The history of socialism
Analyses on socialist construction in the 20th century
The labour movement has been the most resolute force for social progress in modern European history. Many of the rights and institutions we enjoy today – universal suffrage, health insurance, tuition-free education, and so on – were won through the hard-fought struggles of the organised labour movement. During the 20th century, several states in Eastern Europe broke with the capitalist system and set out to construct a fundamentally different type of society that was to be based on worker and peasant power. The history of so-called “real socialism” in Eastern Europe has been shrouded by Western narratives from the Cold War. Socialist societies in Eastern Europe have been turned into caricatures: life was both quaint and idle and oppressive and terrifying. There is little if any room for serious, unprejudiced engagement with this history.
The Zetkin Forum seeks to provide a space for scientific and constructive investigations into Eastern Europe’s socialist era. To this end, we host a research centre that publishes on the workings and realities of socialist construction in the German Democratic Republic and the wider “Eastern bloc”. We believe that the achievements, contradictions, and eventual overthrow of “real socialism” offer a wealth of practical and theoretical knowledge for progressive movements today.
Our work and research
The Zetkin Forum hosts the Internationale Forschungsstelle DDR (IFDDR), a research centre founded in 2018 to investigate the practical and theoretical knowledge accumulated in 40 years of socialist construction in the German Democratic Republic (DDR).
With the series “Studies on the DDR“, the IFDDR collaborates with Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research to encourage a new engagement with the history and principles of socialist East Germany. This educational series on the DDR’s politics and realities explores aspects of everyday life, provides facts about the country’s social achievements, and examines the political and economic foundations of this socialist state. By reflecting on the lived experiences of daily life, which are generally left out of the dominant narrative due to the crushing victory of capitalism and the dominance of the market economy, the IFDDR aims to make a constructive contribution to contemporary debates within progressive movements. After all, millions of people around the world are still fighting for advancements that were once a given in this socialist system but were lost with its downfall.
With the research platform “Friendship!”, the IFDDR explores the experiences, debates, and development of an anti-imperialist and internationalist strategy of the wider socialist bloc. Articles and interviews on the platform shed light on different aspects of the international class struggle and investigate contradictions and ideological discussions that arose throughout the course of the 20th century. Today, our relationship to this highly dynamic and productive period of anti-imperialism – its concepts, struggles, and theories – is often obscured and broken. Through the re-discovery and re-appropriation of this history, the “Friendship!” research platform aims to help progressive movements gain an orientation and acquire a new drive for the tasks of the present.
Filmed interviews are also an important part of the IFDDR’s research. In website hosts an interview archive with excerpts covering a wide range of topics, from the health care system and planned economy, to socialist democracy and everyday life in the workplace.
Selected publications
Book: Misdiagnosed: Socialist Health Care Systems in Retrospect
Health care systems in Europe are aching under austerity measures, lack of staff, and fragmentation. Frustrated patients and professionals are asking themselves whether the well-being of society is a priority for governments and regulators.
This book revisits the holistic, people-centered, and preventive health care systems that were built in Yugoslavia, Soviet Georgia, and the German Democratic Republic during the previous century. In retrospect, the socialist approaches to health in these states appear almost utopian and certainly radical. But their shared conclusion is common sense: When health is treated as a social good and people’s needs are placed before profit, it is possible to improve the health of the entire population and secure dignified working conditions for all medical professionals.
Coming soon.
Study: “Socialism is the best prophylaxis!” The Health Care System of the German Democratic Republic
Although it existed for only 40 years, the German Democratic Republic (DDR) was able to construct and advance a fundamentally different health care system. The medical approach known as prophylaxis, which seeks to prevent disease before it manifests, became the leitmotif of health policy in the DDR. Building on progressive medical traditions and socialist property relations, the DDR was able to eliminate the profit motive from medicine and construct a unitary health care system that operated in all areas of society. This study investigates the political emphasis placed on social medicine in East Germany, which sought to systematically recognise and combat the living and working conditions contributing to illness rather than merely focusing on treatment at the individual level.
In the face of limited economic resources and fierce competition with the capitalist world, the socialist DDR proved that preventive care, effective treatment, and dignified employment can be guaranteed for all. By looking at the factors behind both the successes and challenges that confronted East Germany, this study seeks to outline a frame of reference for those struggling towards a society organised for and by working people.
Study: “Risen from the ruins”: The Economic History of Socialism in the German Democratic Republic
The first issue of Studies on the DDR follows the foundation of the GDR (“East Germany”) after World War II and traces its development from an anti-fascist democratic state to a socialist one. Central to this process is the economic starting point, which was a particularly difficult one after the war due to the reparations payments, and which determined economic life.
The text focuses on the economic efficiency of the GDR, its achievements and its contradictions. In addition, it provides information on central characteristics of socialist society and labor: international solidarity, collective organization in state-owned enterprises, planned economy.
“Friendship!” Research Platform
With the research platform “Friendship!”, we explore the experiences, debates, and development of an anti-imperialist and internationalist strategy in the DDR and the wider socialist camp. Articles and interviews shed light on different aspects of the international class struggle and investigate contradictions and ideological discussions that arose throughout the course of the previous century. Today, our relationship to this highly dynamic and productive period of anti-imperialism – its concepts, struggles, and theories – is often obscured and broken. Through the re-discovery and re-appropriation of this history, “Friendship!” aims to help us gain an orientation and acquire a new drive for the tasks of the present.