Socialism with a German Face

Abstract

The Wall is the symbol of the GDR. Its building marks the turning point in the evolution of the first ‘socialist state on German soil’. Had Ulbricht had his way it would have been built earlier. The longer the frontier to West Berlin remained open, the greater was the economic loss to the eastern part of Germany. Between 1956 and 1959 the number of the departing dropped steadily but the introduction of the Seven-Year Plan in 1959, the collectivisation of 1960, the sharp increase in the number of artisan co-operatives (membership jumped from 8000 in 1957 to 144,000 in 1960), the severe cut-back in the number of privately owned retail outlets and the sharp reduction in the proportion of industrial output emanating from the private sector (8 per cent in 1958 but 3.8 per cent in 1960) motivated an increasing number to leave peremptorily the GDR. In an interview in Pravda, on 30 December 1961, Ulbricht put the cost to the GDR of the massive flight of labour at 30,000 million Marks. The impact of the departed was immediately noticeable, forcing changes in the Seven-Year Plan. Half of the refugees were under twenty-five years of age and three-quarters under forty-five.