East Germany

Abstract

The German Democratic Republic was founded in October 1949 on the territory corresponding to the Soviet Occupation Zone established following World War II. The Socialist Unity Party (SED), a product of the forced fusion of the Communist and Social Democratic parties in the Soviet Zone in April 1946, became the sole organ of rule in what was effectively a one-party state. East Germany developed a reputation as one of the most stable, successful Soviet satellite states. Its most significant moment of unrest, the workers’ uprising of 1953, was limited in scope, coming nowhere close to the size and significance of the Hungarian uprising three years later. The GDR was basically quiescent after 1953, although its failure to meet basic economic and political expectations resulted in a continual exodus of its citizens. Construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 helped stabilize the population; by settling the status of a divided Berlin, it led to both a modest improvement in relations between the two Germanys and a period of relative political relaxation in the GDR. This unintended thaw was short-lived, with the Eleventh Plenum of the SED in late 1965 signaling a crackdown on the liberalization in culture and politics. The subsequent period was marked by a succession of freezes and thaws. Erich Honecker’s succession to power in 1971 signaled the beginning of a period of liberalization that ultimately proved more superficial than substantial.