After the 'Socialist Spring': Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR PDF
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MONOGRAPHS IN GERMAN HISTORY MONOGRAPHS VOLUME 26 IN GERMAN AFTER THE ‘SOCIALIST SPRING’ HISTORY A VOLUME 26 Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR F George Last T E In this impressive work, George Last makes an important contribution to GDR studies. … R [This book] fills a gap in the literature, and it provides another illustration of the complex T relationships between state and society in the GDR. H-Net Reviews H Last’s book is a balanced account of a hitherto neglected field of research. It highlights E the close, though conflict-ridden interaction and communication that characterized the ‘ relationship between party rule and society in the GDR. German Studies S O Drawing on a broad range of archival material from state and SED party sources, C Stasi files and individual farm records, along with some oral history interviews, this I book provides a thorough investigation of the transformation of the GDR’s rural A sector. Focusing on the region of Bezirk Erfurt, the author examines how East L Germans responded to the end of private farming by resisting, manipulating but I S also participating in the new system of rural organization; he also shows how the T regime sought via its representatives to implement its aims with a combination of compromise, material incentive, administrative pressure and other more draconian S measures. The reader thus gains valuable insight into the processes by which the SED P regime attained stability in the 1970s and yet was increasingly vulnerable to growing R popular dissatisfaction, and economic stagnation and decline in the 1980s, leading to I N its eventual collapse. G George Last holds a BA from Oxford University and took his MA and Ph.D. at ’ University College London, where he has also taught. He is currently a Senior Civil Servant in the UK Civil Service. G e o AFTER THE r Cover Image: Soviet agricultural machinery on the streets of the Berlstedt villages in Bezirk g e Erfurt in 1976. From Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst L ‘SOCIALIST SPRING’ (AND) – Zentralbild, Bild 183 – UO2O2 – 404. Used with permission. a s t Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR History /German Studies G e o r g e L a s t berghahn NEW YORK . OXFORD www.berghahnbooks.com AFTER THE ‘SOCIALIST SPRING’ This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. Monographs in German History Volume 1 Volume 16 Osthandel and Ostpolitik: German Foreign Trade Policies Sex,Thugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Teenage Rebels in in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer Cold-War East Germany Mark Spaulding Mark Fenemore Volume 2 Volume 17 A Question of Priorities: Democratic Reform and Cultures of Abortion in Weimar Germany Economic Recovery in Postwar Germany Cornelie Usborne Rebecca Boehling Volume 18 Volume 3 Selling the Economic Miracle: Economic Reconstruction From Recovery to Catastrophe: Municipal Stabilization and Politics In West Germany, 1949–1957 and Political Crisis in Weimar Germany Mark E. Spicka Ben Lieberman Volume 19 Volume 4 Between Tradition and Modernity: Aby Warburg and Nazism in Central Germany: The Brownshirts in ‘Red’ Art in Hamburg’s Public Realm 1896–1918 Saxony Mark A. Russell Christian W. Szejnmann Volume 20 Volume 5 A Single Communal Faith? The German Right from Citizens and Aliens: Foreigners and the Law in Britain Conservatism to National Socialism and the German States, 1789–1870 Thomas Rohkrämer Andreas Fahrmeir Volume 21 Volume 6 Environmental Organizations in Modern Germany: Poems in Steel: National Socialism and the Politics of Hardy Survivors in the Twentieth Century and Beyond Inventing from Weimar to Bonn William T. Markham Kees Gispen Volume 22 Volume 7 Crime Stories: Criminalistic Fantasy and the Culture of “Aryanisation” in Hamburg Crisis in Weimar Germany Frank Bajohr Todd Herzog Volume 8 Volume 23 The Politics of Education: Teachers and School Reform in Liberal Imperialism in Germany Weimar Germany Expansionism and Nationalism, 1848–1884 Marjorie Lamberti Ma(cid:308) hew P. Fitzpatrick Volume 9 Volume 24 The Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, the CDU/ Bringing Culture to the Masses CSU, and the West, 1949–1966 Control, Compromise and Participation in the GDR Ronald J. Granieri Esther von Richthofen Volume 10 Volume 25 The Price of Exclusion: Ethnicity, National Identity, and Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial the Decline of German Liberalism, 1898–1933 Germany, 1871–1918 E. Kurlander Gary D. Stark Volume 11 Volume 26 Recasting West German Elites: Higher Civil Servants, A(cid:286) er the ‘Socialist Spring’: Collectivisation and Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse between Economic Transformation in the GDR Nazism and Democracy, 1945–1955 George Last Michael R. Hayse Volume 27 Volume 12 Learning Democracy: Education Reform in West The Creation of the Modern German Army: General Germany, 1945–1965 Walther Reinhardt and the Weimar Republic, 1914–1930 Brian M. Puaca William Mulligan Volume 28 Volume 13 Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between The Crisis of the German Le(cid:286) : The PDS, Stalinism and Authenticity and Performance the Global Economy Timothy S. Brown Peter Thompson Volume 29 Volume 14 The Political Economy of Germany under Chancellors “Conservative Revolutionaries”: Protestant and Catholic Köhl and Schröder: Decline of the German Model? Churches in Germany A(cid:286) er Radical Political Change in Jeremy Leaman the 1990s Volume 30 Barbara Thériault The Surplus Woman Volume 15 Unmarried in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918 Modernizing Bavaria: The Politics of Franz Josef Strauss Catherine L. Dollard and the CSU, 1949–1969 Mark Milosch This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. AFTER THE ‘SOCIALIST SPRING’ Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR George Last Berghahn Books New York • Oxford This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. First published in 2009 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2009, 2019, 2023 George Last Open access edition published in 2019 First paperback edition published in 2023 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data PurLast, George. After the “socialist spring” : collectivism and economic transformation in the GDR / George Last. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Monographs in German history ; v. 26) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84545-552-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Collectivization of agriculture—Germany (East)—History. 2. Germany (East)—Economic conditions—20th century. 3. Agriculture and state— Germany (East). I. Title. HD1492.G2L37 2008 330.943’1087—dc22 2008032694 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-84545-552-1 hardback ISBN: 978-1-80073-730-3 paperback ISBN: 978-1-78920-108-6 open access ebook https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521 An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at knowledgeunlatched.org. This work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives 4.0 License. The terms of the license can be found at http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. For uses beyond those covered in the license contact Berghahn Books. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. ? Contents List of Figures viii Acknowledgements ix List of Abbreviations x Glossary of Terms xiii Map of Settlement Pattern in Bezirk Erfurt xvi Introduction xvii Bezirk Erfurt xx Pre-1989 Studies of Agriculture and Rural Society in the GDR xxiii The Historiography of Agriculture and Rural Society in the GDR since the Wende xxvi Sources xxix Contribution xxxii PART I CONSOLIDATION AND CONTROL: COLLECTIVISATION AND ITS MALCONTENTS 1 Steps towards Full Collectivisation of Agriculture 3 The Campaign for Collectivisation 4 Popular Responses to Collectivisation 9 The Limits of Local Agitation 11 The Campaign Intensifi ed 14 The ‘Socialist Spring’ 18 Conclusion 21 2 The Aftermath of Collectivisation 27 The Conditions of Collectivised Agriculture 28 The Roots of Confl ict in the LPG 31 The Insuffi ciency of the SED State’s Apparatus in Rural Communities 35 Flight to the West 39 The Strength of Popular Dissent 44 The Seeds of Consolidation in the LPG 47 Conclusion 48 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. vi • Contents 3 Farming behind the Wall 54 The Limits of Dissent 55 Sources of Continued Instability 59 Confrontation and Control 63 Conclusion 68 PART II COMMUNICATING REFORM: THE LIMITS OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION 4 Steps towards Reform 77 Changing the Context for Communication of Authority 78 Supplying Loyal Cadres 83 New Departures in the Administration of Agriculture 85 Hostility to Change: the Limits of Reform 88 Conclusion 94 5 Resistance, Compromise and ‘Cooperation’ 101 The Early Development of Cooperation 101 Grounds for Continuing Hostility to Cooperation 104 Competing Interests and the Obstacles to Persuasion 110 The Ideological Defi cit in the LPG 115 The DBD and Voices of Conservatism 117 Uncertainty and the Limits of Transformation 119 A Changing Context for SED Authority 121 Conclusion 124 6 Critical Transitions 131 Forced Evolution 132 The Crisis Precipitated 137 Crisis and Confusion in Agricultural Administration 140 Administrative Gridlock 145 Conclusion 147 PART III STABLE INSTABILITY: ECONOMIC STAGNATION AND THE END OF TRANSFORMATION 7 From Ulbricht to Honecker 155 The Dynamic 1960s? The Limitations of Life in East German Agriculture 156 The Failure of Economic Reform 162 Continuities 164 Reconstituting Cooperation 166 A New Structure for Agriculture – A New Context for SED Authority 169 Conclusion 172 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. Contents • vii 8 Stabilisation and Stagnation 178 Consolidation and Confl ict 179 Inadequate Industrialisation 182 The End of ‘Realistic Plans’ 184 Problems of Scale 187 The Failures of Cooperation 191 Rural Development under Honecker 195 Conclusion 198 9 Economic Crisis and Popular Dissatisfaction – the Road to 1989 204 Popular Dissatisfaction: Pollution, Shortage and Neglect in Rural Society 204 Agricultural Reform 210 Managing Mis-industrialisation 212 Mis-industrialisation or Sabotage? 214 Financial Reform 216 Conclusion 219 Conclusion: The Practice and Problems of Agricultural Transformation in the GDR 224 Bibliography 230 Index 244 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale. ? List of Figures 2.1 Illegal Flights from the GDR by LPG members in Bezirk Erfurt, February 1960 to March 1961 41 4.1 Number of Type I and Type II LPGs vs. number of Type III LPGs in Bezirk Erfurt, 1960–74 89 5.1 Convergence of rising qualifi cation levels and declining workforce in Bezirk Erfurt, 1960–78 122 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781845455521. Not for resale.
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