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East Germany Secretariat
The Secretariat is the "staff" of the Politburo, in charge of
implementing the policy and personnel decisions of the Politburo,
with which it is closely linked. All major political decisions
are made by the Politburo and the Secretariat. Unlike the CPSU,
the members of the SED Secretariat usually are also full or
candidate members of the Politburo. In 1987 there were ten
secretaries, nine of whom were full Politburo members and one, a
woman, a candidate member. At the Eleventh Party Congress in
April 1986, the East Berlin district party chief, Schabowski, was
appointed a Central Committee secretary. The average age of the
secretaries was fifty-nine. Each secretary directs a personal
staff of three to five individuals. Politburo members who also
are secretaries manage staffs consisting of Central Committee
members, who in turn supervise smaller staffs for special
assignments. The Secretariat is in charge of the daily work of
the party; it supervises internal party affairs and directs the
state and government apparatuses. The specific responsibilities
of the Secretariat include managing elections, formulating cadre
policy, operating party schools, and drafting and implementing
the directives of the Politburo to the leaders of the SED
district and county organizations.
The Secretariat also directs the working organ of the Central
Committee, the Central Committee apparatus, which consists of
over 40 departments with approximately 2,000 members as well as
the central party institutes (the Central Committee's Academy of
Social Sciences, the Institute for Marxism-Leninism, the Central
Institute for Socioeconomic Management, and the Karl Marx Party
College). These departments work closely with the individual
ministries of the Council of Ministers. Critical mechanisms by
which the SED maintains ongoing contact with the CPSU are the
various departments of the Secretariat,
which are expected to maintain close working relations with
their Soviet counterparts, as well as those of the other
"fraternal parties."
Data as of July 1987
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