Planned Economy in the GDR

© Chamorand GDR propaganda poster defending the Five-Year Plan: „No lie (by west German capitalists) can stop the reconstruction“

The „First Five-Year Plan“ devised by the State Planning Commission (SPK) is adopted by the GDR government on 17 August 1950. It encompasses the period from 1951 to 1955. Overriding goal of the plan is to double the industrial production of 1950. But above all, economic growth is to be achieved through upgrading lignite production as well as both heavy and chemical industries. At the same time the plan sets the number of employed workers at 7.1 million, meaning that nearly 800,000 more people will have to be brought into the work force. The system of a central economic plan was introduced into the Soviet Occupation Zone shortly after the end of the Second World War and was fashioned after the Soviet model.