Chemistry program

As a result of the fifth party congress of the SED , a central chemistry conference was held from November 3rd to 4th, 1958 in the Leunawerke under the leadership of the Central Committee of the SED and the State Planning Commission . As a result, a chemistry program was passed that provided for a doubling of chemical production until 1965 .

implementation

The motto of the program: chemistry gives bread, prosperity and beauty was propagated across the GDR. The aim was to increase the production of materials for the manufacturing industry. The chemical industry was to become the second largest branch of industry after mechanical engineering . In coordination with the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (RGW), the projects

• Schwedt oil processing plant,
• Leuna 2
• Guben man-made fiber plant
• Gypsum sulfuric acid plant in Coswig / Anhalt
• PVC factory in the electrochemical combine Bitterfeld
• VEB Buna , expansion of production based on carbon-carbide

declared as a priority. The expansion of petroleum chemistry in other socialist countries with the help of the GDR was included in the chemistry program.

aims

The chemical program followed the coal energy program and had the task of stabilizing the GDR economy while at the same time eliminating disruptions in production. I.e. The aim of the measure was to make the GDR independent of imports from the non-socialist economic area (NSW) against the backdrop of the Cold War . Another aspect was to increase the supply of consumer goods in East Germany and to exceed the West German standard of living for ideological reasons. The chemicals program embedded in the seven-year plan, as well as the seven-year plan, could not be fulfilled to the planned extent. Nevertheless, the chemistry program set an important course in the GDR.

literature

• Uwe Fraunholz: Mobilization of the “Productive Force Science”? The universities and the chemistry program of the GDR in the 1950s and 1960s . In: Dresden contributions to the history of technical sciences. 28, 2003, pp. 33–70, urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa-139014 (free full text).
• Rainer Karlsch, Raymond Stokes: Factor oil: the mineral oil industry in Germany 1859-1974 . CH Beck, 2003, ISBN 3-406-50276-8 .

Web links

• Chemical program - GDR plastic project DokuWiki ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Chemistry conference in Leuna 1958 ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Spiegel-online: Art-History: Nylon, Perlon, Dederon from April 28, 1999.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Deutschlandradio Kultur: 50 Years Ago: Ulbricht's Offensive - Visions of Socialism and Prosperity at the 5th Party Congress of the SED 1958 on July 16, 2008.