ABSTRACT
T h e Soviet Zone of Germany was, apart from the western parts of Czechoslovakia and the former German areas of Poland, the first, and so far the only, advanced industrial region to attempt to build Sovietstyle socialism.1 Contrary to what is often supposed, the area which was to become the g d r , excluding Berlin, had, by 1939, a higher net industrial production per head of the population than the Western areas of Germ any.2 D uring the war the industries of the future s b z were greatly expanded as compared with those in West Germany because for most of the war this area was safe from aerial bombard ment. Am ong the strong points of the economy of the future s b z were machine tools, o f which it produced half o f those produced throughout Germany in 1936, office machines - typewriters, calculators and so forth - (82 per cent), textile machinery (68 per cent), motor vehicles (33 Per cent), optical equipment and aircraft.3
