes those who come too late' 64 10 The free elections of March 1990 117 Gorbachev: 'blatant... electoral fraud' 66 Gysi: 'A strong opposition for the weak' 117 Hungarians allow East Germans to go West 61 The Alliance for Germany formed 118 'Gorby, help us' 68 Kohl: 'We will build a flourishing land together' 121 Honecker: 'Don Quixote's futile charge' 70 Brandt: 'What belongs together will grow together' 122 'An unbridled campaign of agitation and slander' 71 Grass: 'There can be no demand for ... a unified nation' 124 The 'miracle of Leipzig' 71 Genscher pulls centre together 124 Biindnis 90 and other groups 125 6 The birth of the opposition parties 77 Electoral law 126 New Forum 77 Results: some surprises 128 Democracy Now 77 Social democracy re-appears 78 11 German unity achieved 134 Democratic Awakening 79 The grand coalition 134 Other opposition parties 80 Who were the Volkskammer members? 134 'We ask the Jews ... for pardon' 137 7 The fifty days of Egon Krenz 82 Professors of Marxism-Leninism retired 138 'Stony-faced' Honecker replaced by Krenz 82 Monetary, economic and social union 139 1 November: Gorbachev's 'Judas kiss' 83 False dawn for the Western SPD 140 4 November: Alexanderplatz 84 Goodbye Marx and Engels 140 8 November: The Politburo resigns 84 Two Plus Four 143 9 November: The Wall opened 86 The Oder-Neisse Line 145 'The terrible suffering inflicted on the Polish people' 147 8 International reactions to events in the GDR 92 'This rushed take-over by the Germans' 148 Thatcher: 'rather apprehensive' 92 The grand coalition collapses 150 Kohl's ten points 93 The GDR leaves the Warsaw Pact 151 vi vii The Fall of the GDR f The Volkskammer and the Bundestag vote for unity 153 List of abbreviations 'The war is finally over' "• 154 Further victories for Kohl 155 Switzerland and Sweden as models? 157 United Germany in 2000 157 Chronology 160 Brief biographies 165 AVL Aktionsbiindnis Vereinigte Linke [Action Alliance United Left] Bibliography 171 BFD Bund Freier Demokraten [League of Free Democrats] Map 179 CDU Christlich-Demokratiscbe Union [Christian Democratic Union, Index of names 181 the name for the Christian Democrats in both parts of General index 185 Germany] % CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CSU Christlich Soziale Union [Christian Social Union] DA Demokratischer Aufbruch [Democratic Awakening] DBD Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands [Democratic Farmers/ Peasants Party of Germany] DFD Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands [Democratic Women's Federation of Germany] DFP Deutsche Forumpartei [German Forum Party] DGB Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund [German Trade Union Federa­ tion, the main West German trade union body] DJ Demokratie Jetzt [Democracy Now] DSF Gesellschaft fur Deutsch-Sowjetische FreundSchaft [Society for German Soviet Friendship] DSU Deutsche Soziale Union [German Social Union] DTSB Deutscher Turn- und Sportsbund [the official sports; body of the GDR] FDGB Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund [Free German Trade Union Federation, the GDR trade unions] FDJ Freie Deutsche Jugend [Free German Youth] FDP Freie Demokratische Partei [German Democratic Party] FRG Federal Republic of Germany GDR German Democratic Republic GST Gesellschaft fur Sport und Technik [Society for Sports and Technology] HVA Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung [Main Administralian Intelligence, the foreign intelligence branch of the MfS] IFM Initiative Frieden und Menscbenrechte [Initiative for Peace and Human Rights] IM Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter [unofficial collaborator, informer work­ ing for the MfS] VIII ix The Fall of the GDR International reactions to events in the GDR to intervene." On a yearly basis the November refugees represented a rate of Genscher's visit to Warsaw in January 1988, and the Polish Prime Min­ 6 loss for the GDR of a tenth of the population. East German society would ister's visit to Bonn in January 1989, marked a positive turning point. soon collapse at this rate and West Germany would face great problems in Speaking at the UN on 24 September 1989 Genscher attempted to re-assure attempting to deal with the sudden influx. The SED itself was bleeding to the Polish people of their right to'live-with secure frontiers, which the death, having been reduced from 2.3 million members before the crisis Germans 'now or in the future' would not question. started in the summer to around 600,000. Kohl needed, with his speech, to GDR leader Krenz had also visited his Polish neighbours. On 2 Novem­ give hope to ordinary East Germans. On 17 November demonstrators in ber 1989, he met Communist President Jaruzelski, who attempted to re­ Leipzig had dispensed with the GDR flag and displayed the simple black- assure him that Thatcher, Mitterrand and Italy's Giulio Andreotti were red-gold tricolour, which was the flag of democratic Weimar Germany, against German re-unification. Krenz also met the non-Communist Prime the original GDR flag and the flag of the Federal Republic. They chanted, Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and other politicians. He left Warsaw with 'Germany, united Fatherland'. The words were from the original GDR the impression that, whatever their ideological differences, the Poles saw national anthem of 1949. Honecker had in effect banned the words of the the GDR as a bulwark against any revanchist endeavours from West Ger­ anthem in the early 1970s. The demonstrators' desires and sympathies many. No doubt there was truth in this feeling, but many Poles were also 7 could not have been clearer. At the same time, Kohl, with his speech, had coming to the conclusion was the GDR was like a dyke which had been to assuage the possible fears of Germany's neighbours and ex-enemies.