11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee (December 16-18, 1965) marked a turning point in the development of the GDR . The summit of the Central Committee of the SED (ZK), originally conceived as an economic plenum (resolution of the second stage of the “New Economic System of Planning and Management” , NöSPL ) is developing into a “clear-cut discussion” of youth and cultural policy. This was introduced at the 9th Central Committee plenum by Walter Ulbricht . Because of the grave consequences for the GDR's cultural policy and landscape, the conference is also known as the “clear-cut plenary”.

The focus of the indictment was on the artists of the GDR, but the “failure” of the supervisory bodies was also denounced. Erich Honecker turned out to be the spokesman for the creative u. a. " Nihilism ", " skepticism " and " pornography " accused. The plenary had a decisive impact on the cultural scene: numerous films, plays, books and music groups were banned. Among others: The Rabbit Is Me by Kurt Maetzig , Just Do not Think I howl of Frank Vogel , the construction of Heiner Müller , or Stefan Heym The Big Day . The most famous example is certainly Frank Beyer's Trace of Stones . The films that were banned from showing were unofficially referred to as basement films because they all disappeared in the archive.

Five of the writers present spoke up: Wolfgang Joho , Anna Seghers , Kurt Barthel , Helmut Baierl and Christa Wolf . Christa Wolf criticized the culture department by saying that it was not literature that was to blame for the immorality of young people, but rather “a void into which our lack of intellectual offensive attraction has led parts of the youth through which cavities have emerged into which now of course alien, hostile ideologies invade. ”She criticized the prevailing economism because it propagated no goals other than prosperity. She also called for a dialogue between East and West. The plenary ended a short period of liberalization after VI. SED party congress in 1963. The change in the GDR leadership is closely related to the change in power in the Soviet Union ( Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev ).

Voices for the plenary

Erich Honecker :

“Our GDR is a clean state. In it there are immovable standards of ethics and morals, for decency and good manners. "

Brigitte Reimann :

“Today Honecker's speech was printed in the ZK plenum. The cat is out of the bag: the writers are to blame for the moral brutality of the youth. Destructive works of art, brutal representations, Western influence, sexual orgies, the devil knows what - and of course the evil desire to doubt. The writers are grumbling aside, while our good working people build socialism. [...] "

Klaus Wischnewski , chief dramaturge at DEFA :

“Of course, nobody expected such a plenary session. But it was known a short time afterwards that the donkey was meant and that the sack was being cut, so that proxy wars were being waged. An ideological mud fight was deliberately brought about. "

Jochen Mückenberger , General Director of DEFA :

“At the time, I didn't know that it would be so radical and that half the annual production would be banned. (...) The mood towards us was hostile, as if we didn't belong. It was like running the gauntlet. (...) The opinion was unanimous, with one exception. Christa Wolf tried courageously to defend art's claim to truthfulness. She impressed me very much. "

literature

  • Erich Honecker: Report of the Politburo to the 11th meeting of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, 15.-18. December 1965. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin, 1966.
  • Günter Agde (Ed.): Kahlschlag. The 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in 1965. Studies and documents. Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7466-0061-8 .
  • Gunnar Decker : 1965. The short summer of the GDR. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-446-24735-2 .
  • Andreas Kötzing, Ralf Schenk : Forbidden Utopia. The SED, the DEFA and the 11th plenary session . Bertz + Fischer, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86505-406-7 .
  • Werner Mittenzwei : The intellectuals. Literature and Politics in East Germany from 1945 to 2000. Faber and Faber, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-932545-74-5 .
  • Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (Ed.): Trace of Films. Contemporary witnesses about DEFA. (Series of publications by the DEFA Foundation), Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 .
  • Jörg Magenau : Christa Wolf. A biography. (Revised and expanded new edition), Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-463-40394-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brigitte Reimann, diary entry from December 16, 1965, in: BR: Everything tastes like parting. Diaries 1964–1970. Berlin 1998, p. 170.