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186-621: The bureaucratic union apparatus was a basic component and tool of the SED ’s power structure, constructed on the same strictly centralist hierarchical model as all other major GDR organizations. The smallest unit was a Kollektiv , which nearly all workers in any organisation belonged to, including state leaders and party functionaries. They recommended trustworthy people as the lowest FDGB functionaries and voted for them in open-list ballots. The higher positions ranged from "Departmental Union Leader" ( Abteilungsgewerkschaftsleiter , AGL) to Leader of

372-476: A Treasurer , an Agitator, and according to the size of the group other associated members included in the Party Group leadership. Where there were several Party Groups operating in a single place they would be combined in a Departmental Party Organisation (APO / Abteilungsparteiorganisation ) which in turn would have its own leadership and an APO Party Secretariat. The Party conference  [ de ]

558-606: A de facto part of West Germany, in order to form the city of Berlin , which joined the Federal Republic as its third city-state alongside Bremen and Hamburg . Berlin was still formally under Allied occupation (that would only be terminated later, as a result of the provisions of the Two Plus Four Treaty ), but the city's administrative merger and inclusion in the enlarged Federal Republic as its capital, effective on 3 October 1990, had been greenlit by

744-767: A one-party state . Other institutional popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED; these parties included the Christian Democratic Union , the Liberal Democratic Party , the Democratic Farmers' Party , and the National Democratic Party . These parties were largely subservient to the SED, and had to accept the SED's " leading role " as a condition of their existence. Long one of

930-588: A protectorate of France (1947–1956), united with West Germany (and thus rejoined Germany) as the 11th state of the Federal Republic; this was called "Little Reunification" although the Saar Protectorate itself was only one disputed territory , as its existence was opposed by the Soviet Union. The other option was set out in Article 146, which provided a mechanism for a permanent constitution for

1116-625: A "destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force in Europe". In December 1989, she warned fellow European Community leaders at a Council summit in Strasbourg which Kohl attended, "We defeated the Germans twice! And now they're back!". Although Thatcher had stated her support for German self-determination in 1985, she now argued that Germany's allies only supported reunification because they did not believe it would ever happen. Thatcher favored

1302-417: A "politically stable and economically efficient socialist state", and declared its intention to maintain its present policy course. East Germany's successes, presented as a personal triumph for Honecker, marked a crowning point in his political career. Mikhail Gorbachev 's presence at the congress endorsed Honecker's policy course, which was also strengthened by some reshuffling of the party leadership. Overall,

1488-484: A "return to the nation-state of earlier times". In the 1980s, opposition to a united German country and support for lasting peaceful coexistence between the two German countries were very common amongst left-wing parties of West Germany, especially the SPD and Greens . The division of Germany was considered necessary to maintain peace in Europe, and the emergence of another German state was also seen as possibly dangerous to

1674-682: A Ministry of District-led and foodstuffs industry). Department could de facto issue binding orders to the respective ministries, though de jure this was only possible for the secretaries. A notable exception was the Ministry of People's Education, which was not under supervision of the People's Education Department, but directly under the General Secretary, as Minister Margot Honecker was the General Secretary's wife. Secretaries were usually assigned to multiple departments, for example, throughout

1860-762: A Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany"); it came into force on 1 July 1990, with the West German Deutsche Mark replacing the East German mark as the official currency of East Germany. The Deutsche Mark had a very high reputation among the East Germans and was considered stable. While the GDR transferred its financial policy sovereignty to West Germany,

2046-740: A border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union , which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg , distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to

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2232-463: A course of quick unification was negotiated, the public responded with concern. In February 1990, two-thirds of West Germans considered the pace of unification as "too fast". West Germans were also hostile towards the newcomers from the East—according to an April 1990 poll, only 11% of West Germans welcomed the refugees from East Germany. After unification, the national divide persisted—a survey by

2418-568: A cultural defeat", as "blooming of German culture and philosophy is possible only at times of fruitful national disunity", and also cited Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's opposition to the first unification of Germany in 1871: Goethe wrote: "Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck are large and brilliant, and their impact on the prosperity of Germany is incalculable. Yet, would they remain what they are if they were to lose their independence and be incorporated as provincial cities into one great German Empire? I have reason to doubt this." Grass also condemned

2604-535: A division that Churchill had referred to as the " Iron Curtain ". Gorbachev announced in 1988 that the Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine and allow the Eastern European countries to freely determine their own internal affairs. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring), and taken further by Gorbachev,

2790-485: A forum for examining the future challenges facing the party in domestic and foreign policy. On the foreign policy front, the major events were various speeches delivered by representatives of West European Marxist–Leninist parties, particularly the Italian, Spanish, and French, all of which expressed in varying ways ideological differences with the Soviet Union. At the same time, although allowing different views to be heard,

2976-692: A merger of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) which was based in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin. Official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties. However, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed. By all accounts,

3162-455: A midpoint in the development of SED policy and programs. Most of the social and economic goals announced at the 7th Congress had been reached; however, the absence of a definitive statement on further efforts to improve the working and living conditions of the population proved to be a source of concern. The SED sought to redress these issues by announcing, along with the Council of Ministers and

3348-509: A neutral Germany, as he believed that would destroy NATO, cause the United States and Canada to leave Europe, and cause Britain and France to form an anti-German alliance. The United States increased its support of Kohl's policies, as it feared that otherwise Oskar Lafontaine , a critic of NATO, might become Chancellor. Horst Teltschik, Kohl's foreign policy advisor, later recalled that Germany would have paid "100 billion deutschmarks" if

3534-610: A new German state became impossible. The Federal Republic of Germany, or "West Germany", a liberal democracy , was established in the US , UK , and French zones on 23 May 1949. West Germany was de jure established in the Trizone occupied by three Western Allies and established on 1 August 1948. Its forerunner was the Bizone formed by the US and UK zones on 1 January 1947 before the inclusion of

3720-459: A new party program and a new party membership statute. Walter Ulbricht was re-elected as the party's First Secretary. A new economic policy was introduced, more strongly centralized – the "New Economic System". First Secretary Walter Ulbricht announced the "ten requirements of the socialist moral and ethics". During his report at the 7th Party Congress in 1967, Erich Honecker had called for a return to an orthodox Socialist economic system, away from

3906-660: A period of economic and political stagnation , and correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics . In 1987, the United States President Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate , challenging Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to " tear down this wall " which prevented freedom of movement in Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West,

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4092-527: A picnic near the border at Sopron . It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall had been built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea of Karl's father Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The media reaction of Erich Honecker in

4278-523: A poll in July 1990 found that the main motivation for reunification was economic concern rather than nationalism. Opinion polls in the late 1980s showed that young East Germans and West Germans saw each other as foreign, and did not regard themselves as a single nation. Heinrich August Winkler observes that "an evaluation of the corresponding data in the Deutschland Archiv in 1989 showed that

4464-537: A pool for former Nazis and Wehrmacht officers. Nonetheless, the SED continued to absorb former Nazi Party members. By 1954, 27 percent of all members of the SED and 32.2 percent of all public service employees were former members of the Nazi Party. Soviet negotiators reported that SED politicians frequently went beyond the boundaries of the political statements which had been approved by the Soviet monitors, and there

4650-565: A realistic possibility, however, significant NATO and European opposition emerged in private. A poll of four countries in January 1990 found that a majority of surveyed Americans and French supported reunification, while British and Poles were more divided: 69 percent of Poles and 50 percent of French and British stated that they worried about a reunified Germany becoming "the dominant power in Europe". Those surveyed stated several concerns, including Germany again attempting to expand its territory,

4836-621: A result, the early SED party apparatus frequently became effectively immobilised as former KPD members began discussing any proposal, however small, at great length with former SPD members, so as to achieve consensus and avoid offending them. Soviet intelligence claimed to have a list of names of an SPD group within the SED that was covertly forging links with the SPD in the West and even with the Western Allied occupation authorities. A problem for

5022-468: A reunified Germany. This route would have entailed a formal union between two German states that then would have had, among other things, to create a new constitution for the newly-established country. However, by the spring of 1990, it was apparent that drafting a new constitution would require protracted negotiations that would open up numerous issues in West Germany. Even without this to consider, by

5208-518: A revival of Nazism, and the German economy becoming too powerful. While British, French, and Americans favored Germany remaining a member of NATO, a majority of Poles supported neutrality for the reunified state. The key ally was the United States. Although some top American officials opposed quick unification, Secretary of State James A. Baker and President George H. W. Bush provided strong and decisive support to Kohl's proposals. We defeated

5394-495: A separate state. However, SED members were overrepresented amongst the responders, constituting 13% of the population, but 23% of those polled. Reporting on a student protest in East Berlin on 4 November 1989, Elizabeth Pond  [ de ] noted that "virtually none of the demonstrators interviewed by Western reporters said they wanted unification with the Federal Republic". In West Germany, once it became clear that

5580-643: A single sovereign state , which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany to form present-day Germany . This date was chosen as the customary German Unity Day , and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national holiday in Germany since 1991. On

5766-534: A structure that ensured the "leading role" of the SED. This status was spelled out expressly after the constitutional changes introduced in 1968, which defined East Germany as a "socialist state" led by "the working class and its Marxist–Leninist party." The Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the president of the National legislature ("Volkskammer") were also members of the Politburo. The meetings of

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5952-528: A transition period of five years for reunification, during which the two Germanies would remain separate states. Although she gradually softened her opposition, as late as March 1990, Thatcher summoned historians and diplomats to a seminar at Chequers to ask "How dangerous are the Germans?", and the French ambassador in London reported that Thatcher told him, "France and Great Britain should pull together today in

6138-528: A united Germany". Although she welcomed East German democracy, Thatcher worried that a rapid reunification might weaken Gorbachev, and she favored Soviet troops staying in East Germany as long as possible to act as a counterweight to a united Germany. Thatcher, who carried in her handbag a map of Germany's 1937 borders to show others the "German problem", feared that Germany's "national character", size, and central location in Europe would cause it to be

6324-477: Is written in our Constitution – that no one has the right to give up a policy whose goal is the eventual reunification of Germany. But in a realistic view of the world, this is a goal that could take generations beyond my own to achieve. Mikhail Gorbachev had led the country as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1985. During this time, the Soviet Union experienced

6510-677: The Allensbach Institute in April 1993 found that only 22% of West Germans and 11% of East Germans felt they were one nation. Dolores L. Augustine  [ de ] observed that "the sense of oneness felt by East Germans and West Germans in the euphoric period after the fall of the wall proved all too transitory", as the old divisions persisted and Germans not only still saw themselves as two separate people, but also acted in accordance with their separate, regional interests. This state of mind became known as Mauer im Kopf ("wall in

6696-764: The Berlin City Council elections held that same year, the merger fared more poorly. In that contest, the SED received less than half the votes of the SPD. The bulk of the Berlin SPD remained aloof from the merger, even though Berlin was deep inside the Soviet zone. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany ( Russian initials: SVAG) directly governed the eastern areas of Germany following World War II, and their intelligence operations carefully monitored all political activities. An early intelligence report from SVAG Propaganda Administration director Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Tiulpanov indicates that

6882-515: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe . Before the congress was convened, the SED had conducted a "People's Discussion" in order openly to air public concerns related to East Germany's responsibility in honoring the final document of the Helsinki conference. The 10th Congress, which took place in April 1981, celebrated the status quo; the meeting unanimously re-elected Honecker to

7068-686: The European Economic Community to call for an extraordinary European summit in Dublin in April 1990 to calm the fears held of fellow members of the EEC. Haughey saw similarities between Ireland and Germany, and said "I have expressed a personal view that coming as we do from a country which is also divided many of us would have sympathy with any wish of the people of the two German States for unification". Der Spiegel later described other European leaders' opinion of reunification at

7254-623: The Foundation of the East German state . An alternative date to commemorate the reunification could have been the day the Berlin Wall came down, 9 November (1989), which coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, and the defeat of Hitler's first coup in 1923. However, 9 November was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogroms against Jews in 1938 ( Kristallnacht ), so

7440-654: The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, also expressed his vehement opposition to the unification of Germany, citing his tragic memories of World War II as the reason. According to Grass, the emergence of National Socialism and the Holocaust had deprived Germany of its right to exist as a unified nation state: he wrote: "Historical responsibility dictates opposition to reunification, no matter how inevitable it may seem." He also claimed that "national victory threatens

7626-649: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN), while relinquishing membership in the Warsaw Pact (WP) and other international organizations to which only East Germany belonged. The term "German reunification" was given to the process of the German Democratic Republic joining the Federal Republic of Germany with full German sovereignty from the four Allied-occupied countries to distinguish it from

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7812-587: The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), abandoning Marxism–Leninism and declaring itself a democratic socialist party. It received 16.4% of the vote in the 1990 parliamentary elections . In 2007, the PDS merged with Labour and Social Justice (WASG) into The Left ( Die Linke ), the sixth largest party in the German Parliament following the 2021 federal election . The SED was founded on 21 April 1946 by

7998-683: The Solidarity movement took hold in Poland. Further inspired by other images of brave defiance , a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence. However, the dismantling of the old Hungarian border facilities did not open the borders nor were the previous strict controls removed, and the isolation by the Iron Curtain was still intact over its entire length. The opening of

8184-612: The West German constitution ( Grundgesetz or Basic Law) of 1949 to facilitate eventual reunification. The Basic Law stated that it was only intended for temporary use until a permanent constitution could be adopted by the German people as a whole. Under that document's (then existing) Article 23, any new prospective Länder could adhere to the Basic Law by a simple majority vote. The initial 11 joining states of 1949 constituted

8370-621: The process of unification of most of the German states into the German Empire (German Reich) led by the Kingdom of Prussia that took place from 18 August 1866 to 18 January 1871, 3 October 1990 was the day when Germany again became a single nation-state . However, for political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term " reunification " during the runup to what Germans frequently refer to as Die Wende (roughly: "the turning point"). The 1990 treaty defines

8556-500: The "Central BGL" ( Betriebsgewerkschaftsleitung - Company Union Leadership in combines); they were normally full-time and held by SED members with a history of toeing the party line, or in some cases bloc party members. Their jobs, like those of the FDGB district leaders, were assured until they retired as long as they did not stray from party policy. The chairman of the FDGB was Herbert Warnke until his death on March 26, 1975, when he

8742-499: The "Daily Mirror" of 19 August 1989 showed the public in East and West that the Eastern European communist rulers had suffered a loss of power in their own sphere, and that they were no longer in control of events: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland , in which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Marks, and then they were persuaded to come to

8928-466: The 11th Congress exhibited confidence in East Germany's role as the strongest economy and the most stable country in Eastern Europe. Gorbachev praised the East German experience as proof that central planning could be effective and workable in the 1980s. German reunification German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung ) was the process of re-establishing Germany as

9114-519: The 1930s, denouncing the emerging anti-Zionism , unification sentiments and reemergence of pan-Germanism . Hermann L. Gremliza , who left the SPD in 1989 because of its support for German unification, was repulsed by the universal support for unification amongst most major parties, stating that it reminded him of " Social Democrats joining the National Socialists (Nazis) in singing the German national anthem in 1933, following Hitler 's declaration of his foreign policy." Several thousand people joined

9300-410: The 1980s, the SED held to an orthodox line. The party organisation was based on, and co-located with, the institutions of the German Democratic Republic. Its influence stood behind and shaped every facet of public life. The party required every member to live by the mantra "Where there is a comrade, the party is there too" ( Wo ein Genosse ist, da ist die Partei ). This meant that the party organisation

9486-409: The Anti-Germans' 1990 protests against German reunification. According to Stephen Brockmann, German reunification was feared and opposed by ethnic minorities, particularly those of East Germany. He observes that "right-wing violence was on the rise throughout 1990 in the GDR, with frequent instances of beatings, rapes, and fights connected with xenophobia", which led to a police lockdown in Leipzig on

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9672-408: The Basic Law as it then stood, but rather of the Basic Law as subsequently amended in line with the Unification Treaty. Legally, the reunification did not create a third state out of the two. Rather, West Germany effectively absorbed East Germany. Accordingly, on Unification Day, 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, and five new federated states on its former territory joined

9858-409: The Basic Law was in force was simply extended to include its constituent parts. Thus, while legally East Germany as a whole acceded to the Federal Republic, the constituent parts of East Germany entered into the Federal Republic as five new states, which held their first elections on 14 October 1990. Nevertheless, although the Volkskammer's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated

10044-407: The Central Committee also held the Chairmanship of the Politburo (along with all his other functions). The country's government, formally headed by the Council of Ministers , served largely to implement the Politburo's decisions. This meant that while the Council of Ministers was nominally the highest executive authority in the GDR, in reality it was under the permanent control of the Party Committees,

10230-408: The Central Committee and sometimes even candidate or full members (always the First Secretary in East Berlin) of the Politburo. First Secretaries of Bezirke that had a significant border with West Germany usually also served on the National Defence Council . National Defence Council member When the Party Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the party's leading element. Power

10416-436: The Central Committee could convene a party conference to resolve policy and personnel issues. In the spring of 1971, the 8th Congress rolled back some of the programs associated with the Ulbricht era and emphasized short-term social and economic problems. The SED used the occasion to announce its willingness to cooperate with West Germany and the Soviet Union in helping to solve a variety of international problems, particularly

10602-426: The Central Committee. That being said, some Politburo members and secretaries held an unofficial number two spot, most notably Karl Schirdewan and then Honecker during the tenure of Walter Ulbricht and Paul Verner , then Egon Krenz during the tenure of Honecker. In the political hierarchy of the GDR, members of the Central Committee ranked above government ministers. In July 1950, at the third Party Conference,

10788-427: The East. An influential part of the reunification opponents were the so-called Anti-Germans . Emerging from the student Left, Anti-Germans were supportive of Israel and strongly opposed German nationalism , arguing that an emergence of a united German state would also result in a return of fascism ( Nazism ). They considered the social and political dynamics of 1980s and 1990s Germany to be comparable to those of

10974-429: The FDGB also offered various "concessions". In the East German system, the FDGB was in charge of ideological control and the conformity of companies. Though formalized, the union held responsibility for setting work norms, through negotiating with management, protecting workers from management caprice, and enforcing GDR labor code and worker protections. The union was criticised for holding too much power and making

11160-438: The FDGB school between 1947 and 1990. The college closed in September 1990 just before German reunification . The buildings have been used by the Internat des Bildungszentrums der Handwerkskammer Berlin (Berlin Chamber of Skilled Crafts training school) since 2007. In May 1990, shortly before German reunification , the FDGB was dissolved. Many former members did not join the West German (now German) unions, some, due to

11346-435: The Federal Republic as the five Länder (states) of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , and Thuringia . These states were the five original states of East Germany, but were abolished in 1952 in favor of a centralized system. As part of the 18 May treaty, the five East German states were reconstituted on 23 August. East Berlin , the capital of East Germany, reunited with West Berlin ,

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11532-445: The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the Establishment of German Unity), was approved by large majorities in the legislative chambers of both countries on 20 September 1990 (442–47 in the West German Bundestag and 299–80 in the East German Volkskammer). The Treaty passed the West German Bundesrat on the following day, 21 September 1990. The amendments to the Federal Republic's Basic Law that were foreseen in

11718-412: The Federal Republic of Germany. East and West Berlin were reunited as the third full-fledged federated city-state of the enlarged Federal Republic. The reunited city became the capital of the enlarged Federal Republic. Under this model, the Federal Republic of Germany, now enlarged to include the five states of the former GDR plus the reunified Berlin, continued to exist under the same legal personality that

11904-481: The French zone. The Trizone did not include West Berlin, which was also occupied by three Western Allies, although the city was de facto part of the West German state; the German Democratic Republic or "East Germany", a communist state with a planned and public economy which declared itself not the successor of the German Reich a legal-former German state, was established in the Soviet zone on 7 October 1949. It de jure did not include East Berlin, occupied by

12090-488: The GDR was perceived by a large portion of the younger generation as a foreign nation with a different social order which was no longer a part of Germany". Winkler argues that the reunification was not a product of popular opinion, but rather "crisis management on the highest level". Support for unified Germany fell once the prospect of it became a tangible reality in the fall of 1989. A December 1989 poll by Der Spiegel indicated strong support for preserving East Germany as

12276-408: The GDR's existence, there was one Economy Secretary. The party newspaper Neues Deutschland was organised as a department, its Editor-in-chief having department head rank. Similarly, the Party Academy and the Institute for Marxism–Leninism were organised as departments, their directors having department head rank. The 1st Party Congress (Vereinigungsparteitag) , which convened on 21 April 1946,

12462-407: The GDR, i.e., East Germany, in October 1949. The West German state joined NATO in 1955. In 1990, a range of opinions continued to be maintained over whether a reunited Germany could be said to represent "Germany as a whole" for this purpose. In the context of the revolutions of 1989; on 12 September 1990, under the Two Plus Four Treaty with the four Allies, both East and West Germany committed to

12648-450: The GDR. Additional problems growing out of the expanding relationship with West Germany included conflict between Bonn and East Berlin on the rights and privileges of West German news correspondents in East Germany; the social unrest generated by the "two-currency" system, in which East German citizens who possessed West German D-marks were given the privilege of purchasing scarce luxury goods at special currency stores ( Intershops ); and

12834-411: The German borders which had been in force before the annexation of Austria . With the Potsdam Agreement at the Potsdam Conference between the three main Allies defeating the European Axis (US, UK, and the USSR) on 2 August 1945, Germany was divided by the Allies into occupation zones, each under the military government of one of these four countries. The agreement also modified Germany's border, with

13020-479: The Germans twice ! And now they're back! British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was one of the most vehement opponents of German reunification. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Thatcher told Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that neither the United Kingdom nor, according to her, Western Europe, wanted the reunification of Germany. Thatcher also clarified that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it, telling Gorbachev, "We do not want

13206-411: The Oder–Neisse line, fled and were expelled to post-war German and Austrian territory. Saarland, an area in the French occupation zone , was separated from Germany when its own constitution took effect to become a French protectorate on 17 December 1947. Among the Allies, geo-political tension between the Soviet Union and Western Allies in occupied Germany as part of their tension in the world led

13392-536: The Party Central Committee. Care was taken over the proportions of women, of youth representatives, of members from approved Mass organisations and of "exemplary" workers. Party secretaries existed at different levels within the party. They usually held their offices on an unsalaried basis, often combining their party secretarial duties with a salaried function. Where a basic administrative unit grew beyond certain size tension tended to arise between

13578-479: The Party Secretaries was the organisation of political work. They prepared the party meetings and organised political training in partnership with the party leaderships. They ensured implementation of and compliance with party decisions and undertook general reporting and leadership duties. They were also required to provide a monthly report on "Morale and Opinions" ( "Stimmungen und Meinungen" ) concerning

13764-584: The Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED usually took place every Tuesday in the conference room on the 2nd floor of the Central Committee building on Werderscher Markt, starting at 10 a.m. The meetings usually lasted only 2 hours and included up to 10 to 20 items on the agenda. According to former Politburo members Egon Krenz and Günter Schabowski , most Politburo members had little to say, much less dissent. The Central Committee Secretariat met each Wednesday to implement decisions finalised by

13950-632: The Politburo the previous day and to prepare the agenda for the Central Committee's next weekly meeting. The Secretariat comprised the Central Committee Party Secretaries. The Secretariat played a decisive role in selecting the Nomenklatura of the Central Committee. Nomenklatura members were the holders of the top 300 or so positions in the party and the state: changes to the Nomenklatura membership list required

14136-539: The President of the West German Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth , by means of a letter dated 25 August 1990. Thus, formally, the procedure of reunification by means of the accession of East Germany to West Germany, and of East Germany's acceptance of the Basic Law already in force in West Germany, was initiated as the unilateral, sovereign decision of East Germany, as allowed by the provisions of article 23 of

14322-569: The SED Central Committee. Its role was enforcing conformity and eliminating perceived opposition within the party ranks, closely working with the Stasi and Volkspolizei . It had corresponding bodies at all levels of the party in the form of Bezirk (BPKK) and district Party Control Commissions (KPKK). Notable ZPKK victims include Robert Havemann and Rudolf Herrnstadt . There also existed a Central Auditing Commission (ZRK) to inspect

14508-681: The SED Secretary General Egon Krenz . Some people have stated that the reunification can be classified as an annexation of the GDR by the FRG. Scholar Ned Richardson-Little from the University of Erfurt noted that the terminology of an annexation can be interpreted from backgrounds across the political spectrum. In 2015, a Russian proposal was made that classified it as an annexation. Mikhail Gorbachev named it 'nonsense'. In 2010, Matthias Platzeck referred to

14694-449: The SED rejected many of these criticisms in light of its effort to maintain the special relationship with the Soviet Union emphasized by Honecker. Another major point of emphasis at the congress was the issue of inter-German détente . On the East German side, the benefits were mixed. The GDR regime considered economic benefits as a major advantage, but the party viewed with misgivings the rapid increase in travel by West Germans to and through

14880-518: The SED was a full-fledged Communist party—essentially the KPD under a new name. It began to develop along lines similar to other Communist parties in the Soviet bloc. Although other parties nominally continued to exist, the Soviet occupation authorities forced them to join in the National Front of Democratic Germany , a nominal coalition of parties that was for all intents and purposes controlled by

15066-461: The SED was created. By 1989 , membership of the Central Committee had increased to 165: there were also 57 people listed as candidates for membership. All the high ranking party functionaries were represented in it along with other senior government officials (provided they were already party members). Beyond the professional functionaries and politicians the Committee also included the chiefs of

15252-475: The SED's Central Committee was elected on the Soviet model , which at this time employed a single list electoral system: most members of the serving party executive were replaced. It was striking that more than 62% of the new Central Committee members had been members of the Communist Party (KPD) before the party merger of 1946. Four years on, there was little sign of the KPD/SPD parity that had been invoked when

15438-465: The SED. By ensuring that Communists predominated on the list of candidates put forward by the National Front, the SED effectively predetermined the composition of legislative bodies in the Soviet zone, and from 1949 in East Germany. Over the years, the SED gained a reputation as one of the most hardline parties in the Soviet bloc. When Mikhail Gorbachev initiated reforms in the Soviet Union in

15624-568: The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, comprising the Four-Power Authorities —retained authority over Berlin , such as control over air travel and its political status. From the onset, the Soviet Union sought to use reunification as a way to push Germany out of NATO into neutrality, removing nuclear weapons from its territory. However, West Germany misinterpreted a 21 November 1989 diplomatic message on

15810-404: The Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD. The newly merged party, with the help of the Soviet authorities, swept to victory in the 1946 elections for local and regional assemblies held in the Soviet zone. However, these elections were held under less-than-secret conditions, thus setting the tone for the next four decades. Conversely, in

15996-472: The Soviet policy of " peaceful coexistence ". The mutual recognition of the two Germanies paved the way for both countries to be widely recognized internationally. The two Germanies joined the United Nations as two separate country members in 1973 and East Germany abandoned its goal of reunification with their compatriots in the West in a constitutional amendment the following year . The principle

16182-649: The Soviets demanded it. The USSR did not make such great demands, however, with Gorbachev stating in February 1990 that "[t]he Germans must decide for themselves what path they choose to follow". In May 1990, he repeated his remark in the context of NATO membership while meeting Bush, amazing both the Americans and Germans. This removed the last significant roadblock to Germany being free to choose its international alignments, though Kohl made no secret that he intended for

16368-410: The Soviets that they identified with the early SED was its potential to develop into a nationalist party. At large party meetings, members applauded speakers who talked of nationalism much more than when they spoke of solving social problems and gender equality. Some even proposed the idea of establishing an independent German socialist state free of both Soviet and Western influence, and of soon regaining

16554-457: The Soviets to de facto withdraw from the ACC on 20 March 1948 (four occupying countries restored the act of the ACC in 1971) and blockade West Berlin (after the introduction of a new currency in West Germany on 20 June of the same year) from 20 June 1948 to 12 May 1949, but the USSR could not force the three Western Allies to withdraw from West Berlin as they wanted; consequently, the foundation of

16740-492: The Soviets, although the city was de facto its capital: the severe ideological conflict between German politicians and sociologists in their self-governing East-West society was preceded by the influence of higher foreign occupiers; however this only really rose to become official with the birth of the two countries of Germany in the context of the period of international tension during the Cold War . The capital of West Germany

16926-512: The Strasbourg summit, Mitterrand and Thatcher discussed the fluidity of Germany's historical borders. On 20 January 1990, Mitterrand told Thatcher that a unified Germany could "make more ground than even Adolf had". He predicted that "bad" Germans would reemerge, who might seek to regain former German territory lost after World War II and would likely dominate Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia , leaving "only Romania and Bulgaria for

17112-475: The Trizone. West Berlin had been proposed as the 12th state, but this was legally inhibited by Allied objections since Berlin as a whole was legally a quadripartite occupied area. Despite this, West Berlin's political affiliation was with West Germany, and, in many fields, it functioned de facto as if it were a component state of West Germany. On 1 January 1957, before the reunification, the territory of Saarland ,

17298-704: The Unification Treaty or necessary for its implementation were adopted by the Federal Statute of 23 September 1990, that enacted the incorporation of the Treaty as part of the Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The said Federal Statute, containing the whole text of the Treaty and its Protocols as an annex, was published in the Bundesgesetzblatt (the official journal for the publication of

17484-670: The West German Basic Law as it then existed. In the wake of that resolution of accession, the "German reunification treaty", commonly known in German as " Einigungsvertrag " (Unification Treaty) or " Wiedervereinigungsvertrag " (Reunification Treaty), that had been negotiated between the two German states since 2 July 1990, was signed by representatives of the two governments on 31 August 1990. This Treaty, officially titled Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands (Treaty between

17670-861: The West German democracy. A German publicist Peter Bender wrote in 1981: "Considering the role Germany played in the origins of both World Wars, Europe cannot, and the Germans should not, want a new German Reich, a sovereign nation-state. That is the logic of history which is, as Bismarck noted, more exact than the Prussian government audit office." Opinion on reunification was not only highly partisan, but polarised along many social divides—Germans aged 35 or younger were opposed to unification, whereas older respondents were more supportive; likewise, low-income Germans tended to oppose reunification, whereas more affluent responders were likely to support it. Ultimately,

17856-466: The West started granting subsidies for the GDR budget and social security system. At the same time, many West German laws came into force in the GDR. This created a suitable framework for a political union by diminishing the huge gap between the two existing political, social, and economic systems. The Volkskammer , the Parliament of East Germany, passed a resolution on 23 August 1990 declaring

18042-513: The West". Opposition was also prevalent amongst Jewish circles, who had special status and rights in East Germany. Some Jewish intellectuals such as Günter Kunert expressed concern of Jews being portrayed as part of the East German socialist elites, given that the Jews had unique rights, such as being allowed to travel west. There was also a significant opposition to the unification in intellectual circles. Christa Wolf and Manfred Stolpe stressed

18228-625: The West." In particular, Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay considered whether Moscow would command the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary to intervene. But, with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the nonintervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus, the bracket of the Eastern Bloc

18414-501: The accession ( Beitritt ) of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and the extension of the field of application of the Federal Republic's Basic Law to the territory of East Germany as allowed by Article 23 of the West German Basic Law, effective 3 October 1990. This Declaration of Accession ( Beitrittserklärung ) was formally presented by the President of the Volkskammer, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl , to

18600-571: The approval of the Central Committee Secretariat. The Secretariat was the connecting element between the Politburo and the Central Committee Departments. These departments, whose heads were always full members of the Central Committee, formulated policy for the party and thus the country, with most departments mirroring ministries of the GDR (for example, there was a Ministry of Light Industry and

18786-518: The authority of a dictator. From 1960, many of them concurrently served on the State Council of East Germany , replacing the President of the German Democratic Republic . Ideologically, the party, from its foundation, adhered to Marxism–Leninism , and pursued state socialism , under which all industries in East Germany were nationalized, and a command economy was implemented. The SED made

18972-450: The city for more than 30 years saw the East and the West develop their own distinct urban forms, with many of these differences still visible to this day. As urban planning in Germany is the responsibility of the city government, the integration of East and West Berlin was in part complicated by the fact that the existing planning frameworks became obsolete with the fall of the Wall. Prior to

19158-428: The consciousness and unique identity of both nations, with this newly developed culture being now endangered by looming reunification. David Gress remarked that there was "an influential view found largely, but by no means only, on the German and international left" which saw "the drive for unification as either sinister, masking a revival of aggressive nationalist aspirations, or materialist". Günter Grass , who won

19344-617: The country de facto losing its former territories east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland and the Soviet Union (most for Poland because the eastern territories of former Poland were annexed by the USSR). Germany's border decision came under pressure from the dictator Stalin of the Soviet Union. During and after the war, many ethnic Germans who lived in the traditionally German lands in Central and Eastern Europe , including territories east of

19530-427: The country's fifteen regions. Regional level government structure changed dramatically with the abolition of regional assemblies in 1952, but each administrative structure always had a party secretary, applying a structure also replicated in administrative structures at local levels. The regional party leadership team ( "SED Bezirksleitung" / BL) was an elected body analogous to the Central Committee, membership of which

19716-432: The country's leading institutions and industrial combines, the president of the country's Writers' Association , top military officers and party veterans. The Party Central Committee, reflecting the country's overall power structure, was overwhelmingly male: the proportion of women never rose above 15%. The Central Party Control Commission (ZPKK) was the supreme disciplinary body of the SED operating under and elected by

19902-533: The day that marks the official unification of the former East and West Germany in 1990, 3 October has since then been the official national holiday of Germany, the German Unity Day ( Tag der deutschen Einheit ). It replaced the previous national holiday held in West Germany on 17 June commemorating the East German uprising of 1953 and the national holiday on 7 October in the GDR, that commemorated

20088-417: The day was considered inappropriate for a national holiday. Throughout the entire Cold War and until 1990, reunification did not appear likely, and the existence of two German countries was commonly regarded as an established, unalterable fact. Helmut Kohl briefly addressed this issue during the 1983 West German federal election , stating that despite his belief in German national unity, it would not mean

20274-400: The development of the GDR until he was forced to step down during the 1989 revolution. The party's last leader, Egon Krenz , was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the SED's hold on political governance of the GDR and was imprisoned after German reunification . The SED's long-suppressed reform wing took over the party in the autumn of 1989. In hopes of changing its image, it reorganized as

20460-465: The dissolution of the GDR on 3 October 1990, all planning projects under the socialist-totalitarian regime were abandoned. Vacant lots, open areas, and empty fields in East Berlin were subject to redevelopment, in addition to space previously occupied by the Wall and associated buffer zone . Many of these sites were positioned in central, strategic locations of the reunified city. To commemorate

20646-486: The events of 1989–1990, and the collapse of the East German economy further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began on an emergency merger of the German economies. On 18 May 1990, the two German states signed a treaty agreeing on monetary, economic, and social union. This treaty is called Vertrag über die Schaffung einer Währungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialunion zwischen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Treaty Establishing

20832-429: The exchange of notices regarding the completion of the respective internal constitutional requirements for the adoption of the treaty in both East Germany and West Germany. With that last step, and in accordance with article 1 of the Treaty, and in conformity with East Germany's Declaration of Accession presented to the Federal Republic, Germany was officially reunited at 00:00 CEST on 3 October 1990. East Germany joined

21018-456: The face of the German threat." The pace of events surprised the French, whose Foreign Ministry had concluded in October 1989 that reunification "does not appear realistic at this moment". A representative of French President François Mitterrand reportedly told an aide to Gorbachev, "France by no means wants German reunification, although it realises that in the end, it is inevitable." At

21204-467: The fact that East Germany had achieved international recognition in the intervening years. East Germany's growing involvement in both the East European economic system and the global economy reflected its new international status. This international status and the country's improved diplomatic and political standing were the major areas stressed by this congress. The 9th Party Congress also served as

21390-672: The fall of the Berlin Wall—West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point program calling for the two Germanies to expand their cooperation with a view toward eventual reunification. Initially, no timetable was proposed. However, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism —the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany —was heavily defeated in East Germany's first free elections . A grand coalition

21576-410: The former KPD and SPD members created different factions within the SED and remained mutually quite antagonistic for some time after the formation of the new party. The report also noted considerable difficulty in convincing the masses that the SED was an authentic German political party and not merely a tool of the Soviet occupation force. According to Tiulpanov, many former members of the KPD expressed

21762-605: The formerly German land that the Yalta Conference , and ultimately the Potsdam Conference , had (re)allocated to Poland, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia. The SED began to integrate former members of the Nazi Party at its founding. However, the strategy was controversial within the party. The SED therefore set up the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) in 1948 as satellite party that could serve as

21948-480: The four Allies, and were formally approved in the final meeting of the Allied Control Council on 2 October 1990. In an emotional ceremony, at the stroke of midnight on 3 October 1990, the black-red-gold flag of West Germany —now the flag of a reunited Germany—was raised above the Brandenburg Gate , marking the moment of German reunification. The process chosen was one of the two options set out in

22134-506: The future political status of Berlin. Another major development initiated at the congress was a strengthening of the Council of Ministers at the expense of the Council of State ; this shift subsequently played an important role in administering the "Main Task" program. The SED further proclaimed that greater emphasis would be devoted to the development of a "socialist national culture" in which

22320-502: The head"), suggesting that despite the fall of the Berlin Wall , a "psychological wall" still existed between East and West Germans. Augustine argues that despite resistance to the political regime of East Germany, it still represented the history and identity of East Germans. Unification caused backlash, and the Treuhandanstalt , an agency created to carry out privatization, was blamed for creating mass unemployment and poverty in

22506-567: The highest body of the SED was the Party Congress , convened every fifth year. When the Party Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body, but since the body normally met only once a year most duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee. Members of the latter were the top leadership of both the party and the state, with the party's general secretary effectively having

22692-950: The importance of the ties to the Soviet Union. In his closing remarks, he stated: "Our party, the SED, is linked forever with the party of Lenin , [the CPSU]." A delegation led by chief party ideologue Mikhail Suslov , a member of the CPSU Politburo , represented the CPSU at the SED congress. Honecker reiterated earlier positions on the relationship between the two German states, stressing that they were two sovereign states that had developed along different lines since World War II, and that their differences had to be respected by both sides as they continued efforts toward peaceful coexistence despite membership in antagonistic alliances. In his speeches, Honecker, along with other SED officials, devoted greater attention to Third World countries than he had done in

22878-514: The indecisive reaction of the rulers of the Eastern Bloc set in motion an irreversible movement. It allowed an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany via Hungary . The Peaceful Revolution , part of the international revolutions of 1989 including a series of protests by East German citizens, led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the GDR's first free elections later on 18 March 1990 and then to negotiations between

23064-419: The last Russian occupation troops leave Germany. After the end of World War II in Europe , the old German Reich was abolished and Germany was occupied and divided by the four Allied countries. There was no peace treaty. Two countries emerged. The American-occupied , British-occupied , and French-occupied zones combined to form the FRG, i.e., West Germany, on 23 May 1949. The Soviet-occupied zone formed

23250-515: The laws of the Federal Republic) on 28 September 1990. In the German Democratic Republic, the constitutional law ( Verfassungsgesetz ) giving effect to the Treaty was also published on 28 September 1990. With the adoption of the Treaty as part of its Constitution, East Germany legislated its own abolition as a separate state. Under article 45 of the Treaty, it entered into force according to international law on 29 September 1990, upon

23436-405: The leadership of the FDGB, a specific program to raise living standards. The 9th Congress initiated a hard line in the cultural sphere, which contrasted with the policy of openness and tolerance enunciated at the previous congress. Six months after the 9th Congress, for example, the GDR government withdrew permission for the singer Wolf Biermann to live in East Germany. The congress also highlighted

23622-515: The leadership, provided a forum for discussing the leadership's policies, and undertook activities that served to legitimize the party as a mass movement. They were formally empowered to pass both the party program and the statutes, to establish the general party line, to elect the members of the Central Committee and the members of the Central Auditing Commission, and to approve the Central Committee's report. Between congresses

23808-563: The lightning privatization of the GDR, simply because they had lost their jobs. The following unions were affiliated to the FDGB: [REDACTED] Media related to Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund at Wikimedia Commons Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany ( German : Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands , pronounced [zotsi̯aˈlɪstɪʃə ˈʔaɪnhaɪtspaʁˌtaɪ ˈdɔʏtʃlants] ; SED , pronounced [ˌɛsʔeːˈdeː] )

23994-400: The most rigidly Stalinist parties in the Soviet bloc, the SED rejected the liberalisation policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev , such as perestroika and glasnost in the 1980s, which would lead to the GDR's isolation from the restructuring USSR and the party's downfall in the autumn of 1989. The SED was officially organized on the basis of democratic centralism . Theoretically,

24180-403: The need to forge an East German identity, while "citizens' initiatives, church groups, and intellectuals of the first hour began issuing dire warnings about a possible Anschluss of the GDR by the Federal Republic". Many East German oppositionists and reformers advocated for a "third path" of an independent, democratic socialist East Germany. Stefan Heym argued that the preservation of the GDR

24366-435: The new and de facto German–Polish border , nor East Germany, but later eventually recognized the border in 1972 (with the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw ) and East Germany in 1973 (with the 1972 Basic Treaty ) when applying a common policy to reconcile with the communist countries in the East . The East German government also had encouraged two-state status after initially denying the existence of the West German state, influenced by

24552-432: The next five years, and he sought to spur individual initiative and productivity by recommending a labor policy that would reward the most meritorious and productive members of society. The 11th Congress, held 17–21 April 1986, unequivocally endorsed the SED and Honecker, whom it confirmed for another term as party head. The SED celebrated its achievements as the "most successful party on German soil", praised East Germany as

24738-514: The night of reunification. Tensions with Poland were high, and many internal ethnic minorities such as the Sorbs feared further displacement or assimilationist policies; the Sorbs had received legal protection in the GDR and feared that the rights granted to them in East Germany would not be included in the law of an eventual united Germany. Ultimately, no provision on the protection of ethnic minorities

24924-516: The office of general secretary, and there were no electoral surprises, as all incumbents except the ailing 76-year-old Albert Norden were returned to the Politbüro and the Secretariat. The congress highlighted the importance of policies that had been introduced or stressed at the two previous congresses and that had dominated East German life during the 1970s. As in the past, Honecker stressed

25110-476: The official term as Deutsche Einheit ("German unity"); this is commonly used in Germany. After 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events (mostly in Eastern Europe) that led up to the actual reunification, and loosely translates to "the turning point". Anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it had been introduced by

25296-484: The ongoing arguments over the issue of separate citizenship for the two German states, which the SED proclaimed but which the West German government refused to recognize as late as 1987. During the 9th Congress, the SED also responded to some of the public excitement and unrest that had emerged in the aftermath of the signing of the Helsinki Accords , the human rights documents issued at the meetings in 1975 of

25482-404: The opening session of the congress by the general secretary discussed the economic and social progress made during the five years since the 9th Congress. Honecker detailed the increased agricultural and industrial production of the period and the resultant social progress as, in his words, the country continued "on the path to socialism and communism." Honecker called for even greater productivity in

25668-714: The paramilitary organization Combat Groups of the Working Class . In spring 1946, the former ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau bei Berlin , which before Nazi rule had belonged to the Allgemeiner Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) (Federation of German Trade Unions), was given to the FDGB to use as a training centre. After some restoration work, the school opened in 1947 under the name FDGB-Bundesschule "Theodor Leipart" ( Theodor Leipart FDGB Trade Union School). In January 1952 it

25854-710: The party finances analogous to the CPSU Central Auditing Commission , though due to its limited jurisdiction, its practical significance was minor compared to the ZPKK. The most important day-to-day work of the Central Committee was undertaken by the Politburo , a small circle of senior party officers, comprising between 15 and 25 full members, along with approximately 10 candidate (non-voting) members. The politburo members included approximately ten Central Committee Secretaries. The General Secretary of

26040-414: The party secretary and fellow committee members, and at this point a full-time salaried party secretary would be appointed. Party secretaries in very large industrial combines and other economically important institutions would combine their party secretarial roles with membership of a more powerful body, applying a structural element maintained right up to the level of the Party Central Committee. The task of

26226-1068: The party's sectional leadership team ( "SED-Kreisleitung" ). There were in total 262 of these sectional leadership teams, including one each for the Free German Youth (FDJ) , the Trade Union Federation (FDGB) , the Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Trade Ministry, the State Railway organisation, the military branches of the Interior Ministry, the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) , the National People's Army , each of which had its own integrated political-administrative structure. The party's regional structure started with

26412-455: The past. Honecker mentioned the continually increasing numbers of young people from African, Asian, and Latin American countries who received their higher education in East Germany, and he referred to many thousands of people in those countries who had been trained as apprentices, skilled workers, and instructors by teams from East Germany. The bulk of the Central Committee report delivered at

26598-524: The people covered by their party secretarial duties. Where work on occasion attracted criticism, there were many ways on which changes could be passed on. This fact lay behind the burgeoning bureaucratization of the party apparatus and the presence of Stalinistic tendencies. Party secretaries underwent a special monthly political process that included instructive guidance and verification by representatives from higher level party committees. Along with their party responsibilities, party secretaries were members of

26784-470: The plan. The Americans did not share the Europeans' and Soviets' historical fears over German expansionism ; Condoleezza Rice later recalled, The United States—and President George H. W. Bush —recognized that Germany went through a long democratic transition . It was a good friend, it was a member of NATO. Any issues that existed in 1945, it seemed perfectly reasonable to lay them to rest. For us,

26970-464: The political, economic, and cultural environment of both East and West Berlin. However, the "scar" left by the Wall , which ran directly through the very heart of the city, had consequences for the urban environment that planning still needs to address. The unification of Berlin presented legal, political, and technical challenges for the urban environment. The political division and physical separation of

27156-520: The principle that their joint pre-1990 boundary constituted the entire territory that could be claimed by a government of Germany. The reunited state is not a successor state , but an enlarged continuation of the 1949–1990 West German state. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany retained the West German seats in the governing bodies of the European Economic Community (EC) (later the European Union ) and in international organizations including

27342-524: The process of firing a worker lengthy and difficult. The FDGB was also responsible for social tasks for its members, which included hospital visits, presenting awards, giving gifts on special anniversaries, even organizing health spas and the hard-to-get holiday bookings through its own holiday service. The single trade union was also involved in recruiting members for military functions. Incentivizing recruitment with small benefits and occasional pressure, large numbers of workers and employees were recruited to

27528-451: The process of reunification, the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions, and qualifications, some of which required amendments to the Basic Law itself) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990; that is, through a binding agreement between the former GDR and the Federal Republic now recognizing each another as separate sovereign states in international law . This treaty

27714-545: The question wasn't should Germany unify? It was how and under what circumstances? We had no concern about a resurgent Germany... The United States wished to ensure, however, that Germany would stay within NATO. In December 1989, the administration of President George H. W. Bush made a united Germany's continued NATO membership a requirement for supporting reunification. Kohl agreed, although less than 20 percent of West Germans supported remaining within NATO. Kohl also wished to avoid

27900-418: The recently instituted New Economic System . But the about-face in economic policy that year cannot be attributed to Honecker's advancement alone. During the previous two winters, the GDR had been plagued with power shortages and traffic breakdowns. From 1971 onwards, congresses were held every five years. The last was the 11th Party Congress in April 1986. In theory, the party congresses set policy and elected

28086-517: The regional teams of national institutions such as the FDJ , the FDGB and the Planning Commission. The First Secretaries of the regional FDJ and chairmen of the regional FDGB and Planning Commission were always Secretariat members too. First Secretaries of regional party organisations held significant power in their respective regions, with some First Secretaries such as Hans-Joachim Böhme or Hans Albrecht being described as despotic, sometimes dictatorial. First Secretaries were always full members of

28272-672: The rest of us". The two leaders saw no way to prevent reunification, however, as "None of us was going to declare war on Germany". Mitterrand recognized before Thatcher that reunification was inevitable and adjusted his views accordingly; unlike her, he was hopeful that participation in a single currency and other European institutions could control a united Germany. Mitterrand still wanted Thatcher to publicly oppose unification, however, to obtain more concessions from Germany. I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them. Ireland 's Taoiseach , Charles Haughey , supported German reunification and he took advantage of Ireland's presidency of

28458-448: The reunification as an ' anschluss '. On 5 June 1945, with the Berlin Declaration, the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II was confirmed, and the German Reich was also de jure abolished. Germany was occupied by four countries representing the victorious Allies signing the agreement (US, UK, France, and the USSR). The declaration also formed the Allied Control Council (ACC) of these four countries ruling Germany, and confirmed

28644-458: The reunification of the city, the Land Use Plan of 1988 and General Development Plan of 1980 defined the spatial planning criteria for West and East Berlin, respectively. These were replaced by the new, unified Land Use Plan in 1994. Termed "Critical Reconstruction", the new policy aimed to revive Berlin's prewar aesthetic; it was complemented by a strategic planning document for downtown Berlin, entitled "Inner City Planning Framework". Following

28830-532: The role of artists and writers would be increasingly important. Honecker was more specific about the SED's position toward the intelligentsia at the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee, where he stated: "As long as one proceeds from the firm position of socialism, there can in my opinion be no taboos in the field of art and literature. This applies to questions of content as well as of style, in short to those questions which constitute what one calls artistic mastery." The 9th Party Congress in May 1976 can be viewed as

29016-423: The same date, East and West Berlin were also reunified into a single city, which eventually became the capital of Germany. The East German government , controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain . The border was still closely guarded, but the Pan-European Picnic and

29202-427: The sentiment that they had "forfeited [their] revolutionary positions, that [the KPD] alone would have succeeded much better had there been no SED, and that the Social Democrats are not to be trusted" (Tiulpanov, 1946). Tiulpanov also indicated that there was a marked "political passivity" among former SPD members, who felt they were being treated unfairly and as second-class party members by the new SED administration. As

29388-414: The start of 1990 East Germany was in a state of economic and political collapse. In contrast, reunification under Article 23 could be implemented in as little as six months. Ultimately, when the treaty on monetary, economic, and social union was signed, it was decided to use the quicker process of Article 23. By this process, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and to join West Germany, and the area in which

29574-402: The state administration, and they secured the leadership role that the SED claimed for itself in businesses and offices. Managerial decisions were discussed and ultimately decided in party committees. This meant that a manager, provided he was a party member, was committed to implementing those decisions. The basic organisional unit in an organisation or department was placed under the control of

29760-411: The teaching of Marxism–Leninism and the Russian language compulsory in schools. Walter Ulbricht was the party's dominant figure and effective leader of East Germany from 1950 to 1971. In 1953, an uprising against the Party was met with violent suppression by the Ministry of State Security and the Soviet Army . In 1971, Ulbricht was succeeded by Erich Honecker who presided over a stable period in

29946-577: The time as "icy". Italy's Giulio Andreotti warned against a revival of " pan-Germanism " and the Netherlands's Ruud Lubbers questioned the German right to self-determination. They shared Britain's and France's concerns over a return to German militarism and the economic power of a reunified country. The consensus opinion was that reunification, if it must occur, should not occur until at least 1995 and preferably much later. Andreotti, quoting François Mauriac , joked "I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them". The victors of World War II—France,

30132-453: The topic to mean that the Soviet leadership already anticipated reunification only two weeks after the Wall's collapse. This belief, and the worry that his rival Genscher might act first, encouraged Kohl on 28 November to announce a detailed "Ten Point Program for Overcoming the Division of Germany and Europe ". While his speech was very popular within West Germany, it caused concern among other European governments, with whom he had not discussed

30318-402: The two German governments continuing to exist side-by-side. Most of the border between two Germanies , and later the border in Berlin, were physically fortified and tightly controlled by East Germany from 1952 and 1961, respectively. The flags of the two German countries were originally the same , but in 1959 East Germany changed its flag . The West German government initially did not recognize

30504-464: The two countries that culminated in a Unification Treaty. Other negotiations between the two Germanies and the four occupying powers in Germany produced the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany , which granted on 15 March 1991 full sovereignty to a reunified German state, whose two parts were previously bound by a number of limitations stemming from their post- World War II status as occupation zones , though only on 31 August 1994 did

30690-436: The two countries would never happen in the foreseeable future. The turning point in Germany, called Die Wende , was marked by the " Peaceful Revolution " leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall at the night of 9 November 1989, with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier. On 28 November 1989—two weeks after

30876-442: The two parties was thus effective only in the Soviet zone. The SED was modeled after the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The 2nd Party Congress convened from 20 to 24 July 1947. It adopted a fresh party statute and transformed the party executive committee into a central committee (Zentralkomitee or ZK ). The 3rd Party Congress convened in July 1950 and emphasized industrial progress. The industrial sector, employing 40% of

31062-400: The unification as philistinist and purely materialist, calling it "the monetary fetish, by now devoid of all joy." Heiner Müller supported Grass' criticism of the unification process, warning East Germans: "We will be a nation without dreams, we will lose our memories, our past, and therefore also our ability to hope." British historian Richard J. Evans made a similar argument, criticizing

31248-457: The unification as driven solely by "consumerist appetites whetted by years of watching West German television advertisements". For decades, West Germany's allies stated their support for reunification. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , who speculated that a country that "decided to kill millions of Jewish people " in the Holocaust "will try to do it again", was one of the few world leaders to publicly oppose it. As reunification became

31434-477: The working population, was subjected to further nationalization, which resulted in the formation of "people's enterprises" (German: Volkseigener Betrieb , VEB). These enterprises incorporated 75% of the industrial sector. At the same time, the party completed its transformation into a more orthodox Soviet-style party with the election of Walter Ulbricht as the party's general secretary. The 6th Party Congress convened from 15 to 21 January 1963. The congress approved

31620-438: Was Bonn ; however it was only considered provisional due to the West German aspiration to establish Berlin as its capital, although at the time Berlin was divided, with the eastern part de facto managed by East Germany. East Germany originally also wanted to gain West Berlin and make the unified Berlin its capital. The Western Allies and West Germany rejected the Soviet Union's idea of neutral reunification in 1952, resulting in

31806-653: Was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site the Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau . Short term two and four week training courses and longer term study were offered, including collective bargaining, social and economic policy, youth and women’s issues, employment law, business administration, history of the labour movement, etc. After 1952 two year courses, and later, from 1956, three year bachelor degree-equivalent courses were also taught. From 1958 correspondence courses were also offered, and from 1959 courses were run for foreign trade unionists. Over 15,000 East German and 5,000 foreign trade unionists were trained by

31992-464: Was at work in publicly owned industrial and quasi-commercial enterprises , machine and tractor stations , publicly owned farms and in the larger agricultural cooperatives , expressly mandated to monitor and regulate the operational management of each institution. The smallest organisational unit in the party was the Party Group. Group members elected one of their number Party Group Organiser (PGO), to take responsibility for Party Work. There were also

32178-457: Was broken. Hungary was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East German citizens had escaped to the West before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving Czechoslovakia as the only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape. Even then, many people within and outside Germany still believed that real reunification between

32364-431: Was centred on the Committee Secretariat, which was chaired by a General Secretary, named First Secretary from 1953 to 1976. This function was combined with chairmanship of the Politburo. The General Secretary until 1971 was Walter Ulbricht : he was deposed by Erich Honecker , who in turn was deposed by Egon Krenz . Unlike in the Soviet Union, the SED only had "Second Secretaries" on the local and regional levels, but not in

32550-403: Was formally the party's leading institution. Increasingly, party conferences were planned with military-level precision. Their choreography was carefully undertaken to ensure that they were understood as high-profile society events. They were very much more than mere political functions. Delegates were selected from the regional and sectional party organisations according to criteria determined by

32736-518: Was formed under Lothar de Maizière , leader of the East German wing of Kohl 's Christian Democratic Union , on a platform of speedy reunification. Second, East Germany's economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. Although East Germany was long reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the removal of Communist hegemony revealed the ramshackle foundations of that system. The East German mark had been almost worthless outside East Germany for some time before

32922-473: Was founded in May 1949. While the Basic Law was modified, rather than replaced by a constitution as such, it still permits the adoption of a formal constitution by the German people at some time in the future. In the context of urban planning , in addition to a wealth of new opportunity and the symbolism of two former independent states being rejoined, the reunification of Berlin presented numerous challenges. The city underwent massive redevelopment , involving

33108-404: Was given degree awarding status and renamed Gewerkschaftshochschule "Fritz Heckert" ( Fritz Heckert Trade Union College). In the early 1950s the FDGB considerably increased the size of the school, constructing new buildings on the site, in addition to those of the former ADGB school. The original part of the school, completed in 1930, was a project of the Bauhaus design school and in 2017 it

33294-529: Was included in the post-unification reform of the Basic Law in 1994. While politicians called for acceptance of a new multiethnic society, many were unwilling to "give up its traditional racial definition of German nationality". Feminist groups also opposed the unification, as abortion laws were less restrictive in East Germany than in West Germany, and the progress that the GDR had made in regard to women's welfare such as legal equality , child care and financial support were "all less impressive or non-existent in

33480-433: Was necessary to achieve the ideal of democratic socialism , urging East Germans to oppose "capitalist annexation" in favour of a democratic socialist society. Writers in both East and West were concerned about the destruction of the East German or West German cultural identity respectively; in "Goodbye to the Literature of the Federal Republic", Frank Schirrmacher states that the literature of both states had been central to

33666-477: Was replaced by Harry Tisch , a member of the SED ’s Politburo , who kept the post until the political turnaround in 1989. Officially, membership in the FDGB was voluntary, but unofficially it was hardly possible to develop a career without joining. In 1986, 98% of all workers and employees were organized in the FDGB, which had 9.6 million members. This meant that it was nominally one of the world’s largest trade unions . As well as improving members’ career chances,

33852-444: Was some initial difficulty making regional SED officials realize that they should think carefully before opposing the political positions decided upon by the Central Committee in Berlin. Although it was nominally a merger of equals, from the beginning the SED was dominated by Communists. By the late 1940s, the SED began to purge most recalcitrant Social Democrats from its ranks. By the time of East Germany's formal establishment in 1949,

34038-400: Was the unification congress . This congress elected two co-chairmen to lead the party: Wilhelm Pieck , former leader of the eastern KPD, and Otto Grotewohl , former leader of the eastern SPD. The union was initially intended to apply to the whole of occupied Germany. The union was rejected consistently in the three western occupation zones, where both parties remained independent. The union of

34224-401: Was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxist–Leninist communist party , established in 1946 as a merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany . The GDR was effectively

34410-407: Was then voted into effect by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand, the extinction of the GDR, and on the other, the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. Hence, although the GDR declared its accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, this did not imply its acceptance of

34596-506: Was unpaid. It worked alongside the administrative body of paid officials who were occasionally also members of the party leadership team. At a regional level the SED leadership team was headed by a Secretariat. The Secretariats always had a First Secretary (also responsible for Security Affairs) and a Second Secretary (also responsible for Cadre Affairs), and secretaries responsible for "Agitation and propaganda" , Economy, Science, Culture and Agriculture. There were also regional teams to shadow

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