|
East Germany Official Policy
The evolution of official policy on the German, or national,
question (as the policy toward reunification came to be known)
can be roughly divided into three periods. During the first
period, from 1949 to 1961, East Germany was strongly committed to
reunification and sought rapprochement with West Germany on the
basis of perceived "national commonalities." However, Walter
Ulbricht, first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
(Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands--SED), also sought to
keep East Germany internationally isolated as a means to force
East Germans to turn inward and begin a program of internal
socialist development. Unification (a subtle change in
terminology to reflect growing divergences) was still the
ultimate goal, but, according to prevailing policy, the adoption
of different socioeconomic systems had resulted in the creation
of two German states, and reconciliation would be more difficult
to achieve. The second period of East German policy ran roughly
from the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to the replacement
of Ulbricht by Erich Honecker as party chief in 1971. The signing
of the Berlin Agreement in 1971 and of the Basic Treaty in 1972
marked the beginning of a third shift in policy
(see Honecker and East-West Rapprochement
, ch. 1). The broad outlines of this
policy were expressed in the term
Abgrenzung (demarcation--see Glossary).
East German leaders contended that the two
diametrically opposed socioeconomic systems had led to changes in
culture, language, and worldview and that it was no longer
possible to speak of one German nation. Unification as a policy
goal was abandoned altogether.
The evolution of policy toward West Germany can be summarized
as changing from togetherness and cooperation in the 1950s, to
coexistence in the 1960s, and to separation in the 1970s and
1980s. (Ironically this shift paralleled a reverse trend in West
German relations vis-à-vis East Germany and more generally in
superpower relations.) East German thinking on the "German
question" likewise changed from affirmation of one indivisible
nation, to the idea of two states within one nation, and finally
to the declaration of two separate nations.
The 1949 constitution of East Germany referred to Germany as
"an indivisible democratic republic" and noted that there was
"only one German citizenship." Throughout the 1950s, East Germany
and the Soviet Union kept open the door of reunification and even
made political overtures for closer cooperation with the West. In
1952 the Soviets were prepared to support a united but neutral
Germany in order to deter West Germany from rearming and entering
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). East Germany and
the Soviet Union continued efforts to draw West Germany into some
sort of "national compromise" even after the latter joined NATO
in 1955. East German proposals were never seriously considered;
Western policy dictated the international isolation and
nonrecognition of East Germany.
During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, the East
German regime began to focus on internal socialist development as
a prerequisite for unification. The success of the socialist
system became the test "of every real German patriot." Socialist
development meant the collectivization of agriculture, the
nationalization of industry, and the implementation of a highly
centralized planning system modeled after the Soviet system. The
Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 to stop the outflow of talented
and skilled labor, and the New Economic System was launched in
1963. The country consequently began to enjoy a period of
relative prosperity.
The new self-confidence of the regime was reflected in the
changing official attitudes toward and pronouncements on the
German question. Confederation was still advanced as an option in
the early 1960s, but later in the decade officials began to speak
of the existence of two separate states within one German nation.
East German citizenship was established in 1967. The state
secretariat for all German affairs became the state secretariat
for West German affairs. Finally, a new constitution was
promulgated in 1968, institutionalizing the change in policy.
East Germany became "a socialist state of the German nation"
(Article 1), "faithful to the interests of the German people and
the international obligations of all Germans" (Article 6). It
sought equality in recognition and international status and
supported "the step-by-step rapprochement of the two Germans
states until the time of their unification on the basis of
democracy and socialism" (Article 8).
Détente between the superpowers and the initiation of West
Germany's policy of
Ostpolitik (see Glossary)
sought to
bridge the growing gap between Germans through the promotion of
contacts at the people-to-people level. East German officials
reacted with caution and suspicion. The sense of confidence
inspired by the economic successes in the 1960s had not quieted
the basic insecurity of the regime. Consequently, despite Soviet
commitment to détente with the West (which included closer
cooperation between the two Germanies), Ulbricht resisted
entering into any cooperation agreements with West Germany. He
was removed from power and replaced in 1971 by Honecker as party
chief. Shortly thereafter East Germany and West Germany signed
the 1972 Basic Treaty, paving the way for the normalization of
relations. The agreement was a compromise to the sensitivities of
both governments . West Germany succeeded in promoting contacts
between Germans in the two states without officially recognizing
East Germany. (Relations between the two were still characterized
as inner-German from the West German perspective.) In September
1973, East Germany gained de facto international status and was
admitted to the United Nations, along with West Germany.
To compensate for the drawing together of the two states,
however, East German officials implemented a domestic policy of
Abgrenzung. On a practical level, this took the form of
internal vigilance against influences from and exposure to the
West. On a more abstract level, it meant increased efforts toward
the development of a distinct state or national identity. In the
mid-1970s, the official East German view was that one German
nation no longer existed. The Abgrenzung policy--and the
two-nation concept derived from it--culminated in 1974 in several
important amendments to the 1968 Constitution
(see Constitution of 1968
, ch. 4). All references to the "German nation" were
eliminated, references to unification were deleted, and the
country's commitment to socialist internationalism and its
"irrevocable" ties to the Soviet Union were forcefully and
directly asserted. In the mid-1980s, this policy of
Abgrenzung continued to characterize relations with the
West. In addition officials have attempted to reinforce the twonation concept among the population by the manipulation of
cultural and ethnic symbols.
Data as of July 1987
|
