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The New East German Constitution and
the Question of Identity
Although the GDR had finally achieved its goal of international recognition
with the signing of the Basic Treaty in December 1972, renewed concerns
about the stability and identity of the GDR as a second German state drove
the SED Politburo toward a policy of reaffirming the socialist nature
of the state. As early as 1971, Honecker had launched a campaign to foster
a socialist identity among East Germans and to counter West German emphasis
on the historical unity of the German nation. In 1974 the GDR constitution
was even amended to increase a sense of separate development. All references
in the document to the "German nation" and to German national heritage
were deleted.
The SED had long revised German history to make it conform to socialist
purposes. Symbols of Prussian heritage in Berlin, such as the equestrian
statue of Prussian king Frederick the Great, had been removed. And in
1950, Ulbricht had ordered the 500-year-old palace of the Hohenzollern
Dynasty demolished because it was a symbol of "feudal repression."
Just as the SED was striving to develop a separate GDR consciousness
and loyalty, however, the new access to Western media, arranged by the
CSCE process and formalized in the Helsinki Accords of 1975, was engendering
a growing enthusiasm among East Germans for West Germany's Ostpolitik.
Honecker sought to counter this development by devising a new formula:
"citizenship, GDR; nationality, German." After the SED's Ninth Party Congress
in May 1976, Honecker went one step further: figures of Prussian history,
such as the reformers Karl vom Stein, Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard
von Scharnhorst, and the founder of Berlin University, Wilhelm von Humboldt,
were rehabilitated and claimed as historical ancestors of the GDR. Frederick
the Great and Otto von Bismarck were also restored to prominence. Even
Martin Luther was judged a worthy historical figure who needed to be understood
within the context of his times.
These concessions did not alter the regime's harsh policy toward dissidents,
however. Primary targets were artists and writers who advocated reforms
and democratization, including Wolf Biermann, a poet-singer popular among
East German youth who was expelled from the GDR in 1976. A wave of persecution
of other dissident intellectuals followed. Some were imprisoned; others
were deported to West Germany. Nonetheless, political statements by East
German intellectuals, some going so far as to advocate reunification,
continued to appear anonymously in the West German press.
- The Honecker Era, 1971-1989
- The
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
- The New East
German Constitution and the Question of Identity
- Relations Between
the Two Germanys
- The Peace Movement
and Internal Resistance
- The Last Days of East Germany
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