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| | Encyclopedia: History of East Germany (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20) |
 | | In Berlin, which was still undivided, the SPD had resisted the party merger and, running on its own, had polled 48.7 percent of the vote, thus scoring a major electoral victory and decisively defeating the SED, which, with 19.8 percent, was third in the voting behind the SPD and the CDU. |
 | | The SED modelled itself as a Soviet-style "party of the new type." To that end, German communist Walter Ulbricht became first secretary of the SED, and the Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Committee were formed. |
 | | Ulbricht in 1968 launched a spirited campaign to convince the Comecon states to intensify their economic development "by their own means." Domestically the East German regime replaced the NES with the Economic System of Socialism (ESS), which focused on high technology sectors in order to make self-sufficient growth possible. |
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