Section three: communism under GDR

• : Divide Germnay into Four Zones (Yalta Feb 1945)
• Potsdam July 1945 (Stalin, Truman, Attlee

Agreements made at Potsdam

• Germany to be ruled by the Four Allied Powers
• Rebuild Germany into a democracy
• Germans in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia repatriated back to Germany
• The economy to run as one (reparations to be taken from each zone)

The Four Ds

• De-Nazification: Get rid of the Nazi Party and its effects
• Demilitarisation: No independent Military force allowed in Germany
• Democratisation: Wanted to make Germany a demcracy
• Deindustrialisation: Getting rid of industry (highy unpractical)

• (SED leading communist party in the East; led by Walter Ulbricht
• SED argued that ordinary workers and peasents were innocent of Nazism and war guilt
• Socialist party and communist party merged to become the SED, due to communist party doing poorly in the first election
• Appeared democratic, however, parties ultimately ruled/controlled by Ulbircht (SED) and USSR.
• Political opponants made illegal or are arrested

Abandoment of Democracy

• 1948-1949
• Marxist-Leninist (world revolution)
• Democratic centralism (false class consciousness, decisions made by the powerful people)

Growing Division

• 1947 = Bizonia (America and Britain)
• 1949 = Trizonia (France, America and Britain)
• Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid

The Berlin Blockade

• 24 June 1948- 12 May 1949
• Soviets blocked access to West Berlin
• Allies flew supplies to West Belrin
• Represented a resistance to communism
• Improves relations between America and West Germans

The 1953 Rising

• 16 June construction wokring demanded end to increased working hours for no more pay
• Became political, workers demanded Ulbricht be removed form power
• Consequences; West revealed to not intervene and Ulbricht has to call in the Russian Army (Stalin and Kristoff forced to support Ulbricht)

- Stasi: secret police, similar to Gestapo

Land Reform

• Large estates were given to peasents in 1945
• 1952 SED introdeuced collectivisation (smaller farms combined into a larger farm under state control)
• Not popular, led to many leaving the East

Five and Seven Year Plans

• Focussed on industry
• things slowly imporved from the 1960s

Peasents and Factory Workers

• Gained land
• Better machinery
• Oppourtunity for education
• Could become Managers if proved were loyal

Women

• Could become doctors
• Support for maternity, creches and after-school

- Mass organisations used like the Nazis (e.g. Democratic Women's League of Germnay)

Youth

• close links to industry

Religion

• Religious Education removed from the curriculum
• communists did not like religion

• Completely isolates West Berlin from East Berlin
• Built to keep West ideas out of the East
• Happened overnight
• Due to people fleeing from East Germany