Introduction (back to top)

• In these two lectures I talked about how East Germany achieved stability after the Berlin wall was complete, with a focus on the 6th Congress of the SED in 1963, which illustrated the advantages and pitfalls of a socialist planned economy.
• The guiding questions were:
  • How can we organize, measure, compare different states and societies?
• I also compared the two Germanies with regard to
  • how the governments were organized
  • demographics
  • higher education and standard of living (with a discussion of what that might mean)

Periodizations of Eastern and Western History (back to top)

• Phases according to official GDR historians:
  1945-49 "antifascist-democratic transformation"
  1949-1961: building the foundations of socialism
  1961-1970: development of a socialist society
  1971-1984: maturation of socialist society
• Phases of West German history:
  1945-49 pre-history
  1949-1962: Adenauer era, "economic miracle"
  1963-1970: transition (1966-1969: "Grand Coalition")
  1970-1983: social-liberal coalition (Brandt & Schmidt)
  1983: "Wende" (turn); 1985-> "new start" (Aufbruch)
  
• 'Principles for the New Economic System of Planning and Management of National Economy.’
  (Marxist-Leninist) party as a vanguard for:
  scientifically based leadership in the economy
  scientifically grounded central state planning for long term
  comprehensive use of material interest in the form of a consistent system of economic levers.
  (potential) counter-elitestechnical and cultural intelligentsias; Protestant church
  Fulbrook p. 252: "This space for the articulation and yet simultaneous incorporation of dissent at certain periods of the GDR's history…"
  Implementation was not smooth
  diversity within party: technical specialists, dogmatists, pragmatists, humanists, …
  Prague spring

The Organization of E & W Governmental Systems (back to top)

democracy vs. republic: what's the difference? numerical groups vs. coalitions of interest groups Q4: GDR People's chamber: parties and groups(Fulbrook p. 247) SEDCDU, NDPD, LDPD, DBD FDGBFDJ, DFD, KB Other groups: farmers, faith, civil servants/military, students, commerce, farmers, r.

Standards of Living Compared (back to top)

• What to compare: E. Germany vs. W, or vs. E. bloc?
  Demographics: urbanization
  1950: 29% in communities <2,000 in both E & W1980: 6% in W, 24% in E1950: 48% in town >10,000 in both E and W1980: 74% of W vs. 57% of E
  overall pop: E 16.7 mio in 1939 and 1980 (18.4 in 1950)W 43 mio in 1939, 61.7 mio. in 1980
  Standard of living: how to measure
  range of income disparity, social mobility
  table of stats of consumer goods
  Higher education: econ. and gender diversity
• What to compare: E. Germany vs. W, or vs. E. bloc?
  Demographics: urbanization
  1950: 29% in communities <2,000 in both E & W1980: 6% in W, 24% in E1950: 48% in town >10,000 in both E and W1980: 74% of W vs. 57% of E
  overall pop: E 16.7 mio in 1939, 16.7 mio. 1980 (18.4 in 1950)W 43 mio. in 1939, 61.7 mio. in 1980
• Higher education: economic and gender diversity(stats: Fulbrook p. 231f)
  E: 1950s- 50% working class (69% of pop.); 18% in 1967W: 4% in 1950, 7.5% in 1970 (57% of pop.)
• Standard of Living
• How to measure it?
  range of income disparity, social mobility
  access to consumer goods
  
  
  

I (back to top)

pe (back to top)

• E