Change and Continuity in the Development of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Abstract

The treatment of the past of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) is a subject of great political topicality in the reunified Germany. This is demonstrated not least by the large numbers of votes gained by the SED's successor party, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which triggered heated debates about the possibility or impossibility of' forming regional coalition governments (in the Linder) with the participation or merely toleration of the PDS. The SED question also deserves to be given the highest priority by historical research. Through its monopoly of power, this party more than any other domestic political force determined the East German attempt to create a 'real socialist' alternative. All change in the Soviet Zone (SBZ) and then the German Democratic Republic (GDR) presupposed or was accompanied by change in the SED, so that the history of the GDR cannot be adequately explained without reference to the SED's own development. Since in the limited space available it is not possible to trace all the changes and continuities of over 40 years, the present study will concentrate on the period of Stalinization, which had such a deep and lasting influence on both the SED and the GDR, and on the period of reform.