When East Met West

Cold War, Elusive Peace and Other Little Things

Hansjuergen Nelde

• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781528995528
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

The path from a refugee's child to a chairman of the board of a large company leads the author to a variety of people and unforgettable experiences. Hansjuergen Nelde experiences multiple political systems: born in national socialism, he grows up in socialism and is imprinted by the later GDR. To live and work in socialism for 40 years means adaptation to avoid being left behind. The author experiences the German unification as a managing director of a large pharmaceutical company. With that began in the now re-united Germany a much stricter capitalism than the FRG had ever seen before the fall of the wall. Thanks to his competency, Nelde manages to become the chairman of the board of his entrusted company that had transformed from a people's-owned company (VEB) to a publicly listed company (AG). He meets many important politicians and actively shapes the new Germany. His memories come together in short stories and anecdotes behind the political background.

Living and Working
in Socialism

For more than 40 years, my life would be shaped by this form of society. But were they really? Looking back, my mind, emotion and memory tell me a different story.

The majority of years have not been burdened nor been determined by the Stasi and the Party or by banners, demonstrations and socialist slogans. All that was just simply a part of everyday life. Yet, so far I hadn’t consciously experienced anything else. I simply got used to having another life besides my very personal, private life. One with family, colleagues and friends and the other life, in which everyone did what was dictated, from which there was no break-away without risking to be destroyed, either completely or at least to a degree.

Somehow, I too had become double-faced to get ahead and not left behind. To adapt as much as necessary, but as little as possible. Over time I could do that better and better and live with it quite well, just like millions of other people. Not everyone can though, some just couldn’t cope and that’s not deniable. The human race has survived a hundred thousand years because they adapted to climatic changes as well as diverse social structures. Those who didn’t manage struggled to live and to survive. The evolutionary history of mankind has demonstrated this countless times and no one will be able to change that.

One could also live and work in socialism, which also has been proven innumerable times. When once, shortly after the collapse of communism, a well-known politician back then sat next to me and said: "You know, I truly believe if I would have worked and lived in the GDR, I would also have become a comrade," that comment made me very thoughtful. How many West Germans possessed this level of understanding? How many even could have it?

The fact that the foundation of those 40 years had also been the attempt to implement a fundamentally humanistic idea in the broadest sense is by all means no absurd intention. But why did it have to fail? On the one hand, it seems that human nature is simply different from what the Marxist-Leninist philosophy is based on. I think that humans, in general, cannot comprehend such a system with negative and positive facets because they do not correspond to their nature. In addition to that, in the GDR we also had to deal with the dictatorial role of the SED (socialist unity party of Germany), which crawled into every corner of society and kept the individual under constant surveillance; it wanted to manipulate their thinking and more or less control them.

Of course, also the arms race, the cold war and the western economic power were of no negligible importance.

Yet, when the leadership of the state wanted to enthuse people with slogans such as “Learning from the Soviet Union means learning to win,” no one could take that seriously anymore.

Maybe I was lucky. Looking back, perhaps, living under very different conditions than many for 40 years, I was able to live a beautiful, successful and mostly happy life.

Overall, not everything was bad but at the same time, not all was good.

1. People-Owned Industry

The evolution and continuously growing stronger importance of the so-called “people-owned enterprises,” I practically experienced first-hand in all its stages.

It never became clear to me what this term was actually about, I also never questioned it. More accurate perhaps would have been to use the term “state property”. But then again, who was the state? I better leave it.

It started soon after the Second World War with the compulsory expropriation of the big economic entities. Followed by the nationalisation of the medium-sized businesses over the next years, medium and small businesses were forced to take up state cooperation; it wouldn’t take long until everything was under the state’s control. The previous managers or even owners would often become operations managers in their previous businesses. The majority of small trades were completely or nearly ruined by implementing high tax burdens.

As a result, businesses would be combined into consortia. This, in return, would lead to a more and more becoming stronger, barely manageable, concentration and specialisation process.

The leadership of the Party literally experimented with the potentials of the economy and the outcomes were accordingly. Ineffectiveness, ignorance, manipulation of planning and so-called stabilising proceedings of entire companies was the consequence.

Using the example of the pharmaceutical industry, in which I have been operating over many decades in a number of different roles, I would like to portray the situation, at least in a very compressed version.

The most important pharmaceutical companies were subordinated by the Association of peoples-owned Pharmaceutical Industry (VVB PI) from 1950 to 1979, then until 1990 to the peoples-owned companies (VEB) of Pharmaceutical state holding GERMED. Those administrative bodies determined the annual plan and all of the long-term responsibilities in accordance with the responsible ministries; since 1961 it was the Ministry of Chemical Industry (MfC), up until then the Ministry of Health Care (MfGe), for a few years also the Peoples Economic Council. That by far overextended their capabilities.

The KPI’s like production of goods, revenue, sales, exports, etc., etc., were determined by the responsible ministry, which were then broken down and spread across the individual plants by the VVB.

Following that, there were so-called “plan discussions,” then “plan disputations,” each in the prior year. In the current year, there was on-going reporting for all the businesses depending on the KPI daily, weekly, 10-daily, monthly. An unimaginable, barely manageable bureaucracy.

A similar chain of information then existed between the VVB and the ministry. How this process could actually work over decades without sinking the economy in total chaos, is a total mystery to me.

Yet one thing is for sure: for the people, the term people-owned property or entity was a completely fictive concept. They didn’t feel like owners. They pursued their work under the given parameters by the controlling hierarchies, as well as possible, celebrated with their colleagues the various occasions and went home again.

That situation also didn’t change when Dr G. Mittag was announced the great economic driver.

In the 70s, the VVB was dissolved and replaced by newly built state holdings. The VVB Pharmaceutical Industry became in 1979 the VEB Pharmaceutical State Holding Germed (PKG).

Of course, there were a few changes, but essentially nothing really changed. The term “people-owned Industry” was, how so many things, a huge deception. The industry was simply owned by the state and as such by the party (SED) and neither really knew what to do with it.

Only with the reunification Germanys, it would become obvious in what condition this industry really was.

However, not everything what was later liquidated by the state holding trust agency, or how the East Germans called it wiped out, deserved it. In such cases, there was a variety of reasons be it arrogance, lack of expertise, competitiveness or greed for money.

The achievements of many people were admirable remains to me. Whether they were workers, office staff or managers, who despite all left behind an industrial potential, were recognised and with whom the work could be continued.

2. Meetings in RGW (Council for mutual economic assistance/COMECON)

On a regular basis, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) did hold some meetings. Then, leading economic officials of the individual countries, who represented their respective commercial sector, would meet.

Plans about research, investments and two-way supplies to the extent of pricing questions were discussed, negotiated and often also decided. A, at least in theory, meaningful institution whose goal was to increase the efficiency and general strength of the socialist countries and to reduce the dependency on capitalism.

As such there was also the task force pharmacy, one of many. There were bilateral negotiations, discussing, drafting and signing of contracts.

Not always and necessarily, they would be adhered to from all sides. Once a year, a multilateral congress of all countries took place, which confirmed bilateral agreements and beyond – and sometimes not.

At the end of the 50s, even the Chinese were present as observers, but not for long. It’s understandable when you think about the disputes between China and the Soviet Union.

It was popular to specialise, who manufactured what, who supplied to whom, who researched about what – one had to pay a lot of attention to ensure their country would receive a maximum slice of the cake. It goes without saying that there were also a few tricks. One was the following: it was applied in general that no more than 3 countries were allowed to either manufacture a specific product or deal with a certain research topic at a time. If that was the case and one to three countries had put up their hands for a certain subject, they would win the bid, get the funding for the project and should then cover the demand of the other countries in the future. And here’s the trick: if one didn’t have any interest to specialise to other countries for whatever reasons, you could come forward as a fourth country. Then the specialisation would not apply. A great theory, but idiotic in practice.

Once the negotiations came to a conclusion after many days, everything would be thoroughly protocolled and a corresponding long document after a detailed analysis was ceremonially signed. The later change could be achieved very rarely.

The venues changed every year so that each country had its turn.

The negotiation language, of course, was Russian.

Once we convened in Bulgaria. One morning all country officials with their consultants sat on the big table and the meeting commenced. To my most surprise, the leader of our delegation and the translator were missing. It turned out later that they thought the meeting would start an hour later.

I had no choice; I took over the leadership of the delegation and spoke, of course, in German. The seven years of learning Russian at school had hardly left any traces.

It went ok for a while, but soon this unusual situation escalated. First, the Hungarians spoke German as well, followed by the Rumanians and then the Czechoslovaks. That was too much for the leader of the Russian delegation. He suddenly jumped up from his chair and I only understood that he won’t put up with the act any further, the negotiation language in the COMECON is still Russian and that they will keep it that way. In that language had to be spoken (after all he wasn’t so wrong). He requested the adjournment of the meeting until this matter could be clarified.

So the meeting was adjourned.

Soon, our leader arrived with the translator. The ruffled feathers smoothed and, as always in the evenings, everyone sang folk songs and drank vodka in vast amounts to it.

We East German nationals always struggled the most. Almost everyone knew the melody, but the lyrics were only known to few. So, we ended up frequently in this curious situation that the Hungarians and the Czechoslovaks not only hummed the German songs but also sang the lyrics – in the German language of course (instead of us)!

Yet, those little episodes reflect the work in the COMECON in general. This forum had, by all means, an important role for the united countries here. The specialisations and exchanges of experiences were for sure also beneficial for all countries. Not to mention the personal contacts, which made the one or other collaboration a lot easier.

But at the same time, it needs to be said that due to the dominance of the representatives of the Soviet Union, the entire system ended up more and more unbalanced. Also, the discipline of the individual countries was fading. The once existent idea to develop the COMECON for the benefit of all was, in my opinion, not seriously pursued anymore.

3. The Stasi

When writing about the time during socialism, the Stasi cannot be missed. Since it was quite a lengthy period and in those years a number of touchpoints have occurred, this episode will probably turn out a bit longer. Not so much because it impacted my life, but rather due to a number of encounters which could be generally interesting.

Like others, the Stasi had evolved over the years and had become quite an accomplished secret service.

First of all, I would like to say that each citizen of the GDR experienced and noticed the Stasi in very different ways. While one would not even notice its existence, others did work for the Stasi by writing reports and meeting with comrades, all without trying to harm anyone in any form, if possible. Some did it to secure their career, some because of their conviction. Still, there were also some people, who blackmailed or not, would serve the Stasi to the end simply because they had a bad character.

Only after the reunification, it became clear to some, who worked undercover amongst us, especially after reading “the file”. By the way, I still have not read mine. I simply refused to read what other people have reported about me. After all, I also don’t know under which circumstances or conditions they said or wrote what they did. It is unsure, whether the concerned Stasi member just wanted to report anything. They were just like anybody else in socialist competition and wanted to earn their stripes. But much harder for me is the risk to lose a friendship that had developed back then and still existent by just reading the file due to the given reasons. Some may have a different opinion about this… Each to their own.

Fact is that some people – and not just a few – have experienced bad things, have been humiliated, beaten or even murdered. For more than a few, their lives and families had been destroyed.

Everything under the guise of protecting peace and socialism, the destruction of the class enemy. What madness!

My own experiences were unlike any of this. Even though sometimes they were dubious and for me incomprehensible, in my opinion, they were never threatening.

The very first time when I came in touch with the word Staatssicherheit (Stasi) was in a rather curious way.

It may have been 1958, I was walking along the Friedrichstrasse in Berlin and I felt like having a glass of beer to finish ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• About the Author
• Copyright Information ©
• Preface
• Childhood and Adolescence in Fascism and Stalinism
• Living and Working in Socialism
• The Years of Change
• The Years After the Unification
• Postface
• Biographical Data
• Selection of Acronyms