Sociology in the German Democratic Republic

Abstract

AbstractIn the GDR (German Democratic Republic), sociology did not emerge until the 1960s. In 1963, the party program of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED, Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SUPG) explicitly called for the establishment of sociological research. GDR sociology developed under completely different conditions than in West Germany. It was overshadowed by Marxist-Leninist philosophy and political economy as well as instrumentalized by economic policy. Its focus was on the basic categories of work and production. The connection to economic policy and historical materialism promoted the tendency to economic reductionism in sociology. Sociology in the GDR was not based on the general tradition of sociology, which was understood as “bourgeois.” Besides Marx, the founding figures of sociology were avoided; not only were they seen as “bourgeois sociologists,” but many of them had also focused on meaningful action and the understanding of social processes rather than on the analysis of the laws of social development. Methodologically, the main focus was on quantitative methods. Sociology had the function of confirming the social laws whose theoretical interpretation was then reserved for historical materialism. It was not until the late 1980s that the situation changed somewhat and the relative autonomy of the social came increasingly into focus. This also led to first approaches to study the social position of women and gender relations. Overall, sociology in the GDR remained committed to a canonizing interpretation of Marxism-Leninism. In addition, it placed itself largely at the service of political power. Because of this its performance was limited enormously. Only when the social processes and dynamics could no longer be adequately described within the conventional ideological framework did certain changes occur.