Velychenko O. Restoration and activity of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1945 -1949.

The author investigates the restoration and activity of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP) in sociopolitical and economic life of the country in the period from 1945 to 1949 against the background of the problems of postwar reconstruction of the country and under the conditions of its occupation by the states-winners in the World War II. The thesis is a result of the investigations conducted by the author in Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012 - 2015. The work involves a wide range of sources which are different in their political orientation and the scientific value and are represented by such thematic groups as official documents and materials of the SDP; the minutes of meetings and the act of Economic and Parliamentary councils; reminiscences, speeches, reports of the SDP leaders and representatives of the occupational authorities; the materials of international conferences of the states-winners, orders and instructions of the military occupation administrations of the states-winners; statistical and reference publications. The vast amount of the scientific studies on the topic of the thesis represents the works of German scientists and less amount - the publications of Ukrainian historians as well as Soviet authors and scientists of Post-Soviet Russia who covered the process of the restoration and activity of the SDP after the World War II in their works. The main focus of the thesis is on the determining the conditions under which the restoration of the SDP occurred in all four occupation zones of Germany as well as ascertaining its role in economic and political rebuilding of the country.