East Germany

Deutsche Demokratische Republik German Democratic Republic ← 1949 – 1990 → Flag Coat of arms Anthem Auferstanden aus Ruinen Capital East Berlin Language(s) German Government Head of State  - 1949 – 1960 Wilhelm Pieck  - 1960 – 1973 Walter Ulbricht  - 1973 – 1976 Willi Stoph  - 1976 – 1989 Erich Honecker  - 1989 Egon Krenz  - 1989 - 1990 Manfred Gerlach Head of Government  - 1949 – 1964 Otto Grotewohl  - 1964 – 1973 Willi Stoph  - 1973 – 1976 Horst Sindermann  - 1976 – 1989 Willi Stoph  - 1989 – 1990 Hans Modrow  - 1990 Lothar de Maizière Legislature Volkskammer Historical era Cold War  - Established October 7  - Final Settlement September 25 1990  - German reunification October 3 Area  - 1990 108,333 km² (41,828 sq mi) Population  - 1990 est. 16,111,000       Density 148.7 /km²  (385.2 /sq mi) Currency East German mark (DDM) Internet TLD: .dd, calling code: +37

East Germany (in German Ostdeutschland), was the common English name for the former German Democratic Republic (in German, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or GDR), a communist state which existed from from its founding on October 7, 1949, to October 3, 1990.

With an area of 40,919 square miles (105,980 square kilometers), or slightly smaller than U.S. state of Tennessee, East Germany was bordered on the east by Czechoslovakia and Poland, and on the west by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany on October 7, 1949, following the creation in May 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") in the zones occupied by the United States, United Kingdom, and France (excluding Saarland). East Berlin was the capital of East Germany.

It consisted of the current German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony and the eastern part of Berlin.

In 1955, the Republic was declared by the Soviet Union to be fully sovereign; however, Soviet troops remained, based on the four-power Potsdam agreement. As NATO troops remained in West Berlin and West Germany, the GDR and Berlin in particular became focal points of Cold War tensions. East Germany was a member of the Warsaw Pact and a close ally of the Soviet Union.

East Germany's population was 16,586,490 in 1989, with a life expectancy at birth of 70 years for males, and 76 years females. A total of 99.7 percent were of German ethnicity, while 0.3 percent were Slavic and other. Despite an official atheist ideology, East Germany was identified as largely Christian, with 47 percent Protestant, seven percent Roman Catholic, and 46 percent unaffiliated or other. Fewer than 5 percent of Protestants and about 25 percent of Roman Catholics were active participants. The language spoken was German, and 99 percent of the population aged 15 and over could read and write.

Following the initial opening of sections of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, new elections were held on March 18, 1990, and the governing party, the SED, lost its majority in the Volkskammer (the East German parliament) soon after. On August 23, the Volkskammer decided that the territory of the Republic would accede to the ambit of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990. As a result of the unification on that date, the German Democratic Republic officially ceased to exist.

History

After the German military leaders unconditionally surrendered to Allied forces on May 8, 1945, Germany was devastated, with about 25 percent of the country's housing damaged beyond use. Factories and transport ceased to function, soaring inflation undermined the currency, food shortages meant city dwellers starved, while millions of homeless German refugees flooded west from the former eastern provinces. Everything had to be rebuilt.

Occupation zones established

Allied Occupation Zones. Note the special statuses of Saarland (protectorate of France), Berlin, and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.

Berlin Occupation Zones.

The Soviet occupation zone, shown with Germany's pre-war borders. At Potsdam the Allies annexed the eastern quarter of Germany

At the Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union agreed on the division of Germany into occupation zones. The Potsdam Conference of July/August 1945 officially recognized the four zones —French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the south, and Soviet in the east. — and confirmed jurisdiction of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) from the Oder and Neisse rivers to the demarcation line. The Soviet occupation zone included the former states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The city of Berlin was placed under the control of the four powers.

The German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line, equal in size to the Soviet occupation zone, was handed over to Poland and the Soviet Union, with the larger share going to the Poles as compensation for territory they lost to the Soviet Union. About 9.5 million Germans still remaining in these areas were over a period of several years expelled and replaced by Polish and Soviet settlers. This amounted to a de facto annexation of 25 percent of Germany's territory as of 1937. Estimates of casualties from the expulsion range from hundreds of thousands to several million. In the GDR the euphemism "resettlement" was officially used to describe this event.

The intended governing body of Germany was called the Allied Control Council. The commanders-in-chief exercised supreme authority in their respective zones and acted in concert on questions affecting the whole country. Berlin, which lay in the Soviet (eastern) sector, was also divided into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet sector becoming East Berlin, capital of East Germany.

Widespread rape

Norman Naimark writes in "The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949." that although the exact number of women and girls who were raped by members of the Red Army in the months preceding and years following the capitulation will never be known, their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, quite possibly as high as two million victims. Many of these victims were raped repeatedly. Naimark states that not only did each victim have to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation. Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in the soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until - one could argue - the present."

Industries confiscated

Each occupation power assumed rule in its zone by June 1945. The powers originally pursued a common German policy, focused on denazification and demilitarization in preparation for the restoration of a democratic German nation-state. Over time however the western zones and the Soviet zone drifted apart economically, not least because of the Soviets' much greater use of disassembly of German industry under its control as a form of reparations. Military industries and those owned by the state, by Nazi activists, and by war criminals were confiscated. These industries amounted to approximately 60 percent of total industrial production in the Soviet zone. Most heavy industry (constituting 20 percent of total production) was claimed by the Soviet Union as reparations, and Soviet joint stock companies (German: Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaften -SAG-) were formed. The remaining confiscated industrial property was nationalized, leaving 40 percent of total industrial production to private enterprise.

A key item in the occupiers' agenda was denazification; toward this end, the swastika and other outward symbols of the Nazi regime were banned, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was established as a temporary German flag. A strict non-fraternization policy was adhered to by General Eisenhower and the War department, although this was lifted in stages.

Land expropriated

The agrarian reform ("Bodenreform") expropriated all land belonging to former Nazis and war criminals and generally limited ownership to 1km². Some 500 Junker estates were converted into collective people's farms (German: Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft -LPG-), and more than 30,000km² were distributed among 500,000 peasant farmers, agricultural laborers, and refugees. Also state farms were set up, called Volkseigenes Gut (State Owned Property).

Berlin blockade

Growing economic differences combined with developing political tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union (which would eventually develop into the Cold War) and manifested in the refusal in 1947 of the SMAD to take part in the USA's Marshall Plan. In March 1948, the United States, Britain, and France met in London and agreed to unite the Western zones and to establish a West German republic. The Soviet Union responded by leaving the Allied Control Council and prepared to create an East German state. The division of Germany was made clear with the currency reform of June 20, 1948], which was limited to the western zones. Three days later a separate currency reform was introduced in the Soviet zone. The introduction of the western Deutsche Mark to the western sectors of Berlin against the will of the Soviet supreme commander, led the Soviet Union to introduce the Berlin Blockade in an attempt to gain control of the whole of Berlin. The Western Allies decided to supply Berlin via an "air bridge", which lasted 11 months, until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949.

The rise of the Socialist Unity Party

File:Nischel gross.jpg

GDR era Karl Marx monument in Chemnitz (renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 to 1990).

The logo of the Socialist Unity Party.

Permission was granted for the formation of anti-fascist democratic political parties in the Soviet zone, with elections to new state legislatures scheduled for October 1946. A democratic-anti-fascist coalition, which included the KPD, the SPD, the new Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union—CDU), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal Demokratische Partei Deutschlands —LDPD), was formed in July 1945. The KPD (with 600,000 members, led by Wilhelm Pieck) and the SPD in East Germany (with 680,000 members, led by Otto Grotewohl), which was under strong pressure from the Communists, merged in April 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands—SED). In the October 1946 elections, the SED polled approximately 50 percent of the vote in each state in the Soviet zone. In Berlin, which was still undivided, the SPD had resisted the party merger and, running on its own, had polled 48.7 percent of the vote, decisively defeating the SED, which, with 19.8 percent, was third in the voting behind the SPD and the CDU.

When a West German government was likely to be established, an election for a People's Congress was held in the Soviet occupation zone in May 1949. Instead of choosing among candidates, voters were able to approve or reject "unity lists” of candidates drawn from all parties, as well as representatives of organizations controlled by the communist-dominated SED. Two additional parties, a Democratic Farmers' Party and a National Democratic Party (the latter aimed at former Nazis) were added. By ensuring that communists predominated in these unity lists, the SED determined in advance the composition of the new People's Congress. About two-thirds of the voters approved the unity lists, while in subsequent elections, favourable margins in excess of 99 percent were announced.

The SED modelled itself as a Soviet-style party, with veteran German communist Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) the first secretary of the SED. A Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Committee were formed. The SED committed itself ideologically to Marxism-Leninism and the international class struggle. Many former members of the SPD and some communist advocates of a social-democratic road to socialism were purged from the SED. The SED accorded political representation to mass organizations and, most significant, to the party-controlled Free German Trade Union Federation.

German Democratic Republic established

File:Stamp Wilhelm Pieck 2.jpg

First president Wilhelm Pieck.

In November 1948, the German Economic Commission (Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission—DWK), including anti-fascist bloc representation, assumed administrative authority. Five weeks after declaration of the western Federal Republic of Germany, on October 7, 1949, a constitution ratified by the People's Congress went into effect in the Soviet zone, which became the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), commonly known as East Germany, with its capital in the Soviet sector of Berlin.

The People's Congress,renamed the People's Chamber, together with a second chamber composed of officials of the five Länder of the Soviet zone (abolished in 1952) named Wilhelm Pieck, a party leader, first president on October 11, 1949. The next day, former Social Democrat Otto Grotewohl was installed as premier at the head of a cabinet nominally responsible to the chamber. Although constitutionally a parliamentary democracy, actual power lay with the SED and its boss, Walter Ulbricht, who was deputy premier in the government. As in the Soviet Union, the government was the agent of the communist-controlled party, which was ruled by a self-selecting Politburo.

Centrally planned economy imposed

The Socialist Unity Party concentrated on building an economy in a territory lacking natural resources, that was less than one-half the size of the Federal Republic, and which had a population one-third as large. The industrial sector, employing 40 percent of the working population, was subjected to further nationalization, resulting in the formation of the People's Enterprises (German: Volkseigene Betrieb—VEB). The First Five-Year Plan (1951–55) introduced centralized state planning, stressing high production quotas for heavy industry and increased labor productivity. The construction of basic industries was emphasized at the expense of the production of consumer goods. War reparations required that much productive capacity be diverted to Soviet needs.

Exodus increases

The standard of living lagged far behind that of West Germany. Food rationing continued long after it had ended in West Germany. Thousands of farmers fled to West Germany each year rather than merge their land into the collective farms. The pressures of the plan, plus relentless ideological indoctrination, repression of dissent, and harassment of churches by a militantly atheistic regime, caused an exodus of East German citizens to West Germany. In 1951 monthly emigration figures fluctuated between 11,500 and 17,000. In 1952, East Germany sealed its borders, but East Germans continued to leave through Berlin, where free movement still prevailed. By 1953 an average of 37,000 men, women and children were leaving each month.

There were also other indications of opposition, even from within the government itself. In the fall of 1950 several prominent members of the SED. were expelled and arrested as "saboteurs" or "for lacking trust in the Soviet Union." Among them were the Deputy Minister of Justice, Helmut Brandt; the Vice-President of the Volkskammer, Joseph Rambo; Bruno Foldhammer, deputy to Gerhard Eisler; and the editor, Lex Ende. The regime enacted anti-family legislation. Under a law passed by the Volkskammer in 1950, the age at which Germany's youth may reject parental supervision was lowered from 21 to 18. At the end of 1954 the draft of a new family code was published which aimed at destroying all parental influence.

Unification considered

The 1952, the Stalin Note proposed German unification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but the United States and its allies rejected the offer. Soviet leader Josef Stalin died in March 1953. Though powerful Soviet politician Lavrenty Beria briefly pursued the idea of German unification once more following Stalin's death, he was arrested and removed from office in a coup d'etat in mid-1953. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, firmly rejected the idea of handing eastern Germany over to be annexed, marking the end of any serious consideration of the unification idea until the resignation of the East German government in 1989.

Uprising and crackdown

On June 16, 1953, following a production quota increase of 10 percent for workers building East Berlin's new boulevard the Stalinallee, (today's Karl-Marx-Allee), demonstrations by disgruntled workers broke out in East Berlin, the first popular uprising in the postwar Soviet bloc. The next day the protests spread across East Germany with more than a million on strike and demonstrations in 700 communities. Fearing revolution the government requested the aid of Soviet occupation troops and on the morning of the 18th tanks and soldiers were dispatched who dealt harshly with protesters. Soviet troops killed 21 people, wounded hundreds of others, and 1300 were jailed. The Socialist Unity Party announced the New Course which aimed at improvement in the standard of living, stressed a shift in investment toward light industry and trade and a greater availability of consumer goods. The party relaxed pressure on farmers to enter collective farms. Agricultural yields improved, and the last food rationing ended in 1958.

In 1954, the Soviet Union granted sovereignty to the German Democratic Republic, and the Soviet Control Commission in Berlin was disbanded. By this time, reparations payments had been completed. In 1955, East Germany became a charter member of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet bloc's military alliance.

Berlin wall erected

Inter-German Border Strip at the Berlin Wall

President Pieck died in 1960, and Ulbricht became head of a newly created Council of State, entrenching a totalitarian communist dictatorship. Due to the lure of higher salaries in the West and political oppression in the East, many skilled workers (such as doctors) crossed into the West, causing a 'brain drain' in the East. By 1961, three million East Germans had fled since the war. However, on the night of August 13, 1961, East German troops sealed the border between West and East Berlin and started to build the Berlin Wall, literally and physically enclosing West Berlin, first with barbed wire and later by construction of a concrete wall through the middle and around the city. East Germans could no longer go through the heavily guarded crossing points without permission, which was rarely granted. Those who tried to escape by climbing over the wall risked being shot by East German guards under orders to kill. With a captive population, the East German economy stabilized to become the most prosperous in the Soviet bloc but behind that of West Germany. A highly effective security force called the Stasi monitored the lives of East German citizens to suppress dissenters through its network of informants and agents.

New economic system

The annual industrial growth rate declined steadily after 1959. In 1963, Ulbricht adapted the theories reforms of Soviet economist Evsei Liberman, and introduced the New Economic System (NES), an economic reform program providing for some decentralization in decision making. Under the NES, The central planning authorities set overall production goals, but each VVB determined its own internal financing, utilization of technology, and allocation of manpower and resources. The NES brought forth a new elite in politics as well as in management of the economy, and in 1963 Ulbricht announced a new policy regarding admission to the leading ranks of the SED. Ulbricht opened the Politburo and the Central Committee to younger members who had more education than their predecessors and who had acquired managerial and technical skills. From 1964 until 1967, real wages increased, and the supply of consumer goods, including luxury items, improved.

Honecker and East-West rapprochement

File:Erich honecker.jpg

Erich Honecker.

The election of 1969 in West Germany brought in a new era with the Social Democrat-FDP social-liberal coalition with Willy Brandt as chancellor. While confirming West Germany's commitment to the Western alliance, the new government began a new “eastern policy,” or Ostpolitik. Wheras under the Hallstein Doctrine, West Germany had refused to recognize the existence of the East German government, the Brandt administration opened direct negotiations with East Germany in 1970 to normalize relations.

Meanwhile, in 1971, Erich Honecker (1912-1994) replaced Walter Ulbricht as head of state. Honecker combined loyalty to the Soviet Union with flexibility toward détente. At the Eighth Party Congress in June 1971, he presented the political program of the new regime. In his reformulation of East German foreign policy, Honecker renounced the objective of a unified Germany and adopted the "defensive" position of ideological Abgrenzung (demarcation or separation). Under this program, the country defined itself as a distinct "socialist state" and emphasized its allegiance to the Soviet Union. Abgrenzung, by defending East German sovereignty, in turn contributed to the success of détente negotiations that led to the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (Berlin Agreement) in 1971 and the Basic Treaty with West Germany in December 1972.

The Berlin Agreement (effective June 1972), signed by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, protected trade and travel relations between West Berlin and West Germany and aimed at improving communications between East Berlin and West Berlin. The Basic Treaty (effective June 1973) politically recognized two German states, and the two countries pledged to respect one another's sovereignty. Under the terms of the treaty, diplomatic missions were to be exchanged and commercial, tourist, cultural, and communications relations established. In September 1973, both countries joined the United Nations, and thus East Germany received its long-sought international recognition.

East-West economic gap widens

East Germany gained the international acceptance that it had long sought, and trade between the two German states increased, earning West German currency for East Germany, as well as income from fees paid by West Germany for use of the highways through East Germany to Berlin, and from ransoms paid for the release of political prisoners. However, the material gap between the two parts of Germany widened. As East Germany focussed on industrial production for export, the country's roads, railways, and buildings deteriorated, while a housing shortage persisted. Waiting periods of years were still required for the purchase of major consumer items such as automobiles, which continued to be crudely manufactured according to standards of the early postwar period, while those of West Germany ranked high in the world for quality and advanced design.

Dissidents

In spite of détente, the Honecker regime remained committed to Soviet-style socialism and continued a strict policy toward dissidents. Nevertheless, a critical Marxist intelligentsia within the SED renewed the plea for democratic reform. Among them was the poet-singer Wolf Biermann, who with Robert Havemann had led a circle of artists and writers advocating democratization; he was expelled from East Germany in November 1976 for dissident activities. Following Biermann's expulsion, the SED leadership disciplined more than 100 dissident intellectuals.

Despite the government's actions, East German writers began to publish political statements in the West German press and periodical literature. The most prominent example was Rudolf Bahro's Die Alternative, which was published in West Germany in August 1977. The publication led to the author's arrest, imprisonment, and deportation to West Germany. In late 1977, a manifesto of the "League of Democratic Communists of Germany" appeared in the West German magazine Der Spiegel. The league, consisting ostensibly of anonymous middle- to high-ranking SED functionaries, demanded democratic reform in preparation for reunification.

Even after an exodus of artists in protest against Biermann's expulsion, the SED continued its repressive policy against dissidents. The state subjected literature, one of the few vehicles of opposition and nonconformism in East Germany, to ideological attacks and censorship. This policy led to an exodus of prominent writers, which lasted until 1981. The Lutheran Church also became openly critical of SED policies. Although in 1980-81 the SED intensified its censorship of church publications in response to the Polish Solidarity movement, it maintained, for the most part, a flexible attitude toward the church. The consecration of a church building in May 1981 in Eisenhüttenstadt, which according to the SED leadership was not permitted to build a church owing to its status as a "socialist city," demonstrated this flexibility.

Chancellors visit

West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt paid an official visit to East Germany in December 1981, after which East Germany made it easier for its citizens to visit West Germany. By 1986, nearly 250,000 East Germans were visiting West Germany each year, although only one family member at a time was permitted to go. The East German government also began granting permission for some to emigrate. In return, West Germany guaranteed of several large Western bank loans to East Germany. In 1987, Honecker was received in Bonn by Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Honecker resigns

In September 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions and unsealed its border and more than 13,000 people left East Germany by crossing the "green" border via Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to Austria and West Germany. Many others demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig. Kurt Masur, the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra led local negotiations with the government, and held town meetings in the concert hall. The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign and in October he was replaced by Egon Krenz.

On November 9, 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Soon, the governing party of East Germany resigned. Although there were some small attempts to create a permanent, democratic East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for unification with West Germany. After some negotiations (2+4 Talks, involving the two Germanies and the former Allied Powers United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), conditions for German unification were agreed upon. The East German territory was reorganized into five states. Thus, on October 3, 1990, the five East German states plus East Berlin joined the Federal Republic of Germany.

To this day, there remain vast differences between the former East Germany and West Germany (for example, in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs and other matters) and thus it is still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. The Eastern German economy has struggled since unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east.

Government and politics

The SED emblem represented the handshake between Communist Wilhelm Pieck and Social Democrat Otto Grotewohl when their parties merged in 1946.

The German Democratic Republic was created as a socialist republic in 1949 and began to institute a government based on that of the Soviet Union.

The constitution of 1968, and amended in 1974, described a constitutional structure consisting of a directly elected unicameral legislature or People's Chamber (Volkskammer), an executive Council of Ministers, and a judiciary. The entire structure was dominated by the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED), which along with other parties, was part of the National Front of Democratic Germany. It was created in 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet controlled zone.

As the Potsdam Agreement had committed the Soviets to supporting a democratic form of government in Germany, other political parties were technically permitted, although in practice they had no political power and were not allowed to meaningfully question or oppose government policy. Along with other parties, the SED was part of the "National Front of Democratic Germany", ostensibly a united coalition of anti-fascist political parties.

Suffrage was universal to all citizens age 18 and over. National elections took place every five years, and were prepared by an electoral commission of the National Front. The ballot was supposed to be secret and voters were permitted to strike names off ballot. There were 2.195 million party members in 1986.

The Volkskammer also included representatives from the mass organisations like the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend or FDJ), or the Free German Trade Union Federation. In an attempt to include women in the political life of East Germany, there was a Democratic Women's Federation of Germany, with seats in the Volkskammer.

Important non-parliamentary mass organisations in East German society included the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund or DTSB), and People's Solidarity (Volkssolidarität, an organisation for the elderly). Another society of note (and very popular during the late 1980s) was the Society for German-Soviet Friendship.

The legal system was based on civil law system modified by Communist legal theory. The court system parallelled administrative divisions. There was no judicial review of legislative acts. Easy Germany did not accept compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction.

A highly effective secret police force called the Stasi infiltrated and reported on most private activity in East Germany, limiting opportunity for non-sanctioned political organisation. All formal organisations except for churches were directly controlled by the East German government. Churches were permitted to operate more or less free from government control, as long as they abstained from political activity.

In 1952, as part of the reforms designed to centralise power in the hands of the SED's Politbüro, the five Länder of East Germany were abolished, and East Germany was divided into 15 Bezirke (districts), each named after the largest city: the northern Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was divided between the Bezirke Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg; Brandenburg (surrounding Berlin) was reorganised into the Bezirke of Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus; Saxony-Anhalt split into the Bezirke of Halle and Magdeburg; the south-western Land Thuringia became the Bezirke of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl; finally, the south-eastern Land Saxony was divided between Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and following the GDR's collapse again known as Chemnitz). The GDR capital, East Berlin formed the 15th Bezirk, though it retained a special legal status in the GDR until 1968, when East Berliners voted with the rest of the GDR to approve the draft of the new constitution. From this point onwards, irrespective of the Four Power Status and the western allies' objections that East Berlin was merely the Soviet occupied sector of the German capital, East Berlin was treated as a Bezirk like any other.

East Germany's 1989 budget for the National People's Army, Border Troops, Ministry of State Security Guard Regiment, Air and Air Defense Command, and People's Navy was 16.2 billion marks, or 5.4 percent of total budget

Economy

File:GDR economy.jpg

Economic activity in the GDR.

The German Democratic Republic had a centrally planned command economy in the Soviet fashion, in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies of most Western states. The state established production targets and prices and allocated resources, codifying these decisions in a comprehensive plan or set of plans. The means of production were almost entirely state owned. In 1985, for example, state-owned enterprises or collectives earned 96.7 percent of total net national income. To secure constant prices for inhabitants, the state bore 80% of costs of basic supplies, from bread to housing.

Agricultural land was 95 percent collectivized, and financial institutions, transportation, and industrial and foreign trade enterprises are state owned. The republic was the most industrialized country in Eastern Europe, with over half of its GNP generated by the industrial sector. It also enjoyed the highest standard of living among Communist countries, with a per capita GNP of $12,500 in 1988. The inflation rate (consumer prices) was 0.9 percent in 1987. There were no figures for unemployment.

Trade is characterized by exports of manufactured goods and imports of basic raw materials (lignite is the only important natural resource found in the GDR). About 65 percent of foreign trade was with the USSR and other CEMA countries. The GDR's most important trade partner in the West was the Federal Republic of Germany, which provided the GDR with interest-free credit under a special trade arrangement. During the period 1982-88 overall economic growth slowed to 1.5 percent from a rate of 2.0 percent during 1976-80. The GDR faced numerous economic problems that included low hard currency earnings, stagnating living standards, shortages of energy and labor, and an inadequate level of capital investment.

The private sector of the economy was small but not entirely insignificant. In 1985 about 2.8 percent of the net national product came from private enterprises. The private sector included private farmers and gardeners; independent craftsmen, wholesalers, and retailers; and individuals employed in so-called free-lance activities (artist, writers, and others). Although self-employed, such individuals were strictly regulated; in some cases the tax rate exceeded 90 percent. In 1985, for the first time in many years, the number of individuals working in the private sector increased slightly. According to East German statistics, in 1985 there were about 176,800 private entrepreneurs, an increase of about 500 over 1984. Certain private sector activities were quite important to the system because those craftsmen provided rare, specially made spare parts.

Exports totalled $30.8-billion in 1987. Export commodities included machinery and transport equipment 47 percent, fuels and metals 16 percent, consumer goods 16 percent, chemical products and building materials 13 percent, and semi-manufactured goods and processed foodstuffs 8 percent. Export partners included the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, FRG, Hungary, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Romania.

Imports totalled $31.0-billion in 1987. Import commodities included fuels and metals 40 percent, machinery and transport equipment 29 percent, chemical products and building materials 9 percent. Import partners included CEMA countries 65 percent, non-Communist countries 33 percent, and other 2 percent.

Culture

Music

For ideological reasons artists were expected to sing songs only in German at first, which changed with the end of the sixties. This seemed a logical constraint by the Party leaders but it was rather unpopular among young people. There were strict rules that regulated that all artistic activity ought to be censored for any open or implied anti-socialist tendencies. The band Renft, for example, was prone to political misbehaviour, which eventually led to its split.

The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at critical thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like most mainstream acts, they appeared in popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Other popular rock bands were Wir, Dean Reed, City and Pankow. Most of these artists recorded on the state-owned AMIGA label.

Influences from the West were heard everywhere, because TV and radio that came from the Klassenfeind (class enemy, meaning "enemy of the working class") could be received in many parts of the East, too (a notorious exception being Dresden, with its geographically disadvantageous position in the Elbe valley, giving it the nickname of “Valley of the Clueless”). The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands were Die Skeptiker, as well as Feeling B.

Classical music was highly supported, so that there existed over 50 classical symphony orchestras in a country with a population about 16 million. See also:

• Thomanerchor Leipzig
• Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
• Berliner Sinfonie Orchester
• Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory and his birthplace in Eisenach was turned into a museum of his life, which, among other things, included more than 300 instruments from Bach's life. In 1980 this museum was receiving more than 70,000 visitors annually.

In Leipzig, an enormous archive with recordings of all of Bach's music was compiled, along with many historical documents and letters both to and from him.

Every other year, school children from across East Germany gathered for a Bach competition held in East Berlin. Every four years an international Bach competition for keyboard and strings was held.

Theatre

File:Gklgkl.jpg

Stamp celebrating the GDR's 25th anniversary in 1974.

East German theatre was originally dominated by Bertolt Brecht, who brought back many artists out of exile and reopened the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm with his Berliner Ensemble. Alternatively, other influences tried to establish a "Working Class Theatre", played for the working class by the working class.

After Brecht's death, conflicts began to arise between his family (around Helene Weigel) and other artists about Brecht's heritage. Heinz Kahlau, Slatan Dudow, Erwin Geschonneck, Erwin Strittmatter, Peter Hacks, Benno Besson, Peter Palitzsch and Ekkehard Schall were considered to be among Bertolt Brecht's scholars and followers.

In the 1950s the Swiss director Benno Besson with the Deutsches Theater successfully toured Europe and Asia including Japan with "The Dragon" by Jewgenij Schwarz. In the 1960s, he became the Intendant of the Volksbühne often working with Heiner Müller.

After 1975 many artists left the GDR due to increasing censorship. A parallel theatre scene grew up, creating theatre "outside of Berlin" in which artists played at provincial theatres. For example Peter Sodann founded the neues theater in Halle/Saale and Frank Castorf at the theater Anklam.

Theatre and Cabaret had high status in the GDR, which allowed it to be very pro-active. This often brought it into confrontation with the State. Benno Besson once said: "At least they took us seriously, we had a bearing."

Important theatres:

• Deutsches Theater [1]
• Berliner Ensemble [2]
• Volksbühne [3]
• Maxim Gorki Theater [4]

Cinema

In the GDR, the movie industry was very active. The head-group for film-productions was the DEFA [5], Deutsche Film AG, which was subdivided in different local groups, for example Gruppe Berlin, Gruppe Babelsberg or Gruppe Johannisthal, where the local teams shot and produced films. Besides folksy movies, the movie-industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children's movies ("Das kalte Herz", film versions of the Grimm brothers fairy-tales and modern productions such as "Das Schulgespenst").

Frank Beyer's "Jakob der Lügner" (about persecution of Jews in Third Reich) and, "Fünf Patronenhülsen"(Five Bullet Shells) about resistance against fascism, became internationally famous.

Movies about problems of everyday life such as "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" (directed by Heiner Carow) and "Solo Sunny" (directed by Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase) were also very popular.

The film industry was remarkable for its production of Ostern, or Western-like movies. Indians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the American westerns of the time, where Indians were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavians were often cast as the Indians, due to the small number of American Indians in eastern Europe. Gojko Mitić was well-known in these roles, often playing the righteous, kindhearted and charming chief ("Die Söhne der großen Bärin" directed by Josef Mach). He became an honorary Sioux chief when he visited the United States of America in the 90s and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe one of his movies. American actor and singer Dean Reed, an expatriate who lived in East Germany, also starred in several films. These films were part of the phenomenon of Europe producing alternative films about the colonization of America. See also Spaghetti Western and the West German Winnetou films (adaptations of novels of Karl May).

Because of censorship a certain number of very remarkable movies were forbidden at this time and reissued after the Wende in 1990. Examples are "Spur der Steine" (directed by Frank Beyer) and "Der geteilte Himmel" (directed by Konrad Wolf).

Cinemas in the GDR also showed some foreign films. Czechoslovak and Polish productions were more common, but also certain western movies were shown, but the numbers were limited because it cost foreign exchange to buy the licences. Further, movies representing or glorifying capitalistic ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish "Olsen Gang" or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.

Sports

For a small country, the people of East Germany achieved some remarkable results in many sports including cycling, weightlifting, swimming, track and field, boxing, skating and other winter sports. One reason for the success was started with late 1960s leadership of Dr. Manfred Hoeppner, when his policy of anabolic steroid administration to many athletes was established. This program allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records. This success continued even after the international steroid testing policy was established. (See Doping (sport)).

Another factor for success was the furtherance-system for young people in GDR. When some children were aged around 6 until 10 years old (or older) sport-teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in every pupil. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar-schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming). This policy was also used for talented pupils with regard to music or mathematics.

Sports clubs were highly subsidised, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included each 2 teams (excluding the school and university sport). Football (soccer) was the most popular sport after team handball, although the national team was rarely successful in comparison to the West German national team, which won the World Cup three times before reunification. Club football sides like Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena and 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig did have some success in European competition. Many East German players became integral parts of the reunified national football team, for example Matthias Sammer. Other sports enjoyed great popularity like figure skating, especially because of sportswomen like Katharina Witt.

One of the reasons for the East German ambition to be so successful in world sports, was on the one hand similar to those of the USSR or the United States as a part of this certain kind of competition. On the other hand it was an attempt to be accepted internationally as a state in its own right. After German reunification, the gold medals became ever less, at the Olympic Games.

See also

Germany West Germany History of Germany since 1945 History of East Germany Leaders of East Germany Berlin East Berlin West Berlin Ministerrat

Forces National People's Army Luftstreitkräfte der NVA Stasi Volkspolizei Conscientious objection in East Germany

Media Broadcasting in East Germany Cold War propaganda in Germany Aktuelle Kamera, GDR's main TV news show Radio Berlin International Der Tunnel, a film about a mass evacuation to West Berlin through a tunnel Education in East Germany

Transport Deutsche Reichsbahn - The railway company of the GDR Interflug - The airline of the GDR Trabant

Other Iron Curtain Tourism in East Germany GDR jokes Ostalgie Palast der Republik Dean Reed Highest point: Fichtelberg (1,214 m) SV Dynamo

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Childs, David, Thomas A. Baylis, and Marilyn Rueschemeyer. 1989. East Germany in comparative perspective. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415004961
• Fulbrook, Mary. 2005. The people's state East German society from Hitler to Honecker. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300108842
• Fulbrook, Mary. 1995. Anatomy of a dictatorship inside the GDR, 1949-1989. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198203124
• Gray, William Glenn. 2003. Germany's cold war the global campaign to isolate East Germany, 1949-1969. New Cold War history. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807862483
• Grix, Jonathan. 2000. The role of the masses in the collapse of the GDR. New perspectives in German studies. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press. ISBN 9780312235666
• Jarausch, Konrad Hugo. 1999. Dictatorship as experience towards a socio-cultural history of the GDR. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781571811820
• Port, Andrew Ian. 2000. Conflict and stability in the German Democratic Republic a study in accommodation and working-class fragmentation, 1945-1971. Thesis (Ph. D., Department of History)—Harvard University, 2000. OCLC 77071032
• Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 132,133

External links

• German Democratic Republic Theodora.com, accessed October 30, 2007.
• AHF - Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)
• (German) Auferstanden aus Ruinen
• Translations of propaganda materials from the GDR.
• DDR Museum Berlin - Culture of the GDR
• East Berlin, Past and Present
• The Lives of Others official website

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Germany&oldid=152912914 East Germany  ^{Germany&action=history history}
• History_of_Germany_since_1945  ^history
• History_of_the_German_Democratic_Republic  ^history
• Politics_of_East_Germany  ^history
• Economy_of_East_Germany  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "East Germany"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.