Editing Walter Ulbricht (section)

==Leadership of East Germany==
===Consolidation of authority===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-08618-0005, Berlin, 2. Volkskammersitzung, Bildung DDR-Regierung.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Ulbricht addresses the People's Chamber in 1950. His modeling of his beard on that of [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] did not go unremarked by contemporaries.<ref name=spiegel491948>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-44419934.html |title=Deine Lippen rauchen Kippen|quote= ...Ulbricht ist geriebener als der dicke Paul [Merker]. So harte Weisheiten wie den Killbefehl für die Betriebsräte sächselt der "deutsche Lenin" nicht selber über den Aether, dazu schickt er Paul Merker. |work=[[Der Spiegel]] (online)|date=4 December 1948|access-date=26 October 2014|author=[[Rudolf Augstein]]}}</ref>]]

After the death of Stalin (whose funeral was attended by Ulbricht, Grotewohl and other German communists) in March of that year, Ulbricht's position was in danger because Moscow was considering taking a soft line regarding Germany.

[[File:Walter Ulbricht-TIME-1953.jpg|thumb|right|Walter Ulbricht on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''- 13 July 1953]]

The June [[1953 East German uprising]] forced Moscow to turn to a hardliner, and his reputation as an archetypal Stalinist helped Ulbricht. On 16 June 1953, a protest erupted at East Berlin's [[Karl-Marx-Allee|Stalin Allee]] as enraged workers demanded comprehensive economic reforms.<ref name=":5" /> The East German police had to call in Soviet military units stationed in the city to help suppress the demonstration and communist rule was restored after several dozen deaths and 1,000 arrests.<ref name=":5" /> He was summoned to Moscow in July 1953, where he received the Kremlin's full endorsement as leader of East Germany. He returned to Berlin and he took the lead in calling in Soviet troops to suppress the widespread unrest with full backing from Moscow and its [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|large army]] stationed inside the GDR. His position as leader of the GDR was now secure.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Millington|title=State, Society and Memories of the Uprising of 17 June 1953 in the GDR|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVhHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA172|year=2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=172–75|isbn=9781137403513}}</ref><ref>Jonathan R. Zatlin, "The vehicle of desire: The Trabant, the Wartburg, and the end of the GDR." ''German History'' 15.3 (1997): 358–380.</ref> The frustrations led many to flee to the West: over 360,000 did so in 1952 and the early part of 1953.<ref>Martin Kitchen, ''A History Of Modern Germany 1800–2000'', Blackwell, 2006, p.329</ref>

Ulbricht managed to rise to power despite having a peculiarly squeaky falsetto voice, the result of a bout of [[diphtheria]] in his youth. His Upper Saxon accent, combined with the high register of his voice, made his speeches sound incomprehensible at times.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kempe|first=Frederick|title=Berlin 1961|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group (USA)|isbn=978-0-399-15729-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/94 94]|url=https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/94}}</ref>

===Construction of a socialist society in GDR===
At the third congress of the SED in 1950, Ulbricht announced a [[Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|five-year plan]] concentrating on the doubling of industrial production. As Stalin was at that point keeping open the option of a re-unified Germany, it was not until July 1952 that the party moved towards the construction of a socialist society in East Germany.<ref>Martin Kitchen, ''A History Of Modern Germany 1800–2000'', Blackwell, 2006, p.328</ref> The "building of socialism" (''Aufbau des Sozialismus'') had begun in earnest as soon as talks of reunification faltered. By 1952, 80% of industry had been [[Nationalization|nationalized]].

The [[Council of Ministers of East Germany]] decided to close the [[Inner German Border]] in May 1952. The [[National People's Army]] (NVA) was established in March 1956, an expansion of the [[Kasernierte Volkspolizei]] which been set up already in June 1952. The [[Stasi]] (MfS) was founded in 1950, rapidly expanded and employed to intensify the regime's repression of the people. The states (''Länder'') were effectively abolished in July 1952 and the country was governed centrally through districts.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-18231-0003, LPG Trinwillershagen, Besuch durch Walter Ulbricht.jpg|thumb|right|Ulbricht visiting a [[Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft|collective farm]] in [[Trinwillershagen]] in January 1953]]

Ulbricht uncritically followed the orthodox Stalinist model of industrialization: concentration on the development of heavy industry.

In 1957, Ulbricht arranged a visit to an [[Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft|East German collective farm]] at [[Trinwillershagen]] in order to demonstrate the GDR's modern agricultural industry to the visiting [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Politburo]] member [[Anastas Mikoyan]]. The collectivization of agriculture was completed in 1960, later than Ulbricht had expected. Following the death of President [[Wilhelm Pieck]] in 1960, the SED wrote the president's post out of the constitution. Taking its place was a collective head of state, the ''[[State Council of the German Democratic Republic|Council of State]]''. Ulbricht was named its chairman, a post equivalent to that of president. His power consolidated, Ulbricht suppressed critics such as [[Karl Schirdewan]], [[Ernst Wollweber]], [[Fritz Selbmann]], Fred Oelssner, Gerhart Ziller and others from 1957 onward, designated them as "factionalists" and eliminated them politically.

===The Berlin Wall===
[[File:Berlin Wall 1961-11-20.jpg|thumb|left|East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall in November 1961]]

Despite economic gains, emigration still continued. By 1961, 1.65&nbsp;million people had fled to the west.<ref>Steven Ozment, ''A Mighty Fortress'', ''Granta'', London, 2005 p.294, quoting Lothar Kettenacker, ''Germany Since 1945'' (Oxford, 1997), pp 18–20 and 50–51, and Hagen Shulze, ''Modern Germany'', p. 316</ref> Fearful of the possible consequences of this continued outflow of refugees, and aware of the dangers an East German collapse would present to the [[Eastern Bloc]], Ulbricht pressured Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] in early 1961 to stop the outflow and resolve the status of Berlin.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kempe|first=Frederick|title=Berlin 1961|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group (USA)|isbn=978-0-399-15729-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/114 114–117]|url=https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/114}}</ref> During this time, the refugees' mood was rarely expressed in words, though East German laborer Kurt Wismach did so effectively by shouting for free elections during one of Ulbricht's speeches.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kempe|first=Frederick|title=Berlin 1961|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group (USA)|isbn=978-0-399-15729-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/321 321–322]|url=https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/321}}</ref>
[[File:Walter-Ulbricht-TIME-1961.jpg|thumb|right|Walter Ulbricht's second appearance on the cover of ''Time'' magazine- 25 August 1961]]
When Khrushchev approved the building of a wall as a means to resolve this situation, Ulbricht threw himself into the project with abandon. Delegating different tasks in the process while maintaining overall supervision and careful control of the project, Ulbricht managed to keep secret the purchase of vast amounts of building materials, including barbed wire, concrete pillars, timber, and mesh wire.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kempe|first=Frederick|title=Berlin 1961|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group (USA)|isbn=978-0-399-15729-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/324 324–325]|url=https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/324}}</ref> On 13 August 1961, work began on what was to become the [[Berlin Wall]], only two months after Ulbricht had emphatically denied that there were such plans ("Nobody has the intention of building a wall"),<ref>In response to a question by Annamarie Doherr, Berlin correspondent of the [[Frankfurter Rundschau]], during a press conference on 15 June 1961.</ref> thereby mentioning the word "wall" for the very first time. Ulbricht deployed GDR soldiers and police to seal the border with West Berlin overnight. The mobilization included 8,200 members of the People's Police, 3,700 members of the mobile police, 12,000 factory militia members, and 4,500 State Security officers. Ulbricht also dispersed 40,000 East German soldiers across the country to suppress any potential protests.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kempe|first=Frederick|title=Berlin 1961|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Group (USA)|isbn=978-0-399-15729-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/345 345]|url=https://archive.org/details/berlin1961kenned0000kemp/page/345}}</ref> Once the wall was in place, Berlin went from being the easiest place to cross the border between East and West Germany to being the most difficult.<ref>Keeling, Drew (2014), [http://www.business-of-migration.com/migration-processes/other-regions/berlin-wall-and-migration/ "Berlin Wall and Migration," ''Migration as a travel business'']</ref>

The 1968 invasion by Warsaw Pact troops of Czechoslovakia and the suppression of the [[Prague Spring]] were also applauded by Ulbricht. East German soldiers were among those massed on the border but did not cross over, probably due to Czech sensitivities about German troops on their soil during World War II. It earned him a reputation as a staunch Soviet ally, in contrast to [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romanian]] leader [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]], who condemned the invasion.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

===The New Economic System===
From 1963, Ulbricht and his economic adviser [[Wolfgang Berger (economist)|Wolfgang Berger]] attempted to create a more efficient economy through a [[New Economic System]] (''Neues Ökonomisches System'' or NÖS). This meant that under the centrally coordinated economic plan, a greater degree of local decision-making would be possible. The reason was not only to stimulate greater responsibility on the part of companies, but also the realization that decisions were sometimes better taken locally. One of Ulbricht's principles was the "scientific" execution of politics and economy: making use of sociology and [[psychology]] but most of all the [[natural sciences]]. The effects of the NÖS, which corrected mistakes made in the past, were largely positive, with growing economic efficiency.

The New Economic System, which involved measures to end price hikes and increase access to consumer goods,<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Germany: A Country Study|last=Solsten|first=Eric|date=1999|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=0844408530|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/germanycountryst00sols/page/100 100]|url=https://archive.org/details/germanycountryst00sols/page/100}}</ref> was not very popular within the party, however, and from 1965 onwards opposition grew, mainly under the direction of [[Erich Honecker]] and with tacit support of Soviet leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]]. Ulbricht's preoccupation with science meant that more and more control of the economy was being relegated from the party to specialists. The ideological hardliners of the party also accused Ulbricht of having motivations that were at odds with the communist ideals.

===Cultural and architectural policy===
The communist regime demolished large numbers of important historical buildings. The [[Berlin Palace]] and the [[Potsdam City Palace]] were destroyed in 1950 and 1959. About 60 churches, including intact, rebuilt or ruined ones, were blown up, including 17 in East Berlin. The Ulrich Church in [[Magdeburg]] was razed in 1956, the Dresden [[Sophienkirche]] in 1963, the Potsdam [[Garrison Church (Potsdam)|Garrison Church]] in June 1968 and the fully intact Leipzig [[Paulinerkirche, Leipzig|Paulinerkirche]] in May 1968. Citizens protesting the church demolitions were imprisoned.

Ulbricht attempted to shield the GDR from the cultural and social influences of the capitalist parts of the [[Western world]], particularly its [[youth culture]]. He intended to create the most comprehensive youth culture of the GDR, which should be largely independent of capitalist influences.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4bpBQAAQBAJ&q=walter+ulbricht+western+culture+influences&pg=PA158 |title=Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc: Youth Cultures, Music, and the State in Russia and Eastern Europe|date=17 December 2014|publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739178232|editor=William Jay Risch|language=en}}</ref>

In 1965 at the 11th Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]], he made a critical speech about copying culture from the Western world by referring to the "[[She Loves You|Yeah, Yeah, Yeah]]" of [[the Beatles]] song: "Is it truly the case that we have to copy every dirt that comes from the West? I think, comrades, with the monotony of the ''yeah, yeah, yeah'' and whatever it is all called, yes, we should put an end to it".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1MaBwAAQBAJ&q=walter+ulbricht+monotony&pg=PA45 |title=Rockin' the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural and Political Change |date=16 April 2010 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |isbn=9781443822077 |editor=Björn Horgby, Fredrik Nilsson |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q55mQpAGNMc |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/Q55mQpAGNMc |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live |title=Walter Ulbricht – Yeah Yeah Yeah |language=de |publisher=[[YouTube]] |access-date=29 December 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Dismissal and death===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-M0807-069, Beisetzung Walter Ulbrichts.jpg|thumb|Ulbricht's state funeral in East Berlin on 7 August 1973]]
By the late 1960s, Ulbricht was finding himself increasingly isolated both at home and abroad. The construction of the Berlin Wall became a public relations disaster for him, not only in the West, but even with the Eastern Bloc. This became gradually critical as East Germany faced increasing economic problems due to his failed reforms, and other countries refused to offer any kind of assistance. His refusal to seek rapprochement with West Germany on Soviet terms, and his rejection of [[détente]] infuriated Soviet leader [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] who, by that time, found Ulbricht's demands for greater independence from Moscow increasingly intolerable (especially in the aftermath of the [[Prague Spring]]). One of his few victories during this time was the replacement of the GDR's original superficially liberal democratic [[constitution of East Germany|constitution]] with a completely Communist document in 1968. The document formally declared East Germany to be a socialist state under the leadership of the SED, thus codifying the ''de facto'' state of affairs since 1949.

During his later years, Ulbricht became increasingly stubborn and tried to assert dominance vis-a-vis other Eastern bloc countries, and even the Soviet Union. He declared at economic conferences that post-war times when East Germany had to offer other socialist countries free patents, were over once and for all and everything actually had to be paid for. Ulbricht began to believe that he had achieved something special, like Lenin and Stalin had. At the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the [[October Revolution]] in Moscow, he untactfully boasted about having personally known [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] and having been an active communist in the USSR already 45 years ago. In 1969 Ulbricht's Soviet guests at the State Council (''Staatsrat'') showed clear signs of dissatisfaction when he lectured them heavily on East Germany's supposed economic successes.<ref>Mario Frank "Walter Ulbricht: Eine deutsche Biografie", 2001. S. 447</ref>

On 3 May 1971 Ulbricht was forced to resign from virtually all of his public functions "due to reasons of poor health" and was replaced, with the consent of the Soviets,<ref>"Walter Ulbricht: Herausgegeben von Egon Krenz,"  Publisher Das Neue Berlin (The New Berlin), 2013.</ref> by [[Erich Honecker]]. Ulbricht was allowed to remain as [[State Council of East Germany|Chairman of the State Council]], the effective [[head of state]], and held on to this post for the rest of his life. Additionally, the honorary position of Chairman of the SED was created especially for him. Ulbricht died at a government [[Guest house|guesthouse]] in Groß Dölln near [[Templin]], north of East Berlin, on 1 August 1973, during the [[World Festival of Youth and Students]], having suffered a stroke two weeks earlier. He was honoured with a [[state funeral]], cremated and buried at the ''Memorial to the Socialists'' ({{langx|de|Gedenkstätte der Sozialisten}}) in the [[Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde|Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery]], [[Berlin]].