schematic showing West German governing system
schematic showing West German governing system

UCSB Hist 133c, L13 & 14:
Comparing East and West in the 1960s
lectures on Feb. 8 & 10, 2006 (L12; L15)

by Professor Harold Marcuse (homepage)
contact: marcuse@history.ucsb.edu
created Feb. 10, 2006, updated


Introduction
Periodizations
of E & W history
Organization of
E & W governments
Standards of Living
I
e

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-elites technical 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)
schematic of East German government, 1985
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)
SED CDU, NDPD, LDPD, DBD
FDGB FDJ, DFD, KB
Other groups: farmers, faith, civil servants/military, students, commerce, farmers, r.
schematic of West German government, 1985

 


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 & W 1980: 6% in W, 24% in E 1950: 48% in town >10,000 in both E and W 1980: 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 & W 1980: 6% in W, 24% in E 1950: 48% in town >10,000 in both E and W 1980: 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 1967 W: 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


    Consumer goods table, E vs. W, 1969

I (back to top)



pe (back to top)

  • E

prepared for web by Harold Marcuse, Feb. 10, 2006, updated: see header
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12: Berlin Wall  | next lecture: 15: Foreign Relations
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