Architecture, Politics, and Identity in Divided Berlin

4. The Dreamed-Of GDR: Public Space, Private Space, and National Identity in the Honecker Era

155 CHAPTER 4 In May 1971, Walter Ulbricht declared that he would be giving up his duties as first secretary of the Central Committee, an announcement that came as a surprise to the East German public. For his replacement, he endorsed Erich Honecker, a high-ranking member of the Central Committee generally acknowledged to be second in command of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED, or Socialist Unity Party). Ulbricht resigned a month later, supposedly out of a desire to retire from public life; in fact, Ulbricht had been deposed by rivals, a group that included Honecker himself . Backed by the Soviet Union and its leader, Leonid Brezhnev, Honecker assumed the SED’s top post at the Eighth Party Congress in June 1971, naming as his central goals the “people’s well-being” (Wohls der Menschen) and a focus on the “common man” (der klein Mann).1 Honecker announced the arrival of “real, existing socialism” and pledged to foster prosperity through pragmatic and viable policies, in contrast to what he characterized as the grandiose, utopian promises of the Ulbricht era. Whereas, in the 1950s, the SED had declared “today we work, tomorrow we live,” from 1971 the refrain became “what the Eighth Party Congress decides will be so!”2 The political and economic shifts of the next several years, which resulted from the SED’s change in leadership, profoundly influenced the perception of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) both within the country and abroad. Treaties brokered in the early 1970s ended, to a great extent, the aggressive, confrontational politics of the early Cold War era, opening the GDR up to the rest of the world, strengthening its economy, and bolstering morale in the country. Honecker’s attention to the “everyday ” life of “everyday” people put even more importance on themes and images of the home within political discourse, even as many East Germans spent more and more time in private, sequestered spaces. It was in this context that the genre of the “everyday film” reached its apex in the 1970s. One example of this genre, Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The legend of Paul and Paula, 1973) directed and cowritten by Heiner Carow from a scenario by Ulrich Plenzdorf, would prove to be the most popular production FOUR THE DREAMED-OF GDR Public Space, Private Space, and National Identity in the Honecker Era 156 The Dreamed-of GDR Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) ever produced. This film, partly as a result of its popularity, provided a significant contribution to the still-evolving discourses on architecture and the construction of community in East Germany. The 1970s also saw the construction of perhaps the best-known building ever built in the GDR: the Palace of the Republic (fig. 4.1). The palace, built from 1973 to 1976, was the realization of the SED’s long-planned “Central Building” and in many ways epitomized the hopes of the early Honecker era. By bringing together, in one building, both official governmental functions and leisure and entertainment facilities, such as cafés, restaurants, theaters, and nightclubs, the palace appeared to prove Honecker’s commitment to individuals’ comfort over pomp and hollow ceremony. In many ways, the Palace of the Republic was a unique example of GDR architecture. Because of its important status, the design and construction of the palace took place outside the normal confines of the country’s building economy. Unlike many other structures, the palace was tied closely to the party, materially and symbolically, yet at the same time Fig. 4.1. Palace of the Republic, Heinz Graffunder (chief architect), 1973–76. Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R0423026 / photo: Heinz Junge / ADN. The Dreamed-of GDR 157 popularly embraced. Thus, an analysis of the palace project illustrates both what architects in the GDR were capable of and the extent of the limitations that hampered them. Two Germanys The circumstances of Ulbricht’s forced deposal and Honecker’s assumption of the SED’s leadership were linked to broader changes in the GDR’s role in global politics and its relationship with other world powers. New treaties, brokered in the early 1970s, changed or formalized the terms that had governed relations between the two halves of Germany since the end of World War II and helped establish greater political and economic stability in the region. This stability led to changed conceptions of national identity, particularly in the GDR, which in turn affected both building policy and...