ABSTRACT
The Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands portrayed itself as a truly national party, which represented the national interest in the sense of the interests of the majority of the population, i.e. the working class - not only in the GDR, but also in the Federal Republic, who it claimed to support in their ‘liberation struggle’ against the allied occupation forces. For a Marxist-Leninist party, the SED’s extensive use of the vocabulary of nationalism is perhaps surprising, especially since nationalism had acquired such a negative image due to the actions the Nazis on behalf of the German nation. In spite of all nationalist rhetoric, in practice, the party leadership made little effort to prevent the division of Germany deepening, or to negotiate with the West, although the onset of the Cold War inevitably limited the possibility of a settlement between the leaders of the two German states.
