erence over the State. He initiated the program of Socialist reconstruction in East Germany in the early 1940’s and it was accelerated after 1952. In 1950, 51% of the population was brought under socialist control, and in 1951, the first five-year plan was introduced. It was predicted that there would be a 90% increase in the industrial output. In order to achieve this, it was believed that there would need to be a 72% increase in labour productivity. This was highly ambitious on the part of the planners, and in hindsight is impossible to achieve in such short space a time. As well as this economic reform, there was a lot of social reform in a short space of time. In 1949, the GDR effectively became a one party state. The four parties in East Germany that the Soviet Union approved of were merged into one, and the “elections” held were merely false shows of affirmation for the SED. In this period the SED began to purge it’s party of any disloyal members, and a Stalinist control of the Party was assumed by Ulbricht. Another long-term problem, which led to the working class revolts of 1953, is the changing roles of the Trade Unions in East Germany. East Germany had a strong tradition of Trade Unions, but at the end of the war, their role began changing. They still retained their socialist members, but they became much more controlled by the Communist party. In 1948 they changed again. Now they were no longer concerned with just protecting the workers interests. They became more like the TU’s in the USSR, with much more broader functions. They became in effect an extension of the Communist Party, aiding state objectives of fulfilling the socialist construction. The large scale industrial manufacturing was supported by the Trade Unions, who would help to create and support it, as they would later benefit from the increased workforce which would be brought in to work in the industrial sector. The problems arose ...
