The Plans That Failed

André Steiner is Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) and Professor of economic and social history at the University of Potsdam. He has been the Research Director of the Department of Economic and Social History at the ZZF, a Research Fellow at Institutes for Economic History in Berlin and Mannheim and was Professor at the Ruhr-University Bochum.

The establishment of the Communist social model in one part of Germany was a result of international postwar developments, of the Cold War waged by East and West, and of the resultant partition of Germany. As the author argues, the GDR's 'new' society was deliberately conceived as a counter-model to the liberal and marketregulated system. Although the hopes connected with this alternative system turned out to be misplaced and the planned economy may be thoroughly discredited today, it is important to understand the context in which it developed and failed. This study, a bestseller in its German version, offers an in-depth exploration of the GDR economy's starting conditions and the obstacles to growth it confronted during the consolidation phase. These factors, however, were not decisive in the GDR's lack of growth compared to that of the Federal Republic. As this study convincingly shows, it was the economic model that led to failure.

Introduction Chapter 1. A Difficult Start? Initial Conditions in the Soviet Occupation ZoneEconomic Potential and Structure at the End of the WarPlant Dismantling and ReparationsPolitical Forces in the Soviet Occupation Zone and their Ideas on Economic PolicyLand Reform and Nationalisation of IndustryRestarting Production