RISEN FROM THE RUINS

The first issue of “Studies on the DDR” follows the foun­da­tion of the GDR after World War II and traces its deve­lo­p­ment from an anti-fascist demo­cra­tic state to a socia­list one. Central to this process is the econo­mic star­ting point, which was a parti­cu­larly diffi­cult one after the war due to the repa­ra­ti­ons payments, and which deter­mi­ned econo­mic life.
The text focu­ses on the econo­mic effi­ci­ency of the GDR, its achie­ve­ments and its contra­dic­tions. In addi­tion, it provi­des infor­ma­tion on central charac­te­ris­tics of socia­list society and labor: inter­na­tio­nal soli­da­rity, collec­tive orga­niz­a­tion in state-owned enter­pri­ses, plan­ned economy. In the following issues, the “Studies” will be devo­ted to these and other topics in grea­ter depth.