The approximately 40 departments of the Central Committee of the SED were the center of the policymaking of East Germany.
The departments were assigned to around ten Central Committee Secretaries. Each department was headed by a department head and his deputy. Each department was in turn divided into sectors with sector heads, (political) employees and instructors. While the departments had around 1,000 employees in 1970, by 1987 there were already 2,000 employees.
The Central Committee Secretaries had the authority to issue legally binding orders to the respective Ministry,[1][2]: 98–100 but in practice, the department and sector heads made the decisions.[2]: 73
On 31 December 1989, the Presidium of the Party Executive of the SED-PDS dissolved the departments of the Central Committee of the SED.[3]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:39was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Hartmann, Sieglinde, ed. (2007). "Abteilung Volksbildung im ZK der SED". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Berlin: German Federal Archives. Retrieved 2025-01-06.