The GDR and the African National Congress: Aspects of Cooperation in the 1960s — 1980s

The article examines the relations of the GDR and the ANC on the basis of archival documents of the ANC stored in the National Heritage and Culture Studies Centre at the University of Fort Hare (Alice, South Africa). The author shows, that the relations of the GDR with the ANC in the 1960s — 1980s were of the most diverse nature, gradually expanding and deepening. They were not limited to inter-party ties, the GDR Solidarity Committee played a big role in their development. With its participation, the ANC received direct financial assistance, as well as scholarships to train its activists in a wide range of specialties. The author introduces a whole layer of previously unknown archival materials and memoirs of ANC activists into scientific circulation. He concludes, that in terms of the level and volume of relations with the ANC, the GDR was the first of all the COMECON countries after the USSR. At the same time, unlike other COMECON countries, the struggle of the German socialist state for international recognition left a certain imprint on the relations of the GDR with the APK.