The SED between the Construction and the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Social History of a Communist State Party

Completed Project

Collaborative project with the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. Funded by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Forschung

Projekte

The SED in the Province
Party Presence and Regional Practices of Domination (1961–1989)

Andrea Bahr
Completed PhD project

The PhD project focuses on the SED-Kreisleitungen – the local party leaders and the local party apparatuses of the former socialist state party (SED). These local power structures were located between the population on the one hand and the central and regional party apparatuses on the other hand.

The building of the Central Committee of the SED on the Marx-Engels-Square, 1967. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-FO427-202-001 / Koard, Peter / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-FO427-202-001, Berlin, Gebäude des ZK der SED, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Revolutionary Headquarters and Seat of Government: The Apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED as the Governmental Centre of East Germany, 1946 to 1989

Completed Research Project

The subject of the project are the departments of the Central Committee of the SED and the institutes subordinated to these in their role as intermediate organisations of rule and control. Points of focus are the question of cultural and social-psychological parameters of party rule as well as a prosopographic analysis of the Central Committee staff.

A member of the SED recieves his party book, Leipzig 1951. Photo: Deutsche Fotothek‎, Fotothek df roe-neg 0006041 018 SED-Mitglied erhält sein SED-Mitgliedsbuch, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

‘Where there is a comrade, there is the party!’?
Stability and Erosion of the SED Party Base from 1979 to 1989

Sabine Pannen
Completed associated PhD project

This PhD project focuses on the rank-and-file members of the former socialist state party (SED) separately to its party leaders and apparatus. In the 1980s, almost every fifth adult in the GDR held a party document. For this reason, party members constituted both a large part of society as well as a group of their own within society.

The SED between the Construction and the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Social History of a Communist State Party

Completed Project

Collaborative project with the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena. Funded by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship

Forschung

Projekte

The SED in the Province
Party Presence and Regional Practices of Domination (1961–1989)

Andrea Bahr
Completed PhD project

The PhD project focuses on the SED-Kreisleitungen – the local party leaders and the local party apparatuses of the former socialist state party (SED). These local power structures were located between the population on the one hand and the central and regional party apparatuses on the other hand.

The building of the Central Committee of the SED on the Marx-Engels-Square, 1967. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-FO427-202-001 / Koard, Peter / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-FO427-202-001, Berlin, Gebäude des ZK der SED, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Revolutionary Headquarters and Seat of Government: The Apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED as the Governmental Centre of East Germany, 1946 to 1989

Completed Research Project

The subject of the project are the departments of the Central Committee of the SED and the institutes subordinated to these in their role as intermediate organisations of rule and control. Points of focus are the question of cultural and social-psychological parameters of party rule as well as a prosopographic analysis of the Central Committee staff.

A member of the SED recieves his party book, Leipzig 1951. Photo: Deutsche Fotothek‎, Fotothek df roe-neg 0006041 018 SED-Mitglied erhält sein SED-Mitgliedsbuch, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

‘Where there is a comrade, there is the party!’?
Stability and Erosion of the SED Party Base from 1979 to 1989

Sabine Pannen
Completed associated PhD project

This PhD project focuses on the rank-and-file members of the former socialist state party (SED) separately to its party leaders and apparatus. In the 1980s, almost every fifth adult in the GDR held a party document. For this reason, party members constituted both a large part of society as well as a group of their own within society.