APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7
European continent was completed rapidly. The Prussian-led Empire's predominance in the 1870's contrasted sharply with Prussia's status in the 1860's as one of several middle-ranging powers. The speed of this development fostered the belief that Germany had a destiny, a role to play in the international political arena. The industrial revolution, for which Germany was well endowed in resources and which had proceeded quite far in the Ruhr and Saxony, gave backbone to pan-German nationalism and helped to erode regional particularism within the country. However, the industrial revolution also fostered a numerous industrial working class and a strong socialist movement. The German Social Democratic Labor Party, founded in 1875, was the first socialist political party in Europe, and by 1914 it was the strongest single party in the German parliament.
Socialism in Germany did not develop along revolutionary lines as it did in the neighboring countries to the south and east. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, believing that reform from above would cause the Social Democrats to "sound their birdcalls in vain," enacted during the 1880's Europe's first major health and social welfare programs. These became the model for neighboring countries during the 20th century. The early success of the state's health and social welfare programs prompted Social Democratic leaders in 1891 to turn away from the revolutionary aspect of socialism in favor of pursuing reform within the existing bourgeois state framework. Although there was to be occasional resort to violence between the two world wars by the movement's radical left wing, which had become the Communist Party of Germany, the mainstream of German socialism in the pre-Hitler period was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. On the eve of Adolf Hitler's accession to power, the Communists capitalized on the unsettled economic and political situation in Germany to win points at the expense of establishment-oriented German socialism. The Communist victory was short-lived, however, and both workers' movements were quickly and brutally subdued by the radical right National Socialists (Nazis).
Revived and installed in power by the Soviet occupation at the end of World War II, the Communist claimants to the German socialist heritage have carried out a controlled social and economic revolution through the mechanism of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The SED's claim, however, that it is the continuation of the indigenous German socialist movement is clearly specious. In the early postwar period the SED retained control only by virtue of the power of the Soviet Union. As the division of Germany has solidified, and the regime has demonstrated its skill in political and economic management, most East Germans have gradually accommodated themselves to the status quo. They have developed some enthusiasm for specific institutions (the educational system is frequently mentioned among others) but this enthusiasm does not extend to the political system as a whole.
Having eradicated the old upper class and severely restricted the middle class, the Communists claim to act on behalf of the working class, which includes the farmers and "working intelligentsia." Nearly all agricultural and industrial production has been taken over by the state, and the few remaining private and semistate enterprises are under heavy pressure. The SED has eradicated the elitist tradition in German schools and created a free educational system which is compulsory through the secondary level. With its stress upon Communist indoctrination and technical and vocational training, the educational process is meant to provide East Germany with a skilled labor force loyal to communism. The SED has markedly expanded the health and social welfare programs it inherited from previous regimes, limiting at the same time the activities of private and religious organizations in this field. In its effort to achieve control of public life, the SED has effectively restricted most group associations to party-approved organizations and has even attempted to modify traditional family relationships. Starting from the belief that the arts and letters must also support socialist goals, the party has attempted to regiment cultural activity, and only recently has relaxed its controls. The only nongovernmental organizations still attempting to maintain independent contacts with West Germany are the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches, and they have been under heavy pressure by the regime to sever the few remaining ties.
Although the SED has been able to carry through a profound social transformation by virtue of its monopoly of power, it has not been able to win general positive support from the majority of the people. The regime's early programs, which aimed at the rapid communization of East Germany, resulted in the flight of more then 2 million persons to West Germany between 1948 and the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. This exodus included many whose skills were badly needed, and their loss seriously impeded progress toward realization of the SED's goals. The closing of the last gap in the border with West Germany in 1961 was a turning point in the GDR's history. With escape to the West much more dangerous, the people realized they had no alternative
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7
