In what ways did German society change?
Importance of the SED
• Organisations led and controlled by the party leaders
• ‘Democratic centralism’ strict hierarchical structures and no room for decision making within the party
• ‘The undisputed leader of the workers’ movement’
Secret Police
• Stasi• Closely modelled on Soviet
secret intelligence service• By 1955 13,000 staff• Bigger than the Gestapo• Informal members• Could be arrested without
charge
Upward social mobility
• Be politically committed to the system• ‘Socialist intelligentsia’ committed to the new
system: the professional classes
Welfare
• Free health care• Pensions• Day care• Unemployment benefit not provided
Mass Organisations
• State controlled Free German Trade Union League
• Virtually every worker a member• Run by the state and controlled by SED
policies• Represented workers interests: organising
holidays in trade union owned hotels, hostels across the GDR
• Democratic Women’s League of Germany Cultural, creative and artistic pursuits
• Society for Sport and TechnologyGerman Gymnastics and Sports League
• German-Soviet Friendship Society foster food relations between Germans and former arch enemies
• State run youth organisations: Free German Youth
"Free German Youth: The fighting reserve of the SED."
"The GDR: Our Socialist Fatherland."
The poster for Stalin's 73rd birthday in 1952. The text translates as: "Long live the standard bearer of peace. the best friend of the German people."
Religion and the Churches
• 17 million Protestant• 1 million Catholic• Marxist view of religion: ‘sign of an oppressed
creature’ and was doomed to ‘wither away’ under the new Communist society
• Despite good relations between some priests and pastors, the SED helped the ‘withering’
• At first seemed exempt from changes made by communist authorities.
• Church owned land wasn’t taken in the land reform of 1945
But....
• Religious instruction removed from the school curriculum
• 1950s confrontations between the state and the churches, SED campaign against Protestant youth group
Jungendweihe
• Jungendweihe: youth dedication service imposed 1954.
• It was a secular: incompatible with confirmation and commitment to God
Jungendweihe
• Those who refused would be discriminated against in school and prevented from going on to post compulsory education
• Church eventually conceded that the Jungendweihe was compatible with confirmation
• Page 151 Jungendweihe oath
Youth
• Free German Youth: fight against Western influences
• Give military training• Support community projects to build up
the socialist economy: harvest work and basic building work
Youth and Education
• Compulsory to learn Russian• Schools to have close links with industry.
Twinning arrangements between schools and factories meant that young people gained practical work experience
• Generous scholarships
• Free German Youth organisation, 14-25• Ernst Thalmann Young Pioneers 6-14• Camp trips, adventurous outgoings• Trips to Buchenwald where Thalmann had
been murdered. He was seen to be a leader of anti-fascist resistance
Alternate youth
• 1950s and 1960s culture: Beatles, Elvis very popular
• SED: anti-American• Radio station DT64 played 40% Western music