Editing East Germany (section)

=== 1949 establishment ===
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar}}

The ruling communist party, known as the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED), formed on 21 April 1946 from [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|the merger]] between the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) and the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD).<ref>On the discussion about Social Democrats joining the SED see Steffen Kachel, Entscheidung für die SED 1946 – ein Verrat an sozialdemokratischen Idealen?, in: ''[[Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung]]'', No. I/2004.{{date?}}</ref> The two former parties had previously been notorious rivals before the Nazis consolidated all power and criminalized them. Official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties and as symbolic of the new friendship of German socialists after defeating their common enemy.<ref name=":4"/> However, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than was commonly portrayed; that the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD, and the communists, who held a majority, had virtually total control over policy.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |author=Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland |title=LeMO Kapitel: Zwangsvereinigung zur SED |trans-title=LeMO Chapter: Forced Association to the SED |url=http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614213527/http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |archive-date=14 June 2012 |access-date=15 July 2012 |website=hdg.de |language=de}}</ref> The SED remained the ruling party for the entire duration of the East German state. It had close ties with the Soviets, which maintained [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|military forces in East Germany]] until the dissolution of the Soviet regime in 1991 ([[Russia]] continued to maintain forces in the territory of the former East Germany until 1994), with the purpose of countering [[NATO]] bases in West Germany.

As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from its occupiers (1945–1949), the GDR was established in East Germany in October 1949. The emergence of the two sovereign states solidified the 1945 division of Germany.<ref>See [http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm Anna M. Cienciala "History 557 Lecture Notes"] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100620054515/http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm |date= 20 June 2010}}</ref> On 10 March 1952, (in what would become known as the "[[Stalin Note]]") the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], [[Joseph Stalin]], issued a proposal to reunify Germany with a policy of neutrality, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for "the rights of man and basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, press, religious persuasion, political conviction, and assembly" and free activity of democratic parties and organizations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |author-link=Rolf Steininger |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |date=1990 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York}}</ref> The West demurred; reunification was not then a priority for the [[leadership]] of West Germany, and the NATO powers declined the proposal, asserting that Germany should be able to join [[NATO]] and that such a negotiation with the Soviet Union would be seen as a capitulation.

In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the SED, headed by [[Wilhelm Pieck]] (1876–1960), who became [[President of the German Democratic Republic|President of the GDR]] and held the office until his death, while the [[First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED general secretary]] [[Walter Ulbricht]] assumed most executive authority. Socialist leader [[Otto Grotewohl]] (1894–1964) became [[Council of Ministers of East Germany|prime minister]] until his death.<ref>Roth, Gary. "Review of Hoffmann, Dierk: ''Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): Eine politische Biographie''" H-German, H-Net Reviews. November 2010. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 online] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121017042506/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 |date = 17 October 2012}}</ref>

The government of East Germany denounced West German failures in accomplishing [[denazification]] and renounced ties to the [[Nazism|Nazi]] past, imprisoning many former Nazis and preventing them from holding government positions. The SED set a primary goal of ridding East Germany of all traces of Nazism.<ref>Gomez Gutiérrez, J.J. & Bruschi, V. (2003). "Socialist Unity Party of Germany". In N. Schlager (Ed.), ''St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide: Major Events in Labor History and Their Impact.'' St. James Press.</ref> It is estimated that{{when|date=December 2020}} between 180,000 and 250,000 people were sentenced to imprisonment on political grounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic |url=https://communistcrimes.org/en/political-prisoners-german-democratic-republic |access-date=24 November 2020 |website=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic {{!}} Communist Crimes |language=en}}</ref>