blems in agriculture as well. Government officials were putting private farmers under sever pressure in order to force them to form the collective farms. Whilst they achieved limited success, the problems came when the regimes harsh measures began to force people to leave the country. By the end of 1952, nearly 15,000 farmers and their families had left the country, which left around 13% of the countries arable land unattended. Because of this a food shortage problem soon developed. Another long-term cause is the imposition of Stalinism. The policies and framework of the soviet Model was imposed rapidly on East Germany, mainly because of the Soviet Union was uncertain of the future of East Germany as a Soviet state. They believed that it may just become a neutral area between themselves and the West, or they believed it would become a separate entity in it’s own right. By 1949, the Stalinist policies had taken over in East Germany. However, the speedy imposition caused problems. As well as the exodus of the farmers due to the imposition of collectivisation, many independent businesses began to leave the country for the West, as were many leading intellectuals, who could not live with the ideological monopoly the SED tried to impose on East Germany. This drop in population lead to many problems for the GDR. Added to these problems was the need to create an economy for a country that had for a long time been part of a larger, more complete country. By this, it is meant that the GDR did not have the industry needed to sustain the type of economy that it wanted. In order to remedy this, there was a policy of producing goods solely for use for basic industries. More produce for the industry’s meant less produced for the consumers of East Germany. Ulbricht, the SED General Secretary, was the leader of East Germany at this time. He was not in an authoritative office in the GDR, but as with all Stalinist models, the Party took pref...
