Chronicle of the GDR (1949–1960)
Chronicle of the GDR (1949–1960) supplements the main article History of the GDR with a chronology of the events of the first few years.
1949
On October 7, the second explains German People's Council of the Provisional People's Chamber and sets the Constitution of the GDR into force. The German Democratic Republic is thus founded. The East Berlin magistrate declares Berlin the capital of the GDR .
The administrative functions are transferred to the Provisional Government of the GDR on October 10th. The Soviet Control Commission (SKK) takes the place of the SMAD .
On October 11th Wilhelm Pieck becomes President of the GDR.
Otto Grotewohl becomes Prime Minister of the GDR on October 12th .
On October 12, the People's Chamber confirmed the GDR's provisional constitution .
1950
The Politburo of the SED decided on January 24th to set up a Ministry for State Security . The government of the GDR passed a "resolution on the defense against sabotage " and also recommends the formation of such a ministry. It is formed on February 8th after the unanimous decision of the People's Chamber of the GDR on the "Law on the Establishment of a Ministry for State Security". Wilhelm Zaisser is appointed Minister for State Security, Erich Mielke State Secretary on February 16.
The Waldheim Trials will be carried out from April 21 to June . In Waldheim ( Saxony ), the prisoners who were not released by the Soviet occupation forces after the internment camp was closed are transferred to German jurisdiction. In what can be described as show trials, in violation of the rule of law, more than 3,400 defendants for war and National Socialist crimes are sentenced to high prison terms and 32 of them are sentenced to death. As early as 1952, following international protests, numerous judgments were overturned.
From May 27th to 30th (Whitsun) the first German meeting of young people will take place in Berlin.
In the Görlitz Treaty of July 6th between the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland , the Oder-Neisse line is defined as the new Polish western border.
On the III. At the SED party congress from July 20 to 24, a new party statute is passed and the conversion of the party executive committee into a central committee (ZK) is decided.
The Central Committee of the SED elects the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Central Party Control Commission (ZPKK) on July 25th . Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl are chairmen of the party; Walter Ulbricht becomes General Secretary of the Central Committee .
The SED begins with party purges ( Field affair ). On August 23, Leo Bauer , editor-in-chief of the Deutschlandsender, and on August 25, Willi Kreikemeyer , general director of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , was arrested.
On August 18, 1950, the Minister for Industry of the GDR, Fritz Selbmann , cleared the start for the construction of the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost (EKO) with the first blows of the ax to fell a jaw .
On September 29 of that year, the GDR became a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (Comecon).
The first elections to the People's Chamber of the GDR take place on October 15. The National Front's unified list, dominated by the SED, received 99.7% of the vote, according to official figures.
The Central Committee of the SED decides on the 26./27. October the review of all party members and candidates of the party.
In September of that year, the GDR became a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (RGW) - the equivalent of the European Community .
1951
From January 1st, the economy of the GDR follows the first five-year plan .
On January 15, Konrad Adenauer rejects Otto Grotewohl's proposal for an “All-German Constituent Council” and calls for free elections as the first step towards the reunification of Germany .
The GDR's National Olympic Committee (NOK) is constituted on April 22nd under the name NOK for East Germany .
On April 26th, the management and control of the social security is transferred to the FDGB .
On July 18, Robert Havemann was arrested by the West Berlin police while distributing leaflets.
On July 19, the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR forbids all motor vehicles registered in the GDR from passing through West Berlin .
The 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students will take place in East Berlin from August 5th to 19th .
On August 16, the Institute for Economic Research , the GDR's foreign intelligence service, is founded.
On October 8th the rationing of all food except meat, fat and sugar will be lifted.
On October 18, the German People's Police occupied the Berlin-Steinstücke enclave, which belongs to the US sector of Berlin , but had to evacuate it on October 23 on the orders of the Soviet Control Commission.
1952
On January 9, the Volkskammer passed a law for free elections to an all-German national assembly. On January 15, the GDR government refused entry to a UN control commission that was supposed to review the conditions for free elections.
On February 3rd, the foundation stone for the first new residential building on Stalinallee in East Berlin will be laid. The chief architect is Hermann Henselmann .
The first “ Stalin Note ” from the Soviet Union on March 10th to the three Western powers France , Great Britain and the USA contains the demand for a neutral, unified Germany. It is rejected by the Western powers on March 25 as a disruptive maneuver against the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into the West . In return, the Western powers are demanding free elections under UN supervision. In the second Stalin Note of April 9th, the Soviet Union declares that it is ready to hold free all-German elections on the condition that the elections take place not under UN control, but under four-power control. She also offers a peace treaty. The Western powers reject the second Stalin Note on May 13th: A peace treaty is only possible if a German government has been formed through all-German free elections.
On April 28, the Soviet Union handed over 66 of the 213 companies of the Soviet Stock Corporation (SAG) to the GDR. These are converted into state-owned companies ( VEB ).
On May 8, Foreign Minister Georg Dertinger announced the establishment of national armed forces.
The German Border Police (DGP) will be subordinate to the Ministry for State Security on May 13th .
On 26./27. May begins the establishment of a five-kilometer-wide exclusion zone along the demarcation line to the Federal Republic of Germany. This is the start of the forced relocation of over 12,000 residents. By order of the SED, the telephone lines between West Berlin and the GDR are cut on May 27.
The British military and West Berlin police block the (East) Berlin radio in the Haus des Rundfunks on Masurenallee in (West) Berlin-Charlottenburg on June 3rd . Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler is one of the trapped . A little more than a month later, on July 6th, the construction of the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in Berlin-Oberschöneweide began, which after a major fire in February 1955 could not start operations until February 1956.
From June 1st, West Berliners who want to enter the GDR must apply for a permit in East Berlin.
On June 8th, the first agricultural production cooperative (LPG) in the GDR is founded in Merxleben .
The main administration training with the People's Police Readiness in the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) was named " Barracked People's Police " on July 1st .
At the end of the Second Party Conference of the SED (July 9-12), the "planned construction of socialism in the GDR" is declared a fundamental task. Part of this program is the transformation of the GDR into a state that is to be built according to the Marxist-Leninist structural principle of “ democratic centralism ”. Following this, the five states of the GDR ( Mecklenburg , Saxony-Anhalt , Brandenburg , Thuringia and Saxony) will be divided into 14 districts and 217 districts on July 23 . However, the GDR Land Chamber remains in existence until 1958.
Eight plasterers from Berlin found the first handicraft production cooperative (PGH) in the GDR on July 21 .
On August 1st, the transport police are subordinated to the Ministry for State Security (MfS). This condition remained until February 1957.
On August 7th, the “ Society for Sport and Technology ” (GST) is founded.
The sale of food and industrial products to West Berliners, which had been propagated until then, is banned on November 27th.
The GDR's trade minister, Karl Hamann , was arrested on December 11th for “sabotaging supplies” and sentenced in 1954 to ten years imprisonment.
The freedom of individuals to travel in the GDR will be restricted to a radius of 100 km from December 15.
On December 15, Markus Wolf is appointed head of the Institute for Economic Research (IWF).
The state television of the GDR ( German television broadcasting ) begins on December 21 with test broadcasts from Berlin-Adlershof.
1953
On January 4th, the SED party newspaper “ Neues Deutschland ” published the “Lessons from the trial against the Slansky conspiracy center”. Rudolf Slánský had been General Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party since 1945. In September 1951 he was deposed, arrested two months later and sentenced to death in November 1952 in the Slansky trial for alleged Titoist and Zionist misconduct and executed with eleven other delinquents . This, the largest show trial of the Czech post-war period, led to the execution of numerous Jews who held high positions. The Soviet leadership used the pretext of a medical conspiracy to eliminate the uncomfortable comrades. The process resulted in numerous convictions throughout the Eastern Bloc in the years that followed.
The foreign minister and deputy chairman of the GDR CDU , Georg Dertinger , was arrested on January 15th.
The Rose campaign was started on February 10th in the seaside resorts of the Baltic Sea coast on Rügen and Usedom , with the aim of nationalizing hotel and service companies. Many hoteliers and guest house owners were sentenced to prison terms after their expropriation on the pretext of economic crimes or acting as agents for the West. Many families were relocated to other areas of the GDR as part of the so-called “coastal clearing campaign”. Some managed to escape to the west . In Thuringia there was a similar “Operation Oberhof”.
Josef Stalin dies on March 5th . In its place is the Troika Khrushchev , Malenkov and Lavrenti Beria .
The Evangelical Church protested on 21 April against the church struggle of the SED and the actions of the government of the GDR against the Protestant youth organization " Junge Gemeinde " and the Protestant Student Community. On April 28, the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR called the "Young Community" illegal.
At the 13th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED on 13/14 May a resolution was passed to raise labor standards by at least 10%.
On May 29, the Soviet Control Commission (SKK) is dissolved and the office of the High Commissioner of the USSR in Germany is established. Vladimir S. Semyonov becomes the first high commissioner.
There is resistance among the population to the resolution of 14 May to raise labor standards. The Politburo of the SED exercises self-criticism and announces a "new course". The "measures to build socialism" are withdrawn, but the increase in labor standards remains. On June 16, construction workers on East Berlin's Stalinallee went on strike to protest against the rise in labor standards . In the days around June 17th the popular uprising breaks out in the GDR . The East Berlin strike movement spreads to other cities in the GDR. The Soviet military commander takes over the government and uses Soviet troops against strikers and demonstrators. The uprising is bloodily suppressed. The Central Committee of the SED declares the popular uprising to be a “fascist putsch” directed by the West.
Lavrenti Beria, head of the Soviet secret service, People's Commissar and Minister of the Interior, was arrested in Moscow on June 26th and executed on December 23rd.
On June 27, the German Border Police (DGP) will be reclassified from the Ministry for State Security (MfS) to the Ministry of the Interior (MdI).
Between July 18 and 23, the Minister for State Security, Wilhelm Zaisser, was released. His successor is Ernst Wollweber . The MfS is incorporated into the MdI as the State Secretariat for State Security (StfS). The previously independent foreign intelligence service Institute for Economic Research will be incorporated into the State Security Service as "Main Department XV".
At the 15th meeting of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED Wilhelm Zaisser and Rudolf Herrnstadt are expelled from the Central Committee. Walter Ulbricht is elected 1st Secretary (previously "General Secretary") of the Central Committee.
The “Fireworks” campaign begins in November. Waves of arrests for alleged agent activity are rolling through the GDR and people from the West are being kidnapped into the SED's sphere of influence.
On December 15, Walter Linse , an employee of the investigative committee of liberal lawyers, kidnapped by the MfS from West Berlin on July 8, 1952, was executed in Moscow.
1954
On January 1st, the last 33 operations of the Soviet stock corporations (SAG), with the exception of Wismut AG, were transferred to the GDR and converted into VEB .
The so-called conference of four of the foreign ministers of the victorious powers France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the USA will take place in Berlin from January 25 to February 18 . The debates on the Germany question, the Austrian State Treaty and the Trieste question remain without result.
The Minister for State Security, Wilhelm Zaisser, who was dismissed from office in July 1953 and expelled from the Central Committee of the SED, was also expelled from the SED on January 23.
On January 4th, the writer Johannes R. Becher becomes Minister in the newly formed Ministry of Culture of the GDR .
A declaration by the Soviet Union on the granting of sovereignty to the GDR is published on March 25 . The GDR then made its declaration of sovereignty on March 27th.
The fourth party congress of the SED will take place from March 30th to April 4th.
On April 7th, the Federal Republic of Germany declared the GDR's declaration of sovereignty null and void and declared that it was entitled to sole representation for all Germans. (see also Hallstein Doctrine )
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected the inclusion of the National Olympic Committee of the GDR (NOK) on 14 May.
The II. Germany Youth Meeting will take place in East Berlin from June 5th to 7th .
On June 9, the former GDR foreign minister and former CDU deputy chairman Georg Dertinger, arrested on January 15, 1953, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage.
On July 23, the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Otto John , announced his transfer to the GDR on GDR radio. He will be followed on August 21 by Karlfranz Schmidt-Wittmack, member of the Bundestag CDU .
In the Volkskammer elections on October 17th, according to official figures, 99.46% will be on the unit lists.
A 15-power conference invites the Federal Republic of Germany to join NATO on October 23 and recognizes the Federal Republic of Germany's claim to sole representation for Germany as a whole .
A “Central Committee for Youth Consecration ” is founded on November 13th . In “New Germany” there appears a “Call to prepare for the 1955 youth consecration”.
1955
From January 10th, on the instructions of the East Berlin magistrate, West Berliners and West Germans have to pay 1: 1 with West Marks in the catering facilities in East Berlin .
The Soviet Union is offering all-German elections on May 15 if the Federal Republic of Germany renounces ratification of the Paris Treaties . These write the Federal German membership in NATO, the renunciation of the Federal Republic of Germany on atomic, biological and chemical weapons ( ABC weapons ), the membership of the Federal Republic in the Western European Union (WEU), the European Saar Statute and the granting of the full sovereignty of the Federal Republic Germany fixed ( see also: Germany Treaty ).
On January 25, the Soviet Union declared the state of war with Germany over.
The German Bundestag ratifies the Paris Treaties on February 27th.
The People's Police readiness will be transferred to the State Secretariat for State Security on March 17th.
The first youth consecration will take place in East Berlin on March 27th . The youth consecration should replace the church confirmation as a socialist counterpart.
Paul Merker is sentenced to eight years in prison on March 30th .
The road usage charges will be increased on March 30th in the transit West-West Berlin for cars to 30 marks, for trucks to 100 to 550 marks.
On May 1st, armed " working class combat groups " took part in the May demonstrations for the first time.
The Paris Treaties come into force on May 5th; the Federal Republic receives state sovereignty and becomes a member of NATO on May 9th.
The GDR becomes a member of the Warsaw Pact on May 14th .
On May 15, the German Border Police (DG) will be reintegrated into the State Secretariat for State Security.
On June 2nd, the SED Central Committee passed a 10-point program for the reunification of Germany .
On June 10, the dramatic increases in road user charges in the West Berlin transit from March 30 will be partially reversed.
The National Olympic Committee of the GDR becomes a provisional member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
On the way back from the Geneva summit conference, Nikita Khrushchev appears in East Berlin on July 26th, rejects free elections as a preliminary stage to the reunification of Germany and proclaims the two-state theory .
On September 20, the USSR confirmed the full sovereignty of the GDR. The office of the Soviet high commissioner is canceled and an assistance contract is concluded with the GDR.
The law on the state coat of arms and the flag of the GDR is passed on September 26th.
At its 25th meeting on October 27th, the Central Committee of the SED announced state participation in private companies.
On November 29, the Soviet Union declared that the Soviet sector (East Berlin) was part of the GDR and was no longer subject to the control of the Allies. The western powers reject this with reference to the city's four-power status.
On December 1st, the Soviet troops hand over the security of the external borders of the GDR to the German Border Police (GP).
The State Secretariat for State Security becomes a ministry again. Ernst Wollweber becomes minister, Erich Mielke becomes his deputy .
According to the Bonn Ministry for All-German Issues , more than 250,000 refugees from the GDR and East Berlin had been counted by December 31st.
1956
The second five-year plan will apply from January 1st.
On January 18, the People's Chamber decided to set up a National People's Army ( NVA ).
Paul Merker was released from prison on January 27th.
The secret speech of Khrushchev at the XX. CPSU party congress (February 14-25) in Moscow marks the beginning of de-Stalinization in the state socialist countries.
On March 1, the National People's Army (NVA) is formed from units of the Barracked People's Police (KVP) and the Ministry of National Defense is founded.
The Ministry of State Security (MfS) is accepted as an equal member at a conference of the Eastern European secret services in Moscow (March 7-11).
On May 1st, Main Department XV of the MfS is renamed Main Administration A (HV A) . Markus Wolf remains in charge. The NVA takes part for the first time in the May demonstration in East Berlin.
The eight-grade elementary school will be converted into the compulsory ten-grade polytechnic high school on May 18.
As of June, around 25,000 prisoners will be released in the course of de-Stalinization.
On June 11th, the government of the GDR called on military personnel in the Federal Republic to convert to the GDR. The offer should also apply to young refugees from the GDR.
At the 28th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED (July 27-29) high party functionaries were rehabilitated (including Franz Dahlem , Anton Ackermann and Hans Jendretzky ) and so-called "dogmatism" was criticized.
The writer and theater director Bertolt Brecht (born February 10, 1898 ) dies on August 14 in Berlin.
On August 17th, the KPD was banned in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The one millionth refugee arrives at the Marienfelde emergency center in West Berlin on September 20. A total of 1.72 million people are said to have left the GDR since the GDR was founded.
After the popular uprising in Hungary was put down by Soviet troops on October 24th, Professor Wolfgang Harich in East Berlin on November 29th, the head of the Aufbau-Verlag Walter Janka and culture editor Gustav Just on December 6th because of the “formation of an anti-state Group "arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.
1957
At the 30th plenary session of the SED Central Committee (January 30th / February 1st), Walter Ulbricht presented a new conception for Germany drawn up by the SED, which speaks of a confederation of the two German states (Federal Republic of Germany and GDR).
On February 15, the internal troops of the MfS (Head Office for Internal Security) are integrated into the Ministry of the Interior (MdI). The Berlin Guard Regiment remains the only military association of the Stasi.
In March the transport police, which had been subordinate to the MfS since August 1952, were reassigned to the People's Police.
On March 9, Wolfgang Harich was sentenced to ten years in prison as head of the opposition " Harich Group ".
On April 28, the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation (DTSB) was founded as the last mass organization in the GDR. He replaces the German Sports Committee (DS). At the same time, the DTSB takes on some of the important tasks of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sport .
On July 26, Walter Janka was sentenced to five years in prison for inciting boycotts . Other convicts are Gustav Just , Richard Wolf and Heinz Zöger .
The Soviet Union launches the first space satellite " Sputnik 1 " on October 4th .
On the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the GDR, the Volks- und Länderkammer extended the term of office of the President of the GDR, Wilhelm Pieck, for a further four years.
The GDR and Yugoslavia establish diplomatic relations on October 15th.
At the 33rd plenary session of the Central Committee of the SED (October 16-19), “ revisionism ” criticism of the Minister for State Security Ernst Wollweber and others will be exercised.
Following the Hallstein Doctrine , the Federal Republic of Germany breaks off diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia .
On November 1st, Erich Mielke will succeed the Minister for State Security Ernst Wollweber, who resigned for “health reasons”.
The GDR passed a new passport law on December 11th to reduce the number of trips to the West. An escape from the GDR is criminalized as a so-called " republic escape ".
Otto Nuschke dies on December 27th .
1958
On February 3rd, during internal party "purges", Karl Schirdewan , Ernst Wollweber, Fred Oelßner and others were relieved of their functions in the SED Politburo. Erich Honecker becomes a member of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED.
The State Planning Commission will take the place of the “Economic Council” from February 11th. The "Associations of Nationally Owned Enterprises" (VVB) are subordinate to the State Planning Commission.
On April 2 and 3, 1958, the Babelsberg Conference at the German Academy for Political Science and Law lays the foundations for legal theory and practice.
In the GDR, the ration cards will be abolished on May 29th .
The Council of Ministers of the GDR decides on measures to transform agriculture in order to accelerate collectivization. From July 10th to 16th the 5th party congress of the SED takes place, at which the party leadership declares that the standard of living in West Germany will be exceeded by 1961 . Walter Ulbricht proclaims the " Ten Commandments of Socialist Morals and Ethics ".
The poet, storyteller and playwright Johannes R. Becher, GDR Minister for Culture since 1954, dies in Berlin on October 11th.
On October 27, Walter Ulbricht declares East Berlin to be part of the GDR's sovereignty.
On November 10th, Nikita Khrushchev called for the Potsdam Agreement to be revised and threatened that the Soviet Union would transfer its control rights over Berlin to the GDR. This is the beginning of the so-called “ Berlin crisis ”.
Elections to the People's Chamber will take place in the GDR on November 16. According to official information, 99.7% of the electorate vote for the single list.
On December 8th, the GDR Land Chamber is dissolved and Otto Grotewohl is re-elected as Prime Minister of the GDR.
1959
On 24./25. April the 1st Bitterfeld Conference on cultural-political problems takes place. The “ Bitterfelder Weg ” developed on it calls for a closer connection between the cultural activities of the working people and the professional artistic life. This should create new impulses of an artistic and political-ideological nature. The conference slogan is: “Pick up your pen, mate! The socialist national culture needs you! ”. Speakers are u. a. Walter Ulbricht and Alfred Kurella . Practical effects are that artists are active within a company for a certain period of time in order to then give expression to their experiences in a socialist-realistic work.
From May 11th to June 20th and from July 13th to August 5th a conference of foreign ministers of the “four (victor) powers” (Great Britain, France, Soviet Union and USA) will take place in Geneva . Delegations from both German states take part as observers.
On June 3, the People's Chamber passed the Law on Agricultural Production Cooperatives (LPG). With that the final collectivization of the whole of agriculture begins .
The five-year plan will be canceled on October 1st and replaced by the seven-year plan.
Also on October 1st, the People's Chamber passed the law to change the state flag. The flag now shows a hammer and compass in a wreath of ears on a black, red and gold background.
On November 22nd, the first episode of Our Sandman will be broadcast on German television .
1960
On February 22nd, the Zwickau mine accident occurred .
The propaganda show The Black Canal by Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler premieres on March 21st. It will be broadcast until the end of the GDR.
The collectivization of agriculture is declared complete on April 14th.
The GDR has restrictions on travel between West and East Berlin. This subsequently leads to the Federal Republic of Germany terminating the Interzone Agreement .
Wilhelm Pieck (born January 3, 1876), the first President of the GDR, dies in Berlin on September 7th.
On September 8, the GDR Ministry of the Interior ordered that German citizens entering East Berlin require a residence permit. It is issued by the People's Police at the crossing points. West Berliners are exempt from the permit.
The office of President of the Republic will be abolished on September 12th. A Council of State will be formed in its place. Walter Ulbricht becomes the first chairman.
Walter Janka is released from prison on December 23.
See also
literature
- Wilfried Loth: Stalin's unloved child. Why Moscow didn't want the GDR. Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-87134-085-5 .
- Michael Lausberg : GDR 1949–1961 , Tectum-Verlag 2009, Marburg 2009.
swell
- ^ House of German History: 1950 , queried on October 15, 2009
- ^ Institute for Contemporary History (Ed.): Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1964. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56065-4 , p. 307, accessed on October 28, 2010
