5. West Germany rejected a bid for reunification offered by Josef Stalin in 1952
In May 1952, Soviet leader Josef Stalin proposed the reunification of Germany with Soviet backing, provided the newly formed nation remained neutral. West Germany demurred. Suspicious of Stalin’s motives, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) joined the newly created European Defense Community, signing a treaty later rejected by both France and Italy. The Defense Community never came into being, but the West German action made it plain to the ruling party in East Germany reunification remained elusive. There the ruling party, led by Walter Ulbricht, decided upon a crash program of Sovietization. The Socialist Unity Party (SED) embarked on a program which accelerated the decline of the East German economy throughout the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Following Stalin’s death in the Spring of 1953, the new Soviet leadership viewed the decline of the GDR with alarm. The flight of German people to the west presented an area of particular concern to the Soviets. So many farmers fled to the west that nearly 40% of East German agricultural acreage lay untilled, further contributing to food shortages. The Soviet Politburo officially denounced Ulbricht’s policies of forced collectivization in 1953, demanding changes in price controls affecting consumer goods. Ulbricht and Otto Grotewohl, were summoned to Moscow, where they were given an ultimatum to enforce the new Soviet policies immediately. The Soviets called the program for East Germany the “New Course” and insisted the East German SED implement it with dispatch. On June 11, 1953, the SED published the New Course mandates in their official party newspaper, Neues Deutschland.