The foreign policy of East Germany was characterized by the close ties of East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR) to the Eastern Bloc. During its existence, the most important partner was the Soviet Union (USSR), which acted as a protecting power and most important trade and economic partner, which is why the GDR was often called a satellite state. The GDR remained closely linked to the other socialist states through organizations such as the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. While the GDR was relatively isolated outside the communist world in the first two decades of its existence due to the Hallstein Doctrine of West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany, FRG), a change took place in the 1970s with the rapprochement with West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik. As a result, the GDR was able to gain international status and establish diplomatic relations with almost 130 countries. While the Marxist-Leninist state ideology played a major role in the foreign policy of the East German government (which was reflected in the close alignment with the socialist partner states and the support of anti-Western rebel movements in the Third World), it was however also influenced by their own economic and political interests. From the 1970s onwards, the GDR increasingly emancipated itself from the Soviet Union and pursued an independent policy towards West Germany, as loans from the West had become vital for the GDR's survival. In the 1980s, Erich Honecker refused to implement liberalizing reforms, which alienated the GDR from the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev. After the revolutions of 1989, the Eastern Bloc collapsed and Germany was reunified, ending the period of an independent East German foreign policy.
Orientation of East German foreign policy Due to its great dependence on the Soviet Union, the GDR's sovereignty was limited. As part of the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union reserved the right to intervene in its sphere of influence if the line it had set was deviated too much. It intervened militarily in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 when it saw its interests threatened. This doctrine was only abandoned under Gorbachev in the 1980s.
The GDR foreign policy was based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism. The highest ideological primacy was international solidarity with other socialist states and movements. Accordingly, a political distinction was made between relations with other socialist states, those with the western capitalist states and with the non-aligned states (“Third World”). According to the state ideology, foreign policy had to serve the worldwide realization of socialism (Aufbau des Sozialismus) and the world revolution. To implement these goals, there was close cooperation with the friendly states of the “socialist world system”. Peaceful and subversive methods were used to establish a global “classless society.” Peaceful methods included financing communist parties abroad and providing technical and economic support to friendly states. The subversive methods included political and military support for armed movements and the espionage activities of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi). Since the possible outbreak of a Third World War was an existential threat for the GDR, which was located directly on the border between East and West, it tried to play a constructive role in international negotiations about disarmament and the preservation of world peace. The GDR launched disarmament initiatives for zones free of chemical and nuclear weapons in its immediate surroundings.
There was a certain tension between the basic ideological goals and the pursuit of one's own interests. In particular, relations with West Germany were perceived as a question of prestige for the GDR leadership, which is why they tried to bring their own initiatives into German-German relations. But there were also economic interests in the relationship with the Federal Republic. That is why the GDR was prepared to neglect relations with the socialist camp in the 1970s and 1980s when it signed bilateral agreements with West Germany against the will of the Soviets.
Primary institutions and actors
In its early days, GDR foreign policy, to the extent that it existed at all, was dominated by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Control Commission existed as a control body until 1955. With the GDR gaining sovereignty, the Soviet embassy remained in East Berlin, which monitored GDR policy through the KGB and reported back to Moscow.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs was responsible for carrying out foreign relations. The Ministry for Internal German Trade, Foreign Trade and Material Supply and the Ministry for National Defense also played a role in the state's foreign policy. The State Council was responsible for signing international treaties until the GDR constitution of 1974 transferred most of its foreign policy powers to the Council of Ministers. As with domestic policy, decisions on all foreign policy issues were made by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which dominated the political system as a bloc party without separation of powers. Due to the high importance of the governing parties in the socialist states, the SED's relations with other socialist governing parties also played an important role on the informal level, in addition to the "official" bilateral state relations. This has also been referred to as a “substitute foreign policy.”
Under the rule of Erich Honecker, there was also a strong concentration of foreign policy decision-making authority on his own person.
In East Germany, there were numerous “friendship societies” to maintain relations with individual states, which were merged in 1961 to form an umbrella organization, the League for Friendship of Nations. These organizations played a major role, especially before the GDR was internationally widely recognized. The GDR also carried out extensive foreign propaganda, which was entrusted to the Central Committee for Foreign Information, Propaganda and Agitation at the party level and the Foreign ministry at the state level. Through the GDR Peace Council, the GDR also exercised influence on the communist-infiltrated World Peace Council and the global peace movement. Through inter-societal organizations and its secret service, the GDR maintained contacts with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) until the KPD was banned in 1956 in West Germany and also with the West German student movement. The GDR also tried to infiltrate West German government; the exposure of the East German spy Günter Guillaume in the Guillaume affair led to the fall of the Brandt government in 1974.
History
Soviet Occupation zone and founding of East Germany (1945–1949) The GDR emerged from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany as a legacy of the division of Germany after the Second World War, when the Soviet Union began to build its establish its own system on the occupied territories of Germany. Josef Stalin commissioned the German exiled communist Walter Ulbricht and his Ulbricht group to build new state structures. As a result, the Soviets also oversaw the merger of the SPD with the KPD in 1946 to form the new socialist unity party SED. After this was completed, Ulbricht carried out internal party purges against the existing remnants of social democracy on behalf of Stalin, whereby he was rewarded by the Soviets with the role of leading politician in the German Democratic Republic, which was proclaimed in 1949 after an East-West agreement over the future of Germany had failed to materialize and the Cold War had begun.
Early years (1949–1961)
After its founding, the GDR remained closely linked to the Soviet Union by joining the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) and initially functioned as a bargaining chip for the possible neutrality of a united Germany. In 1952, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the Western powers rejected the offers of German reunification made in the Stalin Note because the West distrusted Stalin. As a result, the GDR strengthened its socialist character and the East German uprising of June 1953 was suppressed by Soviet forces. On 25 March 1954, the Soviet government declared the recognition of the sovereignty of the GDR, which from now on was to decide “at its own discretion about its internal and external affairs”, but remained closely tied to the Eastern Bloc via the Warsaw Pact founded in 1955. In the same year, West Germany adopted the Hallstein Doctrine, which classified diplomatic relations of third countries with the GDR as an “unfriendly act” and sanctioned it with breaking off all diplomatic contacts. West Germany wanted to avoid international recognition of two German states with this policy. As a result, the GDR's diplomatic contacts remained limited to the socialist states and some third world countries, as most countries gave priority to relations with West Germany. Successes for the GDR were the establishment of diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia (1957), which led to West Germany breaking off relations with Yugoslavia in response, and increased economic cooperation with third world states. The GDR's subordinate role vis-à-vis the Soviets during the Berlin Crisis (1958) and in the closure of the inner-German border ordered by Nikita Khrushchev (1961) demonstrated the Soviet Union's continued dominance over GDR foreign relations at this time.
Professionalization of foreign policy and efforts for international recognition (1962–1968)
In the 1960s, the GDR's foreign policy apparatus began to expand and foreign policy became more professional, as foreign policy became more important for the young state from the second half of the 1950s onwards. More commercial representations were set up abroad instead of official foreign embassies, the establishment of which was hindered by the Hallstein Doctrine. The GDR's allegiance to the Soviets was reaffirmed in 1964 with the conclusion of a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. The GDR tried to promote its international recognition through friendship societies, which acted as a lobby for diplomatic recognition of the GDR in numerous countries. In 1967, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the West Germany by the People's Republic of Romania led to disputes between the East German and Romanian party leadership. In response, the Warsaw Pact states adopted the Ulbricht Doctrine, which only allowed the Warsaw Pact states to normalize relations with West Germany if the latter in turn recognized “the existing borders and the existence of two German states”.
The attempts in the Prague Spring of 1968 to establish reform communism or “socialism with a human face” were dogmatically condemned by the GDR leadership and perceived as a threat. The GDR indirectly supported the military suppression of the Czechoslovak reform movement by securing supplies for the Warsaw Pact intervention troops. The GDR supported the Brezhnev Doctrine announced after Leonid Brezhnev's intervention.
Détente with the West and international recognition (1969–1974)