High-tech in the Eastern bloc. Economic cooperation between the GDR and the USSR in the computer and microelectronics industry from the 1960s to the 1980s

PhD thesis by Felix Herrmann
 

From the mid-1960s within the framework of the Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance (CMEA) attempts were made to achieve an (Eastern)
European economic integration in the computer and microelectronics
industry. The USSR and the GDR both played major roles as driving forces
of these processes.
 

How this large scale real socialist high-tech cooperation took shape is
the subject of the doctoral project. The study focuses on business
managers and senior engineers, their scope for action and discussion as
well as transnational entanglements and mutual economic dependencies.
 

The following research questions will be examined in more detail: How
was the planned economy organized and implemented in the high-tech
sector? Which economic, political, cultural, and diplomatic mechanisms
were subject to national and transnational cooperation? How did the
block confrontation during the Cold War and the technological lead of
the USA influence the industries in question and the economy as a whole?