Prof. Marcuse

Nov. 3, 1998

UCSB Hist 133C
GERMAN HISTORY SINCE 1945

Lecture 11: East Germany to the 1960s

1. Administrative / Announcements / Preliminary
   • Election day-don't forget to vote!
   • "The Promise," at 7pm tonight, Girv. 1115 and tomorrow, HSSB 1173. (1 hr., 55 mins.)
   • office hours tomorrow: 2-4 (sorry to do this again: meeting regarding upcoming TA strike)
   • Term papers (due Nov. 17): see blue sheet
2. East Germany: early years and 1950s
   • Periodization(s) of history
     1945-49
     1949-61
     1961-70
     1971-84
     1984-89
3. First period: Soviet zone of occupation
   • "four Ds"
   • fifth: demontage
   • different denazification
   • SED: Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands): Grotewohl+Pieck
     • SPD, USPD, KPD; after 1989: PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism)
4. Second period: Political and economic developments
   • July 1950: Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973)
     • August 1950 beginning of purge
       4 primary groups
   • Economic reconstruction: 4 handicaps
   • "four year plan," 1951-55: iron, energy, steel
   • Land reform: 1952-53, 1959-60
     1952: 1900=3%; 1954: 5100=14%; 1956: 6300=23%; 1958: 9600=37%; 1960: 19,000=84%
5. 17 June 1953 "popular uprisings" (not "revolts")
   • Stalin's death, then troika of Malenkov, Molotov and Beria; Khrushchev (Feb. 1956 speech)
     • Who contributed?
   • Causes
     • work norms
6. 1956-59: "golden years"
   • still: dissent
   • Second 5-year plan, 1958, changed to seven year in 1959