In what ways did German society change?

Importance of the SED

• Organisations led and controlled by the party leaders

• ‘Democratic centralism’ strict hierarchical structures and no room for decision making within the party

• ‘The undisputed leader of the workers’ movement’

Secret Police

• Stasi• Closely modelled on Soviet

secret intelligence service• By 1955 13,000 staff• Bigger than the Gestapo• Informal members• Could be arrested without

charge

Upward social mobility

• Be politically committed to the system• ‘Socialist intelligentsia’ committed to the new

system: the professional classes

Welfare

• Free health care• Pensions• Day care• Unemployment benefit not provided

Mass Organisations

• State controlled Free German Trade Union League

• Virtually every worker a member• Run by the state and controlled by SED

policies• Represented workers interests: organising

holidays in trade union owned hotels, hostels across the GDR

• Democratic Women’s League of Germany Cultural, creative and artistic pursuits

• Society for Sport and TechnologyGerman Gymnastics and Sports League

• German-Soviet Friendship Society foster food relations between Germans and former arch enemies

• State run youth organisations: Free German Youth

"Free German Youth: The fighting reserve of the SED."

"The GDR: Our Socialist Fatherland."

The poster for Stalin's 73rd birthday in 1952. The text translates as: "Long live the standard bearer of peace. the best friend of the German people."

Religion and the Churches

• 17 million Protestant• 1 million Catholic• Marxist view of religion: ‘sign of an oppressed

creature’ and was doomed to ‘wither away’ under the new Communist society

• Despite good relations between some priests and pastors, the SED helped the ‘withering’

• At first seemed exempt from changes made by communist authorities.

• Church owned land wasn’t taken in the land reform of 1945

But....

• Religious instruction removed from the school curriculum

• 1950s confrontations between the state and the churches, SED campaign against Protestant youth group

Jungendweihe

• Jungendweihe: youth dedication service imposed 1954.

• It was a secular: incompatible with confirmation and commitment to God

Jungendweihe

• Those who refused would be discriminated against in school and prevented from going on to post compulsory education

• Church eventually conceded that the Jungendweihe was compatible with confirmation

• Page 151 Jungendweihe oath

Youth

• Free German Youth: fight against Western influences

• Give military training• Support community projects to build up

the socialist economy: harvest work and basic building work

Youth and Education

• Compulsory to learn Russian• Schools to have close links with industry.

Twinning arrangements between schools and factories meant that young people gained practical work experience

• Generous scholarships

• Free German Youth organisation, 14-25• Ernst Thalmann Young Pioneers 6-14• Camp trips, adventurous outgoings• Trips to Buchenwald where Thalmann had

been murdered. He was seen to be a leader of anti-fascist resistance

Alternate youth

• 1950s and 1960s culture: Beatles, Elvis very popular

• SED: anti-American• Radio station DT64 played 40% Western music