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East Germany Collectivization and Nationalization of Agriculture and Industry
In 1956, at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev repudiated
Stalinism. Although Ulbricht remained committed to Stalinist
methods, an academic intelligentsia within the SED leadership
demanded reform. To this end, Wolfgang Harich, the main spokesman
for de-Stalinization, issued a platform advocating a democratic
and parliamentary road to socialism. But Harich had misjudged the
temper of the times and the power of Ulbricht; in late 1956, he
and his associates were quickly purged from the SED ranks and
imprisoned.
An SED party plenum in July 1956 confirmed Ulbricht's
leadership and presented the Second Five-Year Plan (1956-60). The
plan employed the slogan "modernization, mechanization, and
automation" to emphasize the new focus on technological progress.
At the plenum, the regime announced its intention to develop
nuclear energy, and the first nuclear reactor in East Germany was
activated in 1957. The government increased industrial production
quotas by 55 percent and renewed emphasis on heavy industry.
The Second Five-Year Plan committed East Germany to
accelerated efforts toward agricultural collectivization and
completion of the nationalization of the industrial sector. By
1958 the agricultural sector still consisted primarily of the
750,000 privately owned farms that comprised 70 percent of all
arable land; only 6,000 Agricultural Cooperatives
(Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften--LPGs) had been
formed. In 1958-59 the SED subjected private farmers to quota
pressures and sent agitation teams to villages in an effort to
encourage "voluntary" collectivization. The teams used threats,
and in November and December 1959 resisting farmers were arrested
by the SSD. By mid-1960 nearly 85 percent of all arable land was
incorporated in more than 19,000 LPGs; state farms comprised
another 6 percent. By 1961 the socialist sector produced 90
percent of East Germany's agricultural products
(see Agriculture
, ch. 3). An extensive economic management reform by the SED in
February 1958 included the transfer of a large number of
industrial ministries to the State Planning Commission. In order
to accelerate the nationalization of industry, the SED offered
entrepreneurs 50-percent partnership incentives for transforming
their firms into VEBs. At the close of 1960, private enterprise
controlled only 9 percent of total industrial production.
Production Cooperatives (Produktionsgenossenschaften--PGs)
incorporated one-third of the artisan sector during 1960-61, a
rise from 6 percent in 1958.
The Second Five-Year Plan encountered difficulties, and the
regime replaced it with the Seven-Year Plan (1959-65). The new
plan aimed at achieving West Germany's per capita production by
the end of 1961, set higher production quotas, and called for an
85 percent increase in labor productivity. Emigration again
increased, totaling 143,000 in 1959 and 199,000 in 1960. The
majority of the emigrants were workers, and 50 percent were under
25 years of age. The labor drain, which had exceeded a total of
2.5 million citizens between 1949 and 1961, resulted in the
August 1961 SED decision to build the Berlin Wall.
Data as of July 1987
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