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upon Bonn. One joke making the
rounds in Easl Germany is that ev–
erybody lhere is waiti ng for lbe
year 2014, when lhe GDR itself will
be 65, and "everyone will be able to
go west."
Trade between lhe lwo German
states, much of it conducted by bar–
ter, also provides extra built-in ad–
vantages for the East. Goods cross
the border free of customs duties, the
East acquiescing to Bonn's view that
this commerce represents "intra–
German trade." As a resull, East
German products gain back-door ac–
cess to the European Economic Com–
munity, making the GDR the EEC's
unofficial tenth member.
Extra Beneflts Bonn Paya
In lrade belween lhe two stales, the
GDR runs conlinua lly in the red.
This amounts to a permanent inter–
est-free line of credit, commonly
known as "the swing," which now
amounts to about $450 million.
Even with all of these advantages,
the East seems to be digging its eco–
nomic ditch deeper and deeper. Jt has
run up a $2.6 billion payments deficit
with Bonn only since 1975. At the
same time, it is incurring a $1 billion
annual deficit with Moscow.
Still, help from West Germany
continues to flow in. The most recent
development is an agreement for the
building of a new autobahn from
Hamburg across East Germany to
Berlín, for which Bonn will pay near–
ly two-thirds of the cost. Also, parts
of the Berl ín cana l system, which
East Germany has kept closed for
years, forcing Berlín freight traffic
into lengthy detours, are to be re–
opened and improved. Bonn will pay
the enti re cost of this project.
Sorne might think that the West
Germans are foolish for continuing to
make these apparently one-sided ar–
rangements. But there is another way
of looking a t them. Bonn wants to
keep the tenuous lifeline open to Ber–
lín.
It
wants, moreover , to increase
people-to-people contacts across the
border. To the West Germans these
factors are worth the considerable
outlays, and even the occasional grief
of seeing their kith and kin machine–
gunned by border guards in tragic
attempts to flee to the West.
6
The Soviets permit a ll of this mas–
sive capitalist assistance simply be–
cause they cannot afford to Jet thei r
most important satellite nation go
down the drain. Moscow depends
heavily upon East German techno–
logical expertise. Besides, when help
is offered so readily from t he olher
side, why should the U.S .S.R. a lone
make up tbe GDR's deficits?
Defo rmlng Communlsm
Despite the various built-in advan–
tages accruing to the GDR, the gap
in living standards between the lwo
pa rts ofGermany continues to widen.
In 196 1- the year in which the infa–
mous Berlín Wall was conslructed–
real wages in Easl Germany were 76
percenl of those in West Germany.
Now they a re
50
percent. Productivi–
ty has also slumped to about half lhe
West German leve!.
Worst of all, especially for the pol–
iticians and technocra ts who run the
Eastern regime, as well as the two
million GDR Communist party
members, everyone in Easl Germany
knows how much worse off he or she
is than lhe average citizen of the
West.
Every evening, over ninety percenl
of the people of East Germany watch
West
German television. Each year
about eight million West Germans
visit their relatives in lhe East, bear–
ing personal informa tion about life
beyond the barbed-wire fence.
East Germany's rulers have tried
various methods to skirt the limila–
tions of lheir own economic system, ·
without corrupting il complelely, in
order to satisfy pent-up consumer de–
mands.
East German citizens have been
permitted lo obtain Western curren–
cíes and lo buy Western goods in a
network of so-called "inlershops,"
places usually run in lhe Communisl
world for foreigners. As a resull the
coveted Wesl German mark has be–
come virlually the second currency
inside lhe country. Many craflsmen
and those who moonlight ask for pay–
ment in
deutsche marks.
To placate
those who can'l get their hands on
the West ma rks, high-priced goods
from the Wesl can be oblained in
so-called
exquisit
and
delikat
shops.
Yet, all of these capilalistic
sleights of hand only seem to aggra–
vate the situation even more. Theo
Sommer, editor in chief of lhe Wesl
German weekly
Die Zeit,
pointed up
lhe dilemma
confr~mting
Easl Ger–
many's rulers in an a rticle appearing
in the European edition of
Newsweek
(Februa ry 27, 1978): "AII this is
bound to widen the gap between Easl
Germany and its Communist neigh–
bors even more. The main point,
however, is lhat it deforms Commu–
nism in its westernmost bastion into a
cheap imilation of capitalisl consu–
merism. For one thing, inlershop so–
cialism makes the GDR dependent
on West Germany. For another, il
may give sorne people ideas; why
pul up with a copy of the affiuent
society? Why nol go for the real
thing?
"Fina lly, it runs counler to the
very core of traditional Communist
thinking. Poland 's leader Edwa rd
Gierek put his finger on it recently:
'We have to act decisively to prevent
lhe copying of consumption patterns
of capita list societies... .' Similar
noises have been heard from the Rus–
sians.
"Erich Honecker [East Germany's
Communi st party boss) is in a
bind. . . . The East Germans know
what amenities life can offer. Thei r
frustralion would be much greater if
they were denied lhe semblance of
prosperity Gierek deplores.
" Honecker wants to open his coun–
lry economically in order to stabilize
il politically. He therefore offers the
people the Western carrot and lhe
Easlern stick: as much affiuence as
possible, as much repression as nec–
essary. The trick may nol work."
Dlssldent Communist s
Early last year the West German
weekly
Der Spiegel
published a 30-
page manifesto issued by a group of
underground dissenters in Easl Ger–
many who ca lled themselves lhe
League of Democratic Communists
of Germany. The document de–
nounced the Soviet Union for "brutal
exploi tation and suppression" of East
Germany. With bitter sarcasm, the
anonymous authors called lheir
country "a pathelic imitalion of a
Soviet Republic whose worst features
(Continued on page 43)
The PLAIN TRUTH April 1979