ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with East Germany’s culture, social structure, economic system, and political order by noting the confluence of four influences: the impact of German history and the consequent legacy of values and social resources and the extent of Soviet penetration, through which Moscow’s security needs and ideological aims shape East German institutions and policies. It also includes the adoption of Marxist socialism, providing both assets and liabilities for economic change and the emergence of new ecological problems, as urban-industrial concentrations give rise to novel modes of human, physical, and international interdependence. The German heritage has left East Germans with a thinly disguised contempt for Russians and other Slavic peoples, as well as a persistent tendency to judge domestic achievements by the standards of the industrialized West. To a large degree, East Germany’s comprehensive social policies are designed to ameliorate the economic stresses of living in a modern, interdependent society.
