East Germany 1946

Synopsis

In 1946 East German Communists and Socialists merged into a single left-wing party, the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED). Originally, the new party pursued a relatively open and independent policy that included de-Nazification, political pluralism, and state intervention in the economy. Starting in 1947, however, tensions increased between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. As a result of these tensions, Germany divided into two antagonistic states in 1949, and the SED became a cold-war organization that exchanged political flexibility for postwar confrontation.

Timeline

• 1926: Britain paralyzed by a general strike.
• 1931: Financial crisis widens in the United States and Europe, which reel from bank failures and climbing unemployment levels. In London, armies of the unemployed riot.
• 1936: The election of a leftist Popular Front government in Spain in February precipitates an uprising by rightists under the leadership of...