The Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany: Report by the Commission on Questions Concerning Republikflucht (June 25, 1956)

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These include above all:

1. The inadequate attention and certain indifference exhibited by the state apparatus, but also by GDR political organizations, toward Republikflucht.

There is no atmosphere of a fight against Republikflucht and there is no uniform plan for countermeasures, a plan that involves all democratic parties and organizations in this struggle.

2. The inadequate explanation and incorrect application – the often merely administrative implementation – of decrees and directives from the party and the government, which often produces confusion and disgruntlement among the population.

3. The hitherto inadequate measures to involve the population in debating, making, and carrying out ordinances and laws, which has led some segments of the population to feel as though they hardly have any influence on the democratic shaping of life.

4. So far, the decisions of the 3rd Party Conference as they relate to diverse segments of the GDR population have been presented and explained to those concerned in a completely inadequate way. (This concerns the general future of the GDR, as well as the future of various strata of the population.)

5. Various illegal measures and inadequate attention to democratic legal norms make it easier for the enemy to agitate about “alleged legal insecurity” among various segments of the population and thus to disturb their general trust in the workers’ and peasants’ power.

6. The economic difficulties and shortages that still persist here seem “insurmountable” to segments of the population, because we are still doing an inadequate job of explaining the general process of our economic development and the grand perspectives to the population, and because we also shy away from talking about the relationships and contexts that are causing these difficulties.

7. Inadequate attention to the developmental difficulties of members of some vocational groups, especially the problems of young people who have just completed their apprenticeship.

8. The inadequate incorporation of social organizations in clarifying the causes behind the occasional supply problems and the failure to mobilize them quickly in order to overcome such difficulties.

9. The absence of a proper price differential between certain goods, as well as wage and salary rates that are occasionally too low for some groups.

10. The difficulties arising from the housing shortage and mistakes in the allocation of housing, as well as complications arising from the long-term separation of family members.