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East Germany Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers is the government of East Germany
and the highest organ of the state apparatus. Its position in the
system of government and its functions and tasks are specified in
the Constitution as amended in 1974 as well as in the Law on the
Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic of October
1972. Whereas earlier the Council of Ministers had been described
as the "executive organ of the People's Chamber," the 1972
statute defined the council as the "government." According to the
new law, the Council of Ministers was to "carry out the decisions
of the party of the working class on the basis of the laws and
decisions of the People's Chamber." The Constitution as amended
in 1974 significantly expanded the functions of the Council of
Ministers at the expense of the Council of State.
In 1987 the Council of Ministers consisted of a chairman, two
first deputy chairmen, and nine deputy chairmen, all of whom
constituted an inner circle called the Presidium of the Council
of Ministers. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, Willi
Stoph, was head of the government (prime minister). Stoph, a
representative of the old guard and a Politburo member since
1953, was again appointed council chairman in 1986. Unlike the
nine deputy chairmen, the two first deputy chairmen, Politburo
members Werner Krolikowski and Alfred Neumann, generally had not
been responsible for specific ministerial portfolios.
In 1987 four of the nine deputy chairmen represented the four
non-SED political parties allowed to operate in East Germany: the
Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union--CDU);
the Democratic Peasants' Party of Germany (Demokratische
Bauernpartei Deutschlands--DBD); the Liberal Democratic Party of
Germany (Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands--LDPD); and
the National Democratic Party of Germany (National-Demokratische
Partei Deutschlands--NDPD). The four non-SED deputy chairmen were
the minister of post and telecommunications, Rudolf Schulze of
the CDU; the minister of environmental protection and water
management, Hans Reichelt of the DBD; the minister of justice,
Hans- Joachim Heusinger of the LDPD; and the chairman of the
State Contract Court, Manfred Flegel of the NDPD. The other five
positions held by deputy chairman on the Presidium of the Council
of Ministers were occupied by members of the Central Committee of
the SED. Two of the appointees, Günther Kleiber and Gerhard
Schürer, a candidate member, were also Politburo members. Of the
thirty-three regular members on the council, including both
ministers and nonministers, nineteen were concurrently members of
the Central Committee of the SED, and two were also Politburo
members. The latter were Erich Mielke, minister of state
security, and Hans Joachim Böhme, minister of university and
technical affairs.
According to the Constitution, all members of the Council of
Ministers are formally selected to their posts by the People's
Chamber for a five-year term. In fact these decisions probably
emanate from the Politburo and the Central Committee of the SED.
The Council of Ministers is required to work closely with the
People's Chamber, and according to its administrative guidelines
the council must have all its legal drafts and decisions approved
by the People's Chamber before they become law. In practice, the
converse is true; the People's Chamber is obliged to approve
those actions that are undertaken by the council and then
routinely submitted to the legislature. Similarly, the People's
Chamber is given the formal responsibility of selecting the
membership of the council; in practice such personnel decisions
are made by the Politburo of the SED. The legislature is then
expected to approve the selections.
As the de jure government, the Council of Ministers is
responsible for providing the People's Chamber with the major
legal drafts and decisions that subsequently are to be published
in the name of the state. The work style of the Council of
Ministers is a collective one. It normally meets on a weekly
basis to discuss problems and plans put forward by individual
ministers. It also confirms decisions that already have been made
by the Presidium. The Presidium is of special importance because
of its responsibility for handling the affairs of the council
when the full body is not in session.
Specific functional responsibilities of the Council of
Ministers include directing and planning the national economy;
solving problems growing out of membership in the Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon--see Appendix B);
coordinating and implementing social policy decisions that have
been agreed upon with the support and concurrence of the Free
German Trade Union Federation (Freier Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund--FDGB); instructing and controlling
subordinate levels of government, that is, the councils at
district, county, and community levels that implement the laws
and decisions of the central government; improving the
functioning of the system of "democratic centralism" within the
state apparatus; and carrying out the basic foreign policy
principles of the socialist state.
Data as of July 1987
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