Party affairs in the Soviet Zone

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The party system or party system in the Soviet Zone or GDR consisted of four (1945) and later five (from 1948) parties . Then there were the mass organizations , which were also assigned mandates in the parliaments and thus also took on the functions of parties. The parties' options were initially very limited due to the occupation regime. The preference of the KPD , later SED by the SMAD in the course of the 1940s, almost completely excluded the other parties from participating in the formation. The SED was later institutionalized as the leading party, government party, the other parties as block parties in the democratic bloc into line . In 1989 a large number of new parties emerged as part of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the block parties were given back their options for action.

Beginnings

On June 10, 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany ( SMAD ) issued Order No. 2, which allowed the formation of anti-fascist - democratic parties in the Soviet Occupation Zone ( SBZ ). This made the Soviet Zone the first zone of occupation in which political parties could be founded. The American zone of occupation followed as the first zone of occupation in West Germany on August 27, 1945. In June 1945, the KPD was the first party to receive a license from the SMAD for the Soviet zone of occupation . The SPD and CDU followed . The last party to be approved was the LDP in July 1945 after long negotiations with the SMAD in the presence of communists . Other parties who had also submitted an application to the registration office of the Berlin magistrate were not admitted. This was justified, among other things, by preventing a fragmentation of the party landscape. The four approved parties met on July 14, 1945 to form the bloc of anti-fascist democratic parties .

The party was founded not only at the zone level, but also at the level of the municipalities, districts, districts and states.

Political party Berlin Brandenburg Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Thuringia
CDU CDU Berlin CDU Brandenburg CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania CDU Saxony CDU Saxony-Anhalt CDU Thuringia
LDP FDP Berlin FDP Brandenburg FDP Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania FDP Saxony FDP Saxony-Anhalt FDP Thuringia
SPD SPD Berlin SPD Brandenburg SPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania SPD Saxony SPD Saxony-Anhalt SPD Thuringia
KPD KPD Berlin KPD Brandenburg KPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania KPD Saxony KPD Saxony-Anhalt KPD Thuringia

Sham pluralism and the undermining of democratic principles in the Soviet Zone

Forced unification of KPD and SPD (1946)

A decisive course in the political development of the Soviet occupation zone was the compulsory unification of the KPD and SPD to form the SED in April 1946. After the Soviet occupation authorities had to realize that the KPD they protected was decried as a Russian party and that the SPD met with greater support, the SMAD initiated a unification campaign of the two workers' parties .

On the one hand, this project also met with approval from parts of the SPD. The split in the workers 'parties was seen as one of the reasons that made the National Socialists' seizure of power possible. An association was also seen as an instrument to assert oneself better in elections. Major protagonists of a union in the SPD were Otto Grotewohl and the Saxon state chairman Otto Buchwitz .

Above all, however, it was the massive pressure of the Soviet occupying power that forced unification. At the beginning of 1946, many Social Democrats unwilling to form unity were arrested in all the countries of the Soviet occupation zone . The non-admission of a (remaining) SPD of the members who did not support an association was decisive for the formation of the association.

At the end of 1945 the SPD had roughly as many members as the KPD in the Soviet Zone. There was vehement resistance to this plan in both parties, especially in the SPD, but after massive pressure on the SPD's central committee , the latter gave in in February 1946 and voted for unification. A strike vote on the party merger did not take place in the Soviet Zone or in the Soviet-occupied part of Greater Berlin . On April 22, 1946, the KPD and SPD merged to form the SED, Otto Grotewohl (SPD) and Wilhelm Pieck (KPD) became party leaders.

The first year of the SED was more than weak. Attempts to extend party work to western Germany failed, and in October 1946 the united workers' party did not achieve the hoped-for results in the state elections . Work in the West in particular and the option of a socialist reunification of Germany shaped the party work in the first few years.

State elections in October 1946

As early as autumn 1946, during the preparations for the state elections, it became apparent that an honest and fair decision-making process in the Soviet Zone was impossible. The following parties and organizations were allowed to vote

Despite the massive support of the SED by the SMAD and the hindrance of the bourgeois parties (local groups were not allowed everywhere, CDU and LPD newspapers were censored , election events were not allowed), the result for the SED was rather modest. In two out of five federal states (Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt), bourgeois majority coalitions would have been possible in the state parliaments. However, this was cleverly prevented by interventions by SMAD. The result for the SED in Greater Berlin was even more devastating. After the forced unification of the KPD and the SPD, the American and British occupation authorities pushed for the SPD to be re-admitted. The Allies were only able to come to an agreement at the beginning of June 1946: the Western Allies allowed the SED in the western sectors, and in return the SMAD allowed the SPD in the eastern part again. In the election of the city ​​council of Greater Berlin , the SPD stood alongside the SED. The SPD narrowly missed an absolute majority and gained 48.7% of the vote. The CDU was the second strongest party with 22.2%, ahead of the SED with 19.8% (LDP 9.3%).

The actual work of the state governments and the state parliaments after the election turned out to be even more difficult. Since in principle all budgetary and legislative decisions were based on orders of the state administrations of the SMA or circulars and orders of the central administration of the SMAD in Berlin-Karlshorst, the grown federal structure of the German states was undermined. The occupying power was supported by the plans of the SED to centralize the economy and later also the administration. With the founding of the GDR in October 1949, federalism in East Germany was completely abandoned and the state parliaments had to largely surrender their functions to the central state. In 1952 the state parliaments were dissolved.

The SED's claim to leadership

After the autumn elections (1946) a dramatic change in the structure of the SED began. The organizational restructuring of the SED was deliberately aimed at suppressing social democratic influence, disempowering the lower party levels and concentrating power at the top of the party. This reorganization was underpinned by the “Guidelines for the Organizational Structure of the SED” adopted by the Central Secretariat on December 24, 1946. Already in the context of the Second Party Congress of the SED in September 1947, further developments in the Soviet Zone became apparent: the SED openly and unequivocally announced its claim to the leading role in the state and society. This role was still vehemently denied by the bourgeois parties at that time, but no later than July 1952 on the occasion of the 2nd party conference of the SED and the decision to build socialism in the GDR, the CDU and LDP had to fully recognize the SED's claim to leadership. This was later anchored in the constitution of the GDR (1968) .

The German People's Congress (1947)

In December 1947 the First German People's Congress met for the first time in Berlin , which was supposed to act as an all-German body against the "splitting policy" of the " imperialist Western powers ". Ultimately, this body was all German only through the participation of a few West German party cadres of the KPD . Since the CDU, unlike the LDP, did not officially take part in the 1st People's Congress, its chairmen Jakob Kaiser and Ernst Lemmer were deposed on December 20, 1947. Due to massive pressure on the bourgeois parties and, above all, the criminalization of their members, the bourgeois parties were forced to give in to almost all decisions (including land reform , alleged expropriation of Nazi criminals on the basis of order No. 124/126 of the SMAD). In the Soviet Zone, the political landscape was shaped from the start by the fact that the parties were brought into line. Over the years it should become clear that the decision-making process in the Soviet Zone was turned upside down: it was not the voter who should vote for the party that corresponded to his ideas, but the SED tried to influence the voters' ideas through agitation and propaganda .

Foundation of DBD and NDPD (1948)

Another intervention in the party landscape of the Soviet Zone was again initiated by the SMAD and carried out by the SED. The party foundations of the DBD and the NDPD in the spring of 1948 had quite obvious goals: on the one hand, to weaken the bourgeois camp (which did not succeed) and, on the other hand, the reorganization of the two parties offered an ideal pretext to postpone the upcoming municipal elections by a year. In addition, both parties were assigned seats in the democratic bloc , which did not simplify the situation in the bloc, especially since the bloc did not have a mandate .

The "Sovietization" of the party system from 1948

In June 1948, the SED party executive decided to reorganize it into a “ new type of party ”. Since then, the SED has followed the model of the CPSU in its structure and leadership structure . It transformed into a Leninist organized cadre party that did not shy away from excluding around 150,000 members, including in particular former Social Democrats. At the 13th meeting of the SED party executive on 15./16. September 1948, Walter Ulbricht outlined the further development in the SBZ in his speech:

“Our task is to follow the path of the complete elimination and liquidation of the capitalist elements, both in the countryside and in the cities. In short, this task is that of socialist construction. "

In addition, democratic centralism was introduced as a general organizational principle in the Soviet Zone. The four other parties and other organizations (such as FDJ and FDGB ) also had to adapt their structure to the hierarchical principle. It is based on an authoritarian centralism with strict discipline. On January 24, 1949, the SED leadership decided to convert the Central Secretariat into the Political Bureau (or Politburo for short ). On the III. At the SED party congress in 1950, a central committee based on the Soviet model was elected for the first time . All measures were underpinned by elaborations of the SED ideology . One example among many is the crude notion of democracy and political opposition:

“Some citizens ask why there is no opposition in our country and believe that a real democracy also includes an opposition. But democracy does not prevail where different parties oppose each other, where the power of the working class is divided and there is an opposition. "

In retrospect, the question arises as to how independent the SED really was from the Soviet occupying power in Germany. After all, when important decisions were made in the Soviet Zone, a delegation always traveled to Moscow for consultations. In addition to regular meetings between SED leaders and high representatives of the Soviet occupying power, notes and minutes of the Politburo meetings were passed on to the SMAD and later the SKK . The list of members of the Central Committee was also checked by the SKK. Everything points to a close interweaving of interests.

Development towards people's democracy (from 1949)

The elections for the third German People's Congress in May 1949 gave a foretaste of what was to come. Because the candidates of the parties and mass organizations involved were put on unit lists. The voters could no longer make selective decisions, but could only accept or reject the entire list.

In its first constitutive meeting on October 7, 1949, the Provisional People's Chamber decided to hold elections on October 15, 1950. SMAD and SED wanted to hold these elections with unit lists too. But the CDU and LDP put up a lot of resistance to this plan, as the constitution adopted by the Provisional People's Chamber provided for general, equal, direct and secret elections. It was only in March 1950, after long negotiations, that they agreed. The election according to unit lists was an obvious breach of the constitution, because Article 51, paragraph 2 of the constitution of the GDR stipulated elections based on proportional representation. In the People's Chamber elections in October 1950, 99.7% of the votes for the candidate list of the National Front are said to have been cast.

Radicalization and popular uprising (1952–1955)

After the founding of the GDR at the latest, the circle around Walter Ulbricht sought complete dominance of the SED. In July 1952, at the 2nd SED party conference, they proclaimed the " building of socialism " - a socialist term that aimed at the massive collectivization of agriculture , the systematic introduction of a planned economy and the " dictatorship of the proletariat ".

The consequences were economically devastating, because by the beginning of 1953 the GDR was economically with its back to the wall. The downfall was to be avoided by "raising standards", that is to say in the matter of wage reductions. With the death of Stalin on March 5th, 1953, the building of socialism got into difficult political waters. The new seven-member Soviet leadership called for a temporary slowdown in socialist construction. But it was too late for that. Reluctantly, the SED leadership took over the so-called "New Course" in June 1953. However, as the norm increases remained in force and other injustices became apparent, the uprising of June 17th broke out, which was also suppressed by Soviet tanks.

However, the events of June 17 and the subsequent arrest of Lavrenti Beria , who had been supported by Stalin, on June 26, 1953 in Moscow put Ulbricht on the offensive again. He got rid of some internal party opponents and recommended himself to the Soviet Union as a strong governor in the GDR. The occupying power then delivered urgently needed goods and consolidated the rule of the SED.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Command No. 2 of the SMAD
  2. ^ Gerhard Keiderling: Sham pluralism and block parties, The KPD and the founding of the parties in Berlin 1945. In: Quarterly books for contemporary history. 2nd issue April 1997, pp. 257-296 ( PDF ).
  3. ^ Siegfried Suckut: Parties in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1952. Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2 .
  4. ↑ For the allocation of seats in the state parliaments, see Martin Broszat, Gerhard Braas, Hermann Weber (eds.): SBZ-Handbuch. State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949. 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg-Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-486-55262-7 , p. 418.
  5. ^ Siegfried Suckut: Parties in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1952. Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2 , pp. 40–50.
  6. ↑ Permanent constitutional emergency . In: Jan Foitzik: Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) 1945–1949. Structure and function. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-05-002680-4 , p. 347ff.
  7. ↑ ”The statute adopted in 1946 was undermined by the organizational policy guidelines of December 1946 declaring the operating group to be the decisive basic unit of the SED vis-à-vis the local group , 1948 and 1949 the prescribed party congresses did not take place and instead a party conference took place in 1949, which was not provided for in the statutes. In addition, just a few months after the founding of the party, it became common practice to replace members of the most diverse management levels from the higher-level management or even to replace entire districts and local boards of the SED without an election act. " Andreas Malycha: 1948 - the year of change in the character of the SED? In: UTOPIE Kreativ. Issue 96, October 1998, p. 47.
  8. ^ Siegfried Suckut: Parties in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1952. Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2 , pp. 61–64.
  9. ↑ Under sovietization, a battle term of the Cold War, is generally the "intervention of the USSR in the political, economic and social system of the states within its sphere of influence", in the narrower sense the "transfer and takeover of the Soviet system to East German conditions" understand. See Konrad Hugo Jarausch, Hannes Siegrist: Americanization and Sovietization in Germany 1945–1970. Campus Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-593-35761-5 , pp. 111 and 89.
  10. ^ Wilfried Loth: The Soviet Union and the German Question: Studies on Soviet Germany Policy from Stalin to Khrushchev. Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-36298-3 , p. 83.
  11. ↑ New Germany . May 17, 1957, source germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org , (accessed May 12, 2009)
  12. ^ Heike Amos: Politics and Organization of the SED Headquarters 1949–1963: Structure and working methods of the Politburo, Secretariat, Central Committee and Central Committee apparatus. LIT Verlag, Berlin / Hamburg / Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6187-2 , pp. 48–49, 56, 67.
  13. ↑ documentarchiv.de
  14. ^ Siegfried Suckut: Parties in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1952. Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2 , p. 95.