Nationalism as a Heavy Mortgage: SED Cadres Actions between Demand and Reality*

*The author is grateful to Jana Pavlíčková, Martin Mevius, Tilmann Siebeneichner and Russell Spinney for their help and advice on this article.

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Notes

*The author is grateful to Jana Pavlíčková, Martin Mevius, Tilmann Siebeneichner and Russell Spinney for their help and advice on this article.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/9-179, 237.

Cf. Leonhard, Spurensuche, 183. For more information on his work at the Department for Propaganda, and on party schools, see idem, Child of the Revolution.

The sole respectable study on the SED's party schools, but not on the question of nationalism, is Kluttig, Parteischulung und Kaderauslese.

Lüdtke, “Einleitung.” See also idem, The History of Everyday Life; Fitzpatrick, “Politics as Practice.”

Everyday historical approaches on the GDR are given by Lindenberger, Herrschaft und Eigen-Sinn; Lüdtke, “‘Helden der Arbeit’”; Port, Conflict and Stability; Pritchard, The Making of the GDR.

Cf. Bessel and Jessen, Die Grenzen der Diktatur.

See Port, Conflict and Stability, 63–64, 163. Similarly, on the importance of cadres, see Bauerkämper and Danyel, “The Pivotal Cadres,” 271–72; Pritchard, The Making of the GDR, 225–26.

For other countries in the Eastern Bloc see Kemp, Nationalism and Communism, 99–102.

Assembly of the KPD's functionaries in Thuringia in July 1945, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, I/1-001, 3, 25.

KPD conference in March 1946, in Dokumente, vol. 4, 72.

Ackermann's conception is partly reproduced in Weber, DDR, 64. On its genesis see Grieder, The East German Leadership, 9–17.

KPD secretary meeting in September 1945, in Dokumente, vol. 2, 61 (original emphasis). On the “invention of tradition” see Hobsbawm, “Introduction.”

Cf. Lemke, “Nationalismus und Patriotismus.” In contrast, Weitz argues that from 1946 onwards “For the SED leaders, a separate state seemed the only way to secure their powers and free themselves from excessive Soviet interference.” Weitz, Creating German Communism, 344.

The term “Stalinization” tends to obscure the influences of German working-class culture and traditions for this turn. Cf. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 14, 391.

Oelßner, Der Marxismus der Gegenwart, 132–47, quote 140.

The Soviet Union was not satisfied with the development, for its plan from March 1952 on a united and neutral Germany faded away. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 365–66; Loth, Stalins ungeliebtes Kind, 179–89.

Ulbricht, Die gegenwärtige Lage, quotes 7–8, 21, 33, 108.

Party assembly in February 1947, in SAPMO-BArchB, DY 30/IV 2/9.06/1, 77–78 (original emphasis).

Haury, Antisemitismus von Links, 293–455; Herf, Divided Memory, 69–162.

Poiger, Jazz, Rock and Rebels, 43–51.

KPD secretary meetings in summer 1945, in Dokumente, vol. 1, 36, 64. More generally, see Classen, “Feindbild Faschismus,” 134–36.

Cf. Naimark, The Russians in Germany, 252–75; Pritchard, The Making of the GDR, 30–52.

Cf. Dokumente, vol. 2, 55–57, quote 66.

Cf. speech at an SPD Party School in September 1945, in SAPMO-BArchB, NY 4036/634, 39–40, 52.

KPD and SPD conference in Thuringia, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, III/1-001, 41.

SAPMO-BArchB, DY 28/II 2/24, 80–82.

For the KPD see Naimark, The Russians in Germany, 314.

Best and Salheiser, “Shadows of the Past,” quote 592.

See Pritchard, The Making of the GDR, 166–70; Klein, “Für die Einheit und Reinheit der Partei.”

Cf. McKay, The Official Concept, 14–15.

See the general overview provided by Amos, Die Westpolitik der SED, 117–23.

Examples in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/9-179, 135; A IV/2/9-180 (unnumbered).

Cf. Niethammer, “Erfahrungen und Strukturen,” 104–08; Wierling, “The Hitler Youth Generation,” 312–17.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/5-154 (unnumbered).

Cf. Gibas, “‘Bonner Ultras,’” 91–96.

A National Congress was organized regularly by the National Front.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/5-154 (unnumbered).

Ideological concepts of the enemy that are taken for granted can be converted into actions. Cf. Satjukow and Gries, “Feindbilder des Sozialismus,” 64; Classen, “Feindbild Faschismus,” 142.

Cf. Bessel, “The War to End all Wars,” 94; Fulbrook, The People's State, 30–31.

On the anti-war spirit at the beginning of the 1950s see Bessel, “The War to End all Wars,” 93.

Suhl Party School in August 1950, in ThHStAW, SED BPA Erfurt, A IV/2/9-179, 71; more generally, see Spilker, The East German Leadership, 213.

One of the first remarks is given in the Party School Textbook Lehrplan from 1947.

Palmowski, “Building an East German Nation,” quote 377.

This age is assumed, even though one could become a member of the FDJ at the age of 14. Training sessions at the party schools could be attended only from the age of 18.

Suhl Party School, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/9-180 (unnumbered).

Erfurt Party School, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, B IV/2/9.03/046, 19–20. For the party's high school in Berlin, see SAPMO-BArchB, DY 30/IV 2/9.09/104. General information on Combat Groups is available in Siebeneichner, “Vom Mythos einer kämpferischen Klasse.”

Suhl Party School in January 1952, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/9-180 (unnumbered). The quoted example is followed by 12 further commitments to the “National Developmental Program for Berlin” in 1952.

On this see Fulbrook, The People's State, 141–74, esp. 150.

Assemblies in June 1950, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/9-180 (unnumbered).

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, B IV/2/9.01-2, quotes 11, 18, 27–28.

Das Volk, no. 95, 23 April 1953.

See the general analysis by Studer, “Liquidate the Errors”; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader.

See Satjukow and Gries, “Feindbilder des Sozialismus,” 59.

Cf. lectures at the Camburg Party School in April 1946, in SAPMO-BArchB, NY 4587/vorl. 31 (unnumbered).

On this see Leo, “‘Deutschlands unsterblicher Sohn …’”

An analysis based on radio broadcasting. Classen, “Vom Anfang im Ende,” 93–101. On the example of literature see Barck, “Widerstands-Geschichten,” 120–30.

For more on these incidents see the assemblies on 21 August and 18 November 1954, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, IV-07/204/010/2 (unnumbered).

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, IV-07/204/010/2 (unnumbered).

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, B IV/2/9.03/044, 135 duplex.

SAPMO-BArchB, NY 4182/924, 38-39, 49–51, quote 49.

Erfurt Party School in 1957, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, A IV/2/3-266, 34 verso.

Erfurt Party School in 1954, in ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, B IV/2/9.03/04, 95, 121.

See Naimark, The Russians in Germany, 69–140, esp. 134.

SAPMO-BArchB, DY 30/IV/2/1.01/42, quote 46.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, IV-07/204/001, 167.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, B IV/2/9.03/044, 54, 95, 135 duplex.

ThHStAW, BPA SED Erfurt, IV-07/204/007, quotes 48–49.