Central European Papers 2018, 6(1):97-114 | DOI: 10.25142/cep.2018.005

Strikes in the GDR: Causes, courses of action and dimensions

André STEINER

Centre for Contemporary History

At the outset, this paper deals with the first nationwide strike in the Eastern Bloc, which took place in the GDR in June 1953, and its causes and consequences. Following this, it presents the particular problems and the possibilities for strikes during the initial post-war period and the period under the Soviet Occupation. As part of the socio-economic transformation of the Soviet occupied zone in Germany strikes were partially used in order to take action against private entrepreneurs. However, in the early 1950s strikes were called over bad working and living conditions or because the workers felt aggrieved. Hereafter, the fundamental issue of strikes within the conditions of a socialist system is: The communist party legitimized its rule as a “workers and peasants power” with the state property being seen as “people’s property” and hence workers could not go on strike against themselves. In the GDR, strikes never reached the extent of the ones in the weeks of June/July 1953. After this event until 1989, no larger scale demonstrations of workers for their rights or against the SED rule took place. Nevertheless, there were strikes; despite their differences, they showed certain characteristics and courses of action which are presented next. The numbers of people involved in strikes remained within manageable limits after 1953. Furthermore, strikes were initiated quickly and due to certain controversial subjects and therefore happened more spontaneously. Even after 1953 the subjects of the conflicts were mostly questions of wages and work norms, i.e. the income. These typical characteristics developed until the end of the 1950s and were preserved after. Nevertheless, the number of strikes changed considerably until the end of the GDR: at the beginning of the 1960s, they were still relatively high, but in the years of the economic reform declined sharply. Although numbers increased noticeably at the end of the 1960s, due to the economic crisis, strikes increasingly lost their importance throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with the numbers of participants decreasing drastically. The causes for this development are explained at the end of the paper.

Keywords: strike, GDR, East Germany

Published: August 30, 2019  Show citation