Background: The GDR had a complicated system of agitation and propaganda that was supposed to reach down to every level. Throughout the history of the GDR, that often did not happen very effectively. There were regular conferences that brought agitators together to exchange ideas. This page includes speeches from a conference for agitators held in 1955.
First, there are excerpts from a speech by Alfred Norden, who headed the agitation section of the Politburo between 1955 and 1967. Agitation has to get better, he asserts. Next are remarks by other participants describing their work, so-called discussion speeches. I include two of the four discussion speeches.
The source: Notizbuch des Agitators (6, #13, 1. July issue, 1955), pp. 11-25. This was a small periodical for agitators.
Albert Norden, “Offensiv, siegeszuversichtlich und konkret agitieren”
Taken from a speech by Comrade Albert Norden, secretary of the Central Committee and chair of the Agitation Commission of the Central Committee of the SED at the first Central Agitation Conference on 23 and 24 May 1955.
So far it has been the case that in many cases our agitators limit themselves to answering questions. Naturally one has to respond to all questions. The main thing, however, is that the agitator does not leave the initiative to the enemy, but that he keeps the initiative in his hands, that he does not take a defensive position, but rather that he determines the political climate in each section of the factory as well as the entire factory, in each MTS [central depots for agricultural equipment] and village, in city neighborhoods. That means he must react quickly and independently to any event.
It may no longer be the case that an agitator begins a discussion begins only after some enemy lie or whisper propaganda.
From now on, this is how is must be everywhere:
The agitators have to be first on the spot with their news, information, and arguments so that they direct the discussion. If things go that way political persuasion will be a lot easier because we will have the initiative in every factory section and down to the last village, not leaving things to the enemy.
Over the past weeks we have has both positive and negative evidence for the correctness of this thesis. For example, how have agitators reacted to the announcement of the Warsaw Pact?
The Warsaw Pact was signed on 14 May. Its text was broadcast several times over our democratic radio and printed in the national editions of the central newspapers Neues Deutschland, the Tägliche Rundschau, etc.
There are many examples of how agitators responded in an exemplary way.
In a rapid and exemplary way, the party leadership at the rolling mill in Hettstedt held 25 short meetings on Monday evening, 16 May, which 2,000 workers attended. Even before the conclusion of the Warsaw Conference on 13 May the party leadership issued a leaflet. The wok of the agitators was so thorough that the whole factory was won over. It is no accident that Kreis Hettstedt is in first place in promoting the people’s police [Kasernierte Volkspolizei]. The Youth Brigade Sommer in the Hettstedt rolling mill works in a particularly admirable way in production and volunteered for the people’s police.
But we would deceive ourselves if we thought that all party leaderships and agitator collectives work as well as the comrades in the VEB Walzwerk Hettstedt.
For example, Comrade Seifert, secretary for propaganda and agitation in the factory party organization at the VEB Waggonbau Ammendorf in Bezirk Halle, answered the question on 18 May of what agitation was being about the Warsaw Pact: “We cannot do anything yet since the Warsaw Treaty has not yet been published.” That was three-and-a-half days after the treaty was read over democratic radio and three days after it was published in the press!
What conclusions should we draw?
Where clear-sighted comrades recognized the great importance of the Warsaw Pact and acted rapidly, it was not hard to persuade and achieve great success. Where they waited several days, they essentially left the field open to the enemy. Those who waited 72 hours or even longer gave the enemy a valuable 72 hours. The enemy did not wait, but immediately spread his inflammatory and false propaganda over Rias [Radio in the American Sector, broadcasting from West Germany].
This shows again how important it is that the party leadership meets regularly and often with agitators, and that it meets immediately with agitators outside the regular schedule when needed because of special events, for example by the signing of the Warsaw Pact.
Workers in the state-owned factories are largely agreed on political and economic issues. The expect that the party will provide a thorough analysis on all questions of international policy, the national struggle, and the problems of our economy and that of their individual factory.
Today’s workers want to know more about the strength of the world peace movement, more about individual countries, more about the economic and military capacities of the people’s democracies, and more about developments in such countries as India, Indochina, etc.
In view of this lively interest by the workers, one cannot say that our agitation in factories always gives national and international questions the proper attention. Particularly after the 21st Plenum of the ZK [Central Committee], these questions are often in the background. Over the last several months, the factory party organization at the Electrical-Chemical Kombinat [something of a GDR conglomerate] Bitterfeld has paid no attention to intra-German matters and international questions. This is not an exception.
If the party does not constantly inform the workers about the international situation as well as the growing activity of patriots in West Germany, who else will do it? With steady offensive agitation we can strengthen the sense of strength and the confidence in victory of workers and draw more people into the battle for peace and national unity.
Concrete Agitation
On the basis of their own experience, our colleagues today recognize that the party and government are following the right policies that correspond to their fundamental interests. What the party said in the past has proven true. The Five Year Plan greatly increased workers’ living standards. Doubters get less and less attention. Hundreds of thousands of workers have realized the correctness of Frida Hockauf’s statement: “As we work today we will live tomorrow.” They act accordingly. Every action by the party and government earns the great interest of workers.
The task of agitation is to present these measures in the right way, to speak with workers about the tasks they have in their factory and industrial branch.
Carrying out the decisions of the 21st Plenum of the ZK has shown that the workers are very unhappy when they hear that their factory or their section has had losses. They rightly reproach management with the complaint that no one told them about it before or that their comments and proposals were often ignored.
Does not that clearly prove:
that our agitation in the past has often been superficial;
that a lot was said, and often, about working economically and reducing costs;
that, however, we did not deal with the core of the problems and concerned ourselves too little with the concrete facts of the individual factory and thus argued only in generalities?
The main weaknesses of our previous agitation in factories is as follows:
In our political and economic agitation, the policies of our party are treated much too generally. Often they are not connected to the everyday experience of individual workers. This is best done through discussion of economic matters. Since the 21st Plenum there has been improvement in agitation in many areas. But a great lack is that questions of efficiency, reducing losses, increasing productivity, and socialist competition are often treated too generally. Discussion of the tasks of the relevant individual industrial branch and factory are not differentiated or treated concretely.
The focus of agitation must be on the particular central tasks of each factory and industrial branch.
For example, in the brown coal industry the focus should be on the most productive use of excavators;
in light industry on increasing quality and reducing costs;
in machinery construction on the greatest economy in material usage and increasing productivity;
in foundries reducing waste;
in metallurgy on increasing productivity and quality and adhering strictly to planned products;
in machinery and light industry on increasing the output of consumer products of high quality.
It must be noted that since the last election, the popularization, the reminders of the great successes of our workers’ and farmers’ state for each individual, has not only diminished, but is often no longer present in the press and agitation. The fundamental difference between the role and conditions of the working class in the German Democratic Republic and in West Germany is not sufficiently emphasized in agitation. But only through that clear difference can the significance of the German Democratic Republic in the national struggle and in the peaceful reunification of our fatherland be properly explained and understood.
The party secretary must personally lead the agitator’s collective.
Weaknesses in agitational work are often a result of the fact that the party leadership views agitation work as a departmental matter. Party secretaries often pay too little attention, in some cases none at all.
Agitator’s collectives sometimes exist only on paper or are improperly staffed and without guidelines do inadequate work.
Our agitators are independent thinking people with their own ideas about their situations and tasks. How can they have a unified opinion and provide rapid information if the party secretary does not meet regularly and often with them to provide guidance?
The carbide factory at the Buna Plant has many good comrades. They should be lead by the party secretary. But that does not happen. It is the same in other important factories.
As a result, party secretaries rob themselves of an important source of information about events and morale in the factory. Party secretaries take from agitators the ability to provide rapid information and make more difficult building unified opinions.
Therefore it is necessary that party secretaries in the base organizations directly lead the agitation collectives. If that happens, agitation will bear much better fruit.
Improvements in Agitation at the Iron-Manganese Mine in Schmalkalden
From the discussion speech by Comrade Erich Erben, VEB Eisenmanganerbergbau Schmalkalden.
About a year ago there was no regular persuasive efforts with the miners at the Iron-Manganese Mine in Schmalkalden. Political mass work was neglected. The party leadership and the company leadership did not educate the workers in the area of plan discipline. That naturally had negative effects on production.
How was this situation eliminated?
Since previously inadequate persuasive work was the cause for poor work in the operation, the party leadership began by considering how to improve political mass work. It focused the whole party organization on a broad and multifaceted agitation work in all the mines.
With the support of the district and county leadership, lectures and agitator training were implemented.
At first there were only 24 agitation groups. Today there are 78. On the basis of the Cottbus declaration “On the Improvement of Agitation,” the party leadership developed an educational plan. It includes the themes of talks and who is responsible for them.
Under this plan, for example, there were lectures on our workers’ and farmers’ state and on the reestablishment of German militarism.
These lectures made a significant contribution to firming up the convictions of the workers.
Political work brought economic success
The first fruits of our agitation work quickly became apparent.
The miners in the Stahlberg mine challenged all mining workers in the Suhl district during the Month of German-Soviet friendship to work toward earning the titles of “Brigade of German-Soviet Friendship” and the “Mine of German-Soviet Friendship.”
Ore production rose156% from the first quarter of 1954 to the first quarter of 1955.
In preparation for the economic conference workers made over 200 suggestions to improve work in the company, to increase labor productivity, and to reduce costs.
That shows that workers feel more responsible for the work in the company.
Bulletin board [Wandzeitung] work has become better
Bulletin boards and the company newspaper have changed greatly and improved. An editorial collective was established at the Stahlberg mine. The previous bulletin board was more or less used only for special occasions,. The bulletin board has become a powerful weapon against sloppy work and laziness. With the help of satirical articles and caricatures, criticism and self-criticism are encouraged and problems overcome.
An example. Most of our workers still have a piece of land. During spring sowing and fall harvesting, the sickness rate was very high, up to 30%. Strong criticism on the bulletin board quickly changed this. How did we do it? We made simple caricatures of these colleagues wandering through the village with a heavy sack, although they supposedly had hip pain. Under the caricatures we asked if those colleagues think they can fulfill their duty to the company and state in such a way. This had the result that such cases will probably not be repeated in the future.
No one wans to be last
We have set up a board at each mine to post the day’s accomplishments of each brigade. Workers stand around the board during breaks and talk. Agitators speak with the workers about how the production of the individual brigades can be improved. These discussions encourage increased production and better work. And the work of the individual mines is posted on large boards in the surrounding villages. Everyone can see how well individual mines have fulfilled the plan. This method has had very good results and has lead to production successes.
Agitation in the MTS District Holzendorf
Discussion speech by Comrade Hugo Eichler, MTS Holzendorf, District Schwerin
The biggest village in our MTS district is Dabeln. After 1945 our government helped establish a rural ambulance service, a daycare center, sixteen apartment buildings, three restaurants, and two shops. The farmers of the village were able to sell 500,000 DM of their own produce in 1954. 20,000 DM of state funds went to invalids, retirees, and orphans. Although these things were visible successes of our peaceful construction, the enemy used slogans like “Things will not turn out well.” That shows that economic success alone is not always enough to persuade the populace of the correctness of the policies of the party and government. That requires systematic persuasive work by the party’s agitators.
How did we combat enemy slogans?
With the help of the district and county offices, we began a strong offensive agitation campaign. We first held meetings with the leadership of the base organizations. We found that the comrades drew back from the enemy’s slogans. The cause was that they were not clear as to the strengths of our workers’ and farmers’ power and the strengths of our party. We began by firming up the faith of the comrades in the strength of the party and the working class and giving them resources to talk with the residents of the village.
After this we began mass agitation. We drove a loudspeaker wagon through the village. In the meanwhile agitators had answered fundamental questions in discussions with the residents. The loudspeaker wagon was something new. Doors and windows opened in order to hear what was said over the loudspeaker. The battle we began was successful. Alongside the daily loudspeaker action we had discussions with the Democratic Block and the local branch of the National Front of Democratic Germany.
The Democratic Block of the village decided to hold membership meetings with all party and mass organizations to discuss the enemy’s slogan “Things will not turn out well.” We spoke with 370 village residents in house and farm meetings. We strengthened our efforts in community meetings. We also distributed leaflets on the topic.
Increased offensive agitation led to political and economic successes. Farmer Schild told me that he will have fulfilled his milk quota 100% by 1 May, his annual meat quota by mid-May, and sein ganzes Getreide Engdrillverfahren zu drillen [I don’t know what that means]. Farmer Mook said that because of this agitation work he drei Morgen Kartoffeln im Quadratnestverpflanzung anbauen werde [again, my agricultural vocabulary is insufficient]. Veterans of the workers’ movement told us: It is good that you shut the mouths of those who have harrassed us here in Dabeln. The Tegler family said: We agree with the defense of our workers’ and farmers’ state!
A large community meeting was an effective means of agitation. The first secretary of the county leadership of the SED spoke about the strength of the world peace movement and our battle against Western war propaganda.
The population commuted to sign in its early days the Vienna Appeal. All inhabitants did so.
Members of the DFD pledged 7500 voluntary hours of work in agriculture and in summer camps for children.
A young friend returning from the KVP applied at this public meeting to become a member of our party.
We see that everywhere that the party is on the offensive, where it has a close connection to the masses, the enemy has to leave the field. Such close connections to the masses must be firmed up by daily offensive agitation. Then the enemy will be unable to spread his slogans among the population. He will be quickly exposed and isolated.
Last edited 7 May 2025
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