Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's establishment in 1949 until the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. Formed in 1946 through a forced merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the SED built and ruled East Germany as a one-party Marxist–Leninist state.
The SED was structured according to democratic centralism, with authority flowing from the [|Party Congress] through the Central Committee to the Politburo. Though the Party Congress formally held supreme authority, the Politburo and the Secretariat carried out decision-making between congresses. The SED's General Secretary wielded absolute power, often serving concurrently in key state roles. Walter Ulbricht, the party's leading figure from the early 1950s until 1971, oversaw the construction of East Germany's socialist economy and institutions, but was eventually deposed for a series of failed economic reforms aimed at raising the GDR's competitiveness, as well as a worsening relationship with the Soviets. His successor, Erich Honecker, presided over a period of increasing economic stagnation until 1989. The SED promoted universal education and healthcare, the collectivisation of agriculture and the nationalisation of industry, while placing emphasis on ideological training, including mandatory instruction in Marxism–Leninism and the Russian language in schools and universities. Near the end of the Cold War, it remained skeptical of perestroika and glasnost under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, viewing these as destabilising for the socialist project. This position eventually contributed to East Germany's political isolation and the rapid transformation that followed in 1989.
In the wake of the Peaceful Revolution and the reunification of Germany, the SED's reformist elements moved swiftly to reposition the party within a pluralist system. In December 1989, it reconstituted itself as the Party of Democratic Socialism, formally abandoning Marxism–Leninism and endorsing democratic socialism. The PDS achieved some genuine electoral support in the former GDR during the 1990s, securing 16.4% of the vote in the 1990 East German general election and being a regional force in subsequent elections. In 2007, it merged with Labour and Social Justice to form The Left, which remains a parliamentary force in the Bundestag, continuing to represent the legacy of East German socialism within a democratic framework in a reunified Germany.
Early history
The SED was founded on 21 April 1946 by a merger of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany which was based in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin. Official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties. However, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed. By all accounts, the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD. The newly merged party, with the help of the Soviet authorities, swept to victory in the 1946 elections for local and regional assemblies held in the Soviet zone. However, these elections were held under less-than-secret conditions, thus setting the tone for the next four decades. Conversely, in the Berlin City Council elections held that same year, the merger fared more poorly. In that contest, the SED received less than half the votes of the SPD. The bulk of the Berlin SPD remained aloof from the merger, even though Berlin was deep inside the Soviet zone.The Soviet Military Administration in Germany directly governed the eastern areas of Germany following World War II, and their intelligence operations carefully monitored all political activities. An early intelligence report from SVAG Propaganda Administration director Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Ivanovich Tiulpanov indicates that the former KPD and SPD members created different factions within the SED and remained mutually quite antagonistic for some time after the formation of the new party. The report also noted considerable difficulty in convincing the masses that the SED was an authentic German political party and not merely a tool of the Soviet occupation force.
According to Tiulpanov, many former members of the KPD expressed the sentiment that they had "forfeited revolutionary positions, that alone would have succeeded much better had there been no SED, and that the Social Democrats are not to be trusted". Tiulpanov also indicated that there was a marked "political passivity" among former SPD members, who felt they were being treated unfairly and as second-class party members by the new SED administration. As a result, the early SED party apparatus frequently became effectively immobilised as former KPD members began discussing any proposal, however small, at great length with former SPD members, so as to achieve consensus and avoid offending them. Soviet intelligence claimed to have a list of names of an SPD group within the SED that was covertly forging links with the SPD in the West and even with the Western Allied occupation authorities.
A problem for the Soviets that they identified with the early SED was its potential to develop into a nationalist party. At large party meetings, members applauded speakers who talked of nationalism much more than when they spoke of solving social problems and gender equality. Some even proposed the idea of establishing an independent German socialist state free of both Soviet and Western influence, and of soon regaining the formerly German land that the Yalta Conference, and ultimately the Potsdam Conference, had allocated to Poland, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia. The SED began to integrate former members of the Nazi Party at its founding. However, the strategy was controversial within the party. The SED therefore set up the National Democratic Party of Germany in 1948 as satellite party that could serve as a pool for former Nazis and Wehrmacht officers. Nonetheless, the SED continued to absorb former Nazi Party members. By 1954, 27 percent of all members of the SED and 32.2 percent of all public service employees were former members of the Nazi Party.
Soviet negotiators reported that SED politicians frequently went beyond the boundaries of the political statements which had been approved by the Soviet monitors, and there was some initial difficulty making regional SED officials realize that they should think carefully before opposing the political positions decided upon by the Central Committee in Berlin.
A monopoly of power
Although the SED was nominally the product of a merger between the Communist Party of Germany and the eastern Social Democratic Party, it quickly became dominated by Communist leaders. From its foundation in 1946, Soviet occupation authorities and Communist cadres marginalised and purged dissenting Social Democrats, and by the time of the GDR's formal establishment in 1949, the SED had effectively become a continuation of the KPD under a new name, adhering to strict Marxist–Leninist principles and following the model of Soviet-aligned parties.Though other parties continued to exist, they were compelled by Soviet authorities to participate in the National Front, a coalition effectively controlled by the SED. By ensuring Communist dominance on the National Front's candidate lists, the SED predetermined legislative representation in both the Soviet zone and the post‑1949 GDR. Over the decades, it became known as one of the most ideologically rigid parties in the Eastern Bloc. When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms such as perestroika and glasnost in the 1980s, the SED rejected them, reinforcing its image as a hardline communist force.
Organisation
Basic organisation
The party organisation was based on, and co-located with, the institutions of the German Democratic Republic. Its influence stood behind and shaped every facet of public life. The party required every member to live by the mantra "Where there is a comrade, the party is there too". This meant that the party organisation was at work in publicly owned industrial and quasi-commercial enterprises, machine and tractor stations, publicly owned farms and in the larger agricultural cooperatives, expressly mandated to monitor and regulate the operational management of each institution.The smallest organisational unit in the party was the Party Group. Group members elected one of their number Party Group Organiser, to take responsibility for Party Work. There were also a Treasurer, an Agitator, and according to the size of the group other associated members included in the Party Group leadership. If there were several Party Groups operating in a single place they would be combined in a Departmental Party Organisation which in turn would have its own leadership and an APO Party Secretariat.
Party conference
The was formally the party's leading institution.Increasingly, party conferences were planned with military-level precision. Their choreography was carefully undertaken to ensure that they were understood as high-profile society events. They were very much more than mere political functions. Delegates were selected from the regional and sectional party organisations according to criteria determined by the Party Central Committee. Care was taken over the proportions of women, of youth representatives, of members from approved Mass organisations and of "exemplary" workers.
Party Secretaries
Party secretaries existed at different levels within the party. They usually held their offices on an unsalaried basis, often combining their party secretarial duties with a salaried function. Where a basic administrative unit grew beyond certain size tension tended to arise between the party secretary and fellow committee members, and at this point a full-time salaried party secretary would be appointed. Party secretaries in very large industrial combines and other economically important institutions would combine their party secretarial roles with membership of a more powerful body, applying a structural element maintained right up to the level of the Party Central Committee. The task of the Party Secretaries was the organisation of political work. They prepared the party meetings and organised political training in partnership with the party leaderships. They ensured implementation of and compliance with party decisions and undertook general reporting and leadership duties. They were also required to provide a monthly report on "Morale and Opinions" concerning the people covered by their party secretarial duties.Where work on occasion attracted criticism, there were many ways on which changes could be passed on. This fact lay behind the burgeoning bureaucratization of the party apparatus and the presence of Stalinist tendencies. Party secretaries underwent a special monthly political process that included instructive guidance and verification by representatives from higher level party committees. Along with their party responsibilities, party secretaries were members of the state administration, and they secured the leadership role that the SED claimed for itself in businesses and offices. Managerial decisions were discussed and ultimately decided in party committees. This meant that a manager, provided he was a party member, was committed to implementing those decisions.