The Campaign State by Witkowski Gregory;

Author:Witkowski, Gregory; [Witkowski, Gregory R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

CONCLUSION

In Leipzig and Schwerin, the implementation of the campaign illustrates the limits of the campaign state. In the northern districts, the central authorities faced an even greater task than in Saxony to implement its policies through campaigns. In less developed regions, such as Mecklenburg, campaign administrators needed simultaneously to build up an infrastructure to support IaL and to provide laborers for the socialist agricultural enterprises. However, in addition to these economic conditions, leaders in Berlin were faced with the local interests and situational needs of participants, campaign administrators, and Mecklenburg LPG members. These would have dramatic effects on the successes and failures of the campaign.

In the face of postwar dislocations, which brought influxes of refugees to Mecklenburg, ties among villagers grew stronger. This local loyalty was not political in the traditional sense of the word but rather based on social connections. For the SED, however, such communal solidarity represented a challenge to their policies. The strengthening of these local ties created both communities of inclusion, the villagers who had lived there for generations, but also communities of exclusion toward newcomers, whether the outsiders were refugees from Pomerania, those forced from their homes on the border with West Germany, or those sent by the regime in campaigns like IaL.129 This type of social network made it difficult for the regime to achieve its political goals, as local administrators remained loyal to their friends and community and newcomers faced tremendous difficulties integrating into the social network. Policies developed in Berlin were implemented with great difficulty in the periphery—not because of principled opposition to policies (although this also existed)—but primarily because of strong community ties and personal connections. Thus, an examination at the grassroots level reveals that the SED faced much more than political opposition to construct a socialist society. In this sense, the countryside was divided between those who were accepted and those who were not, but it was not the kind of splintered society that Andrew Port described in his study focused on the more urban Saalfeld.130

This chapter has shown that on the grassroots level the high politics of state planners foundered often on the most mundane things: housing conditions, the quality of roads, the ability to create connections with local villagers, and the availability of consumer goods. Often participants had to cope with animosities that arose from villagers’ experience with previous campaign participants, short-term harvesters, or even with decades-old stereotypes about Polish harvest helpers. Individuals’ interests greatly affected the implementation of the campaign and its success in achieving the regime’s goals.

In some cases these interests aligned, as in the institution of work norms in collectives. In others, however, actions by local agents mitigated against the regime’s plans, as in the case of Gerhard Biermann. Because campaign administrators were most concerned about placing recruits, Biermann’s rejection by one collective merely led to his placement in another. Campaign leaders valued his hard work and experience more than disrupting a family collective. However, by placing him elsewhere, local administrators allowed the LPG members that denied him admission to continue to work according to their own methods.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.