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The "Socialist State of the German
Nation"
The building of the Wall effectively halted large-scale emigration from
the GDR. Although the SED failed to gain the active support of the majority
of the population, young people, especially, began to tolerate the regime,
at least passively. In the absence of any alternatives, they fulfilled
their routine duties in youth organizations, schools, and workplaces.
By the mid-1960s, the regime could afford to lessen internal pressures
on its citizens, who, encouraged by increased production of consumer goods,
had largely given up their open resentment against the SED and had turned
their attention to improving their standard of living.
Ulbricht's state visit to Egypt in 1965 ended the GDR's political isolation.
A previously unknown pride in East German achievements and a feeling of
distinct GDR identity began to develop, first among ruling party functionaries
and then gradually among segments of the population. In 1967 the GDR leadership,
encouraged by these developments, attempted to gain official recognition
of its autonomy from the FRG. When the FRG refused to grant recognition,
the GDR government proclaimed a separate GDR citizenship and introduced
a visa requirement for West Germans traveling to West Berlin and to the
GDR. With these measures, the GDR began to practice a policy of new assertiveness
and ideological delimitation (Abgrenzung) in response to the
FRG's policy of recognizing only one German citizenship.
Membership in the UN was a primary foreign policy goal of the GDR in
the late 1960s. A veto by the Western powers in the UN Security Council
blocked the GDR's bid, however. The GDR did gain admission to the International
Olympic Committee, which permitted East German athletes to participate
in the Olympic games as a separate team. For the GDR, however, the ultimate
breakthrough in the area of foreign policy--a treaty with the FRG--came
only after international political tensions began to ease under the new
spirit of détente.
Following the conclusion of the Treaty of Moscow between the FRG and
the Soviet Union in January 1970, a new era of communication began between
the two German states that culminated in the signing of the Basic Treaty
in December 1972. The next year, both states became members of the UN,
and most countries came to recognize the GDR. Permanent diplomatic representations,
in lieu of embassies, were established, respectively, by the FRG in East
Berlin and by the GDR in Bonn, demonstrating the new climate of mutual
respect and cooperation between the two German states.
In this new setting, there was no longer room for Walter Ulbricht, who
had maintained a policy of confrontation with the West for many years.
The Soviet Union, which had demonstrated considerably more flexibility
than the GDR leadership during its negotiations with the FRG, was also
irritated by the failure of Ulbricht's economic program and by his attempts
to demonstrate ideological independence by adhering to conservative Marxist
principles. In 1971 the Soviet authorities ordered that Ulbricht be relieved
of power. His replacement was Erich Honecker, who, as secretary of the
Central Committee of the SED for security matters, had been directly responsible
for the building of the Berlin Wall.
- The Ulbricht Era, 1949-1971
- Consolidation of the New
State
- Planned Economy
- The Warsaw
Pact and the National People's Army
- The Berlin Wall
- The "Socialist
State of the German Nation"
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