Ideological Cooperation versus Cold War Realpolitik - The SED and the Icelandic Socialist Party

• Main Author: Valur Ingimundarson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: German; English
• Published: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2007
• Subjects: Foreign Policy; Relations with Germany; Iceland; Cold War; Political Parties; Economics; Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology; GN301-674; History of Northern Europe. Scandinavia; DL1-1180
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/1f414d7e2fa94490b2a1412cd3f1f89f

The article deals with the relationship between the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) and the Icelandic Socialist Party (SEI) during the Cold War. It details the structural limitations of ideological cooperation between the two parties – Iceland’s NATO membership and the U.S. military presence – as well as its possibilities, especially in the 1950s, through the governmental participation of the SEI. Special attention is devoted to the role played by Einar Olgeirsson, the chairman of the SEI 1939–1968, who was instrumental in forging and developing political, economic, and cultural ties with the SED and the German Democratic Republic. The article argues that this experiment in transnational solidarity between socialist parties from two radically different political systems failed in the end due to several factors, including ideological differences and the political and economic development in Iceland.