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East Germany Ideology and Politics
The SED's most important connective tissue remains MarxistLeninist ideology. Ideology has retained an overriding
significance even in the Honecker era, where it has played the
role of an integrating and mobilizing force in society. Ideology
determines the norms of conduct, guides social and political
action, and integrates the leadership elite. In the SED's
proclamations on the "unity of ideology, party, and economy,"
ideology appears first. Since the Ninth Party Congress in 1976,
three factors have been linked and defined as "characteristic of
the nature of party work." Even at the Tenth Party Congress in
1981 when Honecker reversed the order and spoke of the "unity of
politics, economy, and ideology," he still emphasized the
significance and the "superiority of Marxist-Leninist ideology."
The SED considers itself fraternally linked to the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU); it considers the attitude
toward the CPSU and the Soviet Union to be "a criterion of
loyalty toward Marxism-Leninism." An "uncompromising struggle"
against all appearances of "anti-Sovietism" is mandatory for all
party members.
One of the foremost concerns of both the Ulbricht and the
Honecker regimes has been the stabilization and legitimation of
SED rule in East Germany. Upon its formation in 1949, the East
German regime was a provisional political entity that lacked
legitimacy in the eyes of most of its citizenry. Unlike the
communist parties in Eastern Europe, the SED generally has been
able to avoid major internal conflict since the last massive
party purge initiated by Ulbricht in 1957. The erection of the
Berlin Wall in 1961, the promulgation of the New Economic System
at the Sixth Party Congress in January 1963, and the emergence of
a generation of political leaders that had matured in East
Germany since the war were all factors that helped stabilize SED
rule in the country.
The first major event of the 1970s occurred when Ulbricht,
who had been party leader during the two previous decades, was
forced to relinquish his control over the SED in May 1971; he was
allowed, however, to retain his chairmanship of the Council of
State and full membership in the Politburo until his death in
August 1973. Ulbricht's replacement, Erich Honecker, brought
about a series of changes in party policy. Among the more
important was the SED's declaration that East Germany had
abandoned its goal of national reunification with West Germany,
which Ulbricht had consistently stressed and codified in an
article of the 1968 Constitution. Honecker also emphasized East
Germany's special relationship with the Soviet Union. Under
Ulbricht the SED had proclaimed that its brand of socialism was
equal to that of the Soviet Union, and Ulbricht had clashed with
Moscow over a number of issues, including the question of
relations with West Germany and the Soviet Union's relations with
other East European states. When Honecker assumed leadership of
the SED in the spring of 1971, this conflict came to an abrupt
end. On April 15, 1971, the SED Politburo declared that the
directives of the Twenty-fourth Congress of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1971 were of "general
theoretical and political importance" and were binding on the SED
in its search for solutions to the "basic question of the
creation of a developed socialist society in the GDR." This
policy ended the long-standing divergence between the SED's and
the CPSU's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism. Concepts that had
originated under Ulbricht, such as the understanding of socialism
as a "relatively independent socioeconomic system developing on
its own base," the "developed social system of socialism," and
the "socialist human community" were cast aside. Instead, the
Honecker regime spoke of a "developed socialist society" and in
1973 introduced the expression "real existing socialism," which
eventually became the hallmark of the Honecker era.
At the Ninth Party Congress in May 1976, the notion of a
harmonious "socialist human community" in which class differences
were almost obliterated was superseded by the idea of a "class
society of a special type." Honecker resurrected the class nature
of society by emphasizing the leading role of the working class
and, by extension, its vanguard, the party. Late in the Ulbricht
era, the regime magnified the significance of the Council of
Ministers and the Council of State as regulators of economic and
social life and downgraded the party's function to a supervisory
role. By contrast, Honecker once again reversed the relationship
between the party and the state.
Honecker spoke of a new "social phase" beginning under his
leadership, and he made it clear that the role of the SED would
increase. The SED's "chief task" was to ensure all-around growth
in social and economic well-being. These improvements would
result from "increasing efficiency, scientific-technical
progress, and higher labor productivity." The scientifictechnical revolution of the 1960s was to become scientifictechnical progress in the 1970s. The leadership considered it
necessary to close the ever increasing gap in living standards
between those with technical skills and those without. Thus, in
the mid- and late 1970s, the party brought science and technology
increasingly under its wing. Numerous scientific councils were
created and attached to the East German Academy of Sciences, the
Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the SED,
and other party organizations. Because the establishment of these
scientific councils allowed the SED to plan, coordinate, and
supervise research topics and outcomes much more comprehensively,
in the 1970s the party became the main integrative force in the
domain of science and technology.
The Honecker era also has seen a steady increase in the use
of the instruments of coercion--the civil and political police
and the military--and in the 1980s these sectors consumed an ever
growing proportion of the national budget. The trend indicates
that greater influence by the security and defense organs has
paralleled the increase of the party's power.
Data as of July 1987
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