Back, Back, Back in the GDR

 “A Socialist Defector – From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee,” by Victor Grossman, 2019

Grossman, a draftee in the U.S. army, swims across the Danube to the Soviet zone in Austria to avoid 5 years in Leavenworth for lying about his membership in the U.S. Communist Party.  It is 1951.  He is transferred to East Germany by the new German Democratic Republic (GDR) with other immigrants, given a factory job and a place to live, then offered an education and job in Leipzieg, and another finally in east Berlin, where he becomes a journalist for the GDR.   He writes about his personal experiences in the early days of the GDR, through the changes during the rigid Brezhnev period, up to the dissolution of the GDR in 1990 and subsequent disastrous effects of capitalist restoration on easterners.

The book combines both his own research as a journalist and his lived experience.  Unlike the somewhat simple anti-communist stereotypes of the GDR promulgated by series like Deutschland ’83, ‘86 & ’89 – Stasi, ‘grey,’ dictators, poor – Grossman’s experience was anything but, though he covered far more time than that series.  He still lives in east Berlin.  As a socialist he wanted the GDR to succeed, in spite of the massive hostility by West Germany and the U.S., both never recognizing it or having normal trade relations. 

NAZI’s

Grossman’s work as a journalist exposed the ‘de-Nazification’ of West Germany as a farce.  Many high-level government figures, especially under the ‘Christian Democrat’ Konrad Adenaur, were ex-Nazis.  The first head of West German intelligence was a former Nazi, Richard Gehlen.  This extended down to West German officers, judges, police, professors and teachers.  Even in 2020, members of German state intelligence and the military were linked to the fascistic AfD by the NYT.  On the other hand, the GDR purged their military, judiciary, police and teaching staffs of Nazis almost completely.  They subsequently had to train a whole new generation. The majority of the leadership of the dominant East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) (combining Communists and Social Democrats) were anti-fascists and many had fought in Spain.  This contradiction over how Nazis were handled reflects the fact that capital is far closer to fascism than liberals or conservatives want to admit.  Our own U.S. government imported many fascists into the U.S. under ‘Operation Paperclip.’ 

Grossman got married, had a baby and visited everywhere in the GDR.  He lists the many progressive moves made by the GDR.  Farmers were organized in cooperatives, and eventually all private farmers were incorporated, though they still held title to their land.  After the counter-revolution, farmers in eastern Germany tried to maintain their cooperatives, which had been successful.  After votes of the workers, factories and shipyards were slowly socialized.  East Germany’s one shipyard in Rostock had been destroyed by the war, while its one big steel-plant was too small.  Subotnick volunteers joined with construction workers to rebuild and enlarge both.  

According to Grossman, factories had libraries, canteens, day care and even entertainment venues.  Women were allowed equal legal rights in divorce, abortion, property and jobs – far ahead of most capitalist countries of the time. Long pregnancy leaves were basic.  Prices of basic food and fuel were controlled.  Fares on transport were low and stayed that way.  Health care and education were basically free.  Everyone was housed, though it took years before the GDR was able to give everyone a larger apartment.  Vacations were mandated, with many East Germans having holiday bungalows or ones connected to their work-places. In effect, all the basics of human life were guaranteed.

Karl-Marx-Allee in east Berlin

ISSUES

As to the negatives, Grossman pays particular attention to culture.  The ‘West’ used blue jeans, rock music and CIA-backed abstract expressionism to undermine the GDR’s ‘socialist realism,’ – a position which was not consistent.  The GDR promoted high-quality opera, theater (Brecht lived in the GDR), film and books, along with the classics of German and European culture.  Thomas Mann would visit on a regular basis.  In addition, GDR citizens were in contact with cultural and political developments and left struggles in places like South Africa, Nicaragua, Chile, Vietnam and Cuba.  They knew more about Angela Davis than U.S. citizens, while U.S. citizens were fed a diet of Wall stories.  

The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, as the GDR was losing skilled workers to west Berlin due to higher pay and more commodities.  The Marshall Plan and West Germany had made west Berlin a show-piece, pouring millions into reconstruction, shopping and entertainment to lure easterners (a.k.a. Ossies in German).  The controlled Eastmark became a weak currency compared to the Westmark which was used as a weapon, much as the dollar now dominates world currencies.  West Germany maintained sanctions against the East for its whole existence.  Grossman thinks the Wall was necessary as a protective economic measure. 

As to the Stasi, most people didn’t take the Stasi too seriously – jokes about them were frequent.  His 3 personal acquaintances that were in the Stasi were decent anti-fascists who wanted the GDR to succeed – the kind of person you might find in the FBI / NSA, but fighting for capitalism.

The issue of commodities was one of the toughest.  The GDR had to maintain a small army against the massive West German one.  They used poor quality ‘lignite’ coal for power, as they could not get cheaper and cleaner alternatives. The successful housing program was extensive but expensive.  The GDR sold many of their high-quality tools, food and products as exports for desperately- needed hard currency.  Grossman mentions periodic shortages over the whole period, but does not seem too bothered by them.  While Berlin’s housing was shabby on the outside, or decent housing was not seen by tourists as it was farther out, Grossman points out that the inside of the apartments were comfortable, if perhaps with outdated appliances.

Travel was also a problem, as East Germans could not go to countries outside central and eastern Europe without a special visa.  Budapest, Hungary was a favorite destination, but many wanted to go to west Berlin outside the annual reunion days, as families were still separated.  Grossman himself traveled to the USSR a number of times – Leningrad, Moscow, Sochi and farther east.

COUNTER-REVOLUTION

After the wall was declared ‘open’ by the SED, elections were held which were won by the Christian Democrats (CD - Angela Merkel being a low-level official.)  Only the SED opposed it, as the Social Democrats blocked with the CD.  This opened the way for the liquidation of the GDR in 1990.  Housing gentrification began to occur.  Prices for transport and basics quickly rose.   Many libraries in east Germany were closed.  Nude beaches were limited or eliminated.  In spite of the excellent transport system in Berlin and Germany, getting a car became a priority.  Porn, prostitution, cheap movies and potboiler books replaced the somewhat high-brow and narrow cultural approach of the GDR.  

Mass unemployment, homelessness and crime rose.  Scams became pervasive.  Debt became the method of control, with public Eastern banks bought by the likes of Deutsche Bank.  Now suddenly eastern public enterprises were also in debt and forced into sales.  The West German Trenhand commission closed or sold 8,000 state-owned enterprises, 10,000 acres of public land, laying off millions, liquidating competition for West German companies or enriching them by selling firms for a pittance.  This disastrous policy was followed in many east and central European workers' states subject to counter-revolution, the intent being to enrich western European and U.S. corporations.  Thousands of science researchers, teachers, journalists and other white collars also lost their jobs, including Grossman, who ended up translating Rawhide for his last few years.  Members of the SED (2 million members) were interrogated, then fired.  And the fascists once again emerged, taking advantage of the destruction of the eastern German economy.  This continues to this day.  Historically any memory of the GDR was erased by the western government, even the wonderful "Palace of the People" in east Berlin.  

After the barbaric liquidation of the GDR, Grossman was happy to see the increase in foreign foods, as East Germany had been somewhat isolated.  He was also finally allowed to travel back to the U.S. after 47 years, without being jailed for desertion.

Of special note was the role of the eastern Lutheran church, whose hypocritical leaders protested constantly against the workers' state, and helped organize against it.  After the overthrow they became hard right 'good Germans' who once protested for 'peace' and now endorsed every military war by the German state or the 'West.'  

Grossman is a CP loyalist, one of whose biggest problems is not understanding workers' democracy.  His approach to elections is either a one party state or bourgeois democracy.  He doesn't understand that in workers' democracy, working-class parties would be legal.  Nor does he understand the role of workers' councils, as they are absent when a 'Party' controls all decisions.  Yet the first German revolution in 1918-1919 was based on moving power to the councils.  

Socialists of whatever stripe should read about the lived experiences of the former workers’ states, as they provide valuable information for ‘the path forward.’  He points out that competing with West Germany was difficult if you have no imperialist concerns in far-flung countries, as did West Germany, which exploited other regions of the world and still does.  This book has a wealth of detail no review can encompass.  While somewhat short-sighed and theoretically muddled, the book is a good place to start.   

The last part of the book is a very familiar left critique of U.S. politics / history, McCarthyism and the like.  It also includes a somewhat humorous comparison of the weaknesses of various U.S. 'quality of life' standards versus the higher ones in the GDR.  In response to a U.S. question about why GDR factories had so many employees, he explains that technology was not as developed and the GDR had a commitment to everyone having a job.  Another group of 'useless' factory employees he described is actually quite interesting.  I will quote fully:  

"Every medium-sized factory had one or two SED organizers, a union secretary or two, someone to work with apprentices and one for promoting women.  Others, chose by the union, helped employees find housing, organized vacation offers and perhaps staffed the union's vacation hotels.  The kitchen staff usually had a dietician in charge. The clinic, aside from treating accidents, ran checkups on occupation illnesses and arranged stays at spas.  Factories had kindergartens, libraries and bookshops with technical books but also novels, even poetry; in some, an 'artotheque' lent out reproductions to decorate office walls and breakfast rooms.  Every big plant had a House of Culture with music and dance groups, writing, art and hobby clubs from film-making to auto mechanics. All had sports programs, the bigger the plant the more it offered: Soccer, handball, track and field, even gymnastics and fencing if in demand.  And all free of charge."   

Prior reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left to investigate our 14 year archive: “Line of Separation,” “From Solidarity to Sellout,” “Secondhand Time”(Alexievich) “Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives” (Cohen); “The Contradictions of Real Socialism,” “Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism,” “Blackshirts and Reds” (Parenti); “Yugoslavia” (Chomsky); "Soviet Woman," "How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin."

And I bought it at May Day Books!

Red Frog

June 26, 2021