DDR Government

[RedBaran11]

Genossen,
I am working on a project for ym governemnt class and I am comparing how the governemnts of the DDR and US function(ed). Does anyone have any info, preferebly in english (German would be okay though too, Ich kann ein bischen Deutsch ), on how the governmetn of the DDR functioned and was structured? I need things like executive, legislative, and judicial powers, how elections were carried how, what rights DDR citizens did or did not have, how laws were passed, information on political parties (even though they were all SED contorled anyway), and anything else that might be useful.

Any help is appreciated!

Danke!

Justin

[jon m.]

If you are referring to the infrastructure from the top to the bottom then yes I have charts, graphs etc. Also the same for the structure of the SED if you are interested.

Jon.

[RedBaran11]

That helps! please email me anyhting you may have to redbaran11@gmail.com

I also need info on things such as what powers the legislative bodies had, what levels there were, what they were called, how they were represented (what you have may cover all those), how bills were introduced and passed, etc. Same goes for executive functions, such as what powers they had, what they did, and judicial powers information as well.

Basicly i need the whole shabang.

Justin

[jon m.]

You must get "The GDR: Moscow's German Ally" by David Childs.
ISBN 0 04 354029 5 Hardback
ISBN 0 04 354030 9 Paperback

It has just about everything that you asked about in it.

The Constitution, Volkskammer, ZK, Parteitag, etc.

I am scanning a picture right now for you.

Jon.

[jon m.]

SED Organisational Structure
From. The GDR: Moscow's German Ally by David Childs 1983.

[jon m.]

Here is the table of contents from that book. I tried to email them but my computer froze-up and closed my email page....

[jon m.]

Besides the book listed above I suggest these (all in english)
The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945-1989 (by Jeffrey Kopstein: Chapel Hill, 1997) ISBN 0-8078-2303-1

The East German Economy (by Ian Jeffries, Manfred Melzer and Eleonore Breuning: Croom Helm, 1987) ISBN 0-7099-1469-5

The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990 (by Mike Dennis: Longman, 2000) ISBN 0582 24562 1

Constructing Socialism: Technology and Change in East Germany, 1945-1990 (by Raymond G. Stokes: Johns Hopkins, 2000) ISBN 0-8018-6391-0

Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective (Edited by Kristie Macrakis and Dieter Hoffmann: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999) ISBN 067479477-X

Hehehe, you can see where my interests lay...but in all seriousness, if you only get one book, I suggest The GDR: Moscow's German Ally.

Jon.

[jon m.]

Administrative regions of DDR, and some abbreviations from same book.

[RedBaran11]

Thanks!

What was the legislative body of the DDR? The Volkskammer?

Did each region of the DDR have its own (like each state her ein the US)?

How many court layers were there? what powes did they have (such as the right to declare somehting unconstiutional here in the US)

What did the head of state have the ability to do (such as vetoeing bills here in the US)?

Justin

[KevinH]

Here's another state structure diagram if you want it.

I also have an article further explaining this diagram and the partys of the DDR but it's all in German.

[jon m.]

Here is some information about the Volkskammer from Kleines Politisches W******246;rterbuch (3., ******220;berarbeitete Auflage, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1978)

Volkskammer der DDR pt. 1


Volkskammer der DDR pt. 2 (continued at top left corner)

[jon m.]

Bear in mind that the information about the Volkskammer above comes from an East German publication...thus the ideological slant.

Jon.

[jon m.]

I tend to think of the Bezirke as the States and the Kreise as the Counties that you find here in the US. That is just me though...and I have no idea how they would be in a legal sense.

Maybe one of our ex-DDRians could be more helpful.

Jon.

Here is some information on the Council of Ministers (Ministerrat der DDR)

[RedBaran11]

Thanks Jon!

Wow, I really have my work cut out for me

Should be interesting to see how this turns out

Justin

[jon m.]

I just looked more deeply in the GDR: Moscows German Ally and it has everything that you asked about in it!

Here is a part of the conclusion in the chapter on "The Constitution: Just a Beautiful Illusion?"

It is difficult to sum up the reality of the GDR's constitution. It is not just force and fraud. However, when one observes its elections and its parliament, when one looks in on its congresses and reads its press, one irresistibly harks back to Rosa Luxemburg's critique of Lenin's Russia:

Without general elections, unrestricted press freedom and freedom of assembly and the free clash of opinions, life dies in every public institution, becomes a counterfeit life in which the bureaucracy remains the active element. Public life goes to sleep. A few dozen party leaders of unlimited energy and limitless idealism, among them in reality a dozen exceptional heads, direct and rule. From time to time an elite of the workers are called to meetings to clap the speeches of the leaders, to unanimously agree to resolutions placed before them. It is basically then a regime based on a clique, a dictatorship without doubt, but not the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In the case of the GDR the deadening effects of this system are limited by the shortage of labour, access to West German television and the access of the West German media to the GDR, human contacts between East and West Germans, the continued independence of the churches, the continuing attachment to the traditions of German social democracy, the high education standards based on socialist and humanist literature, revulsion against Nazi-style methods by many in the SED and, marginally, the continued existence of the allied parties.