East Germany: Going Badly

Things are so bad in Communist East Germany that even the Communists are talking publicly about it. Fortnight ago, submitting East Germany’s 1961 economic goals to the party’s Central Committee, top Politburo Planner Bruno Leuschner asked rhetorically: “Do we have difficulties?” Dourly, he answered himself: “Ja-wohl, we do.” He ticked them off: “Unsatisfactory raw material supplies.” “no more labor reserves,” “failure to achieve a continuous supply of consumer goods.”

Gone was East Germany’s boast that it could overtake West Germany in consumer-goods output this year. Goals were being set lower. The target of the East German economic growth rate for 1961 has been set at 7.2%, the lowest in years. Finally, drawing a deep breath, Leuschner announced the most painful cut of all. To speed up the flow of machine tools to the rest of the Communist bloc, he explained, East Germany’s much ballyhooed aircraft factories are to be converted to making such workaday goods as hydraulic equipment, cutting-and-forming tools and conveyor belts.

The East German aircraft industry was a prestige project ramrodded through in 1954 by Communist Boss Walter Ulbricht himself. Jeering at West German airlines for buying foreign planes, the East Germans poured $150 million into outfitting six plants, which at their peak employed some 26,000 workers turning out Russian null In 1959, with much fanfare, the East Germans brought out their new, home-grown 66-152 turbojet airliner. The first 86-152 prototype crashed on its maiden flight—a disaster that was officially attributed to “sabotage” by Designer Manfred Gerlach (TIME, Sept. 12). While other engineers have been trying to get the bugs out of the BB-152-II, the aircraft plants have sporadically been turning out piecework: incubators, luggage racks, TV antennas. The Politburo’s decision that airplane building is a luxury East Germany cannot now afford seems likely to ground for good East German hopes of high-flying grandeur.