District Party School

Great Ziegenberg training center, the building of the former district party school in Ballenstedt (2013)

The district party schools (BPS) of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) had the task of ideologically training young SED employees to become potential leaders in the GDR party and state apparatus. After the “Karl Marx” college in Berlin, they were the state party's second highest cadre schools. Throughout the GDR there was one district party school in each of the 15 districts .

function

The district party school offered political and technical training for management functions. Without a visit to such an institution, it was impossible to take a leadership position in the state or party. The district party schools were thus an important recruiting reservoir for senior cadres. They provided the personnel for building up the party and state apparatus; their graduates were automatically nomenklatura cadres of the SED.

For the SED this had the advantage that vacancies in less popular places and remote areas could be filled by obliging graduates to accept these positions by “party mandate”. For example, mayor posts were filled in small communities for which no other applicants could be found. Sometimes the graduates were pushed into higher party offices under threat of severe party punishments.

The network of party schools reached all levels of the state, from the smallest circle to the districts to the "Karl Marx" party college in East Berlin. Even SED leadership in larger companies maintained educational institutions that served the political training of employees and SED members, provided they were intended for company management tasks. After all, advancement in cultural institutions, newspapers or companies also depended on graduating from party schools. Managers should also be leaders in society.

In the 1980s, 255 SED district and 478 company schools formed the basis of the training system. Here the courses were completed alongside the job. At the 15 district party schools, on the other hand, three-month or one-year courses were planned - the pupils should concentrate fully on the subject matter.

For the highest party functions, the SED members had to study for one or three years at the party college "Karl Marx", building on the qualifications of the lower schools. The only thing that was even more important was studying at the party college of the CPSU , where party cadres from all socialist countries studied in the ideological center of the Eastern Bloc. Those who returned home from there with a diploma could hope for high party positions.

Multi-level party ideology training

The SED party schools were organized hierarchically. At the lower end were the district party schools (KPS) with evening courses, then the delegation came to the district party schools (BPS, 1 year direct study), and at the top was the Karl Marx party university (PHS, 1 and 3 years study) in Berlin.

At the district party school in Ballenstedt, for example, from 1956 to 1989 - that is, over a period of 33 years - more than 16,000 SED party members from the GDR districts of Halle (until 1989) and Magdeburg (until 1975) completed one-year courses. During the time of their studies, the course participants received 80 percent of their previous net salary as a scholarship, to be paid by the delegating company.

Usually only those who had successfully completed the previous school could complete the next level. District and party college were also possible in distance learning . The degree from the party college was a graduate social scientist . From 1950 to 1983, the rector of the party college was Hanna Wolf , who is known to be particularly orthodox and has very close personal contacts with the general secretary.

Further institutions at the central level were the Institute for Marxism-Leninism (IML) and the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED. Alternatively, a delegation to visit the party college of the CPSU in Moscow was possible. Many cadres from all socialist countries and people 's democracies studied here for one or three years . The discussions were shaped from a much more open global perspective. Because of this stay in Moscow, many leading party cadres (from 1st district secretary and up) spoke excellent Russian . Egon Krenz , for example, graduated with a degree in social science with a state examination .

Without attending a party college, it was practically impossible in the GDR to achieve a top position in the state or within the party, since professional and social qualifications for the “socialist leader” represented a unit.

In the three district capitals in the north - in Schwerin, Rostock and Neubrandenburg - elaborate district party schools were set up at the end of the 1970s. They were modernly equipped, the guest rooms offered a comparatively high level of comfort - district party schools were among the privileged institutions of the GDR.

Teacher

Each district party school had 60 to 80 teachers who were the district leadership's nomenclature cadres. The BPS was headed by a school principal who had been confirmed by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED. The teachers were assigned to the following chairs: Marxist-Leninist philosophy , political economy , scientific communism , party building, history of the workers' movement. The heads of the chairs were part of the school management.

The teachers had completed the party qualification, party college of the SED or the CPSU, and some had a doctorate. They also had a college or university degree. Many were trained as teachers. The decisive prerequisite for being able to work as a teacher at the BPS was experience in the party apparatus. Before their assignment at the BPS, department heads and teachers were often employees of the district leaderships or secretaries of SED district leaderships.

BPS locations

Logo of the SED district party school in Ballenstedt (until 1989)

District party school in Cottbus, photo taken in 2012

District Party School Erfurt, photo taken in 2018

District party school Wilhelm Liebknecht of the SED district leadership Halle in Ballenstedt
District Party School Friedrich Engels of the SED district leadership Berlin in Berlin with more than 35,000 graduates from 1946 to 1986
District party school Michail Iwanowitsch Kalinin of the SED district leadership Cottbus in Cottbus
District party school Georg Wolff of the SED district leadership Dresden in Dresden
District party school Ernst Thälmann of the SED district leadership Erfurt in Erfurt
District party school Friedrich Engels of the SED district leadership Frankfurt (Oder) in Frankfurt (Oder)
District party school Rosa Luxemburg of the SED district leadership Gera in Bad Blankenburg
District party school Ernst Schneller of the SED district leadership Karl-Marx-Stadt in Mittweida
District party school Walter Ulbricht of the SED district leadership Leipzig in Leipzig
District party school Hermann Matern of the SED district leadership Magdeburg in Magdeburg
District Party School Kurt citizens of the SED district leadership Neubrandenburg in Neubrandenburg
District party school Julian Marchlewski of the SED district leadership Potsdam in Potsdam
District party school John Schehr of the SED district leadership Rostock in Rostock
District party school Wilhelm Pieck of the SED district leadership Suhl in Schleusingen
District party school Willi Schröder of the SED district leadership Schwerin in Schwerin

Training of foreign students at BPS 1987

A template for the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED under the title “Courses for Marxist-Leninist qualification of cadres of developed capitalist countries, revolutionary-democratic parties, national-democratic parties and movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America at the party school 'Karl Liebknecht' at the Central Committee of the SED and at district party schools of the SED in 1987 " shows the following numbers of students from Africa at BPS for 1987:

District party school Cottbus: 20 members of the PNDC (Ghana), five members of the APC (Sierra Leone), two members of the SPFF (Seychelles), two members of the KP Lesotho

District party school Dresden: 30 members of ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe)

District Party School Erfurt: ten members of the MPLA-PdA (Angola), five members of the Frelimo (Mozambique), five members of the PAIGC (Guinea-Bissau), five members of the PAICV (Cape Verde), five members of the MLSTP (Sao Tome and Principe)

District party school Frankfurt (Oder): ten members of AKFM (Madagascar), ten members of AREMA (Madagascar), five members of UPRONA (Burundi)

District party school Bad Blankenburg: 34 members of the WPE (Ethiopia)

District Party School Ballenstedt: 20 members of the CP Sudans , 33 members of the WPE (Ethiopia)

District party school Mittweida: 33 members of the WPE (Ethiopia)

District party school Magdeburg: 30 members of the ANC (South Africa)

District party school Neubrandenburg: 30 members of UNIP (Zambia)

District party school Rostock: 30 members of SWAPO (Namibia)

District party school Schwerin: ten members of the CNR (Burkina Faso), ten members of the PVRB (Benin), ten members of the UDPM (Mali)

The costs for these courses, which were attended by about as many participants from Scandinavia, Western Europe, the Arab region and Latin America, amounted to nine million GDR marks for the main budget of the Central Committee of the SED .

exhibition

Exhibition banner at the Stadtmuseum Ballenstedt for the special exhibition (2016)

Since mid-2015 there has been a special exhibition in Ballenstedt on the eventful history of the Großer Ziegenberg training center, first as the “State National Political Education Institute Ballenstedt” and then as the “Wilhelm Liebknecht” district party school of the “SED District Management Hall, Ballenstedt”. The exhibition in the city museum "Wilhelm von Kügelgen" comprises two rooms on the upper floor of the museum and is entitled One School. Two stories. From NAPOBI to the SED party school. Big goat mountain Ballenstedt.

literature

Mike Schmeitzner : Schools of the dictatorship - The cadre training of the KPD / SED in Saxony 1945–1952. Dresden 2001, ISBN 3-931648-36-2
Klaus Schwabe: The omnipotence of the functionary hierarchy in the SED. Schwerin 1994

Web links

The former district party school in Erfurt today

contents