Factory to farm, farm into factory: A case study of communist campaigns and agricultural collectivization in the German Democratic Republi

This work analyzes the communist use of concentrated mass mobilizations to implement an ambitious program of high modernist state planning. The East German dictatorship organized campaigns to overcome economic and political challenges and to launch new programs. I concentrate on the initiative started in 1953 under the slogan "Industrial Workers to the Countryside (Industriearbeiter aufs Land)." Over the next ten years, the campaign enlisted over 100,000 workers to serve in the countryside as farmhands, mechanics, directors of collectives, and in some cases mayors to impart class-consciousness in the established farmers and teach them new methods of production. Politburo leaders hoped this campaign would overcome political and economic deficiencies in rural areas by transforming agricultural production (through mechanization and rationalization) and societal structures (e.g. reorganizing village milieus). However, the goals of the regime were not always actualized on the local level as individuals acted in ways that alternately collided, coincided, and aligned with the program established by the central leadership. Ultimately, by pursuing their own goals, individuals at the grass roots changed the very nature of the campaign from one designed to usher in a systematic transformation of the countryside to one that brought about incremental improvements in agricultural production.;In my examination of this specific campaign in East Germany, I address three major historical themes: I delineate the limits of state power in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), investigate the communist attempt at modernization through state planning, and illustrate everyday experiences of those living under a communist regime. This campaign, an integral part of agricultural collectivization, is both a window into the functioning of the communist system and a point of fissure between expectations of the central authorities and reactions within the rural populace. It is especially useful as a case study of the complex and contradictory interaction of political power among central authorities, local administrators, and individual workers and peasants. The campaign was a qualified success and therefore illustrates both the basic internal deficiencies of the East German government that ultimately contributed to its own downfall as well as the accomplishments that kept it in power for forty years.