ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the balance between success and failure of schooling cadres for campaigns to promote the socialist nation. The relationship between the District Party School of the Socialist Union Party of Germany (SED) and its cadres was one of "domination as social practice". The chapter presents the SED's official concepts, their background and development up to 1952. Cadres were trained by using these concepts, which from the very beginning contained a highly national component in order to secure the party's legitimacy with the public. Training sessions were supposed to turn cadres into prototypes of new human beings and members of a political avant-garde. The cadres mediated between population and leadership: they popularized the SED's political decisions, and at the same time listened to popular concerns and wishes. The party schools played an important role in mobilizing cadres to spread official views on patriotism.
