The GDR 1949-1971

• Wanted to remove 'false consciousness' of capitalism
• 1949-61 - 'the creation of the basis of socialism'
• SED had control of mass organisations
• SED's number of seats in the Volkammer was predetermined - not democratic 
• Jeanette madarasz - SED didnt win over win over the heats and minds of the people 

• May directive - increased work norms by 10%
• Independant businesses worried businesses would be nationalised
• emigration - 447,000 Jan 1951 - April 1953
• low profits for farmers 
• low wages, high taxes, hign food prices
• Ulbricht ignored USSR advice to stop collectivisation, encourage indepent businesses & stop persecution of church 

• 16 June - workers at Stalinalle downed thier tools
• spread to 400 cities and towns - became poltical - demanded free elections
• Went to central union building - no senior SED member met them
• Went to Yaus de Ministeran - Selbman said norms would be abandoned - Politburo said the demands would be considered
• Protestors called of resignation of SED & lift of ban on SPD + more consumer good
• 300,000-372,000 involved - 6% of workforce
• Little participation of MCs
• USSR sent in tanks, 200,000 soldiers and 8000 Soviet police
• Severe fighting in Potzdamer Platz -125 killed
• 18 June - order restored

• Ulbricht given more support form USSR 
• Laverenti arrested
• 8-10 July - visit to Moscow - given permission to eliminate political enemies 
• 6,000 arrested
• 20,000 civil servants & 50,000 party members purged 
• 4th Party Congress - Ulbricht relected First Secretary
• Stasi reformed
• Police & paramillitary groups better equipt
• USSR insisted on more pensoins, more consumer goods, and lower food prices

• Ulbricht's position in 1956
  • Almost removed from power
  • prevented by Hungary uprising - Soviets had to concentrate on Hungery instead
• COMIFORM 
  • commited to socialism
• Hallstein Doctrine 1955
  • aleinated the GDR
  • FRG denied their existence
• Warsaw Pact 1955
  • reaction to NATO 
  • Created the NVA - peoples army - compulsary conscription 1962
• Ostpolitik
  • 1972 - Basic Treaty - recognised each other
  • made reunification possible
  • allowed them to received loans 

Industry

• COMECON
  • Gave Soviets power over their economy - encouraged collectivisation and nationalisation 
• 1st 5 year plan 1951
  • aimed to increase productivity - poor quality
  • introduced high quotas for industry
  • casued high emigration - 15,000 farmers leaves
  • abandoned 1956
• 2nd 5 year plan 1956
  • commited GDR to collectivisation and nationalisation of industry
  • 750,000 farms collectivised
  • abandoned 1959
• 7 year plan 1959
  • Higher production
  • 85% increase in labour productivity
  • 1960 - 85% farms collectivised
  • famine 1961
  • abandoned 1963

• New Economic System 1963
  • allows focus on profits and quality - not socialist
  • abandoned 1968 - Czechoslovakia uprising
  • 1970s - 3% annual economic growth
  • 1971 - almost self-sufficient
  • banking & insurance state won
  • energy incresed 77%

• Agriculture

  • collectivisation - increased size of farms
  • exploited farmers and machinery
  • 1950 - 15,000 farmers left 
  • food shortages
  • rationing until 1958
  • 1959 - 45% collectivised

• Ulbricht tells Krushchev they need to build a wall in berlin to stop worker leaving
• Khrushchev is pressured into agreeing - deteriotion of relations with China, NATO, US deploying nuclear weapons and Hallesiten doctrine
• Nov 1958 - Berlin Ultimatum - Krushchev give allies 6 months to leave west Berlin before he gave East Berlin to the GDR
• Allies reject it but hold Foreign Minister's conference in Geneva 1959
• Adenauer introduces Globke plan -
  • FRG & GDR should recognise each other & Berlin should be a free city if there was a referendum that led to free elections
• Khrushchev walks out of Paris summit - US U2 spy plane shot down over USSR
• JFK become US president - Khrushchev thought he would be naive - JFK refuses to comprimise

• early hours of 13th August 
• Police warned about train delays at border 
• Barbed wire put up - completed by 6am
• Soviet police and tanks guarding the border
• Willi Brandt contacted at 4am
• Tranenpalast - Palace of Tears - train station on border - last palace West and East Berliners saw each other

West 

• US military presence strenghtened in FRG
• West Berliners cut off from family in the East
• Difficult to get visas
• Many West Berliners thought US hadn't done enough

East

• Activities like hot air balloning and scuba diving banned to stop escape attempts
• Encouraged people to work towards socialism - no alternitive
• stabilized economy - no more workers leaving
• 5000 escaped 1961-81
• labelled as protective wall against fascism - celebrated -  commorative 25th anniversary stamp 1986

• Ulbricht promised the people a 'workers paradise'
• FDGB
  • GDR's trade union
  • controled comformity in companies
  • provided leisure for workers
• thoses in profesional jobs doctors, civil servants, teacher etc given higher wages 

• The Free German Youth 1946 
  • 14-25 year olds
  • voluntary but essential for those who wanted to had a career
  • Controlled recreational and leisure, entertainment and schlorships
• Education 
  • Private and religious schools abolished
  • 1954 - Jugendweithe - secular state ceremony 
• Young pioneers
  • edcuational, cultural and sports programmes for 6-14 year olds
  • most children were members in 1960s

Women

• Practical endurable clothes
• laws to increase equality between men and women
• 1965 - family code - men had to do some housework and help raise children
• women given 1 day off a month to do house work 
• shorter working hours and maternity leave
• 1977 - 87% of women 16-69 worked 
• most women did unskilled jobs
• high marriage and divorce rate

Culture

• Rock and roll discouraged - felt fans were slobs
• punishments - forced haircuts, prison, labour
• Music on regulated - 40% from west on GDR label & 60% from eastern bloc
• Bands have to attend musical college and have a clean record
• had to audition for government commitee
• Stasi at concerts
• 1970s - rock scene rose up
• Magazines and newspapers controlled by SED through mass organisation
• literature censored - church publications excluded
• Many writers left
• Some tried to fit works into guidlines
• Some tried to use irony and satire and metaphor to put arcoss secret messeges
• Bitterfeld Conference 1959 - writers encouraged to experience manual labour and workers encourged to try writing

Church

• severved relations between the state and the Church 1960 
• outlawed most christian group
• Germans still worship in thier homes