Abstract
The following analysis will again use the regime’s categorisation of society, as the institutions and their tasks corresponded to it. The political system’s structural crudity, inflexibility, and strong dependency on specific powerful individuals will be discussed and also its long-term impact on the population. The East German people, who lived their lives within but also beyond the centralised network of institutions provided by the regime, still relied on concepts and attitudes previously acquired from it. Nevertheless, the regime’s comprehensive approach ensured that the population was constantly confronted with demands to develop socialist principles of collectivism and a political consciousness committed to basic tenets of the socialist idea. GDR citizens constituted a social unit that was extremely dependent on the country’s political structure — more so than was the case in other East European countries.1 Crucially, however, the regime was unable to make all-encompassing provisions for the different sections of society and to address effectively the entire population. This situation, in particular, encouraged the development and use of alternative structures.
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Notes
M. Rainer Lepsius, ‘Die Institutionenordnung als Rahmenbedingung der Sozialgeschichte der DDR’. In: Kaelble et al., Sozialgeschichte, p. 17.
ACDP 7–13–3152, CDU, ‘Abteilung Kirchenfragen, 25.11.1982’, p. 4; see also BStU MfS-HAXX2416, 26.4.1984 ‘Politisch — operative Lage unter jugendlichen Personenkreisen’, p. 64.
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/35486, 23.8.1984, ‘Analyse der kirchlichen Kinderund Jugendarbeit im Bezirk Magdeburg’, p. 25.
BStU MfS KD Dresden-Stadt 64136, 30.4.1984, ‘Politisch-operative Lage in Konzentrationspunkten der Arbeiterklasse mit einem hohen Anteil Jugendlicher’, p. 9.
SAPMO DY30 IV2/2.036/2, p. 132; see also membership numbers, which dipped in the 1978–80 but were driven up again in the early 1980s. In: Zilch, Millionen unter der Blauen Fahne, pp. 14–15.
BStU MfS-HAXX2416, 26.4.1984, ‘Politisch-operative Lage unter jugendlichen Personenkreisen’, p. 65.
Anne Hampele, “‘Arbeite mit, plane mit, regiere mit” — Zur politischen Partizipation von Frauen in der DDR’, p. 290 In: Helwig et al., Frauen, pp. 281–320.
See for example SAPMO D04/1396, 6.9.1988, ‘Vermerk fur den Staatssekretär’, p. 1, signed Wilke He indicated that Klaus Gysi showed a reluctance to confront Margot Honecker.
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/19662, ‘Rede Margot Honecker, 30.9.1976’, pp. 1–2.
SAPMO DY30 vor1.SED/35037, 30.10.1984, ‘Weiterentwicklung und Führung des Unterrichts’, p. 5; see also ‘Schulordnung vom 29.11.1979’ cited in Dahn et al., Und f7lhre uns nicht in Versuchung, p. 119.
SAPMO D04/795, 19.11.1981, ‘Gesprach Ullmann, mit Hempel und Domsch am 17.11.1981’, p. 2.
Gerhardt Neuner, ‘Erziehung des “neuen Menschen” — Licht und Schatten’, p. 197. In: Modrow, Das Gro/Se Haus von au/3en, pp. 196–222.
See Hans-Joachim Hoffmann (11.10.1991), cited in Brigitte Zimmermann, Hans-Dieter Schütt, ‘ohnMacht’ - DDR — Funktiondre sagen aus (Berlin, 1992), p. 118. ‘The heads of departments by the ZK of the SED tended to behave as super-ministers [Uberminister], except with regard to the people’s education sector, of course.’
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/14337, 8.8.1974, ‘Struktur- und Funktionsplan vom 1.10.1974’, p. 1.
Ibid., pp. 4–5, 13–14; SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/18032, c. 1975, ‘Struktur des Amtes fur Jugendfragen’, p. 5.
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/18032, ‘Beratung mit den leitenden Genossen des Amtes fur Jugendfragen am 24.9.1975’, p. 17.
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/26797, 1979, ‘Erhohung des Anteils weiblicher Leitungskader’, pp. 1–2.
Ibid., see various work plans and reports 1972–74, in particular ‘Arbeitsplan für 1/1973, 23.1.1973’, p. 3.
SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/16733/2 All reports of the DFD, including financial revision, were handed to the ‘Abteilung Frauen’.
Ibid., work plans and reports, 1972–74. See also SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/16718, Lange’s correspondence with the ‘Wissenschaftlichen Beirat zur Stellung der Frau in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft’, period 1972–74.
See for example: SAPMO DY30 vorl.SED/26797, 20.9.1979, ‘Arbeit und Entwicklung der sozialistischen Frauenorganisation’, signed ‘E.H., 24.9.1979’; DY30 JIV2/17/14, 5.10.1981, ‘Information an Honecker bez. ruckgangige Geburtenentwicklung’, commented by E. Honecker; DY30 vorl.SED/36879, 28.3.1984, ‘Entwicklung des Anteils der Frauen in Leitungsfunktionen’ speech by E. Honecker addressing 1st district secretaries of the SED; DY30 IV2/2.042/32, p. 122, ‘Auflistung der Genossinnen (Anteile) in der Partei an E.Honecker’; DY30 IV2/2.042/33, p. 145, Lange cites E. Honecker’s speech addressing 1st district secretaries of the SED, 1.2.1985
Barbara Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to Market — Citizenship, Gender and Women’s Movements in East Central Europe (London, New York, 1993), p. 274; for detailed statistics see Winkler, Frauenreport’90.
Christa Wolf, Franz Fuhmann, Monsieur-Wir finden uns wieder, Briefe 1968–1984 (Berlin, 1998), p. 41.
Hans-Ulrich Faure in conversation with H. Kant. In: Börsenblatt, 2.8.1991, p. 8; Interview with H.Kant for Schweriner Volkszeitung, 4.11.1994.
Christine Horn, ‘Irrgarten. Uber Zensur und Staatssicherheit’. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold, ed., Feinderklarung Literatur und Staatssicherheitsdienst (Munich, 1993), p. 47; see also Lepsius, ‘Institutionenordnung’, p. 19.
Faure with Kant. In: Borsenblatt, 2.8.1991, p. 10: ‘Congresses of the SV were events marked by a relative freedom of speech in a state, where freedom of speech was not immensely loved.’
The graphic-lyric poetry portfolio Kein Wind schlagt die Flugeltüren zu (1979) was created within the AdK Dresden. However, the genre expanded and moved quickly outside official institutions. It provided the base for the important, mostly self-published and therefore uncensored, painter-poet books and magazines, which were circulated illegally.
Goeckel, The Lutheran Church, pp. 21–2.
See Haase et al., VEB-Nachwuchs, pp. 21, 39, 85. See also Eckart, So sehe ich.
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© 2003 Jeannette Z. Madarász
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Madarász, J.Z. (2003). State Institutions. In: Conflict and Compromise in East Germany, 1971–1989. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403938367_3
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