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Honecker Reviews His Successes (April 17-21, 1986)

In this report presented to the 11th (and last) Party Congress of the SED, Honecker recounts the success of economic and social policies, despite the fact that they had failed to address the growing economic problems in East Germany. In conclusion, Honecker called upon the population to continue working towards the development of a socialist society.

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Report of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany at the 11th Party Congress of the SED. Reported by Comrade Erich Honecker, April 17-21, 1986


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III. Our main battlefield is the unity of economic and social policy

Dear Comrades!

Since the 10th Party Congress our republic has successfully continued its development as a politically stable and economically productive socialist state. The plan for 1981 to 1985 was completed with good results. All areas of social life, the productive forces and the production conditions, science, education and culture, the social relations of the people, and the defense of the country have been further improved.

Our economic strategy enabled us to increase productivity on the basis of intensified production and to guarantee the needed long-term economic growth. The increase in work productivity accelerated. In time, our party focused on the most modern scientific and technological developments. A high international benchmark increasingly became the standard for our own work. Science and production became more closely intertwined. The application of scientific technological findings alone saved a yearly average of 500 million work hours, which corresponds to the work volume of 300,000 workers.

From 1981 to 1985, the GDR generated a national income of 1.087 trillion marks, with increasing annual growth rates. Last year, it took only six months to generate the same national income as in all of 1970. The total national income for the fifteen years since the 8th Party Congress was 2.7 trillion marks, which is 1.7 times the total in the twenty-two years from 1949 to 1970. Over 90 percent of national income growth was due to increased work productivity. Our industrial production is becoming more and more efficient, as indicated by the fact that net production in the last five years increased much faster than the production of goods. We can proudly declare that there are very few countries in the world that have achieved such solid and dynamic economic development over an extended time period and constantly turned it into social progress.

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