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East Germany SOCIAL STRUCTURE
East Germany, according to its Constitution, is a "socialist
state of workers and peasants" in which "all political power is
exercised by the working people." Theoretically, the people
exercise their power through socialist ownership of the means of
production. In other words, the workers, through the SED and
government organs, control and coordinate the use of social and
economic resources and wealth for the public good. According to
the ideology, in the perfect communist society there would be no
exploitation of one person by another, and class distinctions
based on ownership of property and material goods would not
exist.
The communist leaders who assumed control of the government
after World War II took upon themselves the task of transforming
society from a capitalist system based on private ownership to a
socialist (and eventually communist) system based on collective
ownership. They inherited a prewar social system stratified into
three relatively distinct social classes. Power, wealth, and
prestige resided in a small upper class of large landowners (the
remnants of the Prussian nobility of an earlier period), wealthy
industrialists and entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and top
government officials and military officers. The middle class was
composed of businessmen, public officials, academicians,
professionals, merchants, artisans, and medium-sized landowners.
It, in turn, was divided into an upper middle and lower middle
class, depending on income, education, and occupational status.
The largest social grouping was the lower class, which consisted
of urban workers, farmers, and agricultural laborers. Social
structure was fairly rigid; birth was the primary criterion for
membership in the upper class. It was possible, however, to rise
in the social hierarchy through marriage, education, or
achievement in such areas as politics or the arts.
In order to carry out the restructuring of society,
immediately after the war East German officials implemented
programs aimed at "de-Nazification" of society and socialization
of the means of production. Officials in government and elsewhere
who had cooperated with Nazi authorities were removed from their
positions and replaced by loyal communists. The estates and
businesses of wealthy landowners and industrialists who were
accused of supporting the Nazi regime were confiscated.
Industries and private enterprises were nationalized and/or
brought under the umbrella of state control, and agricultural
lands were initially redistributed among rural workers and later
consolidated into collectives. By the early 1960s, these program
were largely completed. During this time, many members of the
former upper and upper middle classes fled to the West, while
those who remained made the adjustment to the new communist
regime.
East German officials consider theirs to be a transitional
society that still contains elements of the past social order.
The primary function of party and government leaders is to
reconcile those differences that still exist and eventually to
mold the various social groupings into a collective whole. The
Constitution, in fact, notes that "the inviolable foundations of
socialist society are provided by the firm alliance of the
working class with the class of cooperative farmers, the
intelligentsia, and other sections of the population."
As of 1987, it was difficult to describe the stratification
of society in other than general terms. Official data from 1986
broke down the socioeconomic structure of the labor force as
follows: workers and salaried employees, 89 percent; members of
cooperatives (including farm, craft, and lawyer cooperatives), 9
percent; owners of semistate enterprises and commission dealers,
0.3 percent; private farmers and gardeners, 0.1 percent; and
other privately employed persons (including craftsmen, merchants,
and professionals), 1.7 percent. These figures showed that the
percentage of workers, salaried employees, and members of
cooperatives had substantially increased, while the percentage of
private farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and self-employed
professionals had decreased. Other official data indicated that
of the workers and salaried employees, 836,374 were agricultural
workers. This figure is a substantial decrease from 1965, when
1,041,960 individuals worked in agriculture.
Ignoring the official structural breakdown of the population,
however, it was possible to speak in the broadest terms of four
social strata. These included the workers (the so-called backbone
of the socialist society), the political elite (those who gained
their power and influence through loyalty to the SED), the
intelligentsia (those who achieved a relatively comfortable
position in society as a result of their specialized knowledge or
creative abilities), and privately employed persons (those who
were generally part of the prewar middle class and who continued
to practice their trades and professions under the communist
regime). Stratification, particularly at the elite level, was
based primarily on technical/intellectual competence and
political power. Education and loyalty to the SED were the main
means of upward mobility.
Data as of July 1987
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