After the 'Socialist Spring'

Collectivisation and Economic Transformation in the GDR
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84545-552-1
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 26, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 574 g

Reihe: Monographs in German History

Historical analysis of the German Democratic Republic has tended to adopt a top-down model of the transmission of authority. However, developments were more complicated than the standard state/society dichotomy that has dominated the debate among GDR historians. Drawing on a broad range of archival material from state and SED party sources as well as Stasi files and individual farm records along with some oral history interviews, this book provides a thorough investigation of the transformation of the rural sector from a range of perspectives. Focusing on the region of Bezirk Erfurt, the author examines on the one hand how East Germans responded to the end of private farming by resisting, manipulating but also participating in the new system of rural organization. However, he also shows how the regime sought via its representatives to implement its aims with a combination of compromise and material incentive as well as administrative pressure and other more draconian measures. The reader thus gains valuable insight into the processes by which the SED regime attained stability in the 1970s and yet was increasingly vulnerable to growing popular dissatisfaction and economic stagnation and decline in the 1980s, leading to its eventual collapse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Last, George

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Figures

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Glossary of terms

Map

Introduction

Chapter 1. Towards full collectivisation of agriculture

Chapter 2. The aftermath of collectivisation

Chapter 3. Farming behind the wall

Chapter 4. Steps towards reform

Chapter 5. Resistance, compromise and ‘cooperation’

Chapter 6. Critical transitions

Chapter 7. From Ulbricht to Honecker

Chapter 8. Stabilisation and stagnation

Chapter 9. Economic crisis and popular dissatisfaction

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Last, George
George Last holds a BA from Oxford University and took his MA and Ph.D. at University College London, where he has also taught. He now works on value-for-money research for the National Audit Office.