This text investigates communist rule in East Germany from its establishment as a sphere of Soviet influence after World War II to its rapid collapse after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
List of Abbreviations. List of Tables. Introduction. I. THE ORIGINS OF THE GDR, 1945-49.
1. An Anti-Fascist Democratic Germany.
2. The Stalinization of the Eastern Zone.
II. CONSTRUCTING STATE SOCIALISM, 1949-61.
3. Party and Society in Conflict.
4. From Revisionism to the Wall.
III. ULBRICHT AND THE STABILIZATION OF THE GDR.
5. Rebuilding the GDR.
6. Ulbricht's Twilight Years.
IV. YEARS OF 'HONI', 1971-87.
7. Honecker's Social Contract.
8. Commanding the Economy.
9. Between Bonn and Moscow.
V. THE GDR ON THE EVE OF REVOLUTION.
10. A Semblance of Stability.
11. The SED's Loyal Allies: The Bloc Parties and the Mass Organizations.
12. The Apparatus of Coercion.
13. Opposition and Dissent.
VI. EAST GERMANY'S UNEXPECTED REVOLUTION, 1989-90.
14. East Germany Implodes.
15. The Unlamented End of the GDR.
16. The National Question Resolved?
Bibliography.