How socialist East Germany's elite turned capitalist /Gerhard Schnehen.
- 1 online resource (xii, 247 pages)
Includes bibliographical references.
Part one. Before the 1963 'economic reform' -- The prevention of democratic change in East Germany after World War II -- The role of the soviet military administration in Germany (SMAD) -- The foundation of the GDR on October 7, 1949 -- Stalin's diplomatic initiative in March/April -- "Accelerated construction of socialism" -- the second party conference of the socialist unity party -- The 17th of June, 1953 -- The new character of the socialist unity party after the June events -- First steps towards the new economic system -- The events preceding the building of the Berlin Wall -- The building of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 -- "De-Stalinization" -- A former Nazi -- Ulbricht's first choice for the "economic reform" -- Final preparations -- Part two. The "new economic system of planning and leadership" (NOSPL) -- Disregard for the law of central planning -- Profit as regulator of social production -- The realization of profit through the market -- Means of production becoming commodities -- The new banking and credit system -- The reform of industrial prices -- Self-financing -- Concentration and centralization of capital -- The new premium system -- The abolition of the state monopoly on foreign trade -- Influx of foreign capital -- The sector "commercial coordination" (KoKo) -- Debt policies -- A new capitalist class -- The GDR working class -- An exploited class -- The consciousness of the GDR working class -- The GDR state -- an instrument of the new ruling class -- Part three. The end of the Ulbricht era -- The plot to get rid of Walter Ulbricht -- The reasons for Ulbricht's removal: the economic crisis in the GDR in 1970 -- The "Prague spring" -- The Polish rebellion -- Honecker's "main task".
"When East and West Germany re-united, the world was amazed - but this great moment should have been foreseen. East Germany, the GDR, was not transformed by a counterrevolution from the outside; the leadership was always capitalist at heart. The author shows how they were undermining the socialist foundations even in the 1950s, as soon as Stalin died"--