The East German Economy, 1945–2010: Falling Behind or Catching Up?

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139343206

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Home
Books
The East German Economy, 1945–2010

The East German Economy, 1945–2010

Falling Behind or Catching Up?

- Get access
  
  Buy the print book
  
  Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
  
  Log in Register
Cited by 1
Cited by
- 1
Crossref Citations

This book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.

Tymiński, Maciej 2022. Managers in the command economy: Case studies from Poland, 1956-1970. Business History, Vol. 64, Issue. 1, p. 156.

CrossRef

Google Scholar

Edited by Hartmut Berghoff, German Historical Institute, Washington DC, Uta Andrea Balbier, King's College London

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Online publication date: October 2013
Print publication year: 2013
Online ISBN: 9781139343206
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139343206

Subjects: Area Studies, Twentieth Century European History, History, European Studies, Economic History
Series: Publications of the German Historical Institute

Export citation
Recommend to librarian
Recommend this book

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this book to your organisation's collection.

The East German Economy, 1945–2010
Edited by Hartmut Berghoff, Uta Andrea Balbier
Online ISBN: 9781139343206

Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139343206
Your name * Please enter your name

Your email address * Please enter a valid email address.

Who would you like to send this to *

Optional message

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Buy the print book

Information

Contents

Metrics

By many measures, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had the strongest economy in the Eastern bloc and was one of the most important industrial nations worldwide. Nonetheless, the economic history of the GDR has been primarily discussed as a failure when compared with the economic success of the Federal Republic and is often cited as one of the pre-eminent examples of central planning's deficiencies. This volume analyzes both the successes and failures of the East German economy. The contributors consider the economic history of East Germany within its broader political, cultural and social contexts. Rather than limit their perspective to the period of the GDR's existence, the essays additionally consider the decades before 1945 and the post-1990 era. Contributors also trace the present and future of the East German economy and suggest possible outcomes.

‘This stellar and invaluable volume of essays offers a state-of-the-art integrated narrative from the post-division to post-reunification East German economy. Avoiding a simple ‘failure’ story, it shows the contradictory qualities of the East German economy that once appeared as a star performer that might ‘overtake without catching up’ with the West, to use the famous paradoxical promise of Walter Ulbricht. This book reminds us that core parts of Eastern Germany were always ‘Central Germany’ (Mitteldeutschland) and that understanding the fading trajectory of the East German economic experiment is central to understanding German history more generally.’

Jeffrey Fear - University of Glasgow

'First as supposed industrial powerhouse of the Soviet economic bloc, then as alleged rust belt of a failed state socialism, the former German Democratic Republic and its successor component of united Germany generated lurid and exaggerated assessments of economic performance. Now, almost a quarter century after the Wall fell, a team of leading economic historians has produced a nuanced and indispensable assessment of its crisis-strewn history from World War II to the present.'

Charles S. Maier - Harvard University and author of Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

References

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

The East German Economy, 1945–2010

Falling Behind or Catching Up?

This book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

The East German Economy, 1945–2010 - Half title page
pp i-ii

Series page
pp iii-iv

The East German Economy, 1945–2010 - Title page
pp v-v

Copyright page
pp vi-vi

Contents
pp vii-viii

Contributors
pp ix-xii

Part I - Introduction
pp 1-50

1 - From Centrally Planned Economy to Capitalist Avant-Garde?
pp 3-16

2 - From the Soviet Occupation Zone to the “New Eastern States”
pp 17-50

Part II - Beginnings, Crises, and Reforms
pp 51-128

3 - Winner Takes All
pp 53-76

4 - National Socialist Autarky Projects and the Postwar Industrial Landscape
pp 77-94

5 - Innovation and Ideology
pp 95-110

6 - East German Workers and the “Dark Side” of Eigensinn
pp 111-128

Part III - Living beyond One–s Means
pp 129-192

7 - From Schadenfreude to Going-Out-of-Business Sale
pp 131-144

8 - Innovation in a Centrally Planned Economy
pp 145-160

9 - Debt, Cooperation, and Collapse
pp 161-176

10 - Ulbricht–s and Honecker–s Volksstaat?
pp 177-192

Part IV - Transformation, Subvention, and Renewal, 1989–2010
pp 193-244

11 - The East German Economy in the Twenty-First Century
pp 195-216

12 - The Social Policy of Unification and Its Consequences for the Transformation of the Economy in the New Eastern States
pp 217-232

13 - German Economic Unification
pp 233-244

Index
pp 245-249

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

The East German Economy, 1945–2010

Falling Behind or Catching Up?

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views