Mühlhausen and the new democracy

The churches, Protestant, Catholic and the small Baptist community, continued to play an important part in developing the new democracy and particularly in helping to keep the situation calm when it might so easily have turned violent with reprisals against local representatives of the old regime. They worked together in organising ecumenical meetings and "Prayers for our Land". Significantly they also kept alive the memory of the victims of Stalinist tyranny. On New Year's Day 1990 a human chain was formed around the outside of the City Walls, followed by a ceremony in the Marienkirche and the tolling of its great bell.

Dealing with the accumulated problems from 40 years of Socialist government: The group Veränderung jetzt (Change Now), which had hitherto led the opposition movement in Mühlhausen, set up a number of working groups to deal with the most pressing problems. These were holding their first meetings on November 9, 1989, the day when the Berlin Wall and the border between East and West Germany opened.

One of the members of the group Veränderung jetzt, Herbert Sölter, a structural engineer, wrote about the lively discussions that took place in this working group. It forms a chapter in the book Mühlhausen 1989/1990. Elections, he says, were for the GDR population a major humiliation. Voting was not compulsory but heavily organised. Employees in the big industrial complexes went to vote as a group. Not voting was suspect and counted against one. One was handed a voting slip which simply had a list of names and making a cross beside a name meant that one did not accept that person. The voting booth was therefore seldom used since its use caused unwelcome attention. The majority merely folded their slips and dropped them into the ballot-box in full view of everyone else.

There were, though no parties were mentioned on the ballot paper, besides the SED four others, forming the so-called Block Parties, but the leadership of the SED was absolute. And, as Herbert Sölter points out, most of the population were unaware that several other SED-friendly organisations put up candidates for election, the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (Free German Trades Union), the Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth) and the Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands (Democratic German Women's Federation), thus giving the SED in effect a double vote. After 40 years of predetermined and corrupt elections no wonder that there was now a call for free, democratic elections and a secret ballot.

The working group on elections gave people the opportunity to speak freely at last. The basis for discussion was the proposal for a new electoral law which had been formulated by another working group in Jena, the university city in eastern Thüringen. All over the GDR people were getting together in similar discussion groups and Round Table meetings to work out the foundations for a new, genuinely democratic state. Their conclusions were sent to the Volkskammer (Parliament) in Berlin, which, since Honecker's resignation in October 1989, had ceased to rubber-stamp SED decisions and was subjecting members of the Politbüro to some sharp questioning.

It is tempting to speculate on a new, reformed, democratic GDR embodying the fresh ideas at the turn of the year 1989-1990. Hopes were high and not yet fixed on reunification with the Federal Republic. But the moment it became possible to explore west of the border, attendance at public meetings began very gradually to wane. The economic differences highlighted the results of 40 years neglect and mismanagement. It seemed most unlikely that the Ostmark could survive. Meanwhile the SED was still dominant and powerful people were busy ensuring this would remain so behind the scenes for a very considerable time. Despite loss of members the SED had a powerful advantage over the new parties of long experience in politics. Close ties and old networks remain still influential 20 years later. The fact that the Stasi in Mühlhausen were able to destroy all the details of their informers among the local population is still relevant.

Elections to the Volkskammer (Parliament) in Berlin were set to take place on May 6, 1990. New parties were forming, assisted generously by those in the Federal Republic. Such became the accumulation of matters needing effective government action that by general agreement the election date was pulled forward to March 18. The result was victory for the Allianz für Deutschland consisting of the centre-right Christlich-Demokratische Union, Deutsche Soziale Union und Demokratischer Aufbruch; in fact, a victory for reunification.

(Wikimedia Commons)

This was led by Peter Steinbrecher, himself a teacher, and met in one of the school buildings along with around 80 teachers, parents and local education employees. Annegret Galek, one of the working group and also a teacher, gives a detailed account of the meeting in the book Mühlhausen 1989/90. "Our most important task was to free the entire school system from Socialist indoctrination." Previously the two Socialist youth organisations, the Junge Pioniere (GDR youth organisation at junior-school level) and the Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth - for secondary-school children), with uniforms and militaristic activities, had dominated extra-curricular activities. Towards the end of their schooling older boys were expected to attend a two-week military training camp at which they learned, among other things, how to shoot at human silhouettes with small-caliber weapons. The intention of the working group was to abolish both of these organisations, but very soon, in fact, both organisations dissolved themselves. Physical education, to quote Frau Galek, was very soon purged of militaristic aspects, and likewise of excessively high demands in athletics.

Former Polytechnical School, now part of the Tilesius Grammar School

Freeing school textbooks from Socialist content was a much bigger problem since alternatives had not been produced. Enthusiastic teachers produced some materials of their own or managed to acquire alternatives via the new twinning arrangements with towns in Federal Germany. There was general demand for a less prescriptive curriculum, for more independence for individual schools and for an independent teachers' union. Not surprisingly the subject areas of history, civics, local history, German and military education aroused most criticism. Civics meant Marxist ideology and collectivism i.e. subordination of the individual to the group, and aimed to inculcate a consciousness of class warfare and of the Klassenfeind (class enemy), meaning the western capitalist states and especially the Federal Republic of Germany. Compulsory Wehrkundeunterricht or military education had been intensified during the 70s despite the policy of détente following the Helsinki Conference in 1973. It had from the start been opposed by both Protestant and Catholic Churches and by a large number of parents and pupils, and was one of the factors leading to the downfall of the Socialist regime. The churches organised their own Peace Movement as an alternative and thus provided safe havens for all kinds of groups opposed to the government many of whom then became the new political parties.

Former Extended Secondary School (EOS) now Tilesius Grammar School

Many of the ideas developed in the education working group discussions were embodied in the reforms adopted before the GDR ceased to exist on October 3, 1990. After that the West German school system took over.

GDR School System 1977 (Wikimedia Commons)

It is, however, too easy simply to condemn the entire GDR education system from a western and possibly judgmental point of view as being a sinister instrument of repression. Ironically just as the Honecker government was trying to curb early criticism even within the SED by stepping up the military influence in schools it was also getting into severe economic difficulties and thus lacked the funds to carry out the expensive new plans in schools. There were desultory efforts to obey the diktats from Margot Honecker, Minister for Education between 1963 and 1989, but the situation in practice was nothing like the plans on paper.

There were some really effective and beneficial sides to the GDR schools. Right from kindergarten days children were taught to look after each other and work constructively together in all activities. Even twenty years after reunification this still shows in the way the numerous kindergartens (Mühlhausen without the outlying villages has 18) prepare their charges for living responsibly in the community. I have had frequent opportunities to compare the system here as it has educated my grandchildren, with the situation in England, and the positive effects continue right through school years. Children learn from the earliest years to be much more considerate to each other and less competitive. We are still benefitting in Mühlhausen from this little known aspect of GDR education, which also required teachers to look after their pupils and help those with difficulties in a manner akin to the best forms of pastoral care in the otherwise rather maligned English state schools. By contrast I have often observed pupils in West German schools being left to sink or swim unless their parents are able to help. When I was teaching in England I was constantly aware that I had parent-like responsibility for the welfare and learning progress of my various classes and this position in loco parentis, whatever the political intentions behind it (and who is to say that English comprehensives were not guided politically?), was very much part of teaching in the GDR. And, as in English state schools, by no means all teachers followed the political agenda slavishly.

West German schools require their pupils to move at the age of 10 after their fourth school year in primary to one of three types of secondary school, the Gymnasium (grammar school), the Realschule or the Hauptschule according to their presumed capabilities. In the GDR children remained at the same school for at least 8 years, often 9 or 10, and then moved on to various forms of further schooling or vocational training. This had the advantages of allowing children a wide circle of what often became lifelong friends and of giving particularly boys more time to develop before making choices that would affect their later careers. Contrary to the usual objection that such a system holds bright children back the effect was to raise the general level of all pupils. I am constantly impressed by the high level of skills and knowledge among the various people I know in Mühlhausen who were educated in GDR schools. After reunification the West German system, as in so many other areas, took over and ousted not merely dyed-in-the-wool Socialist teachers but all the sensible and practical aspects of the former system without bothering to consider them. Now, in the twentieth year after 1989, the 8-year school is under discussion again.

The following examples of East German secondary school reports from the ages of 6, 11 and 14 and dating from the early 60s show the curriculum as it was in the years before Erich Honecker came to power in 1971 and before his wife as Minister for Education introduced compulsory military training for 15- and 16-year-olds in 1978. Click on each to enlarge:

Year 1 (age 6) of the Polytechnische Oberschule, the ten-year secondary school introduced 1960

The first page contains a general comment and grades for attitude, behaviour, effort, orderliness and co-operation. Page 2 lists the subjects taught: German (divided into Local History, Reading, Oral and Written Skills, Spelling, Grammar and Writing), Arithmetic, Crafts, Needlework, Art, Singing and Gymnastics. The grades are from 1 (the highest) to 5, one less than in West German school reports, where grades from 1-6 are given . The report is signed by the Headteacher and class teacher and countersigned by the parents.

Year 5 (age 11)

In Year 5 the curriculum became more varied: German Language and Literature; Russian; Maths; Physics; Astronomy; Chemistry; Biology; Geography; Crafts; Technical Drawing; History; Civics; Art; Music; and Gymnastics. Also included were "Introduction to Socialist Production", a kind of work experience usually in a large industrial organisation, and, in this particular school, working in the school garden. The report contains no general comment, something which normally only appeared in the second half-yearly report.

Year 8 (age 14)

For years members of the churches had worked for improvements in the dangerously polluted GDR environment. Pollution data were kept strictly secret, but by the 80s the situation had got so bad that people began to protest openly. Since the early 80s the GDR had striven to make itself energy-independent, with the result that for lack of sufficient alternatives 70% of its energy came from brown coal or lignite from opencast mining. The air was filled with dust, sulphur-dioxide and nitric oxide and the number of children with chronic bronchitis near the coal-fired power stations rose between 1974 and 1989 by over 170%. Water was short for general use since it was needed for industry which then discharged its waste water into the rivers. Agricultural land was vastly over-fertilised, while intensive cattle and pig farming poisoned the ground water with animal effluent. In November 1989 a Green Party was formed and in one of its members, Matthias Platzeck, now the very popular Minister President of Brandenburg, was a minister in the government under Hans Modrow from February to April 1990.

On December 1, 1989 in Mühlhausen there was a smog warning and the first published data showed sulphur dioxide in the air at 600 microgrammes per cubic metre, or more than twice the permitted amount under the UK Clean Air Act of 1956. Since the city was a centre of both industry and agriculture the interest in improving the environment was high. The working group met for the first time on November 8,1989, and formed itself into sub-groups for dealing with ground and water pollution, air and energy pollution, rubbish collection and recycling, the ecology of both the city and the surrounding countryside and consumer protection. One of its chief tasks was to work out a better energy network. Much of the municipal housing was served by large community heating plants run on brown coal. Tenants were not encouraged to use their heating economically, nor was it always easy to adjust to changing temperatures, so that it was often simpler and quicker just to open window.

Numbers attending the various working groups declined in the early months of 1990. One of the first reasons was undoubtedly the opening border with the Federal Republic. In addition the general uncertainty about money and jobs concentrated people's minds on personal worries. Competition from the West was threatening to close down much of the industry in Mühlhausen, and this led to a series of strikes and demonstrations from January 1990 on into the summer.

Demonstration by workers from the three big textile factories May 10, 1990

Several of the planned reforms were put into practice or subsumed into wider regional plans. Not always was the work that lay behind the reforms adequately recognised, as, for example, in the case of education: the local school administrator took over the group's suggestions wholesale and sent them under his own name to the Ministry of Education in Berlin.

The remains of the worsted spinning mill (Kammgarnspinnerei) built in the late 19th century and closed down after reunification

In Berlin and all over the GDR in the larger towns so-called Round Table Meetings were beginning to take place in November 1989. The idea came from Poland, where such meetings had played a decisive role in the changeover from Socialism to Democracy in February 1989. In East Germany their effect was to bring the old GDR political parties, the newly formed democratic parties and the various other new political groups to regular discussions, thus leading to orderly debates about the various pressing issues that needed sorting out during the interregnum after Honecker's resignation.

Hotel Stadt Mühlhausen where the first Round Table was held

Mühlhausen's first Round Table took place on December 12, 1989, in the Hotel Stadt Mühlhausen on the Untermarkt and was chaired by Superintendent Johannes Liesenberg of the Protestant Church, who had been closely involved in opposition activities all along, and by Bruno Diefenbach, Dean of the Catholic Church. Six of the original parties, as well as the group Veränderung jetzt (Change now) and the Neues Forum were represented, each having only one vote on all decisions regardless of their numbers attending. By February the numbers had risen to 12 parties or groups. Meetings were held weekly after work and continued up to the first democratic elections for the Volkskammer (parliament) in Berlin on March 18, 1990.

The mere recounting of Mühlhausen's new democratic activities hides their astounding achievements. All sorts of decisions had to be taken in order to keep the City working at least fairly normally. The Mayor had resigned, several members of the City Council had not been replaced and the former system for supply of foodstuffs, power, water, building materials etc. no longer functioned. A main concern was the problem of rubbish collection. And one has to remember that a great many professional people and skilled workers had left to live in the Federal Republic; in particular there was a lack of medical staff. The two chairmen of the Round Table put in an immense amount of work preparing the meetings and keeping discussions on an even keel so that they did not degenerate into attacks on the Socialist Party, now called the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism).

The following, undoubtedly incomplete, list of matters requiring action shows the demands made on people who were almost all inexperienced in public administration and having to run day jobs at the same time:

• Handover of the local SED headquarters to the local health authority
• Continuing construction of the indoor swimming-pool
• New uses for old industrial sites
• What to do about such organisations such as the paramilitary Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik, the Arbeiter- und Bauerninspektion that had kept a tight hand on production and trade, and the Jugendweiheausschüsse that ran the semi-compulsory Socialist alternative to religious confirmation
• Ending the near monopoly on hunting grounds and guns enjoyed by Stasi and SED members
• Closing down the local Stasi headquarters and collecting in the weapons
• Restoring the privacy of letters and phone calls
• Dealing with cases of corruption practised by SED functionaries

and much more...