The
German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was established in 1949
from the area of Germany occupied by the
Soviet Union. East Berlin became the capital
of the new country. As West Berlin remained part of the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany) the capital was the cause of
great conflict.
The
main political figure in the German Democratic Republic was Walter
Ulbricht who served as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity
Party (1946-1971) and Chairman of the Council of State (1960-1971).
On 7th June, 1953, hundreds
of thousands took to the streets of East Germany in demonstrations
which began as a protest against increased work quotas and spiralled
into demands for free elections. Red Army tanks were brought in and
the Soviet military commander declared a state of emergency. More
than 50 people were killed. Of these, about 20 of were executed, while
more than 1,000 were convicted in the East German courts of having
taking part in an "attempted fascist coup".
In
1955 the government of East Germany signed the Warsaw
Treaty of Friendship Cooperation and Mutual Assistance with Albania,
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Poland,
Romania and the Soviet
Union. The Warsaw Pact was created in response to the decision
to allow the Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany) to join the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
In
the fifteen years following the Second World War
over 3 million people emigrated from the German Democratic Republic
to Federal Republic of Germany. In
August 1961 the Berlin Wall was built
to stem this flow of refugees.
In 1966
Willy
Brandt
became Foreign Minister in
the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany).
He developed the policy of Ostpolitik
(reconciliation between eastern and western Europe). In
1969 Brandt became Chancellor of West Germany. He continued with his
policy of Ostpolitik and in 1970 negotiated an agreement with the
Soviet
Union accepting
the frontiers of Berlin. He also signed the Basic Treaty with the
German Democratic Republic.
In 1972 the
German Democratic Republic was admitted to the United
Nations. With the collapse of communism in 1989 the two German
republics were united.
(1)
Waltraut Krugler, quoted by Hubertus
Knabe in his book 17th
June 1953: A German Uprising (2003)
The street was full of
people, saying 'come with us, do this with us'," she remembered.
"At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the street was black with people.
The police said:
'All of you go home, and we will fulfil your demands.' But people
shouted at the police and threw stones. Then the tanks came and people
were killed.
(2)
An East German joke about Walter
Ulbricht and Willy
Brandt told during the 1970s.
'Have you a hobby, Herr
Brandt?'
'Yes, I collect jokes
that people tell about me,' says Brandt. 'And you?'
'Oh, I collect people
who tell jokes about me,' says Ulbricht.
(3)
An East German joke about Walter
Ulbricht
told during the 1970s.
The Interior Minister telephones
Walter Ulbricht.
'Thieves have broken into
the Ministry this evening.'
'Have they stolen something?'
'Alas, yes. All the results
of the next elections.'
(4)
An East German joke that circulated in the 1970s.
A West German Communist
was travelling on a train through the GDR. He got into conversation
with an old lady.
'Back home in West Germany,'
he told her, 'shirts cost forty marks each.'
'Shirts?' said the old
lady ruefully. 'We had those here once.'
'Butter is terribly expensive
in the West. We are forced to eat margarine,' he continued.
'Yes,' said the old lady,
'we had margarine here once, too.'
'Now look here!' shouted
the West German, by now thoroughly exasperated, 'You don't have to
tell me these fairy-stories, you know! I'm a Communist!'
'A Communist?' sighed
the old lady. 'Yes, we had those here once, too.'
(5)
Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian (17th June, 2003)
A German historian has
accused the British of "betraying" an anti-communist uprising
in the early years of the German Democratic Republic which was eventually
put down by Soviet tanks. In a book published to coincide with today's
50th anniversary of the uprising, Hubertus Knabe claims that the western
powers, in particular Britain led by Winston Churchill, declined to
intervene because they feared a reunited Germany.
Churchill rebuked a British
commander who protested about the execution of a west Berlin student
caught in the east and praised the Russians for their restraint.
Mr Knabe, author of 17th
June 1953: A German Uprising, said: "The demonstrators were
bitterly disappointed, after the west's rhetoric about the liberation
of Europe, and the encouragement of resistance, that when they went
out on the streets, they received no support"
The anniversary has been
trailed for weeks by political debates, television documentaries and
theatre productions. In his book, the historian quotes Churchill expressing
surprise that the British commander should have issued a complaint
to the Russians without consulting London.
The then prime minister
asked whether the Soviet Union should have allowed "the eastern
zone to collapse into anarchy and revolt", according to a private
message quoted by Mr Knabe, and went on: "I had the impression
that the unrest was handled with remarkable restraint."
The west feared reunification.
The foreign secretary, Selwyn Lloyd, told Churchill in a memo on June
22 that the allies felt "a divided Germany is safer at present.
But none of us dare say so in public because of the impact on public
opinion in Germany". The first East Germans to go out on the
streets in 1953 were construction workers on Stalinallee, the Communist-era
highway that slices through east Berlin.
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