Netherlands-GDR association

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Flag of the Netherlands
Flag of the GDR

The Netherlands-GDR Association ( Dutch : de Vereniging Nederland-DDR ) was a friendship society active in the Netherlands , which disseminated information there about the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and wanted to promote contacts between the Dutch population and the GDR. Politically, it was close to the real socialist system of the GDR.

history

precursor

Committee in the CPN

Logo of the SED

The first activities to establish such an organization began in the 1950s. At the suggestion of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) ruling in the GDR , the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) founded a Netherlands-GDR committee on August 4, 1955 . The secretary was Willem Neven , who was replaced by Tonny van Eek in 1958 . Another change took place in 1959. Jeane Kuyper-Meeser became the new secretary . During this period there was a marked cooling of relations between the SED and the CPN. In the course of the de-Stalinization in many communist parties, the CPN decided to isolate itself. The work of the committee was practically stopped. Efforts on the part of the GDR to achieve a revival failed. Even an advance by the KPD, which was illegal at the time, in 1965 at the CPN was unsuccessful.

Attempt to found the association in 1968

On the occasion of a trip to the GDR for another reason at the beginning of November 1966 by Fries de Vries , chairman of the foreign affairs commission of the Dutch social democratically oriented Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), the GDR developed the idea of ​​founding a circle of friends. In fact, efforts began in the following years to found such a circle as an association. In February 1968 the draft of the statutes of the association was available. The circle of people addressed this time should be significantly larger than that of the CPN committee and also extend beyond the people who are ideologically closely associated with the GDR. The project came to a standstill due to the invasion of the CSSR of the Warsaw Pact in August 1968, which was strongly criticized in the West and which the GDR also supported. The invasion also met with severe criticism in the left spectrum of Western societies. A broad-based friendship society could not be successfully founded in this climate.

Recognition Committee

Since its founding in 1949, the GDR had tried to gain international recognition as a state. The Federal Republic, consisting only of the West German states, claimed sole representation of Germany and tried with the Hallstein doctrine to prevent the GDR from being recognized. Like most states in Western Europe, the Netherlands had not recognized the GDR diplomatically. In the process of detente in many Western European countries were internal political debates whether a recognition of the GDR would have done.

Logo of the D 66

In the Netherlands, the small left-wing Pacifist Socialist Partij (PSP), the left-liberal Democrats 66 (D 66) founded in 1966 and the CPN had spoken out in favor of recognition. Since 1966, this demand was also discussed in the PvdA and promoted there by the Nieuw Links group . From 1969 the PvdA also demanded recognition of the GDR.

On the part of DDR efforts were made in various countries and at the international level recognition committee to be formed, which should address the demand for recognition of the GDR in the Western world. The aim was to set up such a committee for the Netherlands. From the GDR's point of view, this had the advantage that it also addressed people who were critical of the ideological orientation of the GDR, but saw recognition as an important part of the policy of détente.

On December 12, 1970, the Nederlands Komitee voor de Erkenning van de GDR was actually founded . It was also composed of politicians from PvdA, D'66, PSP and CPN. In addition to Fries de Vries, the PvdA Senator George Cammelbeeck and the former Nieuw Links chairman Hans van den Doel were also involved. A total of 22 members of the committee are listed for 1970. Care had been taken to ensure that the representatives of the CPN and PSP, which are ideologically closer to the GDR, were not too prominent. Even so, Fred van der Spek took over from the PSP as general secretary. The committee's activities, however, were manageable. On the part of the GDR there was talk of “permanent hibernation” internally.

On January 5, 1973, the Netherlands recognized the GDR. During the same period, the GDR was recognized by many western states. The reason for this was the world politics aimed at detente and less the work of the recognition committees. After achieving its work objective, the committee ceased its work on February 1, 1973. However, it formed the basis for the efforts to establish a friendship society that were now beginning.

founding

The association was founded on October 12, 1974 in Amsterdam . The first chairman was Dick van der Meer , who was replaced by Piet Burggraaf in 1979 . The main aim of the association was to spread a positive image of the GDR. The association also tried to reach the Dutch, who were skeptical about the state system of the GDR. The term “friendship society” was not used because it sounded too close to the SED. It is reported that this was successful within certain limits and that there was a mixed membership. Unlike in similar GDR friendship societies in western foreign countries, in which the communist brother party of the SED exercised control, this was not possible in the Netherlands because of the weakness of the CPN and its bad relationship with the SED. The Netherlands-GDR association was thus somewhat distant from the GDR and thus potentially more critical than comparable associations. It is speculated that the GDR secured influence and information through individual particularly connected people. There are reports that the treasurer Rien Beukema , who was in office until 1976, wrote personal letters to the GDR, although it is not known whether she was aware that these letters were also officially evaluated.

An important motivation of the Dutch members was the fact that the GDR saw itself as an anti-fascist state. The chairman Burggraaf said in December 1989: "The existence of the GDR was and is for us a guarantee against a possibly recurring danger, which we got to know with all its horrors in the past of the 30s and 40s."

Nevertheless, it can be stated that the association was largely uncritical in the service of the GDR. After the lack of a critical comment on the expulsion of the GDR artist Wolf Biermann , who was critical of the SED, from the GDR in 1976, which was also heavily criticized in the Netherlands , many members of the Netherlands-GDR association resigned.

Political change in 1989

The strong social changes in the real socialist countries of Europe in the second half of the 1980s also led to a more critical attitude within the association towards the politics of the GDR. The statements of approval of the then deputy chairman of the GDR State Council, Egon Krenz, on the Tian'anmen massacre in June 1989 met with criticism within the association.

The democratization of the GDR that accompanied the political change was welcomed by the unification. However , the society was skeptical of the efforts towards German unity that existed within the GDR from the end of 1989 . The secretary Neijts feared an "incorporation of the GDR into the Federal Republic". After the GDR joined the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990, the association disbanded on October 6, 1990.

activity

The association published a quarterly magazine that was characterized by positive reports about the GDR and the situation there. East German artists were invited to the Netherlands and exhibitions about the GDR were organized. There were also organized trips to the GDR. In 1988 a first youth meeting was held. If desired, contacts were made in the GDR. City partnerships between cities in both countries were arranged. The best-known example is the city partnership between Rotterdam and Dresden .

Politically, the association was in favor of the politics of the SED, at least it refrained from public criticism. This only changed in the phase of political change in the GDR in 1989. Financially, the work of the association was largely guaranteed by the GDR. In 1990 it was dissolved.

Work in the GDR

The counterpart on the part of the GDR was the League for Friendship between Nations , which was not, however, equally active. Due to the political system of the GDR, there was no similar advertising for the capitalist Netherlands within the GDR. Due to the severely restricted freedom of travel, there were hardly any return visits from GDR citizens to the Netherlands, even within the work of the friendship society. As far as this was the case in isolated cases, the GDR visitors were predominantly selected functionaries.

literature

  • PA Burggraaf, Zestien jaar geschiedenis Vereniging Nederland-DDR , Groenetan, self-published, 1993, in Dutch (not consulted for the preparation of the article)
  • Carel Horstmeier , recognition now! - The recognition policy of the GDR based on the case study Netherlands 1949 - 1973 , Master's thesis 1995 ( PDF )

Web links

credentials

  1. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition Now, page 75
  2. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition Now, page 77
  3. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition now, page 78
  4. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition Now, page 54
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Dossier of the Center for Netherlands Studies from 2004, Netherlands-GDR Association
  6. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition Now, page 85
  7. ↑ Carel Horstmeier, Recognition Now, page 86
  8. ^ Dossier of the Center for Netherlands Studies from 2004, Wolf Biermanns expatriation 1976
  9. ^ GDR-Revue 2/88, publisher League for Friendship of Nations