SOVIET DISCIPLINE REGIMENTS EAST GERMAN WORKERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02771R000100310001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
SOVIET DISCIPLINE REGIMENTS EAST GERMAN WORKERS
As in all countries under Communist domination, the
worker in East Germany has become a mere entity in,the indus-
trial production plan of the state. His wishes and political
inclinations are completely disregarded as working conditions
there evolve more and more according to the Soviet pattern.
His sad lot became official by the decree of April 9, 19)+7,
when the Soviet military administration made the individual
worker responsible for attaining the goals set in the pro-
ductivity drive..
Compulsion to work has been introduced for men and women
between the ages of 15 and 60. The strictest discipline is
maintained and Order No. 323 of November 20, 1946 provided
for various punitive measures including reprimand, with-
drawal of extra rations, cuts in vacations equal to the number
of days absent from work without official justification and
even criminal prosecution under the heading of acts of sabo-
tage and diversion.
The grip of the government on the worker was "legalized"
by the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic (DDR).
Article 31 of that document discusses governmental economic
planning and states explicitly that manpower falls within its
regulations and is consequently treated as any other element
in the production process.
The instrument for this subjugation of the worker is the
so-called Free German Trade Union Federation (Freier Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund - FDGB). This association was developed as
early as July 1945, formed by a number of unions which were
organized on an industry basis, covering manual and non-manual
employees. The FDGB is strictly centralized and all officials
are appointed by the Central Council (Bundesvorstand).
The Federation, however, is a misnomer and far from repre-
senting the worker, it is nothing but an instrument for politi-
cal control. With its help, the works councils were abolished
in 1948 after elections had shown the growing disinclination of
the German worker to vote for Communist representatives.
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
Political Oppression
The Hitler period trained the German workers along the
lines of regimentation, exploitation and spying on each other,
but the present working conditions in East Germany, with their
terror and quota system, go far beyond the preceding totali-
tarian system. Control of wages, accompanied by the shortage
of goods, has reduced the living standards of the average
worker. Reliable reports have estimated that the buying power
of the workers in the DDR has been reduced to less than 60
percent of prewar days.
The feeling of political oppression and economic exploi-
tation is further aggravated by the: workers' awareness that
their living standards have deteriorated. The Soviet authori-
ties and their German puppet agencies have so far, in spite of
all their promises, done virtually nothing for the civilian
population's supply of consumer goods? In the DDR roughly one-
third of the industries produce goods for the general consumer,
while the corresponding figure for Western Germany is above 60
percent.
The plight of the workers under Communist regimes is a
well-established fact. The German 'worker, who was frequently
accustomed to higher living standards and possessed greater
skills than his counterpart in some of the captive countries,
was deprived of more and reduced to relatively less. The
worker in the Soviet Zone of Germany expressed his bitterness
against working conditions in the revolt of June 17, 1953.
Denial of Rights
This spontaneous uprising was put down with great ruth-
lessness by the Communist regime. Thousands were arrested and
summarily tried and, according to West German labor sources,
many hundreds are still in prison today.
Although Article 14 of the labor Federation's by-laws
actually says that the right to strike is recognized, it has
in practice no meaning at all in view of the fact that the
worker is required to respect the fulfillment of the work plan.
Any gesture on his part against such fulfillment, such as a
strike, is labeled "sabotage," and punished accordingly.
Despite all the propaganda, the worker in the DDR has noth-
ing to say about the way his plant is run. This was clearly
shown by the April 1950 Labor Law. It said: "The right of co-
determination of the workers and employees regarding the manage-
ment of the economy will be exercised by the organs of the State."
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
In this connection, there is recent evidence from East
German press sources indicating that political work and worker
morale, particularly in the brown cual and construction in-
dustries, have been poor. Hypocritically taking the worker's
side, the press pretends to place the blame for poor production
and morale on officials, particularly the "arrogant attitude"
of managers who do not consult the workers. Other indications
of poor worker morale are to be found in reports in the East
German press complaining about the high number of hours lost
as a result of sickness and accidents.
The Woman Worker
Article 7 of the Constitution of the DDR established
equal rights of women. It means equal status for both sexes as
an object of oppression and exploitation, but even this state-
ment is not entirely correct because the fate of women in the
DDR is in fact far worse than that of the men.
The Labor Law of April 19, 1950, cancels all existing
legal restrictions for the employment of women and requires all
agencies, federal as well as state, to create working opportuni-
ties for them. In actual operation it amounts to a requirement
for women to work.
The Five Year Plan converted this "right" into an obliga-
tion and has forced women to accept occupations that used to
be reserved for men, as for instance, mining. All legal re-
strictions such as night work or employment in heavy industries
were canceled as being "contradictory to the equal rights of
women." A law "for the protection of mother and child and for
women's rights"(October 1, 1950) makes clear that "marriage
must not interfere with professional education and occupational
performances of a woman...even If it causes a temporary separa-
tion from her husband."
The FDGB
The workers in the East German zone, as already mentioned,
are grouped under an organization with the appealing name of
Free German Labor Union (FDGB), although it does nothing to de-
fend their rights in the manner of western labor unions. The
workers are completely organized, whether they like it or not.
The Party, the government and industrial management all cooperate
to make union membership virtually a prerequisite of employment.
There is an industrial union for each branch of industry
such as metals, chemicals and transportation. These in turn are
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
organized and form the FDGB. The individual unions are named
and organized in a manner to suggest a continuity with the
old Social Democratic labor organization tradition. For this
reason the pattern of FDGB organization closely parallels the
industrial union organization of the West German Federation of
Labor. This superficial similarity was intentional and has
been used as a propaganda weapon for the massive penetration and
subversion of West German labor.
FDGB officials support almost all strike actions in West
Germany. But in their own zone the workers are forbidden to
strike and the organization of a strike is legally a crime.
The FDGB officials not only accept the proposition that it is
illogical for workers to strike against the Worker's State, but
they take stern action to prevent strikes from occurring and
cooperate with the other state authorities in punitive action
in the event a strike is threatened. The height of paradox is
achieved in the matter of wages and hours of work. The offi-
cial argument apparently is that since lower costs and higher
productivity benefit the Worker's State, then lower wages and
longer hours must benefit the worker.
In 1955, the FDGB held a congress at which it decided to
recognize the policies of the East German Communist Party.as
the party of the German working classes. Under the leadership
of the Party, the Federation is to work for the realization of
socialism in East Germany. Another resolution that was adopted
stipulated that all members of the Federation should obey the
dictates of the Party.
The Federation, it was stated at that time, stands for the
strengthening of the DDR "as a base for the fight for a united,
democratic and peace-loving Germany and for the reinforcement
of the worker's confidence in the State." The statement added
that "every member of the Federation is required to defend the
DDR and its accomplishments. It is the duty of every member to
use all his strength for the realization of the economic plan."
In plain language this means that every worker is solely an
instrument to be used to consolidate the power of the Communist
Party.
As in the USSR, the labor to be performed in different
occupational groupings has been broken down into eight wage
groups. The wage group rates were not established through
collective bargaining, but through government decree without
the right of co-determination by the trade unions. The rating
of workers by management was frequently done, not from a labor
point of view, but from that of SED Party politics.
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
The different varieties of the efficiency wage are intended
to offer the most effective incentives for a maximum exertion
of the worker's physical and intellectual strength. For this
purpose the piece wage is the most suitable and is therefore
applied in the majority of cases. The basis for piece wages
in the DDR are the technical labor norms. These norms are
established on the basis of the output of the most outstanding
workers, working with the best machines under the best of con-
ditions. However, these norms become binding for all workers.
The main means of increasing output are contained In the col-
lective contract. In this contract, the workers and employees
undertake to fulfill concrete obligations and in the event of
non-fulfillment, measures can be taken against the worker.
Among the coercive and punitive measures now being applied,
the following deserve special mention: the registration and
channeling of manpower, the binding of the worker to his place
of work, the potential punishment for violations of labor dis-
cipline, the increased authority of foremen and'managers and
the establishment of commissions for labor and wages, charged
with inspecting the workers and with urging them to fulfill the
labor plans.
Work Brigades
The creation of so-called "Brigades of Socialist Work" was
announced at the Fourth Plenum of the SED Central Committee in
January 1959. On the basis of early press descriptions, this
program appears to be a renewed attempt, couched in more expan-
sive terms, to deal with the long-standing problems of increas-
Ing labor productivity, lowering production costs and improving
work morale through an attempt to harmonize "material self-
interest" and "socialist responsibilities." The movement has
thus far consisted in a number of factory youth brigades com-
peting for the title "Brigade of Socialist Work" by pledging
themselves to the usual goals of increasing production. However,
the new features of the competition include pledges involving
brigade activity in other fields such as the educational, mili-
tary, cultural and political. These innovations appear to have
arisen as an attempt to cope with the entire question of worker
motivation which has apparently not improved to the regime's
satisfaction through the methods employed up to now.
Although there are no laws existing that actually sanction
the enslavement of labor, the existing regulations are such that
they are quite adequate to make sure that the worker observes
the requirements for the fulfillment of the work quota and the
regulations concerning his work. One such broad regulation
stipulates that juridical proceedings will be taken against any-
body who "knowingly perpetrates an infringement of labor disci-
pline or who pretends to be sick."
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: c 1A-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
The power of plant directors and of foremen has been re-
inforced in order to make sure that discipline is maintained
and performance improved. Directors and foremen are fully
responsible for their fields of operation and to help them
they have been given broad powers. They can, of course, try
to improve production through the use of bonuses, but at the
same time they are empowered to take disciplinary action where
they deem it necessary. Thus, according to the regulations,
the chief of a section decides the employment and the firing
of the worker. He has the right to promote those he thinks
are working satisfactorily and to punish those who do not.
Stakhanov Pressure
The incessant demands for more work for the same amount
of money are not only a source of irritation to the workers, but
also to management which finds itself charged with the responsi-
bility for achieving supplementary production. As the West Ger-
man labor organ Freies Wort has remarked, "this insane system
car hardly be called a worker paradise and makes life impossible.
The only result is that it kills any incentive to work and even
kills the joy of living."
The East Zone regime has attempted to spur production
through the introduction of a number of Stakhanov-type competi-
tions. The first Stakhanov in the East Zone was a coal miner
named Adolf Hennecke who, in 1948, produced 380 percent above
the norm on a single occasion. As a result, his admiring fellow
workers smashed all the windows in his house and ostracized him,
while the regime rewarded him with a soft job in a ministry.
There has also been a "100,000 Kilometer Movement," to which
truck drivers may belong who have covered that distance without
requiring a major overhaul of their vehicles.
Then there is the Nina Nasarowa Movement. This movement
is named after a Russian textile worker who promised to keep
her machine in working order on her own time. As a result of
this, the East German regime instituted the movement in their
zone. It means that workers now have to be at their post 15
minutes before shift time to clean their machines.
There have been any number of similar movements in East
Germany. One of the most fascinating, at least from a Western
point of view, is the "50-Watt Bulb Movement." Those who be-
long to this movement undertake not to burn at one time any
more than a single 5-watt bulb in their homes in order to con-
serve power.
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
There is also the "3,000-Liter Movement," according to
which each cow is supposed to be induced, so far as is possi-
ble,to produce 3,000 liters of milk a year.
However, these weird aids to stimulate production have not
been too successful and SED leader Walter Ulbricht had to admit
that 59 percent of plants in East Berlin are working at a loss,
while the deficit for all plants throughout the Eastern Zone is
25 percent.
Poor Planning Irks Workers
In East Germany,as in Russia, the Communist government has
tried to "plan" everything and control the output of every
single plant. Every minor decision has to be made in East Ber-
lin. This scourge of bureaucracy is a constant topic for com-
plaint throughout East Germany. Workers prefer to work in
small plants still under private direction, rather than in the
big socialized plants, because private enterprises are more
efficient and human relations better. The Communist leaders
recognized this attitude in their "reforms" which followed the
1953 uprising. For a while, private business was given some
leeway. Private firms up to medium size have been permitted
to continue in some fields. But the squeeze is being put back
on private enterprise this year through stiffer taxes and a
forced draft of privately employed workers.
East Germans also are irked because most of the goods they
manufacture are exported to the East and the German workers see
no equivalent in return. New railroad cars are an example.
Many are built in East Germany, but none has been put into ser-
vice on the railroads there. Details of East Germany's foreign
trade are withheld from the public. The East Germans know, how-
ever, that much of their output goes to Russia and the Satellites.
Workers resent the constant increasing of production quotas
which amount to repeated wage cuts. Real wages in East Germany
now are calculated to average only about 60 percent of those in
West Germany.
The Farmer
It is much more difficult to organize farm populations
than urban groups and it is harder to enforce the delivery of
farm goods than industrial products. The first step taken by
the Soviet authorities in the DDR was a land reform that was
supposed to win friends by giving land to those who were with-
out property. About 20 percent of productive land was taken
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
away from some 11,000 landowners and 210,000 new ownerships,
mainly from the ranks of laborers and refugees, were created.
During this process a complete dependency of the farmer was
established. Machinery had to be loaned from fixed centers,
financing and sale were taken over by combines, and coopera-
tives were absorbed by the state. The allegedly voluntary.
pooling in varying degrees of land, animals and equipment in
the form of cooperatives was ruthlessly enforced with the
obvious, objective of introducing a total collectivization of
agricultural production.
The obligatory delivery quotas, particularly for the
larger farms, were intentionally fixed beyond the. potential of
the farms and could not be met. Eventually, the choice. for the
peasant was arrest for sabotaging the Five Year Plan or escape
to the West.
Terror was used against the peasants by brigades of Com-
munist workers, who were sent out to the country searching and
arresting, "legalizing" their criminal. behavior by bringing
with them "special mobile courts" for the trial on the spot of
farmers for non-fulfillment of delivery quotas.
These efforts by the DDR regime failed, however, as
proved by its appeal in June 1953 to the farmers who had
escaped to the West, to return, repossess their property and
"live in peace." As experience in the Soviet Union and in the
Satellites has shown, it is hard to convert farmers to Communism.
So far, the Communists have broken the estates, but not the
farmer in the Eastern zone.
The Great Exodus
As a result of the Communist pressures on the population,
there has been a huge exodus of people from the Eastern zone over
the years. More than 1,000 doctors have fled East Germany this
year compared with 296 last year. Authorities in West Germany
estimate that there is now one doctor for every 1,700 population
in the East against one for 750 in West Germany. Polish and
Czech doctors have been called in to help staff East German hos-
pitals and some institutions have had to close their research
departments for lack of personnel.
Nor are doctors the only group in the new flow of refugees
who have been streaming towards the West. The number of school
teachers, students and other intellectuals has increased by simi-
lar proportions. More than twice as many university professors
fled in the first nine months of 1958 than in all 1957. Grade
school teachers, dentists, veterinarians, students and engineers
have brought the number of professional people among the refugees
8
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R0001 00310001-3
to double what it was a year ago. There were 21,107 in Sept-
ember, an average of 703 people every day. This is not a re-
cord. There was a period in 1953 when 2,000 left their homes
and moved West each day. West German officials estimate that
3,000,000 East Germans have joined their population since the
Bonn government was set up in 1949.
In the early days there was a preponderance of peasants
and businessmen, but now there are more intellectuals. Both
the East German and West German Governments have become in-
creasingly distressed, although not entirely for the same
reasons. Aside from the political and prestige loss, East
Germany now faces a serious threat to its economic plans for
lack of skilled manpower. When Khrushchev visited East Germany
last July, he lectured at length on the need to pay their intel-
lectuals well and to treat them nicely even if they did not
accept Communism. "Leave political convictions out of the
picture," he urged.
The greatest impetus to the flight of intellectuals seems
to have been the program approved by the last congress of the
East German Communist Party. It laid down plans for what the
West Germans call "Sovietization" and sought to put down unrest
among youth and intellectuals with new stern measures. Several
retreats have been made from this program in a belated effort
to slow down the new flood of refugees it loosed. A rule for-
bidding the children of professional people admission to univer-
sities was canceled; doctors were promised they would once again
be allowed to visit West Germany.
Red Threats
Communist authorities try to halt the westward flights by
threats and restrictive measures. Any East German resident must
apply to the police for a permit to travel, particularly to the
West Zone. Travel abroad is restricted mainly to official propa-
ganda delegations which can be watched.
Even East German scientists who want to attend scientific
meetings outside East Germany must first attend trials of men
who have tried to obtain jobs in another country. Trying to get
work abroad is a "crime" punishable by sentences up to life im-
prisonment.
Police terrorism is an old story to East Germans. Police are
everywhere. They check travelers in trains and railroad stations.
They check workers at the factory gates. They inspect hotels and
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
 Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3
dance halls and each apartment house has its Communist warden
who informs police of all suspicious activities.
Another element of discontent among workers in the East
Zone is the pressure used to prevent any contact with friends
and relatives who live in the Western areas. The:West Berlin
publication Freies Wort, which is dedicated to labor affairs,
has summed this up in the following words:
"The uncertainty of one's personal life is
unfortunately one of those things which can-
not be explained to those who live in West
Germany....a worker can go on doing his duty
for years and when a little thing happens
such as a trip to West Germany, the person
in question is hurled into the depths and
even membership in the Party is not always
enough to rescue him. The staff is broken
across his back and he sees himself branded
in the local press."
The frantic efforts the East German regime makes to hinder
the movement of people between East and West Germany are all the
more unpopular inasmuch as they are a flagrant denial of the
terms of the so-called Constitution? Paragraph 8of that-docu-
ment says that "personal freedom, the inviolability of the domi-
cile, the secrecy of postal communications and the right to live
in any place, are guaranteed."
The truth is that in the East Zone nothing is guaranteed
and as in all Communist regimes there is no question of personal
liberty. Furthermore, Article 10 states that any:citizen may
leave East Germany if he desires. This hardly concords with
the thousands of special police who patrol the border between
the two Germanies or with the hundreds of frontier watch towers
and their machine guns or with the hundreds of miles of electri-
fied barbed wire which keeps those of the Eastern zone separated
from their brothers in the West.
Approved For Release 1999/08/24: CIA-RDP78-02771 R000100310001-3