The Forestry in Former East Germany: Selective Data from Official Statistics of the German Democratic Republic (1945-1989)

The Study’s subject:

On basis of the statistical yearbook for the German democratic republic (GDR) selected time series have been compiled on forestry of the former German democratic republic.

Unfortunately, to the subject of the GDR’s Forestry the German Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) had not published a contribution in the context of it’s special series with the title: Special issue on contributions for the territory of the former GDR (Sonderreihe mit Beiträgen für das Gebiet der ehemaligen DDR). Therefore, for this statistical subject no adaption and data-processing according to the current conventions of the official statistics of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1990 has occurred.
The ‘Staatliche Zentralverwaltung für Statistik (SZS)‘ (i.e. the official central management office for statistics) of the former GDR was an official institution, responsible for the continuous data collection, data processing, data-analysis, and explanation of social mass phenomena. A selection of the collected data has been published by the SZS via the Statistical Yearbook of the GDR, in statistical paperbacks, and in press-reports. In this context it is important to note, that the selection and representation of the published data in the framework of an undemocratically organized system was subject of the state’s control. The collected data of the SZS are more extensive than the published part. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that the SZS’s operation in this regard has not been influenced or restricted by the GDR’s control-institution. Therefore, the user has the possibility of access to the extensive stock of SZS-data, the published ones as well as the non-published data-stock, as well as to methodical documents, for own analysis. (See the publication of the Statistical Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on the Statistics of the former GDR: Statistisches Bundesamt (Hrsg.): Sonderreihe mit Beiträgen für das Gebiet der ehemaligen DDR. Heft 34: DDR-Statistik. Grundlagen, Methoden und Organisation der amtlichen Statistik der DDR 1949 bis 1990. S. XIII.)

Besides the agriculture the forestry or forest economy is a signifcant land use form. Logging or felling is an indicator, showing the usage intensity and forestry production. It is the basis for analyzing the results of forestry operations. Because the wooden economy is the most important source of forestry income, the felled wood is grouped in kind-of-use, captured and presented according to the statistical classification. A further important task of the forestry is the care and preservation of the forest. In this framework forestry makes an essential contribution to the development, maintaining and preservation of rural landscape. These requirements on forestry should be reflected by well-chosen statistical indicators.
These indicators give information on:
- the development of logging and felling and the intensity of forest-usage,
- the use of wood for purposes of industry or energy,
- the development of wood-foreign trade,
- the activities of forest care and reforestation,
- the destructions by forest fires.