ABSTRACT
The declarations issued by GDR leaders and the assertions of Western observers and journalists all point to a lower level of technology in the GDR than the FRG, yet only rarely have these general statements been accompanied by specific details. Hardly anything has been published in the way of a quantitative assessment of GDR technology. A survey of West German and British manufacturers, trading organisations and ministries, undertaken for this study, found that surprisingly little appears to be known in the West. 1 While it would clearly exceed the scope of this chapter to undertake a thorough analysis of technological levels in the GDR relative to the FRG and other countries, a brief assessment may be made. 2 The method adopted is to examine aspects of foreign trade and production with regard to the three main industrial sectors of GDR industry. These sectors, in terms of production output, annual growth rate, exports and research intensity, were the machine and vehicle building industry; the electrotechnical, electronics, and instrument building industry; and the chemical industry.
