People's Economic Council

Last updated

The People's Economic Council (German: Volkswirtschaftsrat (VWR)) in the GDR was a central institution of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

It was formed by the State Planning Commission in July 1961 as a spin-off of the Department of Industry and the Department of Material Supply. The purpose of the Council was to be an independent "central institution of the state" for the management of the central and local industry as well as for the "regulation of the fundamental issues of craft and service companies."

As the central institution for the planning and management of industry, VWR developed the annual plan for the industry on the basis of decisions of the Ministerial Council, the outlook plan, orientation indicators and the guidelines of the State Planning Commission. It was the task of VWR to implement the objectives set by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Central Committee and the government principles of economic policy through its industry departments, the Association of State-owned Enterprises (German: Vereinigung Volkseigener Betriebe (VVB)), and the district economic councils.

The individual industry divisions of VWR were fully responsible for the preparation and accounting of the annual plan of their economic sector and instructed their assigned VVB, scientific institutes and design offices with regard to the responsibility and autonomy of the VVB. The VWR had decisional authority over the economic resource entities and district economic councils. Alfred Neumann was appointed as the first director of the VWR.

Over the course of development it proved to be inexpedient to oversee the growing industry from out of a centralized institution such as the VWR. Therefore, on 22 December 1965 the Council of Ministers decided to dissolve the VWR. Because of the 1965 dissolution, a range of industrial ministries were newly created or re-established.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Unity Party of Germany</span> Founding and ruling party of East Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxist–Leninist communist party, established in 1946 as a merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of East Germany</span> Constitution of the German Democratic Republic

The original Constitution of East Germany was promulgated on 7 October 1949. It was heavily based on the Weimar Constitution and nominally established the GDR as a liberal democratic republic. In 1968, the East German government adopted a new, fully Communist constitution that was based on Marxism–Leninism, political unitarism, and collective leadership. There were further amendments to the 1968 constitution in 1974. With the political events of 1989, there were attempts to draft a new constitution for East Germany, but these efforts never materialized due to the dissolution of East Germany and the accession of its states into the neighboring Federal Republic.

These are lists of political office-holders in East Germany. The political leadership of East Germany was distributed between several offices. However, until the Volkskammer removed a section in the GDR's constitution guaranteeing their monopoly on political power on 1 December 1989, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) held ultimate power and authority over state and government. Thus, the head of the SED's Politburo of the Central Committee was the de facto leader of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of East Germany</span>

East Germany had a command economy, similar to the economic system in the Soviet Union and other Comecon member states — in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies or other capitalist states. The state established production targets, set prices, and also allocated resources, codifying these decisions in comprehensive plans. The means of production were almost entirely state-owned. The GDR had an above-average standard of living compared to other Eastern Bloc countries or the Soviet Union, and enjoyed favorable duty and tariff terms with the West German market; in 1989, it was estimated that 50 to 60% of its trade was with Western countries. However by the mid-1980s its economy had reached a state of stagnation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkseigener Betrieb</span> Former main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany

The Publicly Owned Enterprise was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. These state-owned enterprise were all publicly owned and were formed after mass nationalisation between 1945 and the early 1960s, and the handing back in 1954 of some 33 enterprises previously taken by the Soviet Union as reparations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supreme Soviet of the National Economy</span> Soviet government executive body

Supreme Board of the National Economy, Superior Board of the People's Economy, was the superior state institution for management of the economy of the RSFSR and later of the Soviet Union. There were two institutions with this name, at different times, 1917–1932 and 1963–1965.

The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India which formulated India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions.

From 1947 to 2017, the Indian economy was premised on the concept of planning. This was carried through the Five-Year Plans, developed, executed, and monitored by the Planning Commission (1951–2014) and the NITI Aayog (2015–2017). With the prime minister as the ex-officio chairman, the commission has a nominated deputy chairman, who holds the rank of a cabinet minister. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the last deputy chairman of the commission. The Twelfth Plan completed its term in March 2017. Prior to the Fourth Plan, the allocation of state resources was based on schematic patterns rather than a transparent and objective mechanism, which led to the adoption for the Gadgil formula in 1969. Revised versions of the formula have been used since then to determine the allocation of central assistance for state plans. The new government led by Narendra Modi, elected in 2014, announced the dissolution of the Planning Commission, and its replacement by a think tank called the NITI Aayog.

The German Democratic Republic was created as a socialist republic on 7 October 1949 and began to institute a government based on the government of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. The equivalent of the Communist Party in East Germany was the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, which along with other parties, was part of the National Front of Democratic Germany. It was created in 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany. Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which eventually merged with the West German Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice to form the modern Left Party.

The civil service in Malaysia is pivotal around Article 132 of the Constitution of Malaysia which stipulates that the public services shall consist of the Federal and State General Public Service, the Joint Public Services, the Education Service, the Judiciary and the Legal Service and the Armed Forces.

The Council of Ministers was the cabinet and executive branch of the German Democratic Republic from November 1950 until the country was reunified on 3 October 1990. Originally formed as a body of 18 members, by 1989 the council consisted of 44 members.

The New Economic System, officially the New Economic System of Planning and Management, was an economic policy that was implemented by the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1963. Its purpose was to replace the system of Five-Year Plans which had been used to run the GDR's economy from 1951 onwards. The System was introduced by Walter Ulbricht to try to improve the performance of the existing central planning, so that the economy might be run in as efficient a manner as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of East Germany</span>

The German Democratic Republic (GDR), German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), often known in English as East Germany, existed from 1949 to 1990. It covered the area of the present-day German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, and Thüringen. This area was occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II excluding the former eastern lands annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union, with the remaining German territory to the west occupied by the British, American, and French armies. Following the economic and political unification of the three western occupation zones under a single administration and the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949, the German Democratic Republic was founded on 7 October 1949 as a sovereign nation.

The Economic System of Socialism (ESS) was an economic policy implemented in East Germany between 1968 and 1970, which was introduced and led by the country's leader, Walter Ulbricht. It focused on high technology sectors in an attempt to make self-sufficient growth possible. Overall, centralized planning was reintroduced in the so-called structure-determining areas, which included electronics, chemicals, and plastics. Industrial combines were formed to vertically integrate industries involved in the manufacture of vital final products. Price subsidies were restored to accelerate growth in favored sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government of the Soviet Union</span> The highest executive and administrative organ in the Soviet Union

The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 1991. The government was headed by a chairman, most commonly referred to as the premier of the Soviet Union, and several deputy chairmen throughout its existence. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as "The leading and guiding force of Soviet society and the nucleus of its political system" per Article 6 of the state constitution, controlled the government by holding a two-thirds majority in the All-Union Supreme Soviet. The government underwent several name changes throughout its history, and was known as the Council of People's Commissars from 1922 to 1946, the Council of Ministers from 1946 to 1991, the Cabinet of Ministers from January to August 1991 and the Committee on the Operational Management of the National Economy from August to December 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabinet of North Korea</span> Administrative and executive body of North Korea

The Cabinet of Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea (Naegak) is, according to the Constitution of North Korea, the administrative and executive body and a general state-management organ in the Government of North Korea. The Cabinet's principal newspaper is Minju Choson.

Klaus Siebold was a German politician.

Dr. Rudi Georgi was a German politician and public official in the German Democratic Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Hennecke</span> German politician and Stakhanovite (1905–1975)

Adolf Hennecke, was an official of the German FDGB and of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. He gave his name to the Hennecke movement, the German Democratic Republic's Stakhanovite activist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Planning Commission (GDR)</span> Central state authority of East Germany

The State Planning Commission (SPC) (German: Staatliche Plankommission) was a central state authority of the GDR Council of Ministers for planning, coordinating and proportional development of all sectors of the economy, public education and other areas of public life in the districts and for solving the most important economic tasks. In the central administrative economy of the GDR, it was responsible for the coordination, elaboration and control of the medium-term perspective plans (five-year plan) and the annual economic plans derived from them.