Draft:Ostbüro

The East Offices (German: Ostbüro) were offices established after World War II by West German political parties to coordinate activities in East Germany, following the forced closure or subordination of these parties' official activities into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The offices served as operational coordination points to unofficially continue their work as minority opposition parties in East Germany, and for party affiliates to maintain connection to the primary parties in West Germany.

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Establishment

For the initial post-war years, various pre-war parties reestablished themselves across all sectors of Germany. But the consolidation of social and political power in the Soviet occupation zone resulted in the initial merger of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR and the Communist Party of Germany

The coordination of the resistance work against undemocratic measures and human rights violations in the SBZ and GDR^[1]
The support of the on the basis of their political opinion or activity sentenced to prison terms by members and their relatives
Continuation of political or trade union activities even after the capture (SPD, DGB) or the loss of political independence (CDU, LDPD) in the East ^[2]
Public relations in the West and the attempt to establish a counter-public in the East
The care of refugees from the GDR

The work of the East Offices was illegal in the SBZ/GDR and the Eastern Bloc. In the period of the Soviet occupation (until 1949) and occasionally until the 1950s, captured employees of the East Offices were judged by Soviet military tribunals. In order to pursue actual (or only asserted) contacts with representatives of the East Offices, the German Democratic Republic had included its own §219 in the Criminal Code of the GDR, which criminalized "Unlawful Connection".

Parties with Ostbüros

Both political parties and organized labor established and maintained (un)official presence in East Berlin.

Ostbüro of the CDU

Ostbüro of the SPD

Writeup ^[3]

Ostbüro of the DGB

The German Trade Union Confederation's (DGB) Eastern Office was established on September 1, 1951, by the International Federation of Free Trade Unions (IFFG) in West Berlin and Düsseldorf.^[4] Its task was to coordinate anti-communist resistance against the state-run trade unions in Eastern Europe, particularly the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) of the GDR. In its early years, this office was financed by the IBF and the DGB; from 1959 onward, as part of the DGB Executive Board's administration, it was financed exclusively by the DGB. The department was dissolved in the early 1970s. ^[2]

Its first director was Gerhard Haas. There was close cooperation with the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) Eastern Office. At the request of DGB Chairman Willi Richter, Stephan G. Thomas, then head of the SPD Eastern Office, reorganized the DGB Eastern Office.^[2] In 1959, the DGB Eastern Office was renamed the "Reunification Department within the Executive Board of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB)." Wilhelm Gronau became the department head. The last director was Johannes Naber.

Within the trade union movement, the East Office was controversial. Left-wing critics labeled it a "hotbed of Cold Warriors."^{[citation needed]}

Besides supporting opposition trade unionists in East Germany and gathering information from the FDGB (Free German Trade Union Federation) and East German factories, the DGB's East Office was also active in refugee care at the Marienfelde refugee camp in Berlin. The DGB's East Office regularly exchanged information with the East Offices of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and SPD (Social Democratic Party) and with the domestic intelligence agencies. From the early 1960s, the office also functioned as the security department of the DGB's national executive board.

In connection with the popular uprising of 17 June 1953, the British military government in Berlin concluded that the DGB's East Office (in West Berlin) and RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) in particular had done everything in their power "to incite resistance against the increase in production quotas."^[5]

From a situation assessment by Erich Mielke dated June 20, 1961: "...In the schools of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), there is considerable activity aimed at 'defending against communist infiltration' and training agents and saboteurs within the working class..."^{[citation needed]}

The DGB's East Bureau was considered a "sabotage organization" by the GDR.^{[citation needed]} Like the East Bureaus of the political parties, the trade union institution was systematically monitored and infiltrated by the GDR's Ministry for State Security (Stasi). Within the Stasi, the DGB's East Bureau was handled by Main Directorate A, headed by Paul Laufer, whose primary informant was the unofficial collaborator (IM) Steiger Willi Gronau (born September 23, 1914).^{[citation needed]}

Ostbüro of the FDP

Literature and additional reading

Books

Helmut Bärwald: Das Ostbüro der SPD. 1946–1971 Kampf und Niedergang (= Reihe Gegenwart und Zeitgeschichte. Band 14). Sinus, Krefeld 1991, ISBN 3-88289-023-1.
Wolfgang Buschfort: Die Ostbüros der Parteien in den 50er Jahren (= Schriftenreihe des Berliner Landesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der Ehemaligen DDR. Bd. 7). 3., unveränderte Auflage. Der Berliner Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der Ehemaligen DDR, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-934085-09-1 Online (PDF; 1 MB).
Wolfgang Buschfort: Das Ostbüro der SPD. Von der Gründung bis zur Berlin-Krise (= Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Bd. 63). Oldenbourg, München 1991, ISBN 3-486-64563-3.
Wolfgang Buschfort: Parteien im kalten Krieg. Die Ostbüros von SPD, CDU und FDP (= Analysen und Dokumente. Bd. 19). Links, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-226-3.
Wolfgang Buschfort: Das Ostbüro der SPD. In: Freiheit und Recht. Nr. 1+2, April 2011, ISSN 0532-6605, S. 9–10.
Norbert Pötzl: Der Kampf der Systeme: TÖRICHT UND TÖDLICH. In: Spiegel Spezial Geschichte. vom 29. Juli 2008.
Bernd Stöver: Die Befreiung vom Kommunismus. Amerikanische Liberation Policy im Kalten Krieg 1947–1991 (= Zeithistorische Studien. Bd. 22). Böhlau, Köln u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-412-03002-3, S. 250 ff. (zugleich: Potsdam, Univ., Habil.-Schr.).