Socialism from Below: Kommunalpolitik in the East German Dictatorship between Discourse and Practice. Issue 1 (25th November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rau, Christian
• Is Part Of: German history. Volume 36:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 60
• Page End: 77
• Publication Date: 2017-11-25
• Subjects: GDR -- East German dictatorship -- Kommunalpolitik -- municipalities -- agency; Germany -- History -- Periodicals; 943
• DOI: 10.1093/gerhis/ghx120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0266-3554

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the official and scholarly debate on Kommunalpolitik in the GDR, and analyses how the concept took root at the local level, and how the SED finally responded. While most historians tend to reduce the political system of the East German dictatorship to the highly centralized state model that was ruled only by the Politburo of the SED, this essay points out that governance within the GDR was coupled with decentralized elements. In the 1960s, the SED began to rethink the modus of governance by stressing the local sphere as a resource of economic planning and by replacing the Stalinist definition of what a city should be. However, the state party avoided a reform that might endanger the monopoly of the Politburo. Nevertheless, by leaving this opening within the discourse, the SED provided a framework in which local authorities and academics could articulate their perceptions and challenge the power of the Politburo. Even Honecker referred to the popular debate that was soon dominated by local politicians and academics, but he was unable to cope with this unloved discourse since local authorities were becoming more self-confident. These results open up new perspectives on political practices within the GDR, especially with regard to the alleged stability of the Honecker era and continuities after 1989.