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German Democratic Republic Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1949–1990 | |||||||||
| Motto: "Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!" ("Workers of the world, unite!") | |||||||||
| Anthem: "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" ("Risen from Ruins") | |||||||||
.svg)  Location of the East Germany (dark green) in Europe (dark grey) | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | East Berlin[a] 52°31′N 13°24′E / 52.517°N 13.400°E | ||||||||
| Official languages | German Sorbian (in parts of Bezirk Dresden and Bezirk Cottbus) | ||||||||
| Religion | See Religion in East Germany | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) |
| ||||||||
| Government | Socialist republic | ||||||||
| SED Leader[b] | |||||||||
• 1946–1950[c] | Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl[d] | ||||||||
• 1950–1971 | Walter Ulbricht | ||||||||
• 1971–1989 | Erich Honecker | ||||||||
• 1989[e] | Egon Krenz | ||||||||
| Head of State | |||||||||
• 1949–1960 (first) | Wilhelm Pieck | ||||||||
• 1990 (last) | Sabine Bergmann-Pohl | ||||||||
| Head of Government | |||||||||
• 1949–1964 (first) | Otto Grotewohl | ||||||||
• 1990 (last) | Lothar de Maizière | ||||||||
| Legislature | Volkskammer | ||||||||
| Länderkammer[f] | |||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
| 7 October 1949 | |||||||||
| 16 June 1953 | |||||||||
| 14 May 1955 | |||||||||
| 4 June 1961 | |||||||||
| 9 April 1968 | |||||||||
• Basic Treaty with the FRG | 21 December 1972 | ||||||||
| 18 September 1973 | |||||||||
| 13 October 1989 | |||||||||
| 9 November 1989 | |||||||||
| 12 September 1990 | |||||||||
| 3 October 1990 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• Total | 108,875 km2 (42,037 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1950 | 18,388,000[g][1] | ||||||||
• 1970 | 17,068,000 | ||||||||
• 1990 | 16,111,000 | ||||||||
• Density | 149/km2 (385.9/sq mi) | ||||||||
| GDP (PPP) | 1989 estimate | ||||||||
• Total | $525.29 billion[2] | ||||||||
• Per capita | $26,631[2] | ||||||||
| HDI (1990 formula) | 0.953[3] very high | ||||||||
| Currency |
| ||||||||
| Time zone | (UTC+1) | ||||||||
| Drives on | right | ||||||||
| Calling code | +37 | ||||||||
| Internet TLD | .dd[h][4] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||
The initial Flag of East Germany (GDR) adopted in 1949 was identical to that of West Germany (FRG). In 1959, the government of this country issued a new version of the flag bearing the national emblem, serving to distinguish East from West. | |||||||||
East Germany (German: Ostdeutschland, [ˈɔstˌdɔʏtʃlant] ), officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik, [ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʁepuˈbliːk] , DDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state".[5] The economy of the country was centrally planned and state-owned.[6] Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc.[7]
Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II. The Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east by the Oder-Neiße line. The GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party, before being democratized and liberalized in 1989 as a result of the pressure against communist governments brought by the Revolutions of 1989. This paved the way for East Germany's reunification with the West. Unlike the government of West Germany, the SED did not see its state as the successor to the German Reich (1871–1945) and abolished the goal of unification in the constitution (1974). The SED-ruled GDR was often described as a Soviet satellite state; historians described it as an authoritarian regime.[8][9]
Geographically the GDR bordered the Baltic Sea to the north, Poland to the east, Czechoslovakia to the southeast, and West Germany to the southwest and west. Internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin, known as East Berlin, which was also administered as the country's de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom, and France known collectively as West Berlin (de facto part of the FRG). Emigration to the West was a significant problem as many emigrants were well-educated young people; such emigration weakened the state economically. In response, the GDR government fortified its inner German border and later built the Berlin Wall in 1961.[10] Many people attempting to flee[11][12][13] were killed by border guards or booby traps such as landmines.[14]
In 1989 numerous social, economic, and political forces in the GDR and abroad, one of the most notable being peaceful protests starting in the city of Leipzig, led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the establishment of a government committed to liberalization. The following year, a free and fair election was held in the country,[15] and international negotiations between the four former Allied countries and the two German states commenced. The negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty, which replaced the Potsdam Agreement on the status and borders of a future, reunited Germany. The GDR ceased to exist when its five states ("Länder") joined the Federal Republic of Germany under Article 23 of the Basic Law, and its capital East Berlin united with West Berlin on 3 October 1990. Several of the GDR's leaders, notably its last communist leader Egon Krenz, were later prosecuted for offenses committed during the GDR era.[16][17]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "Bevölkerungsstand" [Population level] (in German). Statistisches Bundesamt. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013.
- ^ a b "GDR". World Inequality Database.
- ^ "Human Development Report 1990" (PDF). hdr.undp.org. January 1990. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 February 2014.
- ^ "Top-Level-Domain .DD" (in German). Archived from the original on 4 November 2015.
- ^ Major, Patrick; Osmond, Jonathan (2002). The Workers' and Peasants' State: Communism and Society in East Germany Under Ulbricht 1945–71. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6289-6.
- ^ Peter E. Quint. The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification, Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 125–126.
- ^ "Business America. (27 February 1989). German Democratic Republic: long history of sustained economic growth continues; 1989 may be an advantageous year to consider this market – Business Outlook Abroad: Current Reports from the Foreign Service". Business America. 1989. Archived from the original on 9 November 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
- ^ Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Jürgen Kocka, Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Agnes Blänsdorf. Towards a Global Community of Historians: the International Historical Congresses and the International Committee of Historical Sciences 1898–2000. Berghahn Books, 2005, p. 314. ("However the collapse of the Soviet empire, associated with the disintegration of the Soviet satellite regimes in East-Central Europe, including the German Democratic Republic, brought about a dramatic change of agenda.")
- ^ Kocka, Jürgen, ed. (2010). Civil Society & Dictatorship in Modern German History. UPNE. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-58465-866-5. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ Preuss, Evelyn. "The Wall You Will Never Know". Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 19–31.
- ^ "Three Top Commies Flee East Germany". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 23 January 1953. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 21 November 2019 – via Google News.
- ^ "5 Flee East Germany". Toledo Blade. 31 May 1963. Retrieved 21 November 2019 – via Google News.
- ^ "Eugene Register-Guard – Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
- ^ "Files: 350 dies trying to flee East Germany". The Victoria Advocate. 28 July 1992. Retrieved 21 November 2019 – via Google News.
- ^ Pridham, Geoffrey; Vanhanen, Tatu (1994). Democratization in Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 135. ISBN 0-415-11063-7.
- ^ "Repeal the racist asylum laws". The New Worker. 29 August 1997. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
- ^ "Krenz, Schabowski und Kleiber hatten sich nichts mehr zu sagen" [Krenz, Schabowski and Kleiber had nothing more to say to each other]. Berliner Zeitung (in German). 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2011.