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Honecker’s Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

David Childs
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Extract

AS HE SALUTED THE GRIM FORMATIONS OF 10,000 ‘FIGHTING groups of the working class’ and thousands of other soldiers and paramilitary police in Berlin's Karl-Marx-Allee on 13 August, Erich Honecker looked quite relaxed. He knew that his colleagues Egon Krenz (crown prince and security overlord) and Erich Mielke (Minister for State Security) had taken every precaution to ensure that there would be no counter-demonstrations to mar this celebration of 25 years of the ‘anti-fascist defensive (Berlin) wall’. In this, his fifteenth year as leader of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the 74-year-old Honecker could compliment himself on a successful party congress followed by successfully staged elections. He could also look back to a number of successful initiatives in the GDR's external relations.

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Articles
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Government and Opposition , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , 01 January 1987, pp. 78 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1987

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References

1 Ludz, Peter C., The Changing Parly Elite in East Germany, Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1972.Google Scholar

2 CA Quarterly, Vienna, II, 1986, p. 18.

3 Statistisches Jahrbuch der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1985, p. 241.

4 Zahlenspiegel Bundesrepublik DeutschlandjDeutsche Demokratische Republik Ein Vergleich, Bonn, 1985, p.44.

5 See for example Frowen, Stephen F., ‘The Economy of the German Democratic Republic’, Chapter 3, Childs, David (ed.), Honecker’s Germany, Allen & Unwin, London, 1985.Google Scholar

6 I have dealt with sport in the GDR in detail in Sport Under Communism edited by James Riordan, London, 1978. The GDR’s view is presented in Wanneberger, Günther (ed.), Köperkultur und Sport in der DDR, Berlin, Sportverlag, 1982.Google Scholar

7 Bundesminister fur innerdeutsche Beziehungen, Jahresbericht 1984, Bonn, 1985, p. 27.

8 jahresbericht 1984, op. cit. p. 32.

9 Zahlenspiegel, op. cit. p. 75.

10 ibid., p. 85.

11 Der Morgen, 9/10 August 1986.

12 Zahlenspiegel, op. cit. p. 101.

13 See the many interviews in Eckart, Gabriele (ed.), So sehe ick die Sache, Cologne, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1984 Google Scholar and Loeser, Franz, Die unglaubwuürdige GeselUschaft, Cologne, Bunderverlag, 1984, p. 193 Google Scholar. See also my chapter on youth in Honecker’s Germany.

14 Ronge, Volker, Von drüben nach hüben: DDR-Bürger im Westen, Wuppertal, Verlag 84 Hartmann Petit, 1985, p. 18.Google Scholar

15 The German Tribune, 24 August 1986.

16 Two useful additions on the history of the GDR are: Dietrich Staritz, Geschichte der DDR 1949-Ï985, Frankfurt/M suhrkamp, 1985 and Hermann Weber, Geschichte der DDR, Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1985. See also Weber, Hermann, (ed.), DDR dokumente, Frankfurt/M, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1986.Google Scholar