THE APPARATUS AND THE WORKING METHODS OF THE SED (SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY OF GERMANY)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R001100120002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 121
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 1, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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THE APPARATUS -A N D THE/WORKING METHODS
FT SED
(Socilist nity arty of Germany)
Distributed
November 1959
copy N? 1
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THE APPARATUS AND THE WORKING METHODS
OF THE SED
(Socialist Unity Party of Germany)
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The attached study of the organization, functioning
and methodology of control of the SED (Sozialistische
Einheitspartei Deutschlands - Socialist Unity Party of
Germany) is the work of a single author. It was written
in Germany by a young man who became a Communist
toward the end of the Second World War, while living
"underground" in Germany as a fugitive from the
Gestapo. His conversion to Communism was motivated
primarily by anti-Fascist and pro-democratic idealistic
convictions; he was a victim of the wartime and imme-
diate postwar "popular front" line. His intelligence,
enthusiasm and outstanding organizational abilities led
him rapidly to the top of the hierarchy; his warm personal
manner of dealing with others won him many friends and
confidants, as well as the ultimate wrath of the machine.
After having been intimately associated with top-level
organizational, cadre and "West German operations"
work of the Communist Youth organization in Germany,
with very close association at the same time with the
highest level of the SED apparatus itself, he was caught
in the backlash of the 1952/1953 purges and was forced
to flee for his life in the fall of 1953. He now lives in
Western Germany and is actively combatting the East
German Communist regime.
This document, which is based almost exclusively
on the author's personal knowledge, brought up to date by
his discussions with later defectors and by following the
overt intelligence closely, is a revealing insight into the
working methods of a Communist Party in power. It
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shows how the Party works, and why; how a small body
of men at the very top manage to control so tightly and
absolutely the actions, words and thoughts of a large
segment of the population falling within the organizational
purview of the Party and its mass organizations, as well
as the government. It examines the systems of control,
direction and guidance; of jurisdictional delimitation; of
security, cadre management and control.
The study has been translated and shortened, and
footnotes have been added by the translator to elucidate
certain points for the general reader. As much as
possible, however, the original style has been maintained,
including the use of a considerable. amount of Party jargon,
in order that the reader may become more familiar with
these terms.
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Page
PREFACE iii
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE STRUCTURE OF THE SED AND ITS
CENTRAL APPARATUS 6
The Apparatus of the Central Committee of
the SED 12
III. THE WORKING PRINCIPLES 16
The Role of Resolutions 16
Criticism and Self-Criticism 17
The Question of "Contact with the Masses" 20
"Concretism" and Reporting 21
The "Key Link" as a Working Method 23
On Work Planning in the Central Committee
of the SED 25
Rationalization of Work 29
The Party Organization in the Central
Committee of the SED 29
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The Improvement of Political and Professional
Qualifications of the Co-workers of the
Central Committee of the SED
IV. THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE
WORKING METHODS IN THE SED 36
The "Instructors" of the Central Committee
and Their Assignment Methods 36
Central Committee Organizers 4Z
The Working Methods of the Publicistic
Organs of the SED 43
Congresses, Conferences, Consultations, etc. 45
Discussions and Conferences with the First
Secretary of the Central Committee and the
Other Members of the Politburo and
Secretaries
Working Congresses and Courses 47
Working Conferences of the Departments of
the Central Committee 48
Working Commissions 48
Individual Discussions, especially for the
Guidance of Mass Organizations, the
-Administration, etc.
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Special Conferences
Working Seminars
Lectures and Party Cabinets
V. COOPERATION WITH ORGANS OF THE USSR 53
The Example of the CPSU for the Working
Methods of the SED 55
VI. THE WORK WITH THE CADRES
The Central Cadre Registry
The Development Card File of the Cadre
Sector of the Central Committee Departments 62
The Cadre Draft Resolution 63
The Relation of the Central Committee to the
District Leaderships 65
Screenings of the Cadres and Purges 66
Cadre Policy Directives 66
The Role of the Central Party Control
Commission
Cadre Policy at Boarding Schools and
Academies
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The Role of the Personal Questionnaire and
of the Personnel Files
82
Special Cadre-Policy Tasks
87
VII. THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES AND
ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK IN THE
APPARATUS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
OF THE SED
90
How a Resolution Draft Originates
90
How a Work Plan Originates
95
The Resolution Protocol
95
The Work of the Bureau of the Politburo and
of the Secretariat
97
The Control of the Departments by the
Secretariat
101
The Organization of the Work in the
Departments
102
The Courier Apparatus of the Central
Committee and the Telephone System
104
The Technical Co-Workers
106
Credentials, Visitors and Security Systems
in the Central Committee
108
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CORRECTIONS AND ADDENDA
Page 26, line 1: for prospective read perspective
Page 31, line 3: land is equivalent to state
Page 43, lines 2I and 22: for fulfillment of control resolutions read ful-
fillment or control of resolutions
Page 34, line 12: Zone is used to designate the Soviet Zone of Occupation,
and elsewhere now the East German. "Democratic Republic", not
in study: including East Berlin
Page 7.0, line 1: Antifa schools were the political reeducation and training
schools for Axis Prisoners of War in the USSR. Antifa
stands for Anti-Fascist
Page 105, footnote, line 11: for 1957 read 1956
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In spite of a number of important changes in the
political, economic and cultural structure of the East
Bloc, little has been changed in the structure and
methodology of the party apparatus of the Communist
and Workers' Parties. 1 They continue to represent the
backbone of the whole of public life. This becomes
particularly clear in the light of official party state-
ments, Khrushchev's as well as those of the SED, on
questions of organizational work during the recent
period. Just as did Stalin, Khrushchev attributes the
greatest significance to tight organization of the party
apparatus and unconditional adherence to the party
statutes, and to the disciplined, firm control over the
accomplishment of resolutions. In his report to the 20th
Party Congress of the CPSU, he said on this subject,
"The matter in question is to aim Party work toward the
organization and education of the masses, toward the
improvement of the management of the economy. In
1. The term "Communist and Workers' Parties" is
standard Communist usage for the CP's of the Soviet
bloc; some have changed their names in the course of
absorbing the Socialist parties in their countries, during
the process of taking power and establishing "People's
Democracies". It will be remembered that the official
name of the now defunct Cominform was "Information
Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties".
2. The word "control" is used throughout this paper
in the Communist sense. It denotes not only the exercise
of directing, guiding or restraining power, but also the
process of verification and check-up.
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order to raise the organizational work to the level of
the tasks facing the Party, it is necessary to improve
the Party apparatus in every way." In another place,
in regard to checking on the obligations which have
been assumed by the collectives and Party units, he
said, "And is the fulfillment of these obligations checked
on at all? No, it is not as a rule checked on. No one
is responsible for the non-fulfillment of obligations,
neither materially nor morally." 1
That is actually the same thing that Stalin said in
his report to the 18th Party Congress of the CPSU in
1938: "A correct political line is necessary -- not that
it be declared, but that it be transformed into fact;
otherwise, we run the danger of letting the correct
political line remain on paper. Given a correct political
line, then the decisive point is control over the resolu-
tions which uphold this line."
In his report Khrushchev continued, "In the struggle
for the all-round improvement of the Party-organizational
and Party-political work, the Central Committee attaches
special importance to the selection and distribution of
cadres, to steeling them ideologically, and to raising
their qualifications for their work. In the activity of
many Party organs they have forgotten the Party's
demand that, side by side with the correct utilization of
old cadres, it is necessary boldly to promote to leading
posts young workers who have been tested in practice."
1. All quotations cited in this study are translations
of the German manuscript, and do not necessarily coin-
cide verbatim with the official English language versions
of the sources quoted.
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This fundamental observation on the cadre and
personnel policy of the CPSU jibes completely with the
basic premises underlying Stalinist personnel policy.
Stalin reported to the 18th Party Congress, "However,
in order to transform the correct political line into fact
we need people who understand the political line of the
Party, who consider it their own line, who are ready
to transform it into fact, who also know how to accom-
plish it in practice, and who are willing to assume
responsibility for this line, to defend it, to fight for it.
Of particular significance here is the question of the
bold and prompt promotion of the new, the young cadres."
Stalin's methods of leadership, the leaders of the
CPSU and the SED claim, are derived ultimately from
Lenin's organizational system for the Bolshevik Party,
which involves "the principle of centralism with a
uniform statute, a uniform discipline, a uniform leading
organ at the head, with the subordination of the minority
to the majority,of the individual organizations to the
center, and of the subordinate organizations to the
superior." (From Lenin, One Step Forward, Two Steps
Backward.) At another place Lenin states, "Now we
have become an organized Party, and this means the
creation of a power, the conversion of the authority of
ideas into an authority of power, the subordination of the
lower Party bodies to the higher." (From Lenin,
Complete Works, Vol. VI, p. 291 of the Russian edition.)
Out of the unconditional subordination of the
minority, the unconditional recognition of the statutes,
there developed those Stalinist principles of organization
which throttled all contradiction and all free discussion
in the party and which even today are being used to bring
the restive party membership back under the power of
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the leadership. This becomes especially clear in the
statement of the Politburo of the Central Committee of
the SED which was published under the title "On
Discussion of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the
3rd Party Conference of the SED", in the central organ
of the SED, Neues Deutschland, No. 162, dated 8 July
1956. This declaration, after somewhat hesitantly
stating that a free expression of opinion within limits is
now permissible in the Party, continues, "This naturally
does not mean that libels against the Party or discussions
controlled by the enemy will be tolerated. The Party
has given itself a statute which clearly defines the rights
and obligations of Party members, and which has been
based on the decades-long experiences of the German
and the international workers' movement. Adherence
to this statute is and remains law for every Party mem-
ber. The preservation of the principle of democratic
centralism also belongs to this question. This
principle says, among other things, that all resolutions
of the higher Party organs are binding for every sub-
ordinate organization, and every Party member is
obligated to fight actively for the realization of Party
resolutions. "
In spite of the 20th Party Congress, nothing essential
has changed in the structure and methods of the
tremendous, bureaucratic Party apparatus. In order
to be able to measure the extent and the significance of
this apparatus, and to achieve an idea of the leadership
methods which not only have been worked out in every
small detail, but which put the Party leadership in the
position to control and direct the state apparatus, the
economy and the entire public life of the state, it is
necessary to examine in detail the structure of the SED
and of its central apparatus -- the working principles,
4
T~ T
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the working methods, the selection of personnel, and
the technique of work organization. Only if one recog-
nizes the extent of this tremendous apparatus, which
weighs oppressively on the entire population, and only
if one has studied its methods, can one comprehend that
it is by no means sufficient to eliminate the "cult of
the personality" in order to eliminate the Stalinist
system and introduce a true process of democratization.
Only when the rigid forms of structure and methodology
of the Party apparatus have been relaxed and democra-
tized, when the co-determination of the workers in the
processes of production and the selection of personnel
no longer supports the power positions of the "apparat-
chiks" , can one speak of a process of de-Stalinization
which truly embraces the whole system.
1. "Apparatchik" is a Russian term, widely used
throughout the Communist movement. It is used, for
the most part rather disparagingly, to designate the Party
bureaucrats (i.e. members of the "apparat" ); formerly,
it was used in a favorable sense to designate (1) those
on the"inside" of the movement, and (2) those in clan-
destine or conspiratorial (illegal apparat) work.
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II. THE STRUCTURE OF THE SED
AND ITS CENTRAL APPARATUS
It is necessary to explain briefly the structure of
the SED, because without this structure and its basic
principle, "democratic centralism", all the other
control methods would hardly be workable. It must be
mentioned briefly that, especially in the course of the
years 1948 to 1953, changes of a fundamental nature
took place. They consisted primarily of the liquidation
of concessions which had been made to the SPD1 right
after the war, in order to ease the unification of the
Socialists with the Communists.
The first Party statute of the SED, that of 1946,
granted to the lower echelons of the Party a relatively
large degree of independence. The obligations of the
Party members were formulated only in very general
terms, and the question of the rights of every Party
member occupied a relatively broad space. The 1950
statute completely shifted the balance in favor of a
rigid and central leadership. While, for example, in
the first statute of 1946, a comparatively broad inner-
Party democracy was recognizable -- Party Congresses
at that time were supposed to be held annually the
1. SPD - Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands -
Social Democratic Party of Germany, forcibly merged
with the Communist Party of the Soviet Occupation Zone
of Germany in April 1946. It continues to exist widely
in "underground" status in Eastern Germany.
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Party statute of 1950 decisively restricted this inner-
Party democracy. This was expressed, for example,
in the fact that Party Congresses were to be held only
every four years.
This gave the leadership) the opportunity to
dominate the Party without restriction for four years,
without the Party membership having the chance to
exercise any significant influence over the policy of the
leadership, for example through new elections. These
changes were by no means merely formal in character.
With the statutes of the SED of July 1950, resolved at the
3rd Party Congress, a new, more rigid era was intro-
duced which became known under the slogan, "the
creation of a party of a new type". This "new type"
consisted essentially in the fact that the Social Democratic
elements still present in the leadership of the SED were
eliminated virtually completely and the SED was system-
atically molded to the forms and methods of the Russian
Party according to Stalin's principles. The Party
Directorate was transformed into a Central Committee.
The hitherto leading organ, the Central Party Secre-
tariat, was transformed into a Politburo and a Working
Secretariat, and the Party press and the state organiza-
tions were likewise adapted to the new conditions. The
later reorganization of the administrative structure of
the Soviet Zone, in which the states and the state parlia-
ments were dissolved and sixteen districts with district
councils were created, was also one more step toward
1. In Communist parlance, the term "leadership"
less frequently connotes the abstract qualities of a leader
than it does the collective body of persons through whom
leadership is exercised.
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the Sovietization of the Soviet Zone of Germany. Through
this administrative reform, parallel to the changes in the
Party structure, the rights of the individual states were
further restricted, greater and stricter centralization of
control was made possible, bourgeois elements still in
existence were removed from powerl, and power posi-
tions and the greater, influence were allocated to the SED.
The structure of the SED after the reorganization
looks essentially like this: Outwardly, the highest organ
of the SED is the Party Congress, which is to be con-
vened every four years. The Party Congress elects the
Central Committee, consisting of 100 to 120 members,
as the body which is to conduct the affairs of the Party
between Party Congresses. The Central Committee,
then, selects from its midst the Politburo and the Secre-
tariat of the Central Committee, the two working bodies
which are to conduct the affairs of the Party between the
individual sessions of the Central Committee, held as a
rule every four months. These two working bodies are
accountable to the Central Committee. In practice, how-
ever, the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central
Committee are the sole, unrestricted masters of the
Party. The Politburo prepares the sessions of the
Central Committee, works out the documents, and even
1. In the early years after the war, the adminis-
tration and government of the Soviet Occupation Zone of
Germany was a form of Popular Front, complete with
church party and even a mildly national-conservative
party. In later years, these "front" elements were
gradually reduced in stature and excluded from positions
of power and influence, so that they now represent nothing
but SED puppets.
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proposes to the Party Congresses all members and
candidates to be elected to the Central Committee. Prior
to receiving the pro forma endorsement through "elec-
tions", the proposed nominees for membership on the
Central Committee, Politburo and Secretariat are not
only selected by the top Party leadership, but they are
thoroughly screened by the large, full-time, paid
apparatus which subserves the Central Committee. In
this way only those functionaries can be elected into the
Central Committee or other Party leadership bodies who
are acceptable in the first instance to the Politburo, but
ultimately to SED First Secretary Walter Ulbricht.
The Politburo and the Secretariat make use of a
Central Committee apparatus which consists of over a
thousand people. This apparatus is elected by nobody;
its individual functionaries, from department chief down
to charwoman, are hired on the basis of a personnel or
cadre screening. The cadre policyl work of the Central
Committee expresses most clearly the dictatorial
character of the Party.
In addition to the Politburo and the Secretariat, the
Central Committee elects the Central Party Control
Commission. The Central Party Control Commission
has the duty of suppressing all opposition in the SED, of
liquidating (in closest cooperation with the organs of
State Security) all Party functionaries who think
1. The term "cadre policy" is used extensively in
German Communist jargon; it refers to the over-all
system of cadre selection, development, management
and control, as well as the body of policies, regulations
and procedures which govern the system.
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differently from the leadership, and of acting on all moral
and other misdemeanors by leading Party functionaries.
The Central Committee also appoints the editorial bodies
of the central publications and designates the Party
organizers in key industrial and economic enterprises.
After 1950, alongside the Party Congresses, the
institution of Party Conferences was introduced, after the
Soviet model. According to statute, the Party Conferences
do not have the power to undertake cadre changes in the
Central Committee. The Conferences have the task of
"conferring" on particularly significant resolutions and
decisions in Party policy which are so basic in character
that it appears advisable to the Politburo to present them
to a broader body and permit this body to "resolve" them.
The Conferences, which can be convoked at any time, are
also attended by delegates selected by the individual
Party leaderships from the base upward, according to
long-standing and proven methods.
For the Party Conferences as well as for the Party
Congresses, the Central Committee -- i. e. in actual
fact the Politburo of the Central Committee -- has
established detailed regulations which from the very out-
set assure participation of true-to-the-line functionaries
only. These regulations stipulate precisely what
category of functionaries and members can be considered
for selection as delegates. Previous political reliability,
above all vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, a model attitude
toward the various systems for exploiting the economy,
attitude toward the "national armed forces" I and many
1. The term "national armed forces" refers to the
German "Nationale Volksarmee", which grew out of the
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other political characteristics are pre-conditions for
delegation to such a Congress. If these various char-
acteristics do not apply to an individual delegate, the
lower leaderships (whose full-time functionaries are
completely dependent on the superior leadership) can
prevent his participation in the delegation. But the
regulations not only govern the political selection, they
also determine the total number of delegates from a
given district and the breakdown of this number: how
many women, men, youths, how many workers, office
employees, engineers, scientists, farmers, etc. are to
participate.
In addition, the Politburo controls directly a number
of key positions in the economic and state apparatus.
Thus, the political departments in the motor-tractor
stations, the Party Secretaries in the larger enterprises
and the entire body of the armed forces are exclusively
under the control of the Politburo, and their leading
functionaries are assigned and directed by the Politburo.
To control the economic base of the Party, the
Politburo has at its disposal a central agency for the
armed, barracked special military units of the so-called
"People's Police". The reason why the attitude toward
the "national armed forces" is a criterion for delegation
to a Party Congress is that for years after the war the
basic line of the German Communist movement was
against any form of German military organization. The
shift in the line, when it was decided to take the wraps
of camouflage off the East German military establishment,
was hard for many German Communists to swallow.
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management of all Party business and properties. This
administrative apparatus, known as Zentrag, holds title
to all Party office buildings, Party schools, Party farms,
hotels and restaurants, Party movies, publishing houses,
printing plants, recuperation and rest homes, and the
like. Thus in this field also the power position of the
Politburo is sovereign. However, it is possible for such
a very small body to guide and control such a vast complex
only if it has a large support mechanism in the form of an
extensive apparatus.
The Apparatus of the Central Committee of the SEDI
The apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED,
which is subordinate to the Politburo, is organized in
departments. There are more than twenty-five different
departments of the Central Committee2: for example, the
Propaganda Department, the Department for Mass
1. The Apparatus of the Central Committee of the
SED is the headquarters establishment which is maintained
to carry out the day-to-day business at the top level of
the Party. It functions in the name of the Central Com-
mittee, on instructions from and in support of the Politburo
and the Working Secretariat.
2. It should be remembered that the responsibilities
and work of a CP in power are much more extensive than
those of a CP not in power; as a result, the CC apparatus
of a CP in power will contain a number of departments or
sections which are not found as a rule in the organizational
structure of a CP out of power.
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Organizations, the Department for Leading Organs of
the Party and Mass Organizations 1, the Department for
State Administration, the Department for Science and
'Universities, the Department for All-German Work?-, the
Department for Belles-Lettres and Art, the Department
for Planning and Finances, Department M (the military
department, including also "state security"), the
Department for Foreign Policy and International
1. This department, also referred to simply as the
"Leading Organs" Department, was formed in 1952 by a
merger of the Organization and the Cadre Policy Depart-
ments. After the 30th Plenum of the CC (January-
February 1957), it was dissolved again and the separate
departments Organization and Cadre (or Cadre Policy)
were reestablished. These formal changes and variations,
however, have essentially no effect on the system and
working methods.
2. This super-department is concerned with the
over-all coordination and guidance of all Communist
operations (except for those of the professional intelligence
services) from Eastern Germany into Western Germany
(frequently referred to as West Work). The name has
changed a number of times in the past and will probably
change in the future. The original body was known as the
West Commission. It is responsible not only for Party
operations, but also, more or less at staff level, for
those of the mass organizations (including the so-called
bourgeois political parties). Within most of the Depart-
ments are special Sectors for All-German Work, which
are subordinate to the Department-for All-German Work,
but which are responsible for West Work in their
respective fields.
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Relations 1, and many others. These departments as a
rule are headed by a department chief and one or more
deputy department chiefs. The number of deputy depart-
ment chiefs is determined by the size and organization
of the individual department. Thus, for example, the
Department for Leading Organs of the Party and Mass
Organizations has three deputy department chiefs who
share the various working areas of this most important
department of the Central Committee, for example, Party
Life, Party Information, Mass Organizations, etc. Other
departments, for example the Department for Planning
and Finances, have only one deputy department chief, who
is specifically concerned with one of the working areas in
this field. There are, however, also departments which
have a department chief without deputies, like the Depart-
ment for All-German Affairs. Within the various depart-
ments there are sectors, which are composed of a sector
chief and a varying number of co-workers and "instructors".2
Such a sector comprises, as the name indicates, a special
area of the individual department. For example, the
Agricultural Department is divided into a Sector of Motor-
Tractor Stations, a Sector for Agricultural Production
Communes, a Sector for Statistics and Planning, a Sector
for State Farms, etc.
1. This is the SED= s International Department or
Foreign Section. It is composed essentially of two
elements, one concerned with foreign policy proper (a
Party in power), and the other concerned with international
Communist liaison. The latter is the primary function of
the equivalent department or section in a CP out of power.
2. The term "instructor" is used throughout in its
specific Communist sense, not in the sense of "teacher".
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Since 1952 or the beginning of 1953 most depart-
ments have had, in addition to the specialized areas,
sectors for cadre (according to the Soviet model),
whereas up until that time the whole personnel policy
work was concentrated in one central Cadre Department.
The Cadre Department was decentralized so that each
department could concern itself with personnel policy
questions in its field of endeavor. 1
We shall nawexamine the methods through which the
Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee
of the SED ensure the guidance and direction of these
departments down to the last "instructor", the way in
which the results of the work of the departments are
passed on to the lower organizations of the Party, state
organs and mass organizations, and the way in which the
results of this activity are systematically controlled.
In Communist practice, the "instructor" is a special
representative of a headquarters element dispatched on
both general and specific tasks having to do with guidance,
control and inspection in operational field situations; he
may also be charged with a general review and investi-
gation of an organizational element of the Party or a mass
organization. In the Free World, for example, a CP may
dispatch a team of special "strike instructors" to take
over, guide and coordinate -- and frequently lead personally --
the CP's efforts to lead a strike movement.
1. See footnote 1, page 13.
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III. THE WORKING PRINCIPLES
In considering both the work organization and working
methodology of Communist organizations, the basic,
classical Leninist-Stalinist working methods must be
distinguished from the working technique and organiza-
tion which, while deriving their essential basis from
the working principles, nevertheless are not so funda-
mental, dogmatic or unchangeable as the former.
The classical working methods of Communism,
which were dealt with especially extensively by Stalin
at the 17th and 18th Party Congresses of the CPSU, but
which had been formulated previously by Lenin in the
formation of the Communist Party and in the struggle
between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, are the
actual skeleton of the organizational work of all Marxist
parties and are completely valid even in the period of
de-Stalinization.
The whole of Communist activity, in the political
and organizational, in the economic and in the cultural
fields, consists of the execution of resolutions passed
by the Central Committee. The whole scope of organi-
zational activity consists essentially of transmitting the
resolutions, decisions or directive instructions from
the highest organs -- through systematic and planned
organizational policy -- down into the very lowest units
of the Communist organizations, and there convincing
the members of the correctness of the resolutions by all
possible means; of guaranteeing the accomplishment of
the resolutions; of watching over their accomplishment;
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and of reporting upward through a corresponding reporting
system the results, i. e. the effect. On the basis of the
reports received, the leadership is able to make new
decisions which again are precipitated in the form of
resolutions. All other questions of working methodology
are subordinated to this very general directive skeleton.
The words of Stalin, "Once the correct political line is
given, the organization decides all", or Lenin's words,
"Organization is everything", point clearly to the fact
that the Communists have recognized well that decisive
significance lies with the working methods, and especially
with the accomplishment of resolutions once they have
been passed.
These principles are by no means inventions of the
Soviets or of Marxism. They have their roots in the
principles of rational management of enterprise. In one
of his speeches, Stalin pointed out that it should be a
special aim of Communist functionaries to "combine the
revolutionary Communist spirit with the cool objectivity
and efficiency of the American businessman". Neverthe-
less, it is understandable that in a system in which all
private initiative perforce must be eliminated, special
methods have to be found in order to achieve this objectivity,
concreteness and a corresponding consciousness of
responsibility. Andrei Zhdanov said at the 18th Party
Congress of the CPSU, "Control over the execution is the
most important weapon against stagnation in the work,
against rot. It is the most important means of preventing
the work of the enemy; where the control over the execu-
tion is properly organized, the enemy is crippled."
Criticism and Self-Criticism
One of the most important means to achieve this is
by constant critical examination of one's own work, or
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expressed in Communist jargon, the application of
criticism and self-criticism. On the basis of the by
no means new recognition that a thing can be done
thoroughly and well only if all weaknesses and failures
in its accomplishment are recognized promptly, the
constant critical examination of the accomplishment of
the individual resolutions has become one of the main
principles of the working methods. It need scarcely be
mentioned that criticism, in this case, under no circum-
stances may include criticism of the resolutions them-
selves. The resolutions passed by the Central
Committee are taboo for all functionaries. A change
in their content or formulation is impossible. This is
anchored in the statute of the SED, camouflaged under
the concept of democratic centralism. Permissible
criticism consists only of control by members of the
subordinate leaderships or units over whether the
responsible functionaries are properly fulfilling the
resolutions of the central leadership. This is supposed
to lead them to take a self-critical position if a central
resolution does not achieve the results which the central
leadership intended it to achieve. The use of criticism
and self-criticism in this way leads in the end to mutual
stool-pigeoning among the subordinate functionaries and
members as well as in the superior leaderships, and
thus creates that discipline ("subalternism") which the
Communist leadership needs in order to whip through its
political line and secure the much-discussed loyalty to
the line. The directives are untouchable, and all
responsibility for their accomplishment is delegated to
the subordinate organs; every failure is passed on to the
lower functionaries through statements calling for self-
criticism and leads to often curious forms of self-
flagellation. The principle of criticism and self-criticism
is one of the essential pillars of the Communist system.
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In its application the higher leadership has an excellent
opportunity to screen and evaluate the lower function-
aries. In addition, through this principle, all dependent
organs are kept in a constant state of insecurity which
makes it easier for those who hold the power to dominate
the apparatus. The principle of criticism and self-
criticism, through years of education, becomes a part
and parcel of the individual and it is an important means
of dominating him.
This method of criticism and self-criticism also
plays an important role in the selection of functionaries
and offers some inducement for the fulfillment and over-
fulfillment of planned goals. Criticism and self-
criticism are practiced not only in the small room, or
between superior and subordinate, or from co-worker to
co-workerl, but rather in meetings, large conferences,
and even public demonstrations, so that those responsible
are humiliated before their entire enterprise, their
whole environment, and the press, radio and other
publicity organs often disseminate such self-critical
statements. No matter how distasteful such a situation
may be to those concerned, there is nothing else for
them to do. Since criticism of the resolutions of superior
organs is not permitted, they can do nothing but assume
all the blame for themselves if they want to retain their
positions, their freedom, or even in some cases their
lives.
1. Communist functionaries are divided into
categories of "co-workers", e. g. "technical co-workers",
"political co-workers", which designate a class of
employees irrespective of physical or specific substantive
proximity.
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The Question of "Contact with the Masses"
The Communists like to justify the need for criticism
and self-criticism as a proper method for maintaining a
close tie between the leadership and the masses of the
working people. In the Communist standard work History
of the CPSU, Short Course (page 450 of the German
edition), and in a number of speeches by Lenin, there is
a constant recurrence of the legend of Antaeus, who lost
his strength when he lost contact with the earth. This
example is used again and again in order to spur the
people on to criticism and self-criticism. The problem
of contact with the masses is also of extreme importance
as a part of the working methods, because the Communists
see in it the sounding of the attitudes of the masses, at
least insofar as their reaction to one or another resolution
of the Central Committee is concerned. This is not done
to make a needed change in the resolution, since that
would be a violation of Communist principles and would
be described as "giving way before the attitude of the
masses", as "defeatism", and as "tailism". It would
be done only to make tactical adaptations in the resolution
to the attitude of the masses, to push it through on the
basis of intensified agitation or even through the use of
force. On another level than the principle of criticism
and self-criticism the slogan "Keep your ear constantly
among the masses" enables the Communist leadership to
improve its tactical moves and to heighten uncertainty
and fear in the population, thereby contributing generally
to a better control over the accomplishment of the
resolutions.
The recent process of de-Stalinization is to be viewed
in the end along the same lines. It developed from domestic
and foreign policy considerations after Stalin's death
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because a sounding of the attitude of the members of the
CPSU and other Communist and Workers' Parties
indicated that opposition had grown to considerable pro-
portions. The leadership of the CPSU came to the
conclusion that, without a relaxation of the Stalinist
course, their own existence would be threatened. For
this reason they threw all the Stalinist ballast overboard
in order to be able to assert their own positions and to
continue their fundamental policy, the striving for world
revolution, under a new cloak.
"Concretism" and Reporting
Another significant principle in the working methods
of the Central Committee is what they call "concretism".
By concreteness they mean objectively exact facts, lined
up one next to the other, in order to permit a check on the
accomplishment of the resolution.
Both in the formulation of a resolution and in
reporting on its accomplishment, an important working
principle of the SED requires objectivity, punctiliousness
and exactness. On the basis of lessons which the CPSU
has drawn from its own mistakes, the SED has come to
the conclusion that a resolution achieves its purpose only
if it is formulated exactly and precisely, so that the sub-
ordinate leaderships cannot interpret it as they want, but
are bound to a most precise implementation of what is
required from above.
In reporting, also, the requirement for preciseness
is applied. The reports cannot contain general formula-
tions; they must be concrete and report objectively point
by point how the appropriate resolution was fulfilled.
This requirement is one of the reasons for the passion for
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questionnaires which prevails in the SED. For every
resolution the corresponding departments frequently
issue questionnaires with fifty or more questions which
are supposed to assure the desired concreteness in
reporting. Since, however, many resolutions contain
ideological political tasks, the accomplishment of which
is supposed to be controlled on the basis of formal
questionnaires, it often happens that the reports miss
the heart of the problem and contain only statistical
results which are in considerable contradiction to the
actual situation. Thus, for example, it frequently
happens that reports on the "Pasty School Year" indicate
that in District X 180, 000 comrades participated in the
study, that these 180, 000 were grouped together in 900
circles which were visited by 600 speakers, who in turn
were grouped together in 60 speaker aktivs l; further, that
so many speaker training sessions were carried out, in
the course of which so many lectures were given, that
the following important questions came up during the
circle evenings, and that the average discussion partici-
pation was such a per cent. Statistically, these reports
might have a certain amount of significance. They also
satisfy completely the requirement for bureaucratic con-
creteness. Nevertheless, they lead to completely false
1. The term "aktiv" has been taken over from the
Russian; it is widely used, especially in European CP's.
The term "activist" is related to and derived from it. It
denotes a group within a group, i.e. that body of especially
active, loyal and dependable militants within a given Party
organization who are depended on for (and are responsible
for) the "activation" of the rank and file. The "aktiv" of
any party organization is its heart, made up of its key and
most active members and functionaries.
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conclusions, since they do not and cannot show what the
actual attitude of the individual schooling victims was to
the problems that were discussed, how active their
participation was, and what conclusions should be drawn
from these facts. This is not possible first of all because,
up to the 20th Party Congress, no one dared to voice his
true opinion, since in doing so he had to fear being
treated as a Party enemy and thus being subjected to
severe economic and even personal dangers.
Even after the 20th Party Congress it has not been
possible to criticize the system openly. In the declara-
tion of the Politburo of the SED, carried in Neues Deutsch-
land on 8 July 1956, this question was discussed as
follows: "In enemy propaganda the claim is made that
the mistakes of Stalin have their roots in the Soviet system
and in its social and state order and in Marxism-Leninism
generally. This requires a resolute struggle against
every influence of bourgeois ideology among Party mem-
bers and the workers." An article from Pravda of 16 July
1956, which was carried in Neues Deutschland on 18 July,
goes even farther. It states that the fundamental conflicts
in Hungary were "under the influence of imperialist
circles abroad". Thus, the limits of freedom of discussion
have been drawn.
The "Key Link" as a Working Method
Another important problem in the working methodology
is to determine the so-called "key link" in the work. In
principle, it amounts to the following: because of the
Communist system, which seeks to direct all social
relationships uniformly and centrally, all fundamental
resolutions have a tremendous scope and deal more or
less with all the problems of man in his societal context.
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They therefore bristle with a multiplicity of tasks, all
of which are supposed to be accomplished by one
leadership. In a normal democratic state the majority
of these questions would be left to private initiative or
to the natural social existence of the people. In Soviet
Germany, however, where everything is planned and
directed, and where the SED jealously guards its control
over all these questions, it is not rare that, at one
session of the Secretariat or the Politburo, sixty to one
hundred more or less extensive resolutions are passed.
In the end they land with the lowest Party unit, which is
made responsible for the actual accomplishment of
these resolutions. Even the Communist rulers realize
that a county or district leadership, or even a basic
organization, which frequently has no more members
than a single department of the Central Committee, is
by no means in a position to deal equally with all of
these resolutions. To simplify and lighten the tasks of
the lower leaderships, Stalin propounded the key link
concept in tactical leadership, "... to locate at any
given moment the particular link in the chain of processes
which, if grasped, will enable us to hold the whole chain
and to prepare the conditions for achieving strategic
success.... 'It is not enough to be a revolutionary and
an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general,
says Lenin. 'One must be able at each particular
moment to find the particular link in the chain which one
must grasp with all one's might in order to hold the
whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to
the next link.' " U. Stalin, Problems of Leninism,
English language edition, Foreign Languages Publishing
House, Moscow, 1953, pages 91 and 93. / It is nothing
more than an admonition to arrange the resolutions to be
implemented in such a way that, when applicable, the
resolution which subsumes the others, or whose
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implementation is prerequisite to, or will enable, the
accomplishment of the others, should be tackled first.
In this way the higher leaderships are absolved from
the task of seeing to it that their resolutions are not
repetitive, inconsistent, and misdirected through an
erroneous impression of significance created by the
inclusion of an excessive amount of detail. At the same
time the higher leaderships transfer to the lower
leaderships the responsibility for failure to implement
the resolutions properly, by leaving them open to the
charge of improper work methods in failing to select
the correct "key link".
On Work Planning in the Central Committee of the SED
It is understandable that a Party leadership which
at the same time controls an entire state apparatus and
all social forces cannot work only with individual, more
or less coincidental resolutions. The activity of the
various leading organs must be carried out on the basis
of definite plans. The system of planning has undergone
considerable changes during the years 1949-1956. At
first there were the annual plans. After the 3rd Party
Congress, however, they changed over to the Soviet
system of quarterly work plans, broken down into monthly
plans. These plans contain in principle the most important
tasks of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central
Committee for the coming quarter in all areas of
political, social, state, economic and cultural life. These
plans are the foundation for the work-planning of the
individual departments, which submit to the leadership
bodies (Politburo and Secretariat) their draft resolutions
on the basis of the plans. In these plans the old system
of improvisation which prevailed in the CP until 1945
has been replaced by a concrete methodology of planning.
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The setting up of outline plans, prospective plans,
quarterly plans, state and economic plans often created
tremendous confusion in the leadership bodies of the
SED, the government and the mass organizations, so
that there was a pressing necessity to create a uniform
system of work planning and coordination for the Party,
state apparatus and social organizations. This uniform
system was adopted at the June 1953 SED organizational
conference and is still in effect.
At the top of the pyramid of plans is the quarterly
work plan of the Politburo of the Central Committee.
This quarterly work plan contains the essential, expected
resolutions, campaigns and dates for the coming quarter
and has to be completed at least one month before the
beginning of the quarter. Such a plan, for example, for
the second quarter, would be built up around the prepara-
tions for spring planting, the celebration of the 1st of
May, etc., thus being devoted to events and measures of
the appropriate period which recur again and again by
routine. In this quarterly plan, the Politburo assigns to
the Secretariat, the district Party leaderships and the
departments deadlines by which the most significant
fundamental tasks for the coming quarter are to be pre-
sented to the Politburo for decision. Included in the
quarterly plans of the Politburo are specific deadlines
and personal responsibilities.
The Secretariat and the individual departments
then base their quarterly plans on the quarterly plan of
the Politburo. Although the Secretariat and departmental
plans are in principle very much the same as the
Politburo plan, their content is considerably more explicit
and includes certain organizational questions affecting
the realization of the various tasks.
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In the quarterly plan of the Politburo, for example,
there is only a certain deadline on the question of spring
planting. By this date, a draft of the appeal of the
Central Committee and an over-all plan for the
mobilization of all necessary reserves are to be worked
out and presented. In the quarterly plan of the Secre-
tariat, there are more detailed amplifications of these
points, such as which departments, ministries and
social organizations are to present drafts on which
individual questions by what date. The quarterly plan
of the Agricultural Department provides in even greater
detail what "instructor" assignments, investigations,
resolution drafts, and organizational measures have to
be made in specific detail, in order to "concretize" the
over-all task in the quarterly plan of the Politburo.
These quarterly plans are also transmitted to the district
Party leaderships, which in turn build their plans
around them.
Since the departmental plans have become very
extensive as a result of their detail, it has gradually
become the practice to break down the quarterly plans
into monthly plans. Each individual functionary in the
department, each sector chief now works out on the
basis of the available quarterly plans the monthly plans
for his sector and his own personal plan.
Since at the beginning there was an excess of plans,
an attempt was made to set them up with considerable
room for maneuvering, so that they also contained an
opportunity to work into them elastically tasks which
came up outside the framework of the plans. This was
necessary because the quarterly plans contained only the
standing outline tasks, whereas in the course of a quarter
a number of questions always came up which were not
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provided for and in many cases even exceeded in number
the tasks originally included in the plans. Particular
significance was always attached to the personal daily
plans of the individual functionaries. These daily or
weekly plans were supposed to contain in complete detail
what the individual functionary had to do every day on
the basis of department planning. Thus a pattern was
developed which permitted the individual functionary very
little creative initiative and elbow-room. At the same
time, however, it served to guarantee as close a control
as possible over the activity of the individual functionary
on the part of superior agencies. Through the rigid
system of planning, even within the framework of political
activity (which is very difficult to plan),a strongly bureau-
cratic, formal accomplishment of quota was favored. The
individual functionaries, for fear of criticism, were
greatly interested in formal fulfillment of the plan, much
more so than in a thorough accomplishment of the
individual resolutions and parts. Thus they frequently
reported success and fulfillment of the plan, although in
actual fact they accomplished nothing but the issuance of
directives, without any genuine check on whether the
individual measures were accomplished. This rigid
planning also presented a serious obstacle to the develop-
ment of the individual, since the plans offered him no
room for his own thoughts. In the final analysis the over-
loading which resulted from the plans led to superficial
accomplishment of assigned tasks and to a headlong race,
leading ultimately to virtual elimination of all aspects of
individuality and personality. For the SED system,
however, planning represents an essential instrument for
the maintenance of its bureaucratic apparatus, for the
consolidation of its own position, and for the prevention
of ideological deviations; in short, for the maintenance of
its centralistic power apparatus.
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Rationalization of Work
Even today the SED is striving to realize Stalin's
thesis of "combining the revolutionary spirit of the Com-
munists with American efficiency." In order to find
that concrete method of work which will help to realize
the set tasks exactly, soberly and rationally, it is clear
that this generally valid requirement is of extraordinary
significance, especially for the apparatus, but above all
in the economy. For that reason, an important working
method of the SED leadership is that of economy, the
rational commitment of assets and means, and rapidity,
along with the constantly developing so-called "innovation
methods" (e. g., Stakhanovism). The slogan, "Save with
every gram, every minute, and every penny", is
characteristic of this methodology. It is supposed to
squeeze out of the apparatus functionary, the state
employee, and the production worker the very last of his
resources, so that he is able to accomplish the maximum
possible in the quickest possible time with the least
possible means.
This high intensity of the use of energy is supposed
among other things to prevent functionaries from thinking,
from becoming involved in fundamental discussions, and
from having leisure for the study of works by Marx and
Engels which are not provided for in the schooling plan.
The Party Organization in the Central Committee of the SED
The methods used to increase performance in the
economy -- in general, the "performance principle", the
various competitions, the system of premiums, wall
newspapers, checkpoints, and "production conferences" --
are quite different from those used in the apparatus of the
Party. Aside from the traditional and generally known
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methods of praise and control by superiors, the system
of the Party organizations within the Central Committee
of the SED is worthy of special attention in this connec-
tion. On the basis of the Stalinist principle that every
Party member must be in a basic organization where he
is socially active, in the course of the year 1950 basic
units of the SED were formed in the Central Committee
and in all other Party mass organizations and state
administration apparatuses. In these basic units were
organized all SED members who worked in the apparatus
concerned. They paid their dues there and met for
regular Party meetings.
This system can be traced back to the formation of
the cells in the KPD1 during the 1920's, introduced by
Ulbricht2 on orders from Stalin in order to suppress all
freedom of discussion in the KPD. These organizational
forms are unchanged today and continue to pursue the
same purpose. Until the beginning of 1953 these basic
units were not subordinated to the appropriate Party
1. KPD - Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands -
Communist Party of Germany. This was the prewar name
of the German CP; it was the name of the CP in Eastern
Germany until the merger with the SPD in 1946, at which
time it became the SED - Sozialistische Einheitspartei
Deutschlands - Socialist Unity Party of Germany; and it
remained the name of the CP in Western Germany (with
the exception of West Berlin, where the SED exists).
2. Walter Ulbricht, present General Secretary of
the SED (and hierarchically superior to Max Reimann,
First Secretary of the now illegal KPD), was active in
the KPD apparatus in the pre-1933 period.
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leadership in whose apparatus their members were
employed (e. g. to the Central Committee), but to the
appropriate land leadership in whose geographical area
the corresponding Party apparatus was located. For the
Central Committee of the SED as well as for the basic
units in the government of the East German Democratic
Republic, the Central Council of the FDJ, etc., this was
the county leadership of the SED for Berlin-mitte. In
the course of the year 1953 there was created in the SED
district leadership for greater Berlin, in conjunction with
its Department for Leading Organs of the Party and Mass
Organizations, an office which was to guide and control
the basic units of the SED within the Central Committee,
the government, and the central leaderships of the mass
organizations.
The fundamental thought behind these measures is
primarily of methodological importance. These Party
units were created in the attempt by the Communist
leadership to assure multiple control of all leaderships
and to be able to exercise pressure as broadly as possible
on all co-workers, which would make an escape in any
direction impossible and which would help to uncover
even the smallest political or moral deviation. Their
mission was not so much to give the co-workers of the
Central Committee guidance for their work. This they
received from their superiors on the basis of the resolu-
tions of the Politburo and of the Secretariat. The basic
units of the Party in the Central Committee had the task
of watching over the work discipline of the individual
functionaries, of checking constantly on their political and
moral conduct, of observing their relations with their
working colleagues, of calling to account vacillating or
deviating functionaries, of examining through constantly
recurring Party meetings the mood of the co-workers, of
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exercising pressure on them and keeping a constant eye
on their "Marxist" study. At the Party meetings which
take place periodically, the day-to-day problems of the
Party are discussed, questions having to do with the
improvement of the working methodology of the depart-
ment. Individual comrades may be rigorously criticized,
and in appropriate cases a report is made to the superior
agency in the Central Committee. Through this system
the individual co-workers of the Central Committee are
not only guided and checked on by their direct superiors,
the heads of the sectors, the department chiefs or even
Secretaries of the Central Committee, but a "mutual
control" has been created which observes, checks on and
even spies on the individual Party functionaries throughout
their entire lives, even including the private sphere. The
fact that in these Party groups (each department of the
Central Committee forms a Party group, and these are
gathered together on a Central Committee basis in one
basic unit) the typist sits next to the sector head and the
Secretary offers the opportunity to play off the individual
functionaries in the Central Committee against one
another regardless of function, to humiliate them, and
in the end naturally also to control and check on them.
Although it has led to tremendous conflicts, this system
has proved itself so well that in 1951 full-time Party
Secretaries were appointed for the units in the Central
Committee. The conflicts came about primarily because
the issuance of political directives by the district and
county leaderships was considerably behind the current
tasks of the co-workers of the Central Committee. There
were also conflicts because the leaderships of the Party
groups of the individual departments of the Central
Committee were almost never identical with the corres-
ponding department leaderships, and thus the department
chief (who ultimately was exclusively responsible for the
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work of the department) had a completely different point
of view and concept from the head of the Party group,
who in his full-time employment in the Central Committee
was frequently only an "instructor", in many cases a
clerical employee. Through these conflicts the leader-
ship of the individual department in many cases was
actually completely disoriented. In spite of that, however,
this system was not eliminated, but rather expanded,
which makes it clear that control and spying on every
functionary appeared more important to the leading
elements of the SED than frictionless, uniform guidance
and control over the co-workers.
In treating the working methods of the SED it is
important to discuss the role of the Party units in the
Central Committee because, as has already been
mentioned, one of their chief missions (aside from the
spying on one another and the control over schooling),
consisted in constantly reviewing and improving the
working methods of the individual department. At the
various Party meetings as a rule unpunctual functionaries
were criticized, unfulfilled tasks were criticized,
experiences were exchanged on technical office procedures,
failures due to superior functionaries were brought up
for discussion, and on the basis of these consultations
resolutions were passed which were binding for all members
of the Party organizations of the appropriate basic unit,
and they were exhorted to increase work intensity. If
serious differences arose between individual members
of the Party groups, the leaderships of the groups
formulated the necessary applications for punishment,
transfer or dismissal, which were then submitted to the
appropriate Party Control Commission, to the State
Security organs, or to the heads of the departments who
were particularly concerned with the question under
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discussion. Thus the basic organization with its sub-
ordinate groups played an important role in the framework
of the Central Committee of the SED in the control over
the accomplishment of resolutions, the improvement of
working methods of the apparatus, and the mutual spying
on the functionaries.
The Improvement of Political and Professional Qualifications
of the Co-workers of the Central Committee of the SED
An important principle in discussing the working
methods of the SED is constant political and professional
"qualification", by which is meant improvement of the
qualifications of the co-workers of the apparatus. In the
Central Committee of the SED and by all Communists in
the Zone, the Leninist principle, "In order to build up,
one must know something, one must master knowledge;
but in order to know something, one must learn, stubbornly
and patiently, " was interpreted to the effect that Marxism-
Leninism was to be studied thoroughly in order to be
protected against possible deviations and in order to
master the working methodology of Communism. It would
lead too far to examine in detail all forms of Party
schooling in the framework of the Party School Yearl:
the basic and advanced circles, the county evening school,
the evening university, organized self-study, correspondence
instruction by the Institute for Marxism-Leninism of the
1. The "Party School Year" is a recurrent annual
program to intensify the indoctrination and schooling
program for the members and functionaries. All Party
units have a quota of intensified schooling and delegation of
students to boarding schools within the "Party School
Year" program.
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Higher Party School "Karl Marx" and many other
academies, colleges and Party "cabinets"1. However,
it is impossible to treat the working methods of the
Central Committee and of the SED as a whole without
mentioning Party study. In addition to the purely
theoretical questions, the various levels of the Party
School Year deal with problems of working methodology,
especially based on the experiences of the Soviet Party.
The statements of Stalin at the 17th and 18th Party
Congresses, the speeches and essays of Kalinin on
Communist education, the whole revolutionary develop-
ment of Bolshevism, and many other factors are
essential underpinnings of the working methods of the
Central Committee of the SED.
1. The "Party cabinets" are special political study
rooms and corners in various Party and administrative
installations. Each member and functionary is expected
to put in a certain amount of time in these "cabinets",
where there are graphic and pictorial displays, literature,
and propaganda, and where leading Party figures often
deliver lectures on selected topics.
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IV. THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE
WORKING METHODS IN THE SED
Having dealt by no means completely with the essential
Communist working methods, we should now examine the
practical forms in which they attempt to apply the
principles of working methodology in actual practice.
The heart of the matter is arrived at most easily by
recalling that all of the following methods originate in the
desire to carry the resolutions which have been passed at
the head down into the lowest unit, to assure a systematic
control over their accomplishment, and to guarantee al
return reporting which puts the leadership in a position to
analyze the effects of its measures quickly, thoroughly
and exactly.
The "Instructors" of the Central Committee and Their
Assignment Methods
One of the principal methods in this field is that of
"instructor" assignments.
Instructors of the Department for Leading Organs of
the Party and Mass Organizations
The Central Committee makes use of a number of
full-time "instructors" of the Central Committee, who
are gathered together in the Department for Leading
Organs of the Party and Mass Organizations where they
form a special sector under the leadership of a deputy
department chief. These are the so-called "general
instructors", whose mission consists in carrying out
investigations of the accomplishment of the resolutions
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in the individual district organizations of the SED and
reporting on the results of their investigations. In this
sector of the Department for Leading Organs of the
Party and Mass Organizations there are about sixteen to
twenty "instructors". In most cases, each "instructor"
has one district Party organization as his regular
assignment area. Even if he is not physically in this
district, he has insight into all reports submitted by the
district to the Central Committee. He knows personally
all the leading cadres of the district leadership and keeps
careful record in an "instructor's book" of all essential
changes which take place in this district. The assign-
ment of these "instructors" usually takes place on the
basis of a resolution of the department leadership, and
in any given month may take an average of 30 to 50 per
cent of the "instructor's" full time. These assignments,
however, are by no means arbitrary or unplanned. They
are governed by an "instructor order", which may cover
certain questions for all "instructors" or in other cases
may apply, depending on the nature of the resolution
concerned, to a few districts or to one district. This
"instructor order" is worked out by the "instructor"
himself after he has been briefed by his superior con-
cerning the purpose, the time, and the general methods
to be used during the assignment. The "instructor order"
also contains the length of time for the assignment, the
questions which are to be checked on, and the various
leaderships and organizations which are to be visited.
The "instructor" fulfills his "instructor order" through
participation in appropriate conferences and meetings,
and in most cases also through a few measures intended
to show by his own practical examples on the spot how
the appropriate resolution can be carried out. After the
"instructor" has carried out his assignment, he reports
first orally, then in most cases also completes a detailed
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written report which, depending on its significance, may
go only to the department leadership, sometimes to the
Secretariat, or may even be presented to the Politburo.
Special "Instructors"
In addition to these general "instructors", who in
their assignments are frequently concerned with both
organizational and ideological questions, the individual
departments have special "instructors" who conduct
investigations and compile reports in similar form, only
with the difference that they are limited in their as sign-
ments primarily to their special field, for example
agricultural problems, propagandistic problems, etc.
These are not always operative "instructors", as is the
case with the Department for Leading Organs of the
Party and Mass Organizations; in most departments the
individual co-workers and specialized functionaries
frequently carry out this task. In the table of organiza-
tion, they bear the designation "instructor"; this
designation is considered one of the lower political
functions in the individual leaderships. The name,
however, was chosen at least partly in order to emphasize
the mobility and operativeness of a great part of the full-
time co-workers, and to express the centralist character
of the leadership through their right to "instruct".
Brigade As signments
Another form of "instructor" assignment is the
organization of special brigades for the investigation of
specific problems. These brigades are always assigned
when the material which they are supposed to obtain is
needed for an investigation of a fundamental nature. The
results often find their way into resolutions or the speeches
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of leading politicians. These brigades are for the most
part "mixed" brigades, i. e. depending on the purpose of
their assignment they are composed of a number of
special "instructors" together with some of the general
"instructors", and may even include leading functionaries.
The leader of such a brigade is frequently a Central
Committee Secretary, at least a department chief. Also
included in these brigades sometimes are part-time
functionaries, for example elected members of the Central
Committee, and often, depending on the character of the
assignment, functionaries of the Central Council of the
Free German Youth, the federation headquarters of the
trade unions, or the national headquarters of the Demo-
cratic Women's League. Such brigades, which often
include as many as fifteen members, are called together
before their assignments, the general assignment plan is
determined, and each member is given his concrete
tasks according to his special abilities. On the basis of
these discussions, then, the leader of the brigade
compiles the over-all assignment plan, while the
individual members of the brigade work out in writing
their partial plans. The assignment usually runs to three
or four weeks, but on complicated questions can last for
several months, in which case the individual members
of the brigade do not have to spend the entire time at the
place of their assignment. In many cases, after appro-
priate initial activity, they return again to the Central
Committee but from time to time go back to check on the
measures which they have. introduced on the spot. As a
rule the assignment of such a brigade covers only the
area of a district organization, so that a concentrated and
thorough investigation can be made of the appropriate
district organization, from the district leadership down
to the basic unit, in all areas of political, state and
cultural life. It also happens that such brigades are con-
centrated on one county or even on a single business enterprise.
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These brigades, then, invade the appropriate
district organization, participate in all events within
the individual parts of the organization, participate in
the organization of activities, take part in all Secretariat
sessions, and meet together from time to time in order
to exchange experiences and undertake certain changes
in the planning. At the end of the brigade assignment
there is first a general discussion by all members of the
brigade, at which they determine the line of further
procedure. Then, there is a joint meeting of the brigade
with the district secretariat of the appropriate district,
at which the brigade presents its experiences for discus-
sion and not infrequently exercises harsh criticism. This
report is merely discussed. Then the brigade returns to
the Central Committee and compiles its over-all written
report. The further process depends on what the report
was needed for. If it was intended to serve as the basis
for a Central Committee resolution, the material is
simply prepared in the form of a resolution draft. It
often happens, however, that these brigade reports are
used for the clarification of special problems or for the
disciplining of certain functionaries. In this case the
process is approximately as follows: the brigade makes
its report and compiles its conclusions in the form of a
resolution. The report and the resolution go in draft
to all members of the Politburo and to all members of
the Secretariat of the appropriate district leadership.
Then a joint meeting is arranged between the Politburo
and the District Secretariat at which, if particularly
important questions are being dealt with, the First Sec-
retaries of all other district leaderships also participate.
For this meeting the District Secretariat, with the knowl-
edge of the material from the brigade, prepares a
so-called "counter-report" in which it treats the problems
from its own point of view. However, most of the district
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leaderships in their own interests avoid disputing the
results of the brigade investigations, since by doing so
they would only add to all of the other negative factors
the denial of self-criticism, arrogance, etc. At the
joint final meeting, the brigade leader reports first of
all, and then the District Secretary, and the latter almost
always outdoes himself in exercising self-criticism, so
that the ultimate storm of discussion does not become
too dangerous. After the reports have been given and the
discussion has been concluded, the First Secretary then
summarizes the discussions, and as a rule there is a
vote on the resolution prepared by the brigade. The
resolution then is sent to all district leaderships, fre-
quently it is also published in Neues Deutschland, and in
any case it is binding for all units of the SED, the mass
organizations and the administration.
Another working method in this area is the assign-
ment of part-time "instructors", using the elected
Central Committee members and SED functionaries
whose full-time positions are outside the party apparatus.
These groups are frequently designated as the "part-time
Aktiv" of the Central Committee. This is a group of
Central Committee members and helpers who are active
in the administration, in production, agriculture and in
other fields. They frequently receive Party orders from
the Secretariat and from the Politburo, and also on less
essential questions from the individual departments. In
many cases the individual departments, according to their
specific fields of responsibility, have their own "part-time
Aktiv", composed of specialized personnel in the same
general field as the corresponding department. The
Agricultural Department, for example, makes use of a
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part-time Aktiv of a few true-to-the-line SED members
who in their full-time jobs are employed in the Ministry
for Agriculture, or as successful agricultural production
commune chairmen, political leaders of motor-tractor
stations, agronomists, and the like. A few of the elected
Central Committee members in this occupational branch
belong to the part-time Aktiv. The department assigns
to one or several members of this Aktiv, depending on
the nature of the task, a Party mission to investigate one
or several specific questions at a certain place, or to do
away with undesirable conditions, and then to prepare a
report. The assignment of these part-time Aktivs is
little different from the already described assignments.
Central Committee Organizers
Another important working method of the Central
Committee for controlling the accomplishment of resolu-
tions is the work of the Central Committee organizers.
This method is considered so significant that it is
expressly anchored in the Party statute (Chapter IV,
Article 45, in the statute passed at the 3rd Party Congress
of 20-24 July 1950, and Chapter IV, Article 47 A in the
statute passed at the 4th Party Congress on 5 April 1954).
The Party organizers are the First Secretaries of the
Party organizations of the larger key industrial enter-
prises, the largest motor-tractor stations and agriculture
production communes, and the most significant higher
educational institutions. To give a few examples: in the
Stalin iron forge combine, in the Riesa steel works, in the
Buna and Leuna Works in Halle, -- in all, in about forty
to sixty large industrial enterprises the Central Committee
(in circumvention of the district leaderships) appoints the
First Secretaries of the local Party organizations and
confirms them with the designation "Organizers of the
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Central Committee". This obligates them to report
first of all to the Central Committee on their entire
activity. They receive their fundamental directives
there, are paid by the Central Committee, and can also
be removed at any time by the Central Committee.
These organizers are frequently called to Berlin in order
to report to the Secretariat, to a department, or even to
the Politburo on the accomplishment of resolutions.
Frequently they receive assignments from the Central
Committee to carry out checks in similar types of
industrial enterprises. Their written reports are
regularly evaluated and used by the individual depart-
ments.
The Working Methods of the Publicistic Organs of the SED
Another important instrument for the direction and
control of resolutions is the assignment and utilization
of all publicity organs of the SED, as well as the People's
Correspondents system. All publicizing organs of the
SED -- Neues Deutschland, Einheit, and most particularly
Neuer Weg, as well as all other central and district
organs -- are used primarily for the fulfillment of control
resolutions. More than fifty per cent of Neuer Weg, for
example, deals directly or indirectly with questions of
loyalty to resolutions and control over resolutions;
criticizes ineffective fulfillment of resolutions; publishes
examples of successful accomplishment of resolutions; and
carries critical readers' correspondence on the fulfillment
of resolutions. In addition to the utilization of the journalists
and reporters of the various organs, the leadership makes
use of a broad network of people's correspondents. These
are part-time, independent co-workers who from time to
time receive the mission of writing on this or that problem
from their own immediate environment without informing
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their direct and immediate superior Party or state
authorities of the fact. In this way, the leadership hopes
to uncover failures which are obstacles to the accom-
plishment of resolutions and at the same time to stimulate
the impression of broad democratic collaboration from
below. That the people's correspondents can criticize
only in line with the resolutions, while the resolutions
themselves are untouchable, is a matter of course. The
Central Committee, however, has created in these
people's correspondents and in the publicizing organs in
general an effective weapon for the transmittal and prop-
agandization of its resolutions as well as for their control
and implementation. As has already been mentioned,
the wall newspapers have been drawn into service for
implementation of resolutions. Each department of the
Central Committee must prepare and maintain such a wall
newspaper, in which the individual co-workers express
their opinions on problems of working morale and loyalty
to the resolutions, criticize one another, and often publish
the results of their spying on one another.
One of the main methods of making the Central
Committee resolutions and directives accessible to the
Party and all its affiliated organizations is the directive,
circular or written instruction. These as a rule are
resolved in the Secretariat and the Politburo, just as are
the quarterly working plans and the monthly plans, and
then transmitted by Central Committee courier as an
irrevocable instruction or order to the district leader-
ships. In especially important and urgent cases, such
directives are also transmitted by the Central Committee
over the heads of the district leaderships directly to the
county leaderships. Because of the tremendous
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centralization, this system of written circulars has
grown to such an extent that even the not particularly
courageous district leaderships can no longer stand the
pressure and have openly tried to defend themselves
against this flood of directives (cf. the 25th Plenum of
the Central Committee of the SED, discussion on
21 March 1956). Up to that time it was the order of the
day that every week fifty or sixty directives were sent
out to the districts and counties by the Central Com-
mittee, many of them comprising twenty to thirty pages.
This abundance of instructions, many of which were
contradictory since it was no longer possible to organize
and keep track of them, led to such great lethargy and
indifference in the lower organs of the Party that the
authority of the Central Committee was seriously
endangered by this factor alone. For that reason a
halt was ordered. The issuance of circulars was
rigorously centralized, the individual departments were
deprived of their right to give binding instructions to the
districts, and only the most important matters were
included in directives issued by either the Secretariat
of the Central Committee or the office of the Politburo.
Congresses, Conferences, Consultations, etc.
Another method consists in the holding of a great
number of conferences, working discussions, and special
congresses at all levels of the Party apparatus, in the
economy, in cultural affairs, and in the mass organiza-
tions. These consultations, congresses and conferences
differ in participation, composition, and purpose. Since
the form of the meeting is determined exclusively by the
purpose, it is difficult to point out particularly valid
forms in this field. It is possible to present only the more
typical.
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Discussions and Conferences with the First Secretary
of the Central Committee and the Other Members of the
Politburo and Secretaries
Periodically there are conferences of the First
Secretaries of the district leaderships with First Secre-
tary Walter Ulbricht. At these conferences all problems
of the day are discussed, and often internal problems are
treated which do not come up even at Central Committee
meetings. These include secret recruitment quotas for
the armed forces and the State Security organs, cadre
policy changes in the Central Committee which are to be
withheld from the public, etc.
First Secretary Ulbricht carries out discussions
with the leaderships of the mass organizations from time
to time, and has weekly conferences with the leading
officers of the armed forces. Leading representatives
of almost all ministries are received once a month by
Ulbricht, and at these meetings all important decisions
are made. Not infrequently Politburo members who are
responsible for a certain sector in the administration
learn from a third party what decisive measures have
been taken behind their backs by Ulbricht. These con-
ferences with Ulbricht also extend out into most areas of
cultural life. He has periodic meetings with leading Party
architects (architecture is a particular hobby of his), he
calls in groups of artists, and checks regularly on the
State Committee for Sports and Physical Culture, the
Geseilschaft fuer Sport and Technik, 1 etc. These Ulbricht
1. Gesellschaft fuer Sport and Technik - Society for
Sports and Technique, a physical culture type organization
which is a key cog in the East German paramilitary training
and development program. Small arms training is part
of the program.
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conferences arise out of a firm plan and the instructions
which are given have the character of ',top-level resolutions.
Many state ordinances originate not in the Politburo but
at such meetings. Similar meetings, though by no means
so extensive as those with Ulbricht, a're also held with
other members of the Politburo and with the Central
Committee Secretaries in their special fields of work.
Conferences on a smaller scale are held in the offices of
the individual members of the leaderships, or with their
special functionaries in the various districts, and also
over-all conferences on a large scale, for example
conferences of agitatorst organization and finance func-
tionaries, etc. The materials, resolutions and speeches
for such large conferences, as well as the resolution to
organize them at all, come out of the Politburo or the
Secretariat of the Central Committee,', depending on the
importance of the conference.
Working Congresses and Courses
In addition to the above-mentioned conferences,
the leading functionaries often take charge of working
congresses and courses for various special functionaries
which may last from four days to a month. Such basic
working conferences and courses are often held at the
boarding schools of the Party, the Central Party Schooll,
1. The Central Party School is one of several common
designations for what is technically known as the Higher
Party School "Karl Marx", the highest Party school in
Germany. It is also known as the Party Academy, the
Party High School, and the Karl Marx School; the differences
result from common usage and matters of judgment in
translation.
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or the "Walter Ulbricht Administrative Academy"'.
Working Conferences of the Departments of the Central
Committee
In addition to the above-mentioned official discus-
sions, conferences and congresses, the individual
departments of the Central Committee hold regular
working conferences with their corresponding depart-
ments in the district leaderships or with subordinate
functionaries from focal points at the base. There are
periodic working discussions, for example, of all
district co-workers in the Agricultural Department of
the Central Committee of the SED.
Working Commissions
Commissions exist in the individual departments,
composed of experts in various fields, which are regularly
brought together by the appropriate department in order
to carry out a task, or to serve as a scientific or
specialized advisory council for the department. Thus,
for example, in the Department for the Protection of the
People's Economy (Department M) there is a recruitment
commission for the People's Police, and in the Depart-
ment for Science and Art there are a number of
commissions for scientific and artistic occupational
groups. These commissions, however, have no powers
1. The "Walter Ulbricht Administrative Academy"
was established a number of years ago to train young
German Communists to take over key jobs in the economy
and administration of the East German "Democratic Republic";
it is not, technically, a Party School.
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and not the slightest possibility of intervening in any way
in the policy of the Central Committee or of its depart-
ments. They are only consultative organs, which accept
certain assignments and carry them out, or whose
opinions and views the departments and sectors are
interested in receiving. The extent to which these views
are heard or acted on depends on the leading functionaries
of the Central Committee.
Individual Discussions, especially for the Guidance o
Mass Organizations, the Administration, etc.
In addition to these larger meetings there are a
great number of individual discussions by the departments
of the Central Committee with the individual co-workers
of the subordinate departments or of the administrative
authorities and other organizations which are under them.
The departmenlBof the Central Committee have at any time
the right to call in co-workers from the mass organiza-
tions, the ministries and other groups which, depending
on the character and jurisdiction of the department, are
under them. They also have the right to order them to
work out reports and to give them instructions. The
various departments periodically gather together the
co-workers in the same functional area from the
Women's Democratic League, the Free German Youth,
etc., demand reports of them and give instructions. All
important decisions which pertain to the mass organiza-
tions must (insofar as they do not originate with the SED)
be presented to the appropriate departments of the Central
Committee before they can be voted on in the leaderships
of the mass organizations. If, for example, the Labor
Department of the Central Council of the FDJ intends to
prepare a draft resolution for the Secretariat of the
Central Council on the improvement of work in the basic
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industries, then the responsible functionary for this
activity in the FDJ consults first of all with the chief
or with a co-worker of the Department for Basic Industries
in the Central Committee of the SED. After the funda-
mental questions have been discussed by these
functionaries, the responsible FDJ Secretary, with his
co-workers, prepares a rough draft. Before this draft
is presented to the Secretariat of the Central Council,
he again discusses it with the corresponding functionary
in the Central Committee of the SED and makes any desired
changes. Only then does the draft go to the Secretariat
of the Central Council of the FDJ for discussion and
formal resolution. It is obvious that such a resolution
is of only formal character, since any change in the
draft approved by the Central Committee is impossible.
The example given applies to all other mass organizations,
ministries, administrative agencies, and all other
economic, political and cultural establishments. For
especially important fundamental resolutions or decisive
measures of any of these organizations, the resolution
drafts are discussed first of all with the appropriate
department of the Central Committee, then before being
voted on in the appropriate leadership of the corresponding
organization, they are presented to the Secretariat of the
Central Committee or even, if important enough, to the
Politburo. Only when the Secretariat or Politburo has
passed a particular resolution does it return to the
organization or institution concerned,where it is again
formally confirmed. In such cases, changes in the reso-
lution approved by the leadership body of the SED are
impossible, except for minor stylistic matters which
have no influence on the content. From this it is clear
that all resolutions and fundamental documents of any
central institution existing in East Germany have been
approved by one of the Central Committee bodies before
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being resolved by the appropriate body of the institution
concerned and thus are binding for all Party members,
Since at the various conferences the Party members are
always at least in the majority, the acceptance of such
a resolution is a formal matter,
Special Conferences
An important working method of the Central Com-
mittee is the special conference. During the early years
after 1945 guidance and direction were accomplished
primarily by general conferences and meetings. In 1952,
however, these conferences were carried out more and
more with specialists, such as conferences of agronomists,
working consultations of high-speed machine operators,
writers, etc. At these conferences experiences were
exchanged and resolutions were adopted which in essence
had already been prepared by the Central Committee and
thus were binding for all members of the appropriate
occupational group.
Working Seminars
Another form of the working methodology, which is
in a way connected with what has been described above, is
the working seminar. These are meetings of a number
of outstanding specialists in a certain field at which
political or specialized themes are thoroughly discussed
and a concentrate of the best experiences is then trans-
mitted to all specialists in this particular field. These
seminars are held most frequently in the field of economy,
but also in the artistic or cultural sector.
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Lectures and Party Cabinets
Especially in the theoretical field lectures are often
a form of guidance. They are given primarily in the Party
cabinets and are often supplemented by visual aids and
exhibitions. Such lectures are often given by the out-
standing theoreticians of the Party "cabinet" in Berlin.
The lecture then appears in printed form and serves as a
basis for the treatment of the appropriate question
throughout the entire Party. Motion pictures and stills
are also used in these lectures.
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V. COOPERATION WITH ORGANS OF THE USSR
Until the so-called "declaration of sovereignty for
the East German Democratic Republic" by the Soviet
Union, all resolutions, documents, reports and drafts
were automatically transmitted to the corresponding
political departments of the Soviet Control Commission'.
Even though the names of these Soviet agencies have been
changed, the principle of influence and control of the SED
leadership by representatives of the GPSU continues.
The Soviet Communists, who now are in the Embassy,
still receive all drafts, documents, resolutions and
reports of the Central Committee of the SED, and make
appropriate comments which are then worked into the
resolutions or documents. In addition to the written
materials, the Soviet political departments send
representatives to all important meetings of the SED
leadership. The First Secretary of the Central Committee
has regular discussions on the policy of the SED with the
Ambassador Extraordinary of the USSR, and with his
deputy. Either the First Secretary is called to the
Ambassador or one of the Ambassador's deputies visits
the First Secretary of the Central Committee when it is
necessary to discuss or decide an important question.
From time to time the First Secretary of the Central
Committee goes to the Ambassador or to his deputy in
1. The Soviet Control Commission was the central
Soviet body in Germany after the cessation of military
occupation in Germany. The United States equivalent was
called the High Commission for Germany (Hicog). This
should not be confused with a Party Control Commission.
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order to discuss the plans for the immediate future and
also to present certain passages from coming speeches
of a fundamental nature. For all other members of the
Politburo it is impossible to propose fundamental
changes once the position of the First Secretary has been
based on such a discussion with the Soviet representatives.
In addition, the Soviet functionaries from time to
time send investigative commissions which examine
certain problems and questions of the SED, and make the
results of their investigations the basis for a report to
the First Secretary of the SED.
Frequently also, direct instructions in Russian are
transmitted to the First Secretary. These he has trans-
lated and then submits them without any fundamental
changes to the Politburo as a draft. This applies
primarily to all foreign policy questions. If Soviet
foreign policy makes it advisable to bring up a certain
problem connected with the German question, the First
Secretary of the SED frequently receives an appropriate
directive at the same time that the question is brought
up publicly in Moscow, and no fundamental changes are
possible in this directive.
In addition, it is known that the First Secretary of
the Central Committee and the Chairman of the SED
travel periodically to Moscow in order to receive
instructions.
In addition to the methods already described, for
particularly important matters CPSU representatives
come directly from the Soviet Union to Berlin in order to
give instructions to the SED. This takes place behind the
scenes, as for example in the course of the preparations
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for the last Federal election campaign in West Germany,
but often is connected with official and publicly known
visits, on the occasion of certain affairs such as Party
congresses. The liaison link between the Central Com-
mittee of the SED and the Soviet agencies is the General
Department of the Central Committee. All adopted
resolutions, resolution protocols, and other documents
are prepared in one additional copy which is sent to the
Soviet offices.
Thus the Central Committee of the SED is under the
direct control of the CPSU and is dependent on it in all
important decisions.
The Example of the CPSU for the Working Methods of the SED
The experiences of the CPSU playa decisive role in
the working methods of the Central Committee of the SED.
Often without considering the special situation in Germany,
the methods of the Soviet Party are taken over by the
Central Committee of the SED in uncritical emulation,
and it is fatal not to want to recognize any of these methods
for German conditions. In questions of criticism and
self-criticism, work planning, Party organizers, reporting,
schooling, and even in technical matters ( the establishment
of card files, compilation of personnel questionnaires, etc. )
the working methods of the Central Committee of the SED
originate with the Soviet model and are imitated mechan-
ically. This applies not only to the past but also to the present,
i.e. not only the revolutionary experiences of the CPSU out
of the past (for example, in the 1930's when the Soviet
Union was in a stage of development similar to East
Germany today) but also the latest advances of the Soviet
Party are automatically taken over by the Central Com-
mittee of the SED, although there are in many cases
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neither historical nor practical connections in Germany
for these methods.
A typical example of this was found in a few special
exploitation methods. In order to exploit the workers
against one another and to encourage a so-called compet-
itive spirit in the factories as well as in the administration,
in the earlier years in the Soviet Union they frequently
used the so-called wall newspapers in order to illustrate
the productive accomplishments of the individual
colleagues on the basis of tables and graphic illustrations
coupled with the names of the individuals. Since during
the period under discussion in the Soviet Union at least
a part of the workers concerned could neither read nor
write and were generally rather primitive, they could
not use normal graphic illustrations. Instead they
replaced them with various animals whose speed in running
was known even to the most primitive people. Thus it
happened that a particularly good worker was shown in the
form of a deer or a reindeer or a dog, while a lazy
colleague appeared in the wall newspaper as a snail or a
turtle. Through the idolatrous worship of the Soviet
methods, this primitive system was taken over by the
Central Committee of the SED for the Party, the adminis-
tration, and the mass organizations. In this way, highly
educated technicians and engineers, scientifically
qualified political functionaries suddenly saw themselves
reproduced in the wall newspapers as oxen, horses,
automobiles or airplanes (at least in this respect they
modernized a bit), or also as snails. It is obvious that
such a system does not contribute to increased working
moral e.
Another striking example in this field is the planning
in the Central Committee itself. Thus, within two years
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five different forms of working plans were introduced,
discarded, and replaced by new ones. In the
same period of time the number, names and organiza-
tion of the departments were changed several times.
Various reporting methods were tried without time
having been taken to examine any of the methods for
their successes or failures or for their appropriateness.
They were changed every time a new functionary of the
Soviet Control Commission came in from the Sovi et Union
and brought with him a new method of planning and
reporting. For the individual co-workers it was
impossible to exercise criticism, because this would
have been taken as animosity toward the Soviets.
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VI. THE WORK WITH THE CADRES
One of the decisive questions, if not the decisive
organizational question, for the SED is the problem of
work with the cadres, i. e. the selection, assignment
and control and check over the SED functionaries.
According to Lenin's thesis that the accomplishment of
resolutions depends on the selection and the development
of people, the personnel policy work of the SED is viewed
by the leading organs as being of most decisive signifi-
cance. On the other hand, there is no problem among
the working methods which demonstrates more clearly
and extensively the fundamentally authoritarian and
dictatorial position of the SED leadership than does its
personnel policy work.
The domination of the tremendous Party and state
apparatus as well as the social organizations in the
political and cultural fields presumes by necessity that
the selection, assignment and control and check over
functionaries be centralized within the framework of
the Central Committee of the SED. The uniform leader-
ship of Party-state apparatus and mass organizations in
the final analysis is guaranteed only by this central
personnel policy direction.
Until 1952 the Central Committee used for this
purpose a so-called Cadre Department in which the files
on the leading figures of the Central Committee, of the
government, of the mass organizations, etc., were
collected. They were reviewed and screened from the
personnel point of view, the necessary proposals for
assignments were submitted to the Secretariat and the
Politburo from this department for passing in the form
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of resolutions, and the department conducted investiga-
tions involving the disciplining of functionaries. In
1953, the large Cadre Department was reorganized and
decentralized. The department itself was dissolved and
after the Soviet model all essential departments of the
Central Committee received sectors for cadre work
which dealt with assignment and control of the functionaries
in their fields of jurisdictionl.
The Central Cadre Registry
There remained only a Central Cadre Registry2,
in which the personnel files of all functionaries within
the jurisdictional framework of the Central Committee
were kept, and which during the year 1953 attempted to
consolidate the individual personnel files of the various
functionaries which were kept at other echelons on the
basis of former functions.
Of fundamental importance for the Central Cadre
Registry, as well as for the methodology of personnel
work in the Central Committee as a whole, was the
"nomenclature of leading cadres" which had been passed
in the form of a resolution by the Secretariat of the
Central Committee. The word "nomenclature" means
the determination of the sphere of responsibility and
jurisdiction of the individual echelons and organizational
units of the SED (for example, the Central Committee,
1. See footnote 1, page 13.
2. The Central Cadre Registry, after 1952 a
Department in status, is now probably under the
jurisdiction of the Cadre Policy Department.
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the district leadership) over the various functionary
positions. There is, then, a cadre nomenclature of the
Central Committee. There is a cadre nomenclature
for the district leaderships of the SED, for the county
leaderships and for the basic units. Also to be men-
tioned in this connection is that the nomenclature of the
Central Committee included a number of West German
KPD functionaries; there were also nomenclatures of
the KPD Party Directorate, of the state organizations
of the KPD, and of the county organizations of the KPD.
The nomenclature of the Central Committee includes
all members of the Central Committee;
all co-workers of the Central Committee;
the members of the district leaderships;
all co-workers of the district leaderships,
down to and including department chief;
the members of the government of the German
Democratic Republic;
the state secretaries with independent or
integrated portfolios;
the central secretariats of all mass organizations;
the organizers of the Central Committee of the SED;
a significant number of leading scientists, deans
and university professors;
the heads and the leading co-workers of a number
of central administrations (State Committee
for Sports and Physical Culture, State
Institute for Popular Art, the Authors'
Association);
a number of leading engineers and technicians
of the largest enterprises;
all county secretaries of the SED;
the plant chiefs of the largest people's-owned
factories;
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all generals, staff officers and commanders
of the armed forces and of the People's
Police;
the leading forces in the cultural area such as
directors of the theatres of the Zone, authors,
sculptors, etc., insofar as they are members
of the SED;
the school heads and the teachers at all Party
schools from the central Party school down;
all political leaders of the motor-tractor
stations as well as the heads of the largest
agricultural production communes;
a significant number of mayors, at least those
of all large cities (Leipzig, Magdeburg,
Halle, Weimar, Erfurt, etc.);
all directors and producers of the state radio;
all editors-in-chief of the official and unofficial
SED publications;
all important Party jurists, physicians and
other scientists;
all ambassadors and the most important
co-workers in the foreign service;
the leading members of the political departments
of the German railways, of the postal and
telephone systems, insofar as they are not
already included among the various members
of the government;
the heads of all educational institutes, such as
the Institute for Contemporary History, the
Institute for Publicistics, etc.;
all heads of museums, scientific and meteoro-
logical institutes, etc.
Thus there are concentrated in the Central Cadre Registry
of the SED all the leading forces of the Zone in the political,
cultural, economic and general social fields.
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In summary, it can be said that there is no signifi-
cant organization or association, no institute and no
administration in the Zone whose leading personalities --
so far as they are members of the SED -- are not
incorporated in the Central Cadre Registry. In addition,
there is a cadre nomenclature which is accessible only
to the First Secretary of the Central Committee for all
of those leading functionaries in the above-mentioned
fields who are not members of the SED but are either
non-Party people or belong to the so-called "bourgeois"
parties of the Zone. In addition, it should be mentioned
also that as a matter of course all recipients of the
National Prize, all Heroes of Labor, all decorated
educators and Physicians of the People, insofar as they
do not fall under the categories already mentioned, in
brief, all who have been decorated with significant
prizes or laurels, are also incorporated in the Central
Cadre nomenclature.
The Development Card File of the Cadre Sector of the
Central Committee Departments
In the Central Cadre Registry there are deposited
all personnel files on the various groups of persons and
functionaries listed. In addition, the cadre sectors of
the individual departments have card files and lists of
all those functionaries in this nomenclature who fall in
their jurisdictional area. Their mission consists in
exercising a constant check over whether the positions in
their jurisdictional area are filled, whether the persons
who hold these positions are fulfilling their duties, and
whether there is sufficient development of new, young
functionaries in accordance with the perspective plans.
In order to accomplish this latter, there are special
files which are called development card files; they have
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as their ultimate purpose the development of several
young replacements for every position in the area con-
cerned. The raising of professional qualification and
the development of these replacements is supposed to
be checked on and perfected constantly. With these
development card files, as the name itself indicates, the
intention is to maintain and to supplement continuously
the political and professional development of every
functionary falling under the nomenclature of the Central
Committee. All of the schools and courses attended by
the functionary are listed, together with his entire
occupational and political education, all functions he has
held, as well as "perspective proposals", i.e. proposals
for further development and qualification of the individual
functionary. If a functionary is needed for a function and
so-called "natural growth" is not possible(''natural growth"
means that when positions are changed, the immediate
subordinate moves up, after screening) then the respon-
sible functionary for the cadre sector picks out of the
development card file of his department those persons
who appear to be best suited for the vacant function on
the basis of the data included in the file. He has personal
interviews with them, looks into their work performance
so far, checks thoroughly the available personnel files
and in this way picks out the prospect.
On the basis of the files, then, the functionary pre-
pares a draft resolution. This draft contains in its first
part a resume of all essential personal data, such as
name, age, origin, occupation and occupational training,
family status, family origin, occupational and political
schooling, membership in political organizations and
parties, stays abroad, imprisonment such as prisoner-
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of-war, etc. In the second part of the draft there is a
characterization of the functionary, primarily on the
basis of his previous activity, and the third part of the
draft contains the proi:osal for assignment which is to
be resolved on the basis of the draft. This draft, then,
is transmitted to the Central Cadre Registry, which for its
part again checks through everything thoroughly and then
transmits the draft to the responsible leadership body,
i.e. either to the Secretariat or to the Politburo. If the
Cadre Registry does not concur with the proposal of a
department, then the draft is not sent to the Politburo or
the Secretariat of the Central Con-imittee, since in the
final analysis the Cadre Registry bears full responsibility
vis-a-vis the Politburo and the Secretariat for any draft
submitted. However, if a cadre draft has proceeded
this far, -it is then submitted to the members of the
Secretariat or to the Politburo for discussion at the next
session. The head of the Politburo or of the Secretariat,
in each case the First Secretary of the Central Committee,
receives in addition to the draft the entire personnel file
of the functionary concerned, so that he can personally
inform himself on all of the details contained in the
personnel file which have served as a basis for the
summarized data in the draft. The decision as to whether
the draft goes to the Politburo or to the Secretariat is
based on the function for which the individual -is proposed.
Here also there is a sub-breakdown in the nomenclature.
The heads of the district organizations of the Party, the
heads ofthe mass organizations, all ministers, state
secretaries, the department chiefs and the Secretaries
of the Central Committee, all generals -- in brief, all
those who are at the head of an organization, administra-
tion or an institute -- fall under the nomen clature of the
Politburo, and their assignment or further use is resolved
and determined by the Politburo. The remaining cadres of
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the nomenclature of the Central Committee fall under
the Secretariat for resolution.
The Relation of the Central Committee to the District
Leaderships
In dealing with the principles of the nomenclature
of the Central Committee it must be mentioned that in
this field there are conflicts of jurisdiction and interest
between the Central Committee and the district organi-
zations. These result fundamentally from the principle
that all cadres in a district fall under the nomenclature
of the appropriate district leadership of the SED. Those
people in the nomenclature of the Central Committee who
are located outside of Berlin are only registered in the
Central Committee, and have their assignments resolved
and their activities checked on there. Within the frame-
work of their activities, however, they are subject to
the guidance of the appropriate district leaderships since,
from a purely organizational point of view, it is impossible
to guide such a large body of functionaries from the
Central Committee. Due to this situation there are many
conflicts of jurisdiction, many frictions and misunder-
standings, since it happens very frequently that function-
aries are removed from the districts on the basis of the
nomenclature of the Central Committee, although the
district leaderships had completely different plans for
the functionaries concerned and frequently also an
entirely different evaluation of them, having worked
with them daily, while in the Central Committee they
were represented by nothing other than an inanimate file
cover.
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40
Screenings of the Cadres and Purges
The Central Cadre Registry has not only a register
function; it has a special sector which concerns itself
with all questions which are "unclear" concerning the
individual functionaries who fall under the nomenclature
of the Central Committee. Such so-called "unclear
questions" include among others the activities of the
individual cadres during the Hitler period, while in
exile, and inconsistencies developed out of comparisons
of the information given in various questionnaires, etc.
This sector of the Cadre Registry works most closely
with the State Security organs, has a direct tie to the
Central Party Control Commission, and reviews all
cadre drafts before they are presented to the Secretariat
or to the Politburo for resolution.
Cadre Policy Directives
Another important element in personnel policy work
is the fundamental resolutions of the Politburo on cadre
policy guidelines. The cadre policy directives of the
Central Committee of the SED change according to
measures taken by the Soviet Party. For example, in
1948 after the Cominform resolution against Tito and
the Yugoslav Party certain cadre policy directives were
promulgated by the Politburo which had as their result a
thorough screening of all Party functionaries. All
functionaries belonging to the nomenclature of the Central
Committee who had ever been in Yugoslavia, who during
the Third Reich had been in Western exile, or even had
fought against the Third Reich on the Western side, were
sorted out and in most cases removed from influential
functions. After the trials of Rajk, Kostov and others in
the so-called People's Democracies, there were added to
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those factors already listed still others, for example,
the question of Western PW detention, relationship with
the "so-called American democrats" and others. Thus,
after the above-mentioned trials there was a resolution
of the Politburo of the SED that all functionaries who
had been American, British or French prisoners-of-war
for longer than one-half year were to be removed from
their leading functions. Even the rehabilitation of a few
leading SED functionaries does not change the fundamental
cadre principles of the Central Committee. These people
were not returned to their old functions, nor were others
rehabilitated who fell into disgrace during the years 1949
to 1952. It is true that some functionaries who had been
disciplined on the basis of having been Western prisoners-
of-war were returned to relatively high functions, and
thus the principle of the removal of all functionaries who
had been Western PW's for more than half a year was
relaxed. It was not lifted completely, however, and all
of these functionaries are still in functions which are far
subordinate to those they formerly held. They continue
to be excluded from functions in the administration of
justice, in the police and in the army, as well as leading
Party organs.
In principle, the cadre policy directives of the
Central Committee provide for the exact political, social
and even sex composition of all leadership bodies of the
SED, the leading mass organizations, the government
organs, the administrations and all other institutions.
In them it is precisely determined that the majority of
the members of such leadership bodies are to be of working
class origin, also what age groups the individual members
are to represent, how many men and women are to be in
the individual leadership bodies, how many old Party
members and how many younger elements should belong
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to the leadership, and how high the proportion of
intellectuals in the leadership bodies can be. The basic
principle is that the majority of members of the leader-
ship must come from the working class. The second
largest proportion should be former small farmers and
agricultural workers. Bourgeois elements are tolerated
in the leaderships only out of necessity and so far as
possible should not contribute more than one to two per
cent. It is much the same with intellectuals, scientists,
and the culturally creative elements. This picture would
be incomplete if we failed to point out that this basic
formula is naturally applied flexibly; it is clear that,
for example, in the leadership of a university-level
organ of the Party or of a scientific institute, the pro-
portion of intellectuals must naturally be considerably
greater than, for example, the proportion of these
social groups in the leadership of an industrial enterprise.
Nevertheless, even in the case of such university groups,
an attempt is made to see to it that the majority of the
members of the leadership is made up of former workers
and sons of farmers who only in the past decade have
decided on an academic career. Although outwardly the
principle of performance is placed in the foreground, it
is natural that under such principles (for the most part
applied dogmatically) the origin rather than the
performance is the decisive factor in most cases, so
that members of bourgeois social strata have little
chance of any real development. So far as the sexes are
concerned, an attempt is made to have half of the positions
in the leadership bodies occupied by female functionaries
in order to document the equal rights of women. Since,
however, the political development of women in the SED
and its affiliated organs is strongly retarded, the
situation is often such that professionally and politically
incompetent female functionaries are appointed to the
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leadership bodies simply in order to fulfill formally
the provisions of the directives. So far as age group
composition is concerned, an attempt is made to have
at least ten to twenty per cent of the functions occupied
by young functionaries, so that the replacement
problem is taken into account. They pay particular
attention to the number of former Communists in the
leadership bodies. In every case, they avoid giving
former members of the Social Democratic Party
predominance in the composition of the leadership
bodies, even though this is not explicitly stated in the
cadre directives. In practice, nevertheless, the
principle is that in no leadership body should more
than one or two former Social Democrats be represented.
Former Western emigrants, functionaries who spent
longer periods as Western PW's, were in the course of
1953 eliminated almost completely from the leadership
bodies of the SED and the mass organizations. In the
years 1954 and 1955, to be sure, they began for
tactical reasons and also because of an acute lack of
functionaries to relax this regulation somewhat.
Another fundamental element in the cadre policy
directives requires that so-called activists, innovators,
Heroes of Labor must be included in all Party leadership
bodies. In this way an attempt is made to set an
example for the workers. Although outwardly as early
as 1950 an end was put to all defamations of former
members and functionaries of the National Socialist
(Nazi) Party, its affiliated organizations and the various
parts of the armed forces of the Third (Hitler) Reich,
nevertheless the barring of all of these circles from the
leadership bodies of the SED and its mass organizations
continues to be basic in cadre directives. An exception
is made of all members of the above-mentioned groups
who, while prisoners-of-war in the Soviet Union, attended
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successfully a half-year course in an Antifa school.
These people, without consideration for their positions
during the Third Reich, which in many cases were
very high, are assigned to very important posts in the
state apparatus and especially in the armed forces.
Nevertheless, they are not trusted completely. Thus
it is an unwritten law that alongside such functionaries
there must be always enough old Communists to look
after and watch over these re-educated elements. The
cadre directives provide for a particularly strict
selection for the immediate Party apparatus, the State
Security Service, the leading cadres of the armed forces,
the justice apparatus and the Free German Youth. For
the last, which is considered the immediate reserve of
the SED, the cadre policies were sharpened considerably
in 1953.
In these so-called "institutions" it is more or less
the aim to eliminate completely all former bourgeois
elements and members of the former Social Democratic
Party, as well as members of the former National
Socialist Party and its affiliated organizations, and to
close the ranks of these organizations completely to any
new members out of these groups. Also, former
Western emigres and Western PW's no longer have access
tothese organizations, unless they spent only a short time
in the PW collection cages. The cadre principles also
provide especially strict measures for former Communists
who have in their background so-called "cadre-policy
unclear questions", particularly from the years 1933 to
1945. Former members of the KPD who, for example,
under the force of circumstances made statements either
for the Gestapo or in the course of trials, or who tried
through petitions of pardon and other measures to put
themselves at a distance from their former political
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activities, are dealt with much more severely than
former members of the National Socialist Party. Almost
without exception they are barred from membership in
the leading organs of the SED. Similarly, members of
certain opposition groups of the KPD during the Weimar
Republic (1919 to 1933) are restricted, among them
members of the so-called KPO1, and the Lenin League2,
to say nothing of Trotskyites, Brandlerites3, etc. While
shortly after 1945 some of them were taken in to make
their political contributions, from 1951 on they have been
eliminated more and more from the leadership bodies, so
that today it is impossible for them to work in almost any
leadership. Such a past for a Communist is occasion for
more distrust than is demonstrated toward a former
member of the National Socialist Party.
In spite of the already-mentioned rehabilitations,
the opposition Communist groups continue to be barred
from all forms of political work. So far, neither in the
Soviet Union nor in East Germany have former Trotskyites,
1. KPO - Kommunistische Partei-Opposition -
Communist Party-Opposition, a splinter group which
broke off in the latter 1920's. One of the prominent
leaders of this splinter was Heinrich Brandler, formerly
leader of the KPD itself. Brandler now lives in Western
Germany and is active in trade union affairs rather than
politics.
2. The Lenin League was one of the earliest German
"back to Lenin's movements. It was one of many splinters
which broke off before the seizure of power by Hitler.
3. See footnote 1, above.
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supporters of Brandlerism, or any other of the opposi-
tional currents been rehabilitated. The rehabilitations
which have been undertaken do not extend even to the
members of the more recent opposition groups, whose
representatives were, among others, Wilhelm Zaisser
and Rudolf Herrnstadt. Even in the rehabilitation of
Dahlem and others, what we have is genuine Stalinists
who came into conflict with the Ulbricht group only out
of tactical considerations, but never belonged to political
groups with any fundamental ideological principles.
In addition to these political factors, there are
naturally a number of other fundamentals of the cadre
policy of the SED, a listing of which here would lead much
too far. Particularly noteworthy is a principle of
unconditional faith in and unreserved love for the Soviet
Union and its leading functionaries. This relationship to
the USSR, which must be completely uncritical and
unconditional, is one of the decisive testing stones in
the assignment of a functionary. It has happened not
infrequently that extremely capable functionaries who in
every respect were faultless in their personal question-
naires and files according to Communist principles, who
had shown outstanding performance at Communist Party
schools in the Soviet Union, were nevertheless not given
assignments and were even disciplined because, for
purely private reasons (for example, the wife was having
a child), they had either turned down participation in a
trip to the Soviet Union or had requested that they be
included in the next delegation.
In addition to these set principles, the cadre
directives of the SED provide for an extensive political,
character, moral and professional evaluation prior to
further assignment of the functionaries. Points to be
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considered in this are, among others, loyalty to the
resolutions of the Party, the relationship of the indi-
vidual to the collective, unconditional recognition of the
subordination of the minority to the majority, systematic
and successful Marxist study by the individual, his
attitude to the question of criticism and self-criticism,
contact with the masses, enthusiasm for the work,
agitational, propagandistic, organizational and cultural
capabilities, professional potential and qualification,
and the whole scope of his moral conduct, including
private and family relationships.
According to the principles set forth here, the
functionaries of the individual leadership bodies and
apparatuses are selected, screened by the corresponding
cadre sectors and cadre registries, and their assign-
ments resolved by the secretariats of the appropriate
leaderships. After this has been done, the functionaries
thus selected are then and only then "nominated" to the
various delegates' conferences or Party congresses to
be voted on as candidates for their functions. It is
impossible to make nominations for election as a member
of a leadership body in any other way. From this it is
clear that all of the democratic methods in the election of
leaderships are purely formalistic, since in reality the
decision on the composition of the leadership has already
been made some time before within the framework of a
small group.
The Role of the Central Party Control Commission
An important task in the cadre policy of the SED is
played by the Central Party Control Commission and its
subordinate organs. In the statute of the SED adopted at
the 4th Party Congress, the tasks of the Central Party
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Control Commission are sketched as follows: "It protects
the unity and purity of the Party and contributes to the
unmasking and annihilation of enemy agencies in the
Party, fights against all fractional activity and removes
traitors from the ranks of the Party. It controls the
maintenance of Party discipline by the members and
candidates of the Party, calls to account those who are
guilty of violations of the resolutions or the statutes of
the Party, of Party and state discipline, or of Party
morals (deception of the Party, dishonesty and untruth-
fulness toward the Party, slander, bureaucratism, lack
of moderation in daily life, etc. )... It checks on the
activities of the district and county Party Control Com-
missions." (Statutes of the SED, as published in Neues
Deutschland, No. 84, 9 April 1954.)
On the basis of these very clear responsibilities,
the Central Party Control Commission and subordinate
organs have extraordinary powers. The members of
this Commission decide on the membership or non-
membership of a number of people, particularly because
they can not only expel from the Party a functionary who
has come into conflict with the Party regulations, but
because such a resolution of expulsion in every case has
economic repercussions and in some circumstances can
even endanger the life and the liberty of the individual.
An engineer in a factory who has, as a member of the
SED, violated Party resolutions, is not only expelled from
the SED but automatically also loses his position and has
the chance only to work as a common laborer, if he is
not put for years behind prison walls. There is a very
close cooperation between the Central Party Control
Commission and its subordinate agencies on the one hand,
and the organs of State Security and even the Soviet
agencies on the other. No important investigation by the
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Central Party Control Commission is conducted
independently of these other institutions. All results of
investigations and decisions are communicated to these
organs which then, for their part, initiate measures
which deprive the individuals of their freedom or even,
in some cases, of their lives. Further still, the Central
Party Control Commission and its subordinate organs
make use of State Security in the conduct of their
investigations. Routine surveillances and informant
work, the collection of information, etc., are often
conducted not directly by the Central Party Control
Commission or the district control commissions, but by
the appropriate organs of State Security, which have at
their disposal a much more extensive investigative
apparatus. In addition, there is constant contact between
the Party control commissions and the appropriate cadre
registries. The control commissions have the right to
see at any time the personnel files which are incorporated
in the registries and conversely, the decisions of the
control commissions are incorporated in the personnel
files so that they accompany a functionary to the end of
his days.
After they have concluded their investigations, the
control commissions work primarily on the basis of
questioning and interrogation, in the course of which
they prepare formal interrogation statements. The control
commission does not call in a functionary against whom an
accusation has been made in order to discuss openly with
him all questions involved; on the contrary, after an
accusation is made, extensive investigations are conducted.
The functionary concerned is thoroughly surveilled for a
long time, and only after considerable material against
him has been gathered does the control commission summon
him and communicate to him the results of the investigations.
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The functionary concerned neither has the possibility of
preparing himself thoroughly in his own defense, nor
can he have at his disposal any sort of assistance in
obtaining rehabilitation.
The powers of the Party control commissions are
by no means limited to the Party apparatus of the SED.
They not only have the right to check on all Party mem-
bers who work in other institutions such as the mass
organizations or the state apparatus, nor are they
concerned only with the misdemeanors and violations of
individual functionaries. Rather, the control commissions'
work encompasses the activities of the whole of public
life in the East Zone, including the bourgeois parties.
For example, when unsatisfactory conditions occur in
the Ministry for Food Supply, which result in inadequate
supply of food for the population, then the Central Party
Control Commission is authorized to investigate all
leading functionaries of this Ministry and to suggest or
propose appropriate measures. In order not to discredit
still further the so-called independence of the bourgeois
parties to the outside, the Central Party Control Com-
mission makes use of the state control organs when it
is concerned with members of the bourgeois parties.
These state control organs are run at the head by SED
functionaries who are subject to orders from the
Central Party Control Commission, if they do not want
to fall into the mill of the Central Party Control Com-
mission themselves. Thus the Central Party Control
Commission and its subordinate organs occupy a key
position in the surveillance and observation of. all
co-workers in all spheres of public life in the Zone.
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Cadre Policy at Boarding Schools and Academies
It does not fall within the framework of this study
to examine all the working methods in the boarding
schools, academies and universities. Even though
these institutions in official Communist terminology are
the so-called "cadre forges", we can concern ourselves
here only with the selection, screening and assignment
of the students, as well as the control over them during
their activity after they have completed the school.
The selection and screening of the students for the
individual schools (county Party schools, district Party
schools, central Party school, etc.) differ according to
the level of the school concerned. Mi a selection of the
students for county Party schools, for example, is
carried out by the leaderships of the basic units. The
screening of those selected is undertaken by commissions
of the county headquarters. For students for the district
Party schools, quotas are distributed among the counties,
who in turn break down these quotas for their basic units.
The basic units then, in conjunction with the co unty
leader ships, propose candidates for the district Party
schools, who are given a preliminary check by the
county leaderships. The actual screening for acceptance
is undertaken by a screening commission from the
district leadership. For the central Party school and
for special courses, which are under the Propaganda
Department of the Central Committee, the selection is
accomplished in the following way: the Central Committee
informs all district leaderships and the central leader-
ships of the mass organizations, ministries, etc., of
the number of students which each of these organs is
expected to send. The district leaderships, ministries,
etc., after consultation with their subordinate echelons,
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select certain candidates whose names are then commu-
nicated to the Central Committee together with the
appropriate cadre documentation. After these proposals
have been reviewed in the Central Committee, those
candidates who have survived the paper review are
summoned to the Central Committee for a personal
screening. Then they are subjected to a thorough
theoretical testing by commissions of the Central Com-
mittee which are supposed to determine whether they
have the proper level of theoretical knowledge for the
school. An essential point in this again is their cadre-
policy background, since the composition of the individual
courses is also very precisely prescribed. Another
measure for the screening of the candidates is the
determination of their probable aptitude after schooling,
through a screening of their professional perspective,
their professional qualification, their general intelligence
and past development. These tests are supposed to
determine what function the individual student could take
over when he has passed the course with average success.
As a basis for this, they use the cadre development plan
which the individual screening commission members have.
These commissions are composed of members from the
Propaganda Department, the Central Cadre Registry, the
Department for Leading Organs of the Party and Mass
Organizations, and a number of cadre sector heads from
the most important departments. The cadre perspective
plan for these investigations is made up of the require-
ments which have been levied by the Central Committee,
the ministries and the mass organizations, insofar as
these fall under the nomenclature of the Central Committee.
If the candidates who appear before the commission
measure up to the desired requirements, on the basis of
ideological knowledge, cadre-policy background and other
aspects of the perspective plans, then they are confirmed
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by the commission as candidates for attendance at the
central Party school. This, however, does not make
them students of the Party school. Only after the list
of the candidates thus screened, with appropriate
documentation, has been presented to the Secretariat
of the Central Committee and a resolution passed
thereon, only then are they finally accepted as students
for the next one or two-year course at the central Party
school. Similarly the selection is made for the most
important political academies in the Zone, such as the
Walter Ulbricht Administrative Academy, with the
difference that in these cases an essential part of the
preliminary work is carried out by the corresponding
ministries. The individual candidates must bring with
them for the screenings by the commissions appropriate
medical and health certificates, characterizations from
their Party basic organizations, etc.
When the students arrive at the school, the course
still does not begin. At the school, within the framework
of the seminars, they are screened once more ideologically
and from a cadre-policy point of view. Here they use
preferably a so-called collective screening, i. e. within
the framework of the individual seminars all the students
who are present recite in great detail their life histories.
This is followed by a cross-examination by all of the
other students in the seminar and by the teachers who are
present. This cross-examination becomes sometimes
quite hot and heavy, since many of the students try to
prove in advance their loyalty to the line by very active
and critical participation. It has happened not infrequently
that on the basis of this collective screening circumstances
are brought to light which have slipped through all previous
investigations, and some students have been sent back
home.
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During the course the' individual seminar leaders,
leaders of the faculty groups, etc., keep so-called
cadre books. In these cadre books all details of the
conduct and attitude of the individual students during
the course are noted precisely and meticulously. They
concern themselves not only with the studentst
activities and attitudes during the lectures, seminars,
consultations, i. e. during the course of the official
curriculum, but also their conduct and attitudes during
their free time, during meals, etc. During the one and
two-year courses there are regular teachers' meetings,
in which from time to time representatives of the
Central Committee also participate. At these teachers'
meetings. the individual evaluations and characterizations
of the students are discussed and interim evaluations are
prepared. In addition, the Party organization of the
students, which is broken down into class groups, sees
to it that those students who are not completely true to
the line are called to account regularly. The school
Party organizations of the students prepare similar
interim evaluations.
At the end of the course, final evaluations are pre-
pared for each student by the faculty collective and by
the basic organization of the Party at the school. With
the assistance of the cadre books and the interim
evaluations, a written picture is prepared of the ideological,
professional and cultural performance, as well as the
moral conduct and character of each individual student.
After these evaluations have been completed, cadre
commissions of the Central Committee reappear at the
central Party school. This time they have the task of
making a tentative determination of the assignment for
each student. For this purpose, they study the evaluations
and have individual interviews with the various students.
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As a basis for these interviews they use the personnel
files of the students, the evaluations from the school,
and the cadre plan of the Central Committee from which
they can see what functions in the Party, state apparatus
and mass organizations urgently need filling. After
discussions with the individual students, in the course
of which the members of the commission make appro-
priate notes, the assignment proposals for the students
are worked out. This list, together with the documents,
is presented to the Secretariat of the Central Committee
for resolution. After the resolution by the Secretariat,
the students report to their new place of work. Fre-
quently this causes differences with the district leader-
ships, the mass organizations and the ministries, since
the Central Committee often passes a resolution
arbitrarily, on the basis of requirements which it has,
concerning the assignments of students who before the
beginning of the course were sent by the ministries,
district leaderships and mass organizations with the
expectation that these students would return after
completion of their study to their old working areas.
These differences led in 1953 to serious conflicts. The
result was that a resolution was passed to the effect that,
as a rule, those students who were sent by various
institutions would return to them after the completion of
the course. Nevertheless, it was not to be avoided that
there were border cases, conflicts and arbitrary decisions.
All students who have successfully completed the
central Party school automatically fall under the nomen-
clature of the Central Committee, even if they are
assigned in functions which, on the basis of the existing
nomenclatures, do not fall in the area of the Central
Committee. Thus, the Central Committee has constant
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control over all students from the central Party school.
The mass organizations handle the problem similarly
with their central schools. The district leaderships
and county leaderships are required to report all
personnel changes involving former central Party school
students to the Central Committee, which in turn
reserves for itself a final decision, even though the
individual students are not nomenclature functionaries
of the Central Committee. Former students of the
central Party school also have the right to turn in any
question at any time to the Central Cadre Registry of the
Central Committee. From time to time the Central
Cadre Registry conducts spot checks on the assignments
of former central Party school students and their develop-
ment. Formerly there were fairly frequent meetings
of alumni of the individual courses at the central Party
school itself, to encourage an exchange of experiences
and thoughts among the former students. However,
this method was severely criticized in 1953 because the
idea arose that it led to too strong personal ties among
the students.
The Role of the Personal Questionnaire and of the
Personnel Files
An important role in the life of every SED functionary
is played by the personal questionnaire and the personnel
file on him which is maintained in the appropriate cadre
registry. There is no SED functionary active since 1945
who has not filled out at least thirty different and
constantly expanded questionnaires. The questionnaires
of the SED include in addition to the usual data such as
name, address, age, place of birth, etc., detailed informa-
tion on the social origin of the functionary, the property
and ownership relationships of his parents, the political
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past of his parents and of himself before 1933, after
1933 and after 1945, his conduct during the Third Reich,
with appropriate annotations, his exact political develop-
ment after 1945, including indication of all functions,
organizations and associations. In addition, the ques-
tionnaires contain precise questions to bring out any
possible deviations on the part of the individual functionary
during his Party membership up until 1933 /KPO
(Communist Party - Opposition), etc. /, questions con-
cerning his PW imprisonment, the period of exile, his
political schooling, and many other aspects. In addition,
a detailed political life-history statement must be
appended to each questionnaire.
These questionnaires must be filled out anew on
every change of function, independently of questionnaires
already available, so that the number of them is
increased in the course of the years. Beyond that, from
time to time (for example, during the Party screening of
1951) new personal questionnaires are required from all
functionaries on the basis of a general resolution. All
these questionnaires are collected in the personnel files
of the functionary concerned and maintained in the
appropriate cadre registry and worked on by the cadre
officials of the leadership to whose nomenclature the
functionary concerned belongs at the time. Up until 1953,
whenever a functionary changed positions and came under
the nomenclature of another Party leadership, the new
cadre registry compiled a new personnel file. As a
result of this, many functionaries, especially those in
central functions, had a number of different personnel
files (for example, a functionary who in 1946 worked in a
county Party unit and then was transferred in 1950 to the
Central Committee would probably have a personnel file
with the appropriate county unit, another one with the
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appropriate State organization and still a third with the
Central Committee). In order so far as possible to
prevent unauthorized persons from having access to the
various personnel files and to determine discrepancies
by comparing the questionnaires filled out at various
times, the Secretariat of the Central Committee resolved
in 1953 that henceforth there was to be only one
personnel file for each functionary, and that this file was
to be maintained in the cadre registry to whose nomen-
clature the functionary at the time belonged. If the
functionary changed his function and moved into the
jurisdiction of another nomenclature, then his personnel
file would move with him. As a result, all personnel
files belonging to functionaries who were under the
nomenclature of the Central Committee were called in
from the various other Party leaderships and headquarters
where they might have been maintained. These were all
combined into one personnel file in the Central Cadre
Registry, the various documents were compared and, if
discrepancies were noted, the functionary concerned was
called to account. In spite of this, however, the resolution
itself was only theoretical and in actual fact there exist
even today, in addition to this main personnel file for the
individual functionary, several "illegal" personnel folders
at other places. For all functionaries, for example, who
are under the nomenclature of the Central Committee but
who belong to a mass organization, to the government, etc.,
there are in addition to their personnel files with the
Central Cadre Registry, other personnel files with the
personnel departments of the other organizations.
Furthermore, such co-workers of the mass organizations,
government, etc., are also under the jurisdiction of the
individual cadre sectors of the various functional depart-
ments of the Central Committee, which are responsible
for the development and control of these functionaries.
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Those responsible for cadre in the functional departments
would not be able to fulfill their function unless they
maintained appropriate documentation on the individual
functionaries, kept constantly up to date, in addition to
their so-called development card files. They cannot
dispense with these "illegal" personnel folders because
the system of the SED is-such that these cadre personnel
repeatedly receive questions on the individual functionaries
and can be very severely reprimanded if they are not in
a position to answer these questions. And so there is a
third personnel file for the individual functionaries in the
form of the illegal folders maintained by the responsibles
for the cadre sectors, often very meticulously and
completely kept because these cadre instructors deal
with a relatively small group of functionaries and thus
are able to work rather intensively on their files. As a
rule, there is even a fourth personnel file on the func-
tionary concerned in the hands of the leaders or the deputies
in the individual ministries, in the mass organizations, etc.
This file consists essentially of notes made by the leaders
on the various functionaries. These notes are often .very
interesting because they refer to internal affairs which
otherwise would scarcely become known. These files come
into action for the most part only when there is a question
of removing or disciplining the functionary concerned. In
such cases, the Party often falls back on things which
come out of such informal files and which in many cases
may lie a considerable time in the past.
The personnel file in the Central Cadre Register
contains, in addition to the already mentioned question-
naires and life-history statements, all important documents
concerning the functionary. In the form of memoranda
for the record there are detailed accounts of when and under
what circumstances the functionary has come into contact
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with any official Party offices. Final reports from
political schools, important official medical examination
reports, all Party penalties, all Party investigations,
evaluations and characterizations as a result of
political activities or assignments; all such documents
are collected in the personnel file.
If a functionary is investigated in any detail as a
result of a general resolution or as a result of any sus-
picion which he himself might have aroused, or if any
discrepancies are noted in the information he gives about
himself, then he is required to prepare a supplementary
written report on the question concerned which then is
attached to the transcript of his interrogation and incor-
porated in his personnel file. On the basis of all of
these documents, the appropriate department prepares a
proposal for the way in which the case under consideration
should be handled.
The files are physically kept in the Central Cadre
Registry. There is a fundamental resolution to the effect
that no one can have access to or disposal over these
files except for the appropriate cadre functionaries and
the leading members of the department. Members of
the Politburo, secretaries and department chiefs may
view the records if they give the Cadre Registry a written
request and sign a receipt for the appropriate file. If they
do not return the file after a short time, the receipt
serves as a basis for a reminder that the file is to be
returned. Insofar as they are concerned with such activity,
co-workers of the State Security organs may view the
personnel files in the same way, but since 1953 they must
have in addition the permission of the department head of
the Central Cadre Registry. There are excerpted copies
of the most important documents from all the personnel
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files of those functionaries who are under the nomenclature
of the Central Committee, these excerpted copies being in
the hands of the political department of the Soviet Control
Commission.
In addition to these personnel files, there is also for
every SED member a so-called basic book. This basic
book consists also of a detailed Party questionnaire, a
detailed life-history statement, and the most important
information about the Party member; it looks almost like
a Nazi family record book. This basic book is kept by the
appropriate county headquarters to which is subordinated
the basic unit in which the individual is a member. It con-
tains comments by the screening commission, all Party
penalties, etc. The basic book was introduced in connection
with the Party screening operation in 1951.
The personnel file which is in the Central Cadre
Registry and also the basic file contain photographs of the
functionary concerned. The personnel files in the Central
Cadre Registry are filed alphabetically on the basis of a
categorical index system which makes the location of the
individual files simpler. The functional categories are
indicated by colored index tabs.
Special Cadre-Policy Tasks
In addition to the usual procedure of assigning func-
tionaries by the appropriate cadre sectors after coordinating
with the Central Cadre Registry and confirming by resolution by
the Secretariat or the Politburo as already described, there
are a number of special cadre-policy tasks which are carried
out as needed by various departments of the Central
Committee.
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An essential part of these special tasks is handled
by the Department for the Protection of Property of the
People (Department M)1. This department is responsible
for the main administrations of the People's Police, the
Garrisoned People's Police with its affiliated organiza-
tions, the State Security organs, and various departments
of the Ministry of Interior (for example, the former
Institute for Research in Economic Science?-). In the latter
two cases, however, the department has primarily a
coordinating function, and direct political leadership is
exercised immediately by the First Secretary of the Central
Committee, Ulbricht. Department M, in addition to its
military-political responsibilities, also carries out a
number of special cadre-policy tasks. The head of the
1. The euphemistically named Department for the
Protection of the Property of the People is also called
Department M (Military-Political) and Department S
(Security). It is both little known and little talked about;
its present designation is Department "S".
2. The Institute for Research in Economic Science
(Institut fuer Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung -
IWF) was an economic research office which was a cover
for espionage against Western Germany. A wide-spread
West German security operation against it, which was
embarrassing because it was improperly prepared and
most of the suspects had to be released for lack of solid
evidence, was given extensive western press play under
the name "Operation Vulkan". It appears to have been a
joint German-Soviet undertaking; at least, the Soviet
services played a part in its operations.
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department is Gustav R13belenl, who in most cases handles
these special cadre-policy tasks himself. If the Soviet
counterintelligence or security agencies need new agents
for the Zone or especially in the Western area of Germany,
or if it is a question of assigning special functionaries for
an investigation of the military cadres, together with
State Security, or if it is a question, for example, of
selecting a number of new people out of the ranks of the
FDJ in West Germany who are needed for espionage
assignments or who are to receive special assignments,
or any special tasks along these lines, the assignments
are given to Gustav R13belen and he carries them out,
without any written resolution, but for the most part on
the basis of oral instructions received directly from Ulbricht.
In such a case, R 3belen gets in contact with the special
liaison functionaries of the individual organizations or
agencies in whose jurisdictions he thinks he can find the
needed functionaries or personnel. Once the candidates
have been selected by the organizations that have been
approached, they are then screened by R13belen himself and
assigned in direct coordination with the appropriate organi-
zations, without a resolution having been formulated
officially, either in the Secretariat or in the Politburo. In
most cases, when the functionaries selected are important
ones, these things are discussed personally with First
Secretary Ulbricht. Similar tasks, although not to the extent
that is the case with Department M, are also carried out by
other departments.
1. Gustav R13belen now holds a special post in the East
German armed forces; this department is now the responsibility
of Erich Honecker, former head of the FDJ, recent graduate
of a longer course at the Higher Party School of the CC of the
CPSU, now Walter Ulbrichtts hatchet-man in the SED who
was elected to the SED Secretariat in the wake of the Feb-
ruary 1958 purge of the leadership.
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VII. THE TECHNICAL PROCEDURES AND ORGANIZATION
OF THE WORK IN THE APPARATUS OF THE
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SED
The practical working methods and their application
have already been dealt with in Section IV. It is necessary,
however, to examine the technical procedures and organi-
zation of the work in the apparatus of the Central Committee.
Even though our examination will be concerned primarily
with the technical process of office business, nevertheless
the integration of forces shows very clearly the attempt to
provide as complete as possible a control over the resolu-
tions and the highest possible working discipline, even on
an administrative basis.
How a Resolution Draft Originates
As a rule, resolution drafts originate in the following
way: on the basis of the already existing quarterly work
plan of the Secretariat or of the Politburo of the Central
Committee, a department works out a draft dealing with a
specific problem. The department chief of this department
assigns to one of the co-workers the working out of such a
draft. After the co-worker has produced his draft, he turns
it over to the department chief, who corrects and revises
it as he sees fit and then submits it to the responsible
Secretary. Frequently the Secretary also undertakes some
revisions and corrections in the draft. Once these have been
made, the Secretary submits the draft, depending on its
importance, either to the Bureau of the Secretariat or to the
Bureau of the Politburo. The appropriate Bureau then
collects all of the drafts which are submitted and places their
titles on a provisional agenda for the next session of the
appropriate leadership body, the Politburo or the Secretariat.
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In order to be placed on the agenda, the drafts must be
presented to the Bureau concerned at least three days
before the beginning of the session. This provisional
agenda is then presented to the First Secretary of the
Central Committee, with the appropriate resolution
drafts, at least two days before the session. The First
Secretary revises, expands or changes the agenda
according to what he deems the priorities to be. After
the First Secretary has revised and confirmed the agenda,
all of the drafts which remain on the agenda are reproduced
in about twenty copies and dispatched' to the individual
members of the leadership body at least one or two days
before the session concerned, so that they can study them.
The remaining copies are kept in the Bureau concerned
for the files, and one copy of each is transmitted to the
Soviets. The individual members of the Secretariat or of
the Politburo note their comments on the drafts after
they have worked them through. When the draft is dealt
with in the course of the agenda at the session, which in
most cases involves calling in the appropriate department
chief whose department has prepared the draft, then the
procedure is as follows: first of all, the department
chief, or the secretary or the Politburo member who is
responsible for the department, gives a justification in a
five or ten-minute statement, together with all of the
essential problems concerning the draft. This is followed
by a discussion by all of the members of the leadership
body on all points on which there are questions. The First
Secretary then gives a resume of all of the opinions which
have been accepted and formulates the final resolution
concerning the draft for the record. The drafts, with
corresponding numbers and references, are noted in the
protocol. As a rule, the formulation is as follows:
"Draft No. -, concerning --, has been resolved with the
following revisions...." Then there is a listing of the
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changes, and in conclusion a notation as to which func-
tionary or which department is made responsible for
the accomplishment of this resolution by what time, or
when the responsible person or department is to submit
an interim report.
Resolution drafts are prepared, however, not only on
the basis of the quarterly work plan of the Politburo, the
Secretariat, or the departments. Often a number of ques-
tions come up which are not provided for in these plans.
In such cases, the First Secretary, or a member of the
Politburo or of the Secretariat, charges the appropriate
department with the production of a draft on these questions
of the moment. It also happens that the departments them-
selves come across certain conditions which make it seem
advisable to them to prepare a resolution draft. In such cases
they sketch briefly their point of view, submit this to the
responsible Secretary or Politburo member, and then
produce the draft if the idea has found the concurrence of
the leading functionary. The channels followed by such
drafts are the same as have already been described.
Normal, brief resolution drafts are organized as a
rule as follows: after a brief statement of the content of
the draft, the date, the category and number of the draft,
and its designation as a draft, there follows in the intro-
duction a listing of the individual resolutions to be taken:
"The Politburo or Secretariat resolves: 1)...2)...3)...:'
The second part of the draft then gives a short resume of
the justification for the draft. In fundamental or decisive
resolutions, which are the result of very extensive investi-
gations, the organization is usually reversed. At the
beginning there is an exhaustive analysis which characterizes
the present situation in the matter concerned, and then the
appropriate conclusions are drawn, after which in the third
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part there are the proposals for resolution which are
based on these conclusions. It also happens frequently
that, for fundamental decisions of the individual ministries
and mass organizations, the draft resolutions for these
institutions are submitted to the Politburo or to the
Secretariat. This can come about on the basis of the
already existing quarterly work plans, on the basis of an
instruction from the Secretariat or the Politburo, on
direct instructions from a member of the Politburo or
Secretariat, or on the basis of independent action on the
part of the agency concerned. Frequently such instructions
are received from First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, Such
a draft is prepared by the appropriate ministry or the
appropriate mass organization. This draft is worked out
in consultation with the appropriate functional department
of the Central Committee and, if necessary, revised.
After the draft has been prepared, it is. not sent in. this
form to the Politburo or Secretariat, but is rewritten by
the corresponding functional department of the Central
Committee as though it were a draft prepared by this
department. This draft, for tactical reasons, differs in
formulation from the other drafts which pertain to the
apparatus of the SED. When it is a matter of resolutions
which are intended for the support of the appropriate
institutions by the SED, they always state, "The Secretariat
or the Politburo resolves". Otherwise, when they concern
an organization outside the SED the drafts read, for
example, "The Politburo or Secretariat instructs the
comrades. in. the appropriate organization", or "The
Politburo or Secretariat recommends to the Ministry of
Interior, to the Central Council of the FDJ", etc. All
important resolutions which concern the government and
mass organizations originate in this way (for example; see
the resolution on the speech by Comrade Erich MUckenberger
at the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED,
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21-23 February 1952, concerning the tasks of the Party
in support of the FDJ). Fundamental documents of other
organizations (for example, resolutions originating in
meetings of the Directorate of the FDGB, etc.) are also
coordinated in advance with the appropriate functional
departments of the Central Committee, then submitted
in the original text to the individual members of the
Politburo or of the Secretariat and dealt with in those
bodies just as other drafts are dealt with. Attached to
these drafts are brief resolution drafts which indicate that
"the Politburo or Secretariat confirms the draft documents
in principle, recommends to the comrades in the.leader-
ship of the appropriate organization, however, to make
certain changes". This slight difference in formulation
between "resolves" and "recommends" or "instructs" is
purely a formal differentiation, based on tactical
considerations. The SED members in the appropriate
institutions are just as completely bound by the so-called
recommendations as they are by resolutions. If they did
not include one or the other recommendation in their final
documents, they would be called to account just as though
they had failed to carry out an SED resolution.
Only after such a draft from an institution has passed
the above-described way through the Politburo or Secretariat
of the Central Committee of the SED does it return to the
leadership body of the appropriate organization for formal
resolution, and in such cases no substantive changes are
possible, since all SED members in the leadership body
concerned are bound by the resolutions and recommenda-
tions of the SED. Thus the passage of the resolutions in
these organs is a pure formality. In this system the
dependence of all so-called non-partisan organizations is
clearly demonstrated.
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How a Work Plan Originates
Until 1953 the apparatus of the Central Committee
of the SED used various forms of work plans. For a
description see pp 25 if.
The Resolution Protocoll
The role of the resolution protocol has already been
dealt with briefly above in the section concerning the
resolution draft.
The resolution protocol is an important element in
the organization of the work of the Politburo and the
Secretariat of the Central Committee, as well as all
leadership organs of the SED, its mass organizations, and
the administrative agencies. The resolution protocol is
prepared in the individual Politburo and Secretariat sessions.
One particular functionary is responsible for this protocol,
a person whose position would be equivalent to that of
recording secretary in a bourgeois organization. In the
SED this is a responsible functionary, usually a woman,
who can take shorthand and who belongs to the Bureau of
the Politburo or the Bureau of the Secretariat. As already
mentioned, the individual drafts are discussed at the sessions
and appropriate revisions are resolved. These resolutions
are entered in the resolution protocol with the subject of
the draft and its file number. These entries are dictated
to the recording secretary after the final resume by the
First Secretary. Likewise, brief changes or revisions in
1. In its usage here, the word protocol signifies the
final, official record of proceedings, which would represent
the finally adopted wording of the resolutions passed.
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the draft are included in the resolution protocol. For
example, "Resolution Draft No. --, concerning --, has
been resolved with the following changes...." At the
same time as the resolution is formulated in the resolution
protocol, a note is made of what department, what func-
tionary is responsible for the fulfillment of the resolution
and by what specific date the resolution is to be accomplished.
If this is a resolution whose fulfillment will take a long
period, a number of months -- for example, the resolution
of an important conference which is to be carried out on
all levels throughout the entire Party -- then interim
suspense dates are set in the resolution protocol, and by
these dates an interim report is to be submitted on the
progress of the program.
It also happens frequently that various members of
the Secretariat or the Politburo formulate additional
proposals concerning the control and checking on a resolu-
tion, and these are also included in the protocol.
If a draft is not approved by the leadership, a note is
made in the protocol to the effect that it has been rejected
and at the same time the date by which a new draft is to
be presented.
It also happens that Secretariat drafts are resolved
only in principle, after which specific functionaries are
instructed to correct the draft. This always happens when
the leadership is in fundamental agreement with the basic
line of the draft but so many revisions and changes have
been proposed that to formulate them verbatim in the
protocol during the session would take too much time. In
such a case, then, the draft is resolved in principle and
for the most part a member of the Politburo or a member
of the Secretariat is instructed to revise it. In such cases
the draft need not be resubmitted to the leadership body.
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At the head of every protocol is the number of the
session of'the Politburo or Secretariat and its date: for
example, "45th Session of the Politburo of 27 January."
At the beginning of every Politburo or Secretariat
session the protocols of the previous session are read for
the orientation of the members and any conflicts or changes
which have come up in the meantime are noted at the
beginning of the new protocol. However, there is no longer
any discussion of the various points of the last protocol.
The Work of the Bureau of the Politburo and of the
Secretariat
For the technical preparation of their work, the
Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee use
a Bureau. The Bureau collects the drafts submitted to
the individual leadership body, prepares an agenda for the
session under the direction of the First Secretary, and
dispatches a responsible representative of the Bureau to
take down the transcript of the resolution protocol.
After the session, the transcribed resolution protocol
is typed up in several copies in the Bureau and once more
confirmed in draft by the First Secretary, who may make
brief changes and then provides the resolution protocol
with the confirmation of his signature. In the Bureau, on
the basis of this confirmed resolution protocol, the
individual resolutions are recorded separately on file
cards and placed in the so-called resolution index. This
resolution index card is made out in duplicate; one copy
remains in the Bureau and the other copy, which is
accompanied by a blank perforated card, goes to the
department which has been made responsible for the
accomplishment of the resolution in its formulation. Attached
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to this second copy, the draft resolution which was sub-
mitted by the department to the Secretariat or the Politburo
is sent back to the department. If several departments
are charged with the accomplishment of the resolution,
then several cards with appropriate extracts are made and
sent to the individual departments, and in each instance it is
noted which other departments have received copies of the
resolution.
On the card in the resolution index, in addition to an
extract of the protocol, there is included also the date by
which the resolution is to be accomplished, those who are
responsible for its accomplishment, and all interim
reporting dates.
The blank perforated card mentioned above remains in
the department concerned only until such time as the resolu-
tion has been fulfilled. After the resolution has been ful-
filled, the department concerned makes its notations
concerning the fulfillment on this card and returns the card
to the Bureau of the Politburo or the Secretariat. The
Bureau then attaches these final reports to the appropriate
cards in the resolution index of the Bureau. Thus the
Bureau has at any given time an over-all picture of the
extent to which the individual resolutions have been realized.
The Bureau maintains also a suspense date calendar on
the basis of which it can determine very quickly what resolu-
tions should have been accomplished for which no cards have
been returned to the Bureau. On the basis of this suspense
calendar it makes regular checks and also reminds the
departments if their reports are not received promptly.
For long-term resolutions in connection with which interim
reports are supposed to be made, the departments are
required to make interim reports to the Bureau. The First
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Secretary of the Central Committee then receives periodic
reports from the head of the Bureau on the status of the
accomplishment of the resolutions. If it happens that one
department, in spite of having been reminded by the Bureau,
does not submit a report, or that the reports from a depart-
ment say nothing and are just formal recognitions of the
requirement, then the head of the Bureau informs the First
Secretary, who calls in all of the documents concerned and
has the matter placed on the agenda for discussion at the
next session.
The Bureau is responsible for the transmission of all
drafts, for their reproduction, etc. Since, for example, a
number of members and candidates of the Politburo have no
direct function in the Central Committee, but rather are active
full-time in the government or in the mass organizations, the
Bureau sends to these members and candidates the appropriate
drafts at least two days before the session. This transmission
is by courier. All members of the Politburo have for this
purpose a leather-bound folder which is used only to hold the
drafts which they receive from the Bureau of the Politburo.
All drafts which are submitted by the Bureau of the Politburo
are considered secret and are accessible only to the members
and the candidates of the Politburo.
In addition, it is the job of the Bureau to make the
technical arrangements for all invitations of outside func-
tionaries to the individual sessions. For example, if the
question of sports is to be dealt with at a Politburo meeting
and if the leading Communists in the State Committee for
Sports and Physical Culture are to be invited to this session,
their invitations are issued by the Bureau of the Politburo.
They report to the Bureau at the appropriate time, and when
discussion begins on that point of the agenda, they are taken
to the Politburo meeting by the head of the Bureau.
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In addition, the Bureau of the Politburo has a number
of representational duties. All official functions of the
Politburo, important festival-s of the Communist move-
ment, etc., are included in a suspense calendar of the
Bureau. The Bureau is responsible for seeing to it that
the appropriate guests are invited for all these occasions,
and also has vis-a-vis the Politburo a responsibility to
see to it that these functions are properly planned and
carried out. For this purpose, the Bureau contacts the
appropriate departments to work out the proceedings for
the individual occasions, but the main responsibility
vis-a-vis the Politburo lies with the head of the Bureau.
The Bureau has lists for the invitations, and these lists
contain all persons who might possibly be considered for
such invitations. In addition to these tasks, the Bureau
of the Politburo and the Secretariat also has a number of
special tasks. For example, it is responsible for making
available to the members of the Politburo special
secretaries and stenographers. It is responsible for the
procurement of luxuries and special items which are
made available only to the members of the Politburo. It
is responsible for the administration of special auto-
mobiles for the members of the Politburo, for organizing
meals and refreshments during the sessions of the
Politburo, etc.
The Bureau of the Politburo and of the Secretariat
is one unit. The technical processes, however, are
separate. The Politburo deals with all decisive questions
of principle in SED policy, all strategic measures of the
SED, and all drafts which have a fundamental influence on
the life of the SED. These are the lines along which the
activity of the Bureau of the Politburo moves. In the
Secretariat of the Central Committee they are concerned -
more with the tactical and organizational problems which
arise out of the Politburo resolutions and which contribute
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to their realization and "concretization". Thus, the
Bureau of the Politburo and the Secretariat occupies a
key position for checking on the resolutions which have
been passed, for transmitting them to the departments,
and for the technical preparation of the activity of the
Politburo or the Secretariat. The Bureau is, so to speak,
the organizational, technical backbone of the Central
Committee, since the Central Committee plenums them-
selves -- which, after all, are prepared by the Politburo --
are arranged technically and organizationally by the Bureau.
The Control of the Departments by the Secretariat
In addition to the previously discussed forms of control
over the resolutions, there is one additional control of the
departments by the Central Committee, which is exercised
by the Secretariat. Periodically, usually at intervals of
one to two months, the individual departments must report
to the Secretariat on the fulfillment of their plans and
resolutions. The order in which the individual departments
report is usually contained in the quarterly work plan. Only
if a special situation should occur in an individual depart-
ment are such points added to the agenda out of order. In
such cases, the department chief reports to the Secretariat
on the fulfillment of the resolutions by his department
during a certain period and brings up all critical questions
of work organization, the relationship among the individual
co-workers, etc. Before this point has been dealt with on
the agenda, the Secretary has usually commissioned another
Secretary or, in particularly serious cases, an entire
commission, with making a survey of the department. This
special emissary or the head of the commission then gives
a counter-report to that of the department chief. There
follows a discussion, and at the conclusion resolutions are
passed which are supposed to contribute to the improvement
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of the activity of the department concerned. In important
cases, the results of such an investigation are contained
in a general resolution and distributed throughout the
entire apparatus of the Central Committee for information
and appropriate action.
The Organization of the Work in the Departments
Aside from the normal course of office business in
the departments of the Central Committee, which is probably
not greatly different from that in any other large adminis-
tration or industrial enterprise, there are the following
peculiarities in the organization of the work in the depart-
ments. The most important connecting link in the guidance
of the individual co-workers is the department conference.
Depending on whether the department is under the
responsibility of a Secretary or of a member of the
Politburo, the meeting of the Politburo or the Secretariat
is followed by an oral briefing for the department by this
functionary. The form of this briefing depends on how many
departments are under the jurisdiction of the Secretary or
Politburo member, also on how different these departments
are and how big they are. If a Politburo member or
Secretary has the responsibility for several departments
which in character are very different, then he has separate
department conferences. If he has only two or three depart-
ments whose sphere of work is somewhat similar, he calls
the leaderships of these departments together for an over-
all discussion. If a leading Secretary has so many departments
that he has to conduct individual discussions with them, and
if the departments are not too large, then he calls all of
the leading functionaries -- at least down to sector chief --
together for a department discussion and briefs them on the
resolutions of the leadership body concerned. In most cases,
however, the Politburo members and Secretaries inform
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only the appropriate department chiefs of the tasks which
have been resolved. They, in turn, call in the leading
functionaries of their departments, down to sector chief,
and inform them of the measures which have to be
implemented. Then the sector chiefs sit down with their
co-workers and attempt to work out detailed plans for
the accomplishment of these tasks. Resolution protocols
are recorded for these department and sector discussions
also.
Once the individual materials have been prepared by
the co-workers on the basis of such conferences, they are
submitted to the department chiefs through the sector
chiefs, corrected or revised, and approved. For important
operations department chiefs submit these materials to the
Secretaries or Politburo members, who then make the
final decisions.
No co-worker of a department is authorized to correspond
on his own with the Party leaderships in the districts and
counties. Only the department chief or his official deputy
is authorized for official signature, and a sector chief is
only permitted to sign off on insignificant technical com-
munications to the subordinate Party units. No department
has a Party seal or is authorized to issue on its own
circulars or directives to the subordinate Party units. If a
department has worked out a directive and if it has been
resolved, with or without revisions, then the appropriate
department makes the revisions, resubmits the final directive
to the Bureau of the Politburo or the Secretariat, depending
on which body passed the resolution, and there the directive
is provided with a seal, registered, and transmitted to the
district leaderships and county leaderships. It is much the
same with trips into the provinces. No co-worker of a
department can on his own make a trip into the provinces.
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Assignments for such trips are made exclusively on the
basis of the department plan or express instructions from
the department chief.
Depending on their size, the departments have one or
several official vehicles at their disposal, which they can
request in writing from time to time from the chief of the
motor pool. Only members of the Politburo, Secretaries
and some of the department chiefs have their own official
cars. Each department has its own registry and file in
which it can maintain papers which it needs for its current
work. In the course of the year, then, the closed files are
sent to the central archives.
For each department, depending on its importance,
there are special security provisions. Aside from the daily
locking of the doors and sealing of the doors and safes, all
classified waste, including carbon paper, must be delivered
every evening to a central point where it is put through
shredders and incinerator machines.
Each department has a department secretary who is
responsible for all of the technical work and who also works
for the department chief.
The Courier Apparatus of the Central Committee and the
Telephone System
As a rule the Central Committee avoids all correspondence
by ordinary mail channels concerning internal instructions
for the apparatus of the SED, and also concerning govern-
ment agencies and mass organizations. Only invitations to
official conferences, congresses and demonstrations are
sent by mail.
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In principle, the Central Committee has four different
courier services. One courier service takes care of trans-
mitting to the Politburo members and to the Secretaries
their invitations and their mail, and a second courier
service takes care of the corresponding mail for the
ministries and leaderships of the mass organizations. A
third courier service handles mail for the district leader-
ships and, if necessary, for the county leaderships. The
fourth courier service, which is completely separate from
the other three, handles the courier mail to and from West
Germany. This courier service is connected with the
Bureau of the Politburo and the Secretariat, in all
probability. 1
1. The key element in this East-West courier link is
the Traffic Department, a special functional element of the
SED which has been responsible for all Party and mass
organization traffic to and from Western Germany for years.
It maintains an extensive network of border crossers, guides,
couriers, contact points, etc. (with the connivance and
assistance of the East German Border Police), and a
complete organization on the West German side which was
technically (and technically only) attached to the Organization
Department of the West German KPD Party Directorate
before the ban of the KPD in August 1957. The responsibility
of the Traffic Department was the clandestine transport
across the East-West German border of personnel, material,
mail and funds. Its first head was Richard Stahlmann, also
known as Arthur Illner, a legendary figure in international
Communist conspiratorial work and for years a Soviet
General Staff agent of very high level; the present head
(Stahlmann is "retired" and at odds with Ulbricht) is the
former head of the West German element of the Traffic
apparatus, Adolf Baier.
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The Bureau of the Politburo and the Secretariat is
connected by direct telephone line with all county leader-
ships and all district leaderships. For this purpose there
is a special telephone switchboard in the Central Committee.
There are relatively old field telephone sets operated by a
crank. After the crank has been turned, the central
switchboard answers, and connects the caller with the
county or district leaderiip desired. In addition, the
Traffic Department of the Central Committee, which is
responsible for all traffic to and from the West German
Federal Republic, is connected to this telephone network.
Aside from the official telephones of the Central Committee,
all members of the Politburo and of the Secretariat have
government extensions on which they can reach all
ministers, state secretaries, administrations of the armed
forces, of the police, the security organs, the SED District
for Berlin, the Lord Mayor of East Berlin, and all other`
leading organs of Berlin, by dialing a three-digit number.
The Technical Co-Workers
In addition to the already-mentioned department
secretaries, the Central Committee has between sixty and
eighty clerks and typists. Insofar as they are not assigned
directly to individual departments for security reasons
(for example, to Department M or to the Department for All-
German Affairs), these technical co-workers are gathered
together in pools. These various pools are under the
administration of the Department for Internal Administration,
possibly under the Bureau of the Secretariat. All written
work for the individual co-workers of the departments which
cannot be taken care of by the department secretary must
be submitted in handwritten draft to these pools, where they
are prepared in the appropriate number of copies.
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All Secretaries and Politburo members have their
own secretariat. In these secretariats there is one highly-
qualified technical employee, a secretary, who works
exclusively for the functionary concerned. Particularly
important functionaries, such as Walter Ulbricht and
Hermann Matern, have in addition to their secretaries an
additional typist who takes care of the most important
written work, since the secretaries themselves have
organizational and secretarial duties aside from typing.
The typing pools usually work for several depart-
ments, since not every department has its own typing pool.
As a rule it is organized in such a way that there is one
typing pool for several closely related departments.
In addition to the technical employees such as steno-
graphers, typists, and secretaries, the Central Committee
also has a large-scale technical apparatus which takes
care of all other material requirements of the Central
Committee. This includes a large canteen which prepares
a noon meal and other meals in the Central Committee
building for all the co-workers. All members of the
Central Committee apparatus up to sector chief eat in this
canteen. From sector chief upwards, the functionaries
have the right to eat in the Guest House of the Central
Committee, where a much higher quality meal is served.
The technical apparatus also includes a number of workers,
craftsmen, carpenters, electricians, etc., an extensive
bookkeeping department, a department for residence and
quarters which provides residences and rooms to all
functionaries who are called to Berlin by the Central
Committee, and also a large procurement department
which takes care of many of the procurement problems of
the functionaries, including any requirements they may have
while on leave. For this purpose, this department is
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responsible for fitting out and maintaining a number of
rest homes in the GDR.
The Central Committee also maintains a central
archive of unclassified documents and a very extensive
statistical department, both of which are attached to the
Department for Leading Organs of the Party and Mass
Organizations.
Credentials, Visitors and Security Systems in the
Central Committee
For the security of the functionaries and internal
documents, the Central Committee has organized an
extensive credential and visitors' regulation system. There
are various forms of identification documents. All Central
Committee members have access to the building of the
Central Committee and all buildings equivalent to it,
directly and without a special pass, so long as they produce
a card which identifies them as a member of the Central
Committee.
In addition, there are various kinds of house badges
which are identified by various colors. All department
chiefs, deputy department chiefs, and sector chiefs have,
insofar as they are not members of the Central Committee,
a special house badge with their picture and an official seal.
The instructors have a house badge which is identified by a
different color. These house badges are numbered and
have the usual form of a rectangular folder. These badges
are valid until recalled, and are called in whenever func-
tionaries are moved. From time to time they are checked
and reviewed, and control notes are made in them. With
these badges it is possible to enter any floor and any
department of the Central Committee. In addition, there are
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house badges for leading functionaries in the government
and mass organizations who are neither members of the
Central Committee nor paid co-workers of the Central
Committee. These functionaries -- examples are
secretaries of the mass organizations, state secretaries,
main department chiefs, etc. -- receive such badges on
orders from the head of the Bureau of the Politburo. The
badges consist of a red card made of reinforced linen
which contains a photograph, a number, a seal and some
personal data. These badges must be renewed every
three months, and in each case the renewal is represented
by an official stamp indicating the validity for the next
quarter. These credentials also authorize entrance into
all floors of the Central Committee building with the
exception of the third floor, where the chairman of the
SED and the members of the Politburo have their offices,
also with the exception of the guest house of the Central
Committee, the Central Party School, and a few other
restricted installations of the SED.
All other visitors to the Central Committee cannot
enter the Central Committee building directly. They must
first go to the pass office, which is located about 100 to
120 yards from the Central Committee building, and report.
First of all, the security functionaries in the pass office
record the personal data, take in all Party and personal
identity documents, and telephone to the department the
visitor is supposed to visit. If this department confirms
the visit, a pass is issued and the personal identity docu-
ment is retained. For non-Party members, the visitor
must frequently be taken to a waiting room in the Central
Committee building, where he must be picked up by the
functionary with whom he wants to talk or by one of the
co-workers of the department, so that he does not have any
opportunity to wander around unescorted in the building of
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the Central Committee. When he leaves the Central
Committee building he must return his visitors' pass
stamped and signed by the department he visited.
On every floor in the Central Committee building
there is an armed guard who has a 'list of all functionaries
who have their offices on his floor, and who also has a
telephone with which he can reach all rooms and also the
armed security alert squad. These floor guards consist
for the most part of two persons, whereas the guards at
the main entrance of the Central Committee building are
made up of from four to six men. When a visitor enters
one of the floors he is checked by the floor guard. If he
has a valid credential, he is permitted to pass. If he has
a visitor's pass and was not held at the entrance, he has
to wait at the entrance to the floor until the appropriate
functionary comes to pick him up. An exception is made
for the offices of the Politburo members and of the
Secretaries of the Central Committee. These offices can
be entered by the holder of a regular credential only if his
coming has been announced to the guard for that floor in
advance. The guards make up a security group in the
Central Committee of the SED. They are members of the
SED, have had political training, and are subordinate to a
special office of State Security. They are probably attached
to the Berlin Guard Battalion, but receive their orders
from the Central Committee of the SED, specifically from
the head of the Bureau of the Politburo. 1 To this security
1. This situation prevailed up to early 1957. After the
liquidation of Lavrentiy P. Beriya and the abortive East
German popular revolt of 17 June 1953 (which was put down
only by force of Soviet armed intervention), however, East
German State Security (then a Ministry) underwent a process
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group is also attached the personal body-guard service of
the Central Committee. All Politburo members and
candidates have a personal bodyguard. These guards, who
are supposed to be constantly in the company of the leading
functionary for whose safety they are responsible, also
belong to the guard group, are trained by the State Security
Service, and also are subordinate to a special department
of the Ministry for State Security.
of denigration. The Minister was purged and charged with
an attempt to take power in opposition to Ulbricht and
company, and the Ministry itself became a State Secretariat
within the Ministry of Interior. In 1953, the functions and
responsibilities of State Security were limited, and among
other things the special section thereof which was charged
with investigations of high-level political figures, including
those in the SED leadership (an analogy to the job held by
Polish defector Josef Swiatlo), was dissolved. However,
the special guard units belonging to the Berlin Guard
Battalion, including those for the SED buildings proper, were
a part of the special category of "Interior Troops" under
State Security until January 1957, when they were placed
under the Ministry of Interior. A special department of State
Security is still responsible for the internal security of these units.
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