German Partition
The post-war partition of Germany between the four powers decided at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences had only meant to be temporary, to prevent any resurgence of German military power. Germany was supposed to have been reunited after the completion of denazification and demilitarisation programmes. With the Cold War though the three zones controlled by Britain, France and the United States were merged to form West Germany in 1949 with the Soviet Union duly responding by turning its zone into East Germany later that year.
Communist East Germany
Occupation by the Red Army meant that Stalin could impose single Communist Party rule on East Germany as it was maintained in the Soviet Union. The Communist party (KPD) and the Social Democrats (SPD) in East Germany were merged to form the SED or Socialist Unity Party that became the leading party if not the sole party in East Germany. Other parties were allowed but their independence from the regime and their positions within parliament were purely nominal. The merger between the KPD and SPD had occurred to ensure the Communists could win elections prior to them taking over the government of the Soviet zone.
Walter Ulbrecht was a devoted Stalinist and was keen to toe the Moscow line. He became the SED leader who gladly imposed the Stalinist version of Marxist-Leninism on East Germany. East Germany was counted, as one of the countries of ‘really existing socialism’ or a Peoples democracy along with the Soviet Union’s other Central and East European satellites. Communist rule was legitimised by claiming the leading role of the Communists would eventually over take capitalism and provided socialist utopias.
The Warsaw Pact And The End of Communism
For much of the period 1945 to 1989 the Soviet Union’s relationship with East Germany was closely bound to the formal, military, political and economic links operated through the Warsaw Pact and COMECON (the Council for Mutual Economic Aid). The Warsaw Pact was established during May 1955 in response to NATO allowing West Germany to join it and re-arm. East Germany had its own separate Soviet equipped armed forces by the end of 1956. The East German military complimented the Soviet forces already on East German soil.
As well as being used to counter the threat from NATO it was used for internal security duties within East Germany. The East German army was important for the continuance of the Soviet-East German army relationship as it supported the East German regime and worked closely with the Soviet forces in East Germany. The East Berlin uprising and unrest throughout the rest of East Germany had been put down by the Soviets. The East Germans may have taken over internal security duties yet it and the East German regime survived due to the presence of the Soviet’s garrisons and the guarantee that they would be used to keep the SED in power.
The Soviet Union had decided to integrate East Germany economically with itself and the others people’s Republics of Central and Eastern Europe as part of COMECON in 1952. Officially, COMECON would direct economic development and trade between its members until 1989.
East Germany was the frontline border between East and West. It was thus vital for Soviet interests that its regime was communist and pro-Soviet. Soviet military presence ensured that uprisings like those of 1953 would fail. East Germany was re-armed to make the Warsaw Pact stronger and also integrated into COMECON. The East German regime had to maintain strong links with the Soviet Union because without them it could not survive. The flight of East Germans to West Germany was as big a threat as rebellion. The Berlin Wall for a time stemmed the flow. The Soviets were happy to see East Germany use repressive measures as they used similar methods themselves. The Soviets rather than the East Germans in fact ended the continuities of the Soviet Union’s relationship with East Germany. It was the political reforms of Gorbachev that ended the Cold War and meant that the Soviet Union was no longer willing to impose communism on any of the satellite states of central and Eastern Europe.
Bibliography
Fullbrook, M (1991) The Fontana History of Germany – Germany 1918-1990 the Divided Nation, Fontana, London
Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London
Pulzer, P (1995) German Politics 1945 – 1995, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Roberts, J M (1996) a History of Europe, Penguin Books, London
