The collapse of communist rule in GDR

What did SED propaganda about the economy try to show in the 1980s? What was accurate?

• Full employment - meant some industries were overstaffed. Those deemed ‘politically unreliable’ had little job choice and lack of new housing meant that they often lived in crowded accomodation

• No homelessness

• Cheap rents

• Little change in public transport costs - accurate

• Heavily subsidised essential foods - long queues for food and luxuries were increasingly rare

What changes in the mid-1980s in regards to industrial growth?

• Industrial growth slowed resulting in falling income for the gov

• 82-85 slowed to 1.5% from the 2% 76-80

• Honecker hastily implemented measures inclusing reductions in public spending, selling 1500 political prisoners annually and taking loans from the FRG

• Goods were taken out domestic market to be used as exports leading to greater shortages in consumer goods

What did the Five-year plan 86-90 attempt?

• Construction or modernisation of over 1 million homes

• Encouraged focus on tech - eg microchips

• Good intentions but failed to close the gap between East and West

What hampered the economy?

• High levels of expenditure on defense

• By late 1980s, DM4 billion annually on the Stasi full time employees

What did national debt to Western instituations rise to in the 1980s?

DM40 billion

What made it harder to pay off debt?

Lack of exports to generate currency

What did the GDR resort to to earn hard currency?

• Reselling Soviet oil to the west, meaning GDR had to use the less efficient brown coal

What soviet decision ensured the GDRs terminal decline

• Gs refusal to increase financial support due to the GDRs level of financial debt

How did welfare impact the economic position of the GDR?

• HIGH spending

• Had additional costs in 1980s as heavy industry has polluted cities and environmental damage was affecting inhabitants - air pollution was the worst in Europe

• Decreased investment meant widespread ill-health appeared, a symbol of the economic failures

What was the state of the availability of goods in the GDR?

• 1970s had seen an attempt to focus more on consumer goods, the industrial sector had to ensure 5% of their goods were consumer goods, but this lead to very poor quality goods

• Some goods were produced by the private sector which grew in 1985

• Little difficulty obtaining basic goods like meat, however long queues and uncertainty over product availability lead to dissatisfaction - exchanging goods between people became commonplace

• Tips and bribes were increasingly used in order to get access to goods - ‘Duck goods’ found under the counter, leading to the growth of a ‘second economy’

• Basic goods were often of poor quality

How much of the GDRs trade was with FRG by 1989

20% due to the lack of trade restrictions

The FRG would pay for dissidents - enemies of socialism - with anything that was in low supply in the GDR

How did inter-german co-operation impact the GDRs survival

• prolonged the existence of the GDR

• Undermined the divide between the two the GDR had tried to propagate

How did Glasnost and Perestroika affect the GDR?

• Fear of domestic threat due to the withdrawal from the Brezhnev doctrine by G

• A fundamental restructure such as what G was suggesting would mean a departure from communist ideology for the SED which would completely reduce the divide between East and West

How did the GDR attempt to stop the impact of Gs reforms?

• Propaganda maintaining the GDRs economic superiority within the Eastern bloc claiming reforms were unnecessary

• Emphasis that the constitution did allow other parties

• Propaganda claiming widespread homelessness and unemployment in the USSR

• Censorship of Soviet media - Sputnik banned. EGerman teacher arrested for using an article from Pravda that criticised Honecker

• This pushed copies of Gorbachevs speeches onto the black market and so worked counter-intuitively

• Movement from the USSR created divisions in the SED itself between those pro and those anti Gs reforms

What was the role of protestant opposition groups?

• Church became a focal focal point for those dissatisfied with the SED regime and a basis for growing opposition from the mid 1980s onwards

• By 1987 it became obvious that the church was either unwilling or unable to control more radical elements within it and the SED attempted more open repression - eg the raid of the Environmental library

• The creation of small groups meant that the democratisation of political life was openly debated within the church

• The church was a shelter for new groups to grow and prosper - 1987 the Church from Below was created and showerd that the new generation of christians were rejecting the cautious approach of church leaders - the desire for reform was being nurtured.

How did the change in hungary’s borders impact the fall of the berlin wall?

• May 1989 Hungary dismantled border with Austria - a neutral nation

• GDR citizens fled to Austria via Hungary and could subsequently gain West German passport

How did Honecker try to combat the issue posed by Hungary’s changing border?

• Tried to restrict travel to only Poland in October but this was unsuccessful

• Labelled emigrants as counter-revolutionaries and allowed them exit visas and a SEALED train from Poland/Czechoslovakia through GDR and to FRG

• However many tried to get on the trains leading to violent repression - images of the GDR locking up citizens and violently oppressing others was used repeatedly by Western media and was even circulated in the GDR

How many people left germany between January and November 1989? What sort of people?

• >250000 (illegally or with permission)

• Largely under 40 yr olds, qualified and capable of having careers in the West eg medicine

What was the impact of mass emigration?

• Catalysed further opposition from those in the GDR

• Groups set up; Democracy Now ans New Forum

• These groups called for REFORM not reunification

• Younger members in lower levels of the party began to reject the soviet-style reforms emphasised by protests in Liepzig. This coincided with Honecker’s ill health

When did Gorbachev visit the GDR

October 1989

Why did G visit and what was significant when he appeared?

• 40th anniversary of the GDR

• He got more cheers from the crowd than Honecker and they even chanted for ‘Gorby’ to stay in Berlin and help them

• The celebrations were crashed by people desperate for reform, 700 arrested and a huge embarrassment for the GDR

What did G try to do? Did it work?

• Encouraged Honecker to adopt the soviet-style reforms as the other Eastern European leaders had

• Honecker refused and blamed the FRG for promoting rebellion

What happened after his return to Moscow?

• Larger protests in Liepzig, filled with genuine fear due to the Tiananmen Square massacre in China earlier that year

• Extra doctors were called to St Nikolai Church where the protests were and armed stasi officers were waited around the demonstration

• With fear of a civil war, Honecker did not use violence which showed the weakness of the SED gov to the protesters

What caused Egon Krenz and other Politburo members to move to remove Honecker?

• His refusal to communicate with protests and mass arrests by the Stasi juxtaposed by his hesitance made people question the survival of the GDR

When was Honecker removed?

• October 1989, only 3 weeks before the wall fell

Why did protests continue after Krenz assumed power?

• He was realistically very much like Ulbricht - hardline, supported the Tiananmen Square massacre and limited reforms.

What changed on the protest in Liepzig on the 6th of November 1989?

Calls for ‘Germany - nne Fatherland!’ could be heard among the usual calls for reform

What role did Gunter Schabowski play in the diminished GDR?

• Tiredly announced Krenz’s policy of allowing East Germans visas and passports which, if given, would allow movement to the West.

• He failed to read where it said the start date was the 10th of November, and within an hour Berliners were gathering on both sides of the Berlin Wall-crowds overwhelmed border guards and they ultimately conceeded, deciding against the use of violence

What was the round table and why was it significant

Organisation started by Democracy Now designed to promote internal GDR reform such as national elections, a new constitution and the dissolution of the Stasi.

Still wanted GDR identity - a ‘third way’, however these hopes were dashed as popular opinion overwhelmed them as well, and East Germany moved rapidly towards reunification

How did the SED gov collapse in late 1989

• 1/12 Volkskammer amended the GDR constitution to end the SEDs leading role

• Krenz stepped down after only 44 days of general secretary

• The round table convened to facilitate talks between the traditional bloc parties who were no longer subservient to the SED and the new oppositional groups such as Democracy Now

What was the final act of the SED

• promotion of Hans Modrow as leader who fronted the relaunched party SED-PDS - had a reputation as a reformist and was Gorbachev’s first choice of leader. New gov removed central committee and politburo and there was an announcement of free elections and economic reforms that reduced the socialist style central planning

What change in lyric was significant at the unveiling of the new brandenburg gate

‘Ode to joy’ changed to ‘Ode to freedom’

What was the significance of the March 1990 election

• First free election in GDR for 60 years

• ‘Alliance for Germany’ won 48% (coalition dominated by CDU)

• SPD won 22%

• PDS won 16%

• Alliance for germany had won and the leader of the CDU headed the gov as prime minister

What did the Unification Treaty in august 1990 state?

• The states of the GDR would become states of FRG on the 3rd of October

What was the Two-Plus-Four Treaty and why was it needed?

• For reunification the 4 wartime allies had to agree

• The four allies renounced all rights in Germany including Berlin and all German borders were now guaranteed.

• Also included the USSRs agreement that a reunited Germany could continue membership in NATO as long as NATO troops or weapons were not stationed in what previously was the GDR

Who was Helmut Kohl?

• Chancellor of West Germany

• In November 1989 after the fall of the wall, he boldly put forward a ten point plan which included plans for aid and redevelopment as well as a proposal of a federal system for the whole of Germany. The timescale was a decade but the acknowledgement of a united Germany ignited passionate debate in East Germany

• Visited GDR in Dec 1989 and by feb 1990 he explicitly supported the CDU on rapid reunification

• It is likely he supported it so heavily in order to further his political career

What were englands reservations about reunification?

• Fear of a powerful germany that could cause economic instability in the USSR and Europe

What were frances reservations about reunification?

• Fear of a powerful Germany over fear or invasion and occupation like in WW2

What were Americas reservations about reunification?

• George Bush was supportive although subdued as to not upset Soviets

• This support undermined English reservations

Three main reasons for attainability of an independent East Germany?

• Movement for internal reform was not united and clear leading to disputes over the degree of democratisation

• Kohl had the confidence and power to take leadership and actively promote reunification, aided by his diplomatic skills

• Most significantly, the East German people pushing the momentum for reunification from those protests in 1989!