Building socialism

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“ Building socialism ” was on the one hand a phrase frequently used in the German Democratic Republic by the government and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), but also a term in recent German-language history for the first years of the GDR and other socialist countries.

II. Party conference of the SED

Walter Ulbricht at the Second Party Conference. Photo taken on July 9, 1952

At the Second Party Conference of the SED from July 9 to 12, 1952, General Secretary Walter Ulbricht announced in his closing speech the planned construction of socialism : The political and economic conditions of the working class as well as their class consciousness were so far developed that the construction of the Socialism is at the time. "The great ideas of socialism" would now be realized in the land of Marx and Engels . Against resistance and the rooting out work of “enemy agents”, the GDR must now also build up armed forces - what was meant was the further development of the barracked People's Police established on July 1, 1952 into the National People's Army . Ulbricht also announced an administrative reform . Economically, following the Soviet model, heavy industry should receive special support. Ulbricht also wanted to develop socialist competition and promote the collectivization of agriculture .

This ambitious program was related to Josef Stalin's theory of building socialism in a country , which was an alternative to Leon Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution . Consequently, there is also a direct reference to the Soviet ruler in the decision of the Second Party Conference :

"It is up to all progressive forces to learn from the experiences of the struggle of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) and from the great Stalin how socialism is built."

Implementation 1952/53

In 1952, the SED and the government agencies under its control began to implement the resolutions of the Second Party Conference.

1953 crisis

The Eastern ironworks combine in Stalinstadt . Photo taken on November 10, 1952

The hectic changes in the economy led to difficulties in the supply of consumer goods , the production of which was neglected compared to a forced expansion of heavy industry . The investment decision for the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost in Stalinstadt and other mining industrial locations was also problematic because the conditions for the chemical industry , optics and precision engineering in the raw material-poor GDR were much better. In addition, there was the political transformation of the GDR into a totalitarian system from which the citizens also suffered. Both of these contributed to the fact that the number of refugees soared: In the first five months of 1953, over 200,000 people, mostly members of the middle classes and farmers, turned their backs on the GDR. Since the inner-German border had been sealed off a few weeks before the Second Party Conference, namely on May 26, 1952, most border crossings took place via West Berlin , which was not yet sealed off by the later Berlin Wall .

This development was viewed with concern in the Soviet Union, where power had been in the hands of a triumvirate since the death of Josef Stalin on March 5, 1953 , consisting of Prime Minister Georgi Malenkov , Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and, above all, head of the intelligence service Lavrenti Beria . Beria seemed to be the strong man to come. At the end of May 1953 the Council of Ministers of the USSR passed a resolution that sharply criticized the policies of the SED leadership

"1. At the moment, we should refrain from pursuing the accelerated development of socialism. 2. We should refrain from the course towards the creation of production cooperatives ( collective farms ) in the countryside. "

Agricultural policy in this context was called deculakization . In addition, the Soviets Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl , who had been summoned to Moscow for this purpose in early June 1953, recommended reducing the “ extremely tense economic development plans provided for in the five-year plan ”, improving the supply of consumer goods to the population, and abolishing rationing to withdraw the "impermissibly hasty measures to displace and limit capitalist elements in industry, trade and agriculture", to lower the labor standard raised on June 1, 1953, to end the harassment of private companies in the distribution of resources and taxation, to issue an amnesty and to strengthen efforts to achieve German unity . Soviet economic aid was promised for this purpose

According to the Soviets, this new course of the GDR should be implemented by younger, more open-minded members of the Politburo , namely the Minister for State Security Wilhelm Zaisser and Rudolf Herrnstadt , the editor-in-chief of New Germany .

Rudolf Herrnstadt in conversation with Walter Ulbricht. Photo from 1951

When he complained to the Soviet High Commissioner Vladimir Semjonow at the beginning of June about the speed of the ordered change of course, he received the answer: "In 14 days you may no longer have a state." Ambassador Ivan Ilyichev indicated to Herrnstadt that Ulbricht would not resign voluntarily, the Soviets could "take action".

Under this external pressure, the Politburo announced the New Course on June 9, 1953. The Council of Ministers followed suit two days later. On June 16, 1953, Herrnstadt's submission for an official Central Committee decision was announced, which stated:

"It is about creating a German Democratic Republic that will find the approval of all honest Germans for its prosperity, its social justice , its legal security , its deeply national characteristics and its free atmosphere."

This is the only way to restore German unity. Because the increase in norms was not withdrawn, contrary to the Soviet recommendations, a popular uprising broke out on the following day , which the Soviet army brutally suppressed. Ulbricht's planned overthrow failed because Beria was overthrown and arrested on June 26, 1953. Ulbricht traveled to Moscow on July 8, 1953 and was able to secure the support of the coming ruler Nikita Khrushchev . After his return, Zaisser and Herrnstadt lost their offices because of their “capitulant, essentially social-democratic view”, and the Politburo again placed itself behind Secretary General Ulbricht.

Consolidation

Ulbricht and the SED leadership learned from the crisis about the construction of socialism: They initially adopted a slower pace of transformation and throttled the expansion of heavy industry in favor of the consumer goods industry. The promised food aid from the Soviet Union made it possible to reduce prices in HO stores by up to 25 percent. In addition, the Soviet Union declared that it was ready to forego all reparations from the GDR on January 1, 1954. The last 33 Soviet joint-stock companies were to become the property of the GDR. At the same time, Ulbricht's position as general secretary of the SED was expanded. The Politburo was the temporary supporters of the "Zaisser Gentleman City Group" cleaned , as well as the middle management of the party. Of the for II Caucus active members of district lines lost by 1954 60 percent of their office, from the first and second secretaries of the party even 70 percent. The fourth party congress of the SED finally ended the SED's new course. The structural change in the state, economy and society was now accelerated again, the de-Stalinization , which was already evident in the Soviet Union, the SED did not want to participate. The problems that the building of socialism had brought with it persisted: In 1954, 184,000 citizens of the GDR fled to the Federal Republic, in 1955 even 252,000 - and it was mostly young, well-trained workers, farmers and intellectuals who lived in the GDR. Economics were missing. This constant outflow of " human capital " was not to end until the construction of the wall on August 13, 1961 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Resolution of the Second Party Conference of the SED, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1952
  2. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler , German history of society, vol. 5: Federal Republic of Germany and GDR 1949–1990 , CH Beck, Munich 2008, p. 29
  3. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler, German history of society, vol. 5: Federal Republic of Germany and GDR 1949–1990 , CH Beck, Munich 2008, p. 29
  4. ^ Henning Köhler , Germany on the way to itself. A story of the century. Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 516
  5. ^ Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR: About the situation in the GDR on a website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , accessed on December 23, 2010
  6. ↑ Elke Scherstjanoi, “In 14 days you may no longer have a state”. Vladimir Semenov and June 17, 1953 , in: Deutschland-Archiv 31 (1998), pp. 907-937
  7. ↑ Wilfried Loth , Stalin's Unloved Child. Why Moscow did not want the GDR , Rowohlt Berlin, 1994, p. 206 f., See also: Elke Scherstjanoi, Soviet reactions to the Second Party Conference of the SED 1952 (with documentation), in: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume II / 2002.
  8. ↑ Wilfried Loth, Stalin's Unloved Child. Why Moscow did not want the GDR , Rowohlt Berlin, 1994, p. 206
  9. ^ Hermann Weber , Die DDR 1945-1990 , Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, p. 43

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