View source for Place:East Germany

{{Short description|Country in Central Europe (1949–1990)}}
{{Infobox former country
| native_name            = {{native_name|de|Deutsche Demokratische Republik}}
| conventional_long_name = German Democratic Republic
| common_name            = East Germany
| year_start             = 1949
| year_end               = 1990
| life_span              = 
| era                    = [[History:Cold War|Cold War]]
| event_start            = {{nowrap|Constitution adopted}}
| date_start             = 7 October
| event_end              = Reunification
| date_end               = 3 October
| event1                 = Uprising of 1953
| date_event1            = 16 June 1953
| event2                 = [[Organization:Warsaw Pact|Warsaw Pact]]
| date_event2            = 14 May 1955
| event3                 = Berlin Crisis
| date_event3            = 4 June 1961
| event4                 = {{nowrap|Basic Treaty with the FRG}}
| date_event4            = 21 December 1972
| event5                 = Admitted to the {{wipe|United Nations}}
| date_event5            = {{nowrap|18 September 1973}}
| event6                 = Peaceful Revolution
| date_event6            = 13 October 1989
| event7                 = {{nowrap|Fall of the Berlin Wall}}
| date_event7            = 9 November 1989
| event8                 = Final Settlement
| date_event8            = 12 September 1990
| p1                     = Soviet occupation zone in Germany
| flag_p1                = Flag of the Soviet Union (1924–1955).svg
| s1                     = History of Germany (1990–present){{!}}Federal Republic of Germany
| flag_s1                = Flag of Germany.svg
| image_flag             = Flag of the German Democratic Republic.svg
| alt_flag               = Flag of East Germany
| flag_type              = Flag<br />(1959–1990)
| image_coat             = State arms of German Democratic Republic.svg
| symbol_type            = Emblem<br />(1955–1990)
| image_map              = East Germany 1956-1990.svg
| image_map_caption      = Territory of East Germany (green) in 1957
| national_anthem        = "{{lang|de|Auferstanden aus Ruinen|italics=no}}"<br />("Risen from Ruins")
| national_motto         = "{{lang|de|Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!|italics=no}}"
| englishmotto           = "[[Philosophy:Workers of the world, unite!|Workers of the world, unite!]]"
| capital                = East Berlin{{efn|Partially recognised}}
| coordinates            = {{coord|52|31|N|13|24|E|type:city}}
| largest_city           = capital
| official_languages     = [[Social:DDR German|German]]<br />Sorbian (in parts of Bezirk Dresden and Bezirk Cottbus)
| religion               = ''See Religion in East Germany''
| demonym                = {{hlist|East German|German}}
| leader1                = Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl{{efn|Served as Joint Chairmen together.}}
| leader2                = Walter Ulbricht
| leader3                = Erich Honecker
| leader4                = Egon Krenz
| year_leader1           = 1946–1950{{efn|The SED was established in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, before the GDR's foundation.}}
| year_leader2           = 1950–1971
| year_leader3           = 1971–1989
| year_leader4           = 1989{{efn|October–December}}
| title_leader           = General Secretary
| representative1        = Wilhelm Pieck
| representative2        = {{nowrap|Sabine Bergmann-Pohl}}
| year_representative1   = 1949–1960 {{small|(first)}}
| year_representative2   = 1990 {{small|(last)}}
| title_representative   = Head of State
| deputy1                = Otto Grotewohl
| deputy2                = Lothar de Maizière
| year_deputy1           = 1949–1964 {{small|(first)}}
| year_deputy2           = 1990 {{small|(last)}}
| title_deputy           = {{nowrap|Head of Government}}
| legislature            = {{lang|de|Volkskammer}}
| house1                 = {{lang|de|Länderkammer}}{{efn|Dissolved by the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} on 8 December 1958.}}
| type_house1            = Upper house
| stat_pop1              = 18,388,000{{efn|Population statistics according to {{lang|de|Statistisches Bundesamt}}.}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/Indikatoren/LangeReihen/Bevoelkerung/lrbev03.html |title=Bevölkerungsstand |language=de |trans-title=Population level |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113231041/https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/Indikatoren/LangeReihen/Bevoelkerung/lrbev03.html |archive-date=13 November 2013 |publisher=Statistisches Bundesamt}}</ref>
| stat_year1             = 1950
| stat_pop2              = 17,068,000
| stat_year2             = 1970
| stat_pop3              = 16,111,000
| stat_year3             = 1990
| population_density_km2 = 149
| area_km2               = 108,875
| currency               = {{plainlist|
* East German mark (1949–1990), officially named:
** {{lang|de|Deutsche Mark}} (1949–1964)
** {{lang|de|Mark der Deutschen Notenbank}} (1964–1967)
** {{lang|de|Mark der DDR}} (1967–1990)
* {{lang|de|[[Finance:Deutsche Mark|Deutsche Mark]]}} (from 1 July 1990)}}
| GDP_PPP                = $525.29 billion<ref name=WID>{{cite web |url=https://wid.world/world/#agdpro_p0p100_z/DD/last/eu/k/p/yearly/a/false/6676.3185/35000/curve/false/country |title=GDR |publisher=World Inequality Database |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>
| GDP_PPP_year           = 1989
| GDP_PPP_rank           = 
| GDP_PPP_per_capita     = $26,631<ref name=WID/>
| GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 
| HDI                    = 0.953
| HDI_ref                = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf |title=Human Development Report 1990 |website=hdr.undp.org |date=January 1990 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202144055/http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf |archive-date = 2 February 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| HDI_year               = 1990 formula
| cctld                  = .dd{{efn|Although .dd was reserved as corresponding [[ISO 3166|ISO code]] for East Germany, it was not entered to the root before the country was reunited with the west.}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://internet.robert-scheck.de/tld-dd/ |title=Top-Level-Domain .DD |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104112107/http://internet.robert-scheck.de/tld-dd/ |archive-date=4 November 2015 |language=de}}</ref>
| drives_on              = right
| calling_code           = +37
| time_zone              = ([[Physics:Coordinated Universal Time|UTC]]+1)
| today                  = {{wipe|Germany}}
| footnotes              = The initial Flag of East Germany (GDR) adopted in 1949 was identical to that of West Germany (FRG). In 1959, government of this country issued a new version of the flag bearing the national emblem, serving to distinguish East from West.
}}

'''East Germany''' ({{lang-de|Ostdeutschland}}, {{IPA-de|ˈɔstˌdɔʏtʃlant|pron|De-Ostdeutschland.ogg}}), officially the '''German Democratic Republic''' ('''GDR'''; {{lang|de|Deutsche Demokratische Republik}}, {{IPA-de|ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʁepuˈbliːk|pron|De-Deutsche Demokratische Republik.ogg}}, '''DDR'''), was a country in [[Place:Central Europe|Central Europe]] that existed 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 [[Social:Communist state|communist state]], and it described itself as a [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist]] "workers' and peasants' state".<ref name="MajorOsmond">{{cite book |first1=Patrick |last1=Major |first2=Jonathan |last2=Osmond |title=The Workers' and Peasants' State: Communism and Society in East Germany Under Ulbricht 1945–71 |publisher=Manchester University Press |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-7190-6289-6}}</ref> The economy of this country was centrally planned and state-owned.<ref>Peter E. Quint. ''The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification'', Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 125–126.</ref> Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc.<ref name="Econ stats">{{Cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1052/is_n4_v110/ai_7373809 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109185421/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1052/is_n4_v110/ai_7373809 |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 November 2007 |title=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{{snd}}Business Outlook Abroad: Current Reports from the Foreign Service. |access-date=2 October 2007 |work=Business America |year=1989}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=November 2023}}

Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces with the autonomy of the native communists following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in [[Social:World War II|World War II]]; when the Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. It was a satellite state of the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]].<ref>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''. [[Company:Berghahn Books|Berghahn Books]], 2005, p.&nbsp;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.")</ref> The GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party, from 1949 to 1989, before being democratized and liberalized under the impact of the Revolutions of 1989 against the communist states, helping East Germany be united with the West. Unlike West Germany, the SED did not see its state as the successor of 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.<ref name="UPNE">{{cite book |editor-first=Jürgen |editor-last=Kocka |title=Civil Society & Dictatorship in Modern German History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8mo4uP3SQMC&pg=PA37 |year=2010 |publisher=UPNE |page=37 |isbn=978-1-58465-866-5 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320043228/http://books.google.com/books?id=j8mo4uP3SQMC&pg=PA37 |archive-date=20 March 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Geographically, the GDR bordered the [[Place:Baltic Sea|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 {{wipe|United States}}, {{wipe|United Kingdom}}, and {{wipe|France}} known collectively as West Berlin (de facto part of the FRG). Emigration to the West was a significant problem as many of the 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Preuss |first=Evelyn |title=The Wall You Will Never Know |url=https://www.academia.edu/17812963 |journal=Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |pages=19–31}}</ref> Many people attempting to flee<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7n0cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zWQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2806%2C3656351 |title=Three Top Commies Flee East Germany |work=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |pages=1–2 |via=[[Software:Google News|Google News]] |date=23 January 1953 |access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19630531&id=gAhPAAAAIBAJ&pg=829,2069647&hl=en |title=5 Flee East Germany |work=Toledo Blade |via=Google News |date=31 May 1963 |access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Eugene Register-Guard – Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19631028&id=EBlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BeMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=945,4687254&hl=en |access-date=2021-04-26 |website=news.google.com}}</ref> were killed by border guards or booby traps such as landmines.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19920728&id=D0lSAAAAIBAJ&pg=880,639718&hl=en |title=Files: 350 dies trying to flee East Germany |work=The Victoria Advocate |via=Google News |date=28 July 1992 |access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref>  

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<ref>{{cite book |first1=Geoffrey |last1=Pridham |first2=Tatu |last2=Vanhanen |title=Democratization in Eastern Europe |publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]] |year=1994 |isbn=0-415-11063-7 |page=135}}</ref> and international negotiations between four occupation Allied countries and two German countries led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty to replace the Potsdam Agreement on the status and border of 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 East Berlin was also united with West Berlin into a single city of the FRG, 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's times.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newworker.org/nw29897.htm#international |title=Repeal the racist asylum laws |work=The New Worker |date=29 August 1997 |accessdate=5 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2000/0907/none/0093/index.html |title=Krenz, Schabowski und Kleiber hatten sich nichts mehr zu sagen |trans-title=Krenz, Schabowski and Kleiber had nothing more to say to each other |language=de |work=Berliner Zeitung |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719120957/http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2000/0907/none/0093/index.html |date=31 May 2008 |archive-date=19 July 2012 |access-date=5 September 2011}}</ref>

== Naming conventions ==
The official name was {{lang|de|Deutsche Demokratische Republik}} (German Democratic Republic), usually abbreviated to ''DDR'' (GDR). Both terms were used in East Germany, with increasing usage of the abbreviated form, especially since East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners to be foreigners following the promulgation of its second constitution in 1968. West Germans, the western media and statesmen initially avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like ''Ostzone'' (Eastern Zone),<ref name=zeit49>{{cite news |author=Berlin Korrespondent |title=Nationale Front in der Ostzone |language=de |trans-title=National Front in the Eastern Zone |url=http://www.zeit.de/1949/22/nationale-front-in-der-ostzone |newspaper=Die Zeit |date=June 1949 |access-date=10 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111023236/http://www.zeit.de/1949/22/nationale-front-in-der-ostzone |archive-date=11 November 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> {{lang|de|Sowjetische Besatzungszone}} (Soviet Occupation Zone; often abbreviated to ''SBZ'') and {{lang|de|sogenannte DDR}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45935352.html |title=Vom Sogenannten |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203124606/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45935352.html |archive-date=3 February 2016 |work=Der Spiegel |date=21 October 1968 |page=65 |url-status=live}}</ref> or "so-called GDR".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gQMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA20 |title=Facts about Germany: The Federal Republic of Germany, 1959 – Germany (West) |page=20 |year=1959 |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221170436/https://books.google.com/books?id=9gQMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA20 |archive-date=21 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The centre of political power in East Berlin was – in the West – referred to as ''Pankow'' (the seat of command of the Soviet forces in Germany was in Karlshorst, a district in the East of Berlin.).<ref name=zeit49 /> Over time, however, the abbreviation "DDR" was also increasingly used colloquially by West Germans and West German media.{{efn|The use of the abbreviation ''BRD'' (FRG) for West Germany, the {{lang|de|Bundesrepublik Deutschland}} (''Federal Republic of Germany''), on the other hand, was never accepted in West Germany since it was considered a political statement. Thus ''BRD'' (FRG) was a term used by East Germans, or by West Germans who held a pro-East-German view. Colloquially, West Germans called West Germany simply Germany (reflecting West Germany's claim to represent the whole of Germany), or alternatively the {{lang|de|Bundesrepublik}} or {{lang|de|Bundesgebiet}} (Federal Republic or Federal Territory, respectively), referring to the country and {{lang|de|Bundesbürger}} (Federal citizen) for its citizens, with the adjective {{lang|de|bundesdeutsch}} (Federal German).}}

When used by West Germans, {{lang|de|Westdeutschland}} (West Germany) was a term almost always in reference to the geographic region of Western Germany and not to the area within the boundaries of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, this use was not always consistent and West Berliners frequently used the term {{lang|de|Westdeutschland}} to denote the Federal Republic.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Language of Human Rights in West Germany |first=Lora |last=Wildenthal |page=210}}</ref> Before World War II, {{lang|de|Ostdeutschland}} (eastern Germany) was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe (East Elbia), as reflected in the works of sociologist [[Biography:Max Weber|Max Weber]] and political theorist [[Biography:Carl Schmitt|Carl Schmitt]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornfield |first1=Daniel B. |last2=Hodson |first2=Randy |date=2002 |title=Worlds of Work: Building an International Sociology of Work |publisher=Springer |pages=223 |isbn=0-306-46605-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s11614-006-0033-6 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251114867 |language=de |title=Ein Text in seinem Kontext |trans-title=A text in its context |journal=Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie |volume=30 |pages=3–21 |year=2005 |last=Pollak |first=Michael |s2cid=147022466}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfeX8QS7DeMC&pg=PA187 |pages=187–188 |title=The Sanctity of Rural Life: Nobility, Protestantism, and Nazism in Weimar Prussia |isbn=978-0-19-536166-7 |last=Baranowski |first=Shelley |date=6 April 1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201040241/https://books.google.de/books?id=cfeX8QS7DeMC&pg=PA187 |archive-date=1 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sx0uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |page=11 |title=Political Romanticism |isbn=978-1-351-49869-2 |last=Schmitt |first=Carl |date=12 July 2017 |publisher=Routledge |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223111735/https://books.google.de/books?id=Sx0uDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"Each spring, millions of workmen from all parts of western Russia arrived in eastern Germany, which, in political language, is called East Elbia." from ''The Stronghold of Junkerdom'', by George Sylvester Viereck. Viereck's, Volume 8. Fatherland Corporation, 1918.</ref>

== History ==

[[File:Soviet Sector Germany.png|thumb|On the basis of the Potsdam Conference, the Allies jointly occupied Germany west of the Oder–Neisse line, later forming these occupied territories into two independent countries. Light grey: territories annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union; dark grey: West Germany (formed from the US, UK and French occupation zones, including West Berlin); red: East Germany (formed from the Soviet occupation zone, including East Berlin).]]

Explaining the internal impact of the GDR government from the perspective of German history in the long term, historian Gerhard A. Ritter (2002) has argued that the East German state was defined by two dominant forces{{snd}}Soviet communism on the one hand, and German traditions filtered through the interwar experiences of German communists on the other.<ref>Compare: {{cite journal |first=Gerhard A. |last=Ritter |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |language=de |title=Die DDR in der deutschen Geschichte |trans-title=The GDR in German history |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |date=April 2002 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=171–172 |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116143839/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2019 |url-status=live |quote=Die Geschichte der DDR ist im wesentlichen zwischen zwei Polen einzubetten. Den einen Pol bildet die Sowjetisierung [...] Den anderen Pol bildeten deutsche Traditionen, vor allem die Vorstellungen der kommunistischen Arbeiterbewegung. |trans-quote=The history of the GDR is essentially embedded between two poles. Sovietization formed one pole [...] German traditions formed the other pole, above all the ideas of the communist workers' movement.}}</ref> Throughout its existence GDR consistently grappled with the influence of the more prosperous West, against which East Germans continually measured their own nation. The notable transformations instituted by the communist regime were particularly evident in the abolition of capitalism, the overhaul of industrial and agricultural sectors, the militarization of society, and the political orientation of both the educational system and the media.

On the other hand, the new regime made relatively few changes in the historically independent domains of the sciences, the engineering professions,<ref name="ritter2" />{{rp|185–189}} the Protestant churches,<ref name="ritter2" />{{rp|190}} and in many bourgeois lifestyles.<ref name="ritter2" />{{rp|190}} Social policy, says Ritter, became a critical legitimization tool in the last decades and mixed socialist and traditional elements about equally.<ref name="ritter2">{{cite journal |first=Gerhard A. |last=Ritter |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |language=de |title=Die DDR in der deutschen Geschichte |trans-title=The GDR in German history |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |date=April 2002 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=171–200 |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116143839/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2019 |url-status=live |quote=In der Sozialpolitik hielten sich die Kontinuitäten und die Brüche mit der deutschen Tradition etwa die Waage. [...] Seit Mitte der sechziger Jahre, vor allem aber in der Ära Honecker, in der die 'Einheit von Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik' zum Leitprinzip erhoben wurde, wurde die Sozialpolitik die wohl wichtigste Legitimationsgrundlage des Staates. |trans-quote=}}</ref>

=== Origins ===
At the Yalta Conference during World War II, the Allies, i.e., the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and the Soviet Union (USSR), agreed on dividing a defeated [[Place:Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany]] into occupation zones,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm |title=Yalta Conference |website=spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk |access-date=25 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514081136/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm |archive-date=14 May 2011}}</ref> and on dividing Berlin, the German capital, among the Allied powers as well. Initially, this meant the formation of three zones of occupation, i.e., American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved out of the US and British zones.

=== 1949 establishment ===

The ruling communist party, known as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), formed on 21 April 1946 from the merger between the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).<ref>On the discussion about Social Democrats joining the SED see Steffen Kachel, Entscheidung für die SED 1946 – ein Verrat an sozialdemokratischen Idealen?, in: ''Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung'', No. I/2004.{{date?}}</ref> The two former parties were notorious rivals when they were active before the Nazis consolidated all power and criminalized them, and official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties and symbolic of the new friendship of German socialists after defeating their common enemy; however, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed, and that the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD, and the communists, who held a majority, had virtually total control over policy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |title=LeMO Kapitel: Zwangsvereinigung zur SED |trans-title=LeMO Chapter: Forced Association to the SED |language=de |author=Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland |website=hdg.de |access-date=15 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614213527/http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |archive-date=14 June 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> The SED remained the ruling party for the entire duration of the East German state. It had close ties with the Soviets, which maintained military forces in East Germany until the dissolution of the Soviet regime in 1991 ({{wipe|Russia}} continued to maintain forces in the territory of the former East Germany until 1994), with the purpose of countering NATO bases in West Germany.

As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from its occupiers (1945–1949), the GDR was established in East Germany in October 1949. The emergence of the two sovereign states solidified the 1945 division of Germany.<ref>See [http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm Anna M. Cienciala "History 557 Lecture Notes"] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100620054515/http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm |date= 20 June 2010}}</ref> On 10 March 1952, (in what would become known as the "Stalin Note") the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}, issued a proposal to reunify Germany with a policy of neutrality, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for "the rights of man and basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, press, religious persuasion, political conviction, and assembly" and free activity of democratic parties and organizations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |date=1990 |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |location=New York, NY |publisher=Columbia University Press}}</ref> The West demurred; reunification was not then a priority for the [[Philosophy:Leadership|leadership]] of West Germany, and the NATO powers declined the proposal, asserting that Germany should be able to join NATO and that such a negotiation with the Soviet Union would be seen as a capitulation.

In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the SED, headed by Wilhelm Pieck (1876–1960), who became President of the GDR and held the office until his death, while the SED general secretary Walter Ulbricht assumed most executive authority. Socialist leader Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964) became prime minister until his death.<ref>Roth, Gary. "Review of Hoffmann, Dierk, _Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): Eine politische Biographie_" H-German, H-Net Reviews. November 2010. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 online] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121017042506/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 |date = 17 October 2012}}</ref>

The government of East Germany denounced West German failures in accomplishing [[Social:Denazification|denazification]] and renounced ties to the Nazi past, imprisoning many former Nazis and preventing them from holding government positions. The SED set a primary goal of ridding East Germany of all traces of [[Social:Nazism|Nazism]].<ref>Gomez Gutiérrez, J. J., & Bruschi, V. (2003). Socialist Unity Party of Germany. In N. Schlager (Ed.), ''St. James encyclopedia of labor history worldwide: Major events in labor history and their impact.'' St. James Press.</ref>{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}} It is estimated that{{when|date=December 2020}} between 180,000 and 250,000 people were sentenced to imprisonment on political grounds.<ref>{{cite web |title=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic |url=https://communistcrimes.org/en/political-prisoners-german-democratic-republic |access-date=24 November 2020 |website=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic {{!}} Communist Crimes |language=en}}</ref>

=== Zones of occupation ===

In the Yalta and Potsdam conferences of 1945, the Allies established their joint military occupation and administration of Germany via the [[Organization:Allied Control Council|Allied Control Council]] (ACC), a four-power (US, UK, USSR, France) [[Social:Military occupation|military government]] effective until the restoration of German sovereignty. In eastern Germany, the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ{{snd}}''Sowjetische Besatzungszone'') comprised the five states (''Länder'') of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Edward N. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38207545 |title=Russian commands and German resistance : the Soviet Occupation, 1945–1949 |date=1999 |publisher=P. Lang |isbn=0-8204-3948-7 |location=New York |pages=5 |oclc=38207545}}</ref> Disagreements over the policies to be followed in the occupied zones quickly led to a breakdown in cooperation between the four powers, and the Soviets administered their zone without regard to the policies implemented in the other zones. The Soviets withdrew from the ACC in 1948; subsequently, as the other three zones were increasingly unified and granted self-government, the Soviet administration instituted a separate socialist government in its zone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Edward N. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38207545 |title=Russian commands and German resistance : the Soviet Occupation, 1945–1949 |date=1999 |publisher=P. Lang |isbn=0-8204-3948-7 |location=New York |oclc=38207545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stokes |first=Raymond G. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51480817 |title=Constructing socialism : technology and change in East Germany 1945-1990 |date=2000 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=0-8018-7299-5 |location=Baltimore |oclc=51480817}}</ref>

[[File:Deutschland Bundeslaender 1949.png|thumb|left|upright|West Germany (blue) comprised the Western Allies' zones, excluding disputed Saarland (purple); the Soviet zone, East Germany (red) surrounded West Berlin (yellow).]]

Seven years after the Allies' 1945 Potsdam Agreement on common German policies, the USSR via the Stalin Note (10 March 1952) proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe, which the three Western Allies (the {{wipe|United States}}, {{wipe|France}}, the {{wipe|United Kingdom}}) rejected. Soviet leader {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}}, a Communist proponent of reunification, died in early March 1953. Similarly, Lavrenty Beria, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR, pursued German reunification, but he was removed from power that same year before he could act on the matter. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, rejected reunification as equivalent to returning East Germany for annexation to the West; hence reunification was off the table until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

[[File:West and East Berlin.svg|thumb|{{center|West and East Berlin with the Berlin Wall}}]]

East Germany regarded East Berlin as its capital, and the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc diplomatically recognized East Berlin as the capital. However, the Western Allies disputed this recognition, considering the entire city of Berlin to be [[Social:Military occupation|occupied territory]] governed by the [[Organization:Allied Control Council|Allied Control Council]]. According to Margarete Feinstein, East Berlin's status as the capital was largely unrecognized by the West and by most Third World countries.<ref name="German Democratic Republic page 78">{{cite book |title=State symbols: the quest for legitimacy in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, 1949–1959 |first=Margarete Myers |last=Feinstein |page=78 |quote=... claims of East Berlin as the capital of the GDR, ... East Berlin was not recognized by the West and most Third World countries.}}</ref> In practice, the ACC's authority was rendered moot by the [[History:Cold War|Cold War]], and East Berlin's status as occupied territory largely became a legal fiction, the Soviet sector of Berlin became fully integrated into the GDR.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fulbrook |first1=Mary |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler |last2=Port |first2=Andrew I. |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2013 |isbn=9780857459756}}</ref>

The deepening Cold War conflict between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union over the unresolved status of West Berlin led to the Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948{{snd}}12 May 1949). The Soviet army initiated the blockade by halting all Allied rail, road, and water traffic to and from West Berlin. The Allies countered the Soviets with the Berlin Airlift (1948–49) of food, fuel, and supplies to West Berlin.<ref>{{cite book |first=Michael D. |last=Haydock |title=City Under Siege: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948–1949 |date=2000}}</ref>

=== Partition ===

On 21 April 1946 the Communist Party of Germany ({{lang|de|Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands}}{{snd}}KPD) and the part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ({{lang|de|Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands}}{{snd}}SPD) in the Soviet zone merged to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED{{snd}}{{lang|de| Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands}}), which then won the elections of October 1946. The SED government [[Finance:Nationalization|nationalised]] infrastructure and industrial plants.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19000-3301, Berlin, DDR-Gründung, Wahl Pieck, Grotewohl.jpg|thumb|left|GDR leaders: President Wilhelm Pieck and Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl, 1949]]

In March 1948 the German Economic Commission ({{lang|de|Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission}}—DWK) under its chairman Heinrich Rau assumed administrative authority in the Soviet occupation zone, thus becoming the predecessor of an East German government.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weitz|1997|p=350}} Following a Soviet order in February 1948, the German Economic Commission became a nascent state structure for all intents and purposes, with competence far beyond the economy proper; it gained the power to issue orders and directives to all German organs within the Soviet Occupation Zone.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|McCauley|1983|p=38}} The DWK had become the ''de facto'' government of the Soviet zone. Its chairman was Heinrich Rau (SED), and four of his six deputies were also SED members.</ref>

On 7 October 1949 the SED established the {{lang|de|Deutsche Demokratische Republik}} (German Democratic Republic{{snd}}GDR), based on a socialist political constitution establishing its control of the Anti-Fascist National Front of the German Democratic Republic (NF, {{lang|de| Nationale Front der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik}}), an omnibus alliance of every party and mass organisation in East Germany. The NF was established to stand for election to the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} (People's Chamber), the East German parliament. The first and only president of the German Democratic Republic was Wilhelm Pieck. However, after 1950, political power in East Germany was held by the First Secretary of the SED, Walter Ulbricht.<ref name="MajorOsmond"/>

[[File:Opvolger van Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Bestanddeelnr 911-5926 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright| SED First Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, 1960]]

On 16 June 1953, workers constructing the new {{lang|de|Stalinallee}} boulevard in East Berlin according to the GDR's officially promulgated [[Engineering:The Sixteen Principles of Urban Design|Sixteen Principles of Urban Design]], rioted against a 10% production-quota increase. Initially a labour protest, the action soon included the general populace, and on 17 June similar protests occurred throughout the GDR, with more than a million people striking in some 700 cities and towns. Fearing anti-communist counter-revolution, on 18 June 1953 the government of the GDR enlisted the Soviet Occupation Forces to aid the police in ending the riot; some fifty people were killed and 10,000 were jailed (see Uprising of 1953 in East Germany).{{Clarify|reason=I don't understand the transition between the previous paragraph and this one.|date=January 2020}}<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,894998,00.html East Berlin 17 June 1953: Stones Against Tanks] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110123034004/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,894998,00.html |date= 23 January 2011}}, {{Lang|de|Deutsche Welle}}. Retrieved 16 May 2007.</ref><ref>Victor Baras, "Beria's Fall and Ulbricht's Survival", ''Soviet Studies'', 1975, Vol. 27 Issue 3, pp. 381–395</ref>

The German war reparations owed to the Soviets impoverished the Soviet Zone of Occupation and severely weakened the East German economy. In the 1945–46 period the Soviets confiscated and transported to the USSR approximately 33% of the industrial plant and by the early 1950s had extracted some US$10&nbsp;billion in reparations in agricultural and industrial products.<ref name="Norman M. Naimark 1949, pp. 167-9">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.&nbsp;167–9.</ref> The poverty of East Germany, induced or deepened by reparations, provoked the {{lang|de|Republikflucht}} ("desertion from the republic") to West Germany, further weakening the GDR's economy. Western economic opportunities induced a brain drain. In response, the GDR closed the inner German border, and on the night of 12 August 1961, East German soldiers began erecting the Berlin Wall.<ref>Frederick Taylor, ''Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–1989'' (2007)</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R1220-401, Erich Honecker (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright| Erich Honecker, head of state (1971–1989)]]

In 1971, Ulbricht was removed from leadership after Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev supported his ouster;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allinson |first1=Mark |last2=Leaman |first2=Jeremy |last3=Parkes |first3=Stuart |last4=Tolkiehn |first4=Barbara |title=Contemporary Germany: Essays and Texts on Politics, Economics & Society |date=30 July 2014 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |isbn=978-1-317-87977-0 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osIeBAAAQBAJ |access-date=10 August 2021 |language=de}}</ref> Erich Honecker replaced him. While the Ulbricht government had experimented with liberal reforms, the Honecker government reversed them. The new government introduced a new East German Constitution which defined the German Democratic Republic as a "republic of workers and peasants".<ref>Henry Krisch, "Soviet-GDR Relations in the Honecker Era", ''East Central Europe,'' December 1979, Vol. 6 Issue 2, pp.&nbsp;152–172.</ref>

Initially, East Germany claimed an [[Earth:Exclusive mandate|exclusive mandate]] for all of Germany, a claim supported by most of the Communist bloc. It claimed that West Germany was an illegally-constituted [[Social:Puppet state|puppet state]] of NATO. However, from the 1960s onward, East Germany began recognizing itself as a separate country from West Germany and shared the legacy of the united German state of 1871–1945. This was formalized in 1974 when the reunification clause was removed from the revised East German constitution. West Germany, in contrast, maintained that it was the only legitimate government of Germany. From 1949 to the early 1970s, West Germany maintained that East Germany was an illegally constituted state. It argued that the GDR was a Soviet puppet-state, and frequently referred to it as the "Soviet occupation zone". West Germany's allies shared this position until 1973. East Germany was recognized primarily by socialist countries and by the Arab bloc, along with some "scattered sympathizers".<ref name=time>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903634,00.html |title=East Germany: The Price of Recognition |date=1 January 1973 |magazine={{wipe|Time (magazine)}} |access-date=21 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218025533/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903634,00.html |archive-date=18 December 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the Hallstein Doctrine (1955), West Germany did not establish (formal) diplomatic ties with any country—except the Soviets—that recognized East German sovereignty.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0801-026, Helsinki, KSZE-Konferenz, Schlussakte.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb| Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) Helmut Schmidt, Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) Erich Honecker, U.S. president Gerald Ford and Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky signing the Helsinki Act]]

In the early 1970s, the {{lang|de|Ostpolitik}} ("Eastern Policy") of "Change Through Rapprochement" of the pragmatic government of FRG Chancellor [[Biography:Willy Brandt|Willy Brandt]], established normal diplomatic relations with the East Bloc states. This policy saw the Treaty of Moscow (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (December 1972), which relinquished any separate claims to an [[Earth:Exclusive mandate|exclusive mandate]] over Germany as a whole and established normal relations between the two Germanies. Both countries were admitted into the United Nations on 18 September 1973. This also increased the number of countries recognizing East Germany to 55, including the US, UK and France, though these three still refused to recognize East Berlin as the capital, and insisted on a specific provision in the UN resolution accepting the two Germanies into the UN to that effect.<ref name="time"/> Following the Ostpolitik, the West German view was that East Germany was a ''de facto'' government within a single German nation and a ''de jure'' state organisation of parts of Germany outside the Federal Republic. The Federal Republic continued to maintain that it could not within its own structures recognize the GDR ''de jure'' as a sovereign state under international law; but it fully acknowledged that, within the structures of international law, the GDR was an independent sovereign state. By distinction, West Germany then viewed itself as being within its own boundaries, not only the ''de facto'' and ''de jure'' government, but also the sole ''de jure'' legitimate representative of a dormant "Germany as whole".<ref>{{citation |last=Quint |first=Peter E. |title=The Imperfect Union; Constitutional Structures for German Unification |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1991 |page=14}}</ref> The two Germanies each relinquished any claim to represent the other internationally; which they acknowledged as necessarily implying a mutual recognition of each other as both capable of representing their own populations ''de jure'' in participating in international bodies and agreements, such as the {{wipe|United Nations}} and the Helsinki Final Act.

This assessment of the Basic Treaty was confirmed in a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1973;<ref>{{citation |last=Kommers |first=Donald P. |title=The Constitutional Jursiprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2012 |page=308}}</ref>

{{blockquote|the German Democratic Republic is in the international-law sense a State and as such a subject of international law. This finding is independent of recognition in international law of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany. Such recognition has not only never been formally pronounced by the Federal Republic of Germany but on the contrary repeatedly explicitly rejected. If the conduct of the Federal Republic of Germany towards the German Democratic Republic is assessed in the light of its détente policy, in particular, the conclusion of the Treaty as de facto recognition, then it can only be understood as de facto recognition of a special kind. The special feature of this Treaty is that while it is a bilateral Treaty between two States, to which the rules of international law apply and which like any other international treaty possesses validity, it is between two States that are parts of a still existing, albeit incapable of action as not being reorganized, comprehensive State of the Whole of Germany with a single body politic.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 |title=Texas Law: Foreign Law Translations 1973 |publisher=University of Texas |access-date=7 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220152049/https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Travel between the GDR and Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary became visa-free from 1972.<ref>{{cite book |first=Eric G. E. |last=Zuelow |title=Touring Beyond the Nation: A Transnational Approach to European Tourism History |page=220 |isbn=978-0-7546-6656-1 |date=2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing }}</ref>

=== GDR identity ===
[[File:Karl Marx memorial.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.9| [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]] monument in Chemnitz (renamed ''Karl-Marx-Stadt'' from 1953 to 1990)]]

From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity.<ref>David Priestand, ''Red Flag: A History of Communism'', New York: Grove Press, 2009.</ref> Because of the imperial and military legacy of [[Place:Prussia|Prussia]], the SED repudiated continuity between Prussia and the GDR. The SED destroyed a number of symbolic relics of the former Prussian aristocracy: Junker manor-houses were torn down, the Berliner Stadtschloß was razed, and the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great was removed from East Berlin. Instead, the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including Thomas Müntzer's role in the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 and the role played by the heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization.

Especially after the Ninth Party Congress in 1976, East Germany upheld historical reformers such as Karl Freiherr vom Stein (1757–1831), Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822), [[Biography:Wilhelm von Humboldt|Wilhelm von Humboldt]] (1767–1835), and Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755–1813) as examples and role models.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

East Germany was elected as a member of the UN Security Council 1980–81.

In the 1980 Summer Olympics in [[Place:Moscow|Moscow]], partly thanks to the U.S.-led boycott, East Germany won over a total of 126 Olympic medals, finishing second place behind the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]].

Palace of the Republic was constructed in Berlin.

==== Remembrance of the Third Reich ====
The communist regime of the GDR based its legitimacy on the struggle of anti-fascist militants. A form of resistance "cult" was established in the Buchenwald camp memorial site, with the creation of a museum in 1958, and the annual celebration of the Buchenwald oath taken on 19 April 1945 by the prisoners who pledged to fight for peace and freedom. In the 1990s, the 'state anti-fascism' of the GDR gave way to the 'state anti-communism' of the FRG. From then on, the dominant interpretation of GDR history, based on the concept of totalitarianism, led to the equivalence of communism and Nazism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |title=À Buchenwald, les antifascistes ont perdu la guerre mémorielle |trans-title=In Buchenwald, the anti-fascists have lost the memory war |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2020/04/COMBE/61583 |access-date= |website=Le Monde diplomatique |date=April 2020 |language=fr}}</ref> The historian Anne-Kathleen Tillack-Graf shows, with the help of the newspaper {{lang|de|Neues Deutschland}}, how the national memorials of Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück were politically instrumentalised in the GDR, particularly during the celebrations of the liberation of the concentration camps.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen |trans-title=GDR politics of remembrance. Shown in the report of the daily newspaper "Neues Deutschland" on the national memorial sites in Buchenwald, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=2–3, 88–91 |language=de}}</ref>

Although officially built in opposition to the 'fascist world' in West Germany, in 1954, 32.2% of public administration employees were former members of the [[Social:Nazi Party|Nazi Party]]. However, in 1961, the share of former NSDAP members among the senior administration staff was less than 10% in the GDR, compared to 67% in the FRG.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |title=Antisémite, l'Allemagne de l'Est ? |trans-title=Anti-Semite, East Germany? |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2021/01/COMBE/62660 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |date=January 2021 |language=fr}}</ref> While in West Germany, a work of memory on the resurgence of Nazism was carried out, this was not the case in the East. Indeed, as Axel Dossmann, professor of history at the University of Jena, notes, 'this phenomenon was completely hidden. For the state-SED (the East German communist party), it was impossible to admit the existence of neo-Nazis, since the foundation of the GDR was to be an anti-fascist state. The Stasi kept an eye on them, but they were considered to be outsiders or thick-skinned bullies. These young people grew up hearing double talk. At school, it was forbidden to talk about the Third Reich and, at home, their grandparents told them how, thanks to Hitler, we had the first motorways. On 17 October 1987, thirty or so skinheads violently threw themselves into a crowd of 2,000 people at a rock concert in the Zionskirche without the police intervening.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |title=L'Allemagne paiera |trans-title=Germany will pay |year=2013 |pages=166–167 |language=fr}}</ref> In 1990, the writer Freya Klier received a death threat for writing an essay on antisemitism and [[Social:Xenophobia|xenophobia]] in the GDR. SPDA Vice President Wolfgang Thierse, for his part, complained in Die Welt about the rise of the extreme right in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the former GDR, in particular the terrorist group NSU, with the German journalist Odile Benyahia-Kouider explaining that "it is no coincidence that the neo-Nazi party NPD has experienced a renaissance via the East".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |title=L'Allemagne paiera |trans-title=Germany will pay |year=2013 |pages=179 |language=fr}}</ref>

The historian Sonia Combe observes that until the 1990s, the majority of West German historians described the Normandy landings in June 1944 as an "invasion", exonerated the Wehrmacht of its responsibility for the genocide of the Jews and fabricated the myth of a diplomatic corps that "did not know". On the contrary, [[Social:Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] was never a taboo in the GDR. The Nazis' crimes were the subject of extensive film, theatre and literary productions. In 1991, 16% of the population in West Germany and 6% in East Germany had antisemitic prejudices. In 1994, 40 per cent of West Germans and 22 per cent of East Germans felt that too much emphasis was placed on the genocide of the Jews.<ref name=":2" />

The historian Ulrich Pfeil nevertheless recalls the fact that anti-fascist commemoration in the GDR had "a hagiographic and indoctrination character".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Pfeil |first=Ulrich |title=Die DDR als Zankapfel in Forschung und Politik |trans-title=The GDR as a bone of contention in research and politics |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/307645/die-ddr-als-zankapfel-in-forschung-und-politik/#footnode48-48 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung |date=9 April 2020 |language=de}}</ref> As in the case of the memory of the protagonists of the German labour movement and the victims of the camps, it was "staged, censored, ordered" and, during the 40 years of the regime, was an instrument of legitimisation, repression and maintenance of power.<ref name=":3" />

=== ''Die Wende'' (German reunification) ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1104-437, Berlin, Demonstration am 4. November.jpg|thumb| Demonstration on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin on 4 November 1989]]
In May 1989, following widespread public anger over the faking of results of local government elections, many GDR citizens applied for exit visas or left the country contrary to GDR laws. The impetus for this exodus of East Germans was the removal of the electrified fence along Hungary's border with Austria on 2 May 1989. Although formally the Hungarian frontier was still closed, many East Germans took the opportunity to enter Hungary via [[Place:Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]], and then make the illegal crossing from Hungary to Austria and to West Germany beyond.<ref name=Judt612 /> By July, 25,000 East Germans had crossed into Hungary;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.germannotes.com/hist_east_wall.shtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050419213613/http://www.germannotes.com/hist_east_wall.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2005 |title=The Berlin Wall (1961–89) |website=German Notes |access-date=24 October 2006}}</ref> most of them did not attempt the risky crossing into Austria but remained instead in Hungary or claimed asylum in West German embassies in [[Place:Prague|Prague]] or [[Place:Budapest|Budapest]].

The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a chain reaction leading to the end of the GDR and disintegration of the Eastern Bloc. It was the largest mass escape from East Germany since the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The idea of opening the border at a ceremony came from Otto von Habsburg, who proposed it to Miklós Németh, then Hungarian Prime Minister, who promoted the idea.<ref>Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> The patrons of the picnic, Habsburg and Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay, who did not attend the event, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test [[Biography:Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reaction to an opening of the border on the [[Social:Iron Curtain|Iron Curtain]]. In particular, it tested whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by the Paneuropean Union through posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg, distributed thousands of brochures inviting GDR citizens to a picnic near the border at Sopron (near Hungary's border with Austria).<ref name="Hilde Szabo 2014">{{cite news |url=https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/welt-europa/weltpolitik/364731_Die-Berliner-Mauer-begann-im-Burgenland-zu-broeckeln.html |first=Hilde |last=Szabo |title=Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln |trans-title=The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland |language=de |newspaper=Wiener Zeitung |date=16 August 1999 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |first=Otmar |last=Lahodynsky |title=Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall |language=de |trans-title=Pan-European picnic: the dress rehearsal for the fall of the Berlin Wall |magazine=Profil |date=9 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="Die Zeit 2014">{{cite news |url=https://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2014-08/ddr-flucht-1989-grenzpicknick-sopron |first=Ludwig |last=Greven |title=Und dann ging das Tor auf |newspaper=Die Zeit |date=19 August 2014 |trans-title=And then the Gate Opened |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> The local Sopron organizers knew nothing of possible GDR refugees, but envisaged a local party with Austrian and Hungarian participation.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Otmar |last=Lahodynsky |title=Eiserner Vorhang: Picknick an der Grenze |language=de |trans-title=Iron curtain: picnic at the border |magazine=Profil |date=13 June 2019}}</ref> But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus the barrier of the Eastern Bloc was broken. The reaction to this from Erich Honecker in the "Daily Mirror" of 19 August 1989 was too late and showed the present loss of power: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West."{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} Tens of thousands of East Germans, alerted by the media, made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or force its border troops to open fire on escapees. The GDR leadership in East Berlin did not dare to completely lock down their own country's borders.<ref name="Hilde Szabo 2014"/><ref name="Die Zeit 2014"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.diepresse.com/3855470/ddr-massenflucht-ein-picknick-hebt-die-welt-aus-den-angeln |first=Thomas |last=Roser |title=DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln |language=de |trans-title=Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world |work=Die Presse |date=17 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Frank |title=Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit |language=de |trans-title=Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom |work=Süddeutsche Zeitung |date=17 May 2010 |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/paneuropaeisches-picknick-mit-dem-picknickkorb-in-die-freiheit-1.170802-0 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>

The next major turning point in the exodus came on 10 September 1989, when Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn announced that his country would no longer restrict movement from Hungary into Austria. Within two days, 22,000 East Germans crossed into Austria; tens of thousands more did so in the following weeks.<ref name=Judt612>{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=612}}</ref>

Many other GDR citizens demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig. The Leipzig demonstrations became a weekly occurrence, with a turnout of 10,000 people at the first demonstration on 2 October, peaking at an estimated 300,000 by the end of the month.<ref name=Judt613 /> The protests were surpassed in East Berlin, where half a million demonstrators turned out against the regime on 4 November.<ref name=Judt613>{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=613}}</ref> Kurt Masur, conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, led local negotiations with the government and held town meetings in the concert hall.<ref>{{cite book |last=Darnton |first=Robert |title=Berlin Journal |location=New York |date=1992 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=98–99}}</ref> The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October; he was replaced by a slightly more moderate communist, Egon Krenz.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |first=Mary Elise |last=Sarotte |title=Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |date=2014}}</ref>

The massive demonstration in East Berlin on 4 November coincided with Czechoslovakia formally opening its border to West Germany.<ref name=Judt614>{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=614}}</ref> With the West more accessible than ever before, 30,000 East Germans made the crossing via Czechoslovakia in the first two days alone. To try to stem the outward flow of the population, the SED proposed a law loosening travel restrictions. When the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} rejected it on 5 November, the Cabinet and [[Social:Politburo|Politburo]] of the GDR resigned.<ref name=Judt614 /> This left only one avenue open for Krenz and the SED: completely abolishing travel restrictions between East and West.

On 9 November 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing freely into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time in nearly 30 years. Krenz resigned a month later, and the SED opened negotiations with the leaders of the incipient Democratic movement, Neues Forum, to schedule free elections and begin the process of democratization. As part of this process, the SED eliminated the clause in the East German constitution guaranteeing the Communists leadership of the state. The change was approved in the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} on 1 December 1989 by a vote of 420 to 0.{{sfn|Judt|2005|page=615}}
[[File:Logo of the Alliance for Germany.png|thumb|Logo of the Alliance for Germany coalition, which was led by the Christian Democratic Union (East Germany) ]]
East Germany held its last election in March 1990. The winner was Alliance for Germany, a coalition headed by the East German branch of West Germany's Christian Democratic Union, which advocated speedy reunification. Negotiations (2+4 Talks) were held involving the two German states and the former Allies, which led to agreement on the conditions for German unification. By a two-thirds vote in the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} on 23 August 1990, the German Democratic Republic declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany. The five original East German states that had been abolished in the 1952 redistricting were restored.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> On 3 October 1990, the five states officially joined the Federal Republic of Germany, while East and West Berlin united as a third city-state (in the same manner as [[Place:Bremen|Bremen]] and [[Place:Hamburg|Hamburg]]). On 1 July, a currency union preceded the political union: the "Ostmark" was abolished, and the Western German "Deutsche Mark" became the common currency.

Although the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}}'s declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated the process of reunification, the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions and qualifications, some of which involved amendments to the West German Basic Law) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990 – that is, through a binding agreement between the former Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic, now recognising each other as separate sovereign states in international law.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kommers |first=Donald P. |title=The Constitutional Jursiprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany |year=2012 |publisher=Duke University Press |page=309}}</ref> The treaty was then voted into effect prior to the agreed date for Unification by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand the extinction of the GDR, and on the other the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic.

The great economic and socio-political inequalities between the former Germanies required government subsidies for the full integration of the German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany. Because of the resulting [[Finance:Deindustrialization|deindustrialization]] in the former East Germany, the causes of the failure of this integration continue to be debated. Some western commentators claim that the depressed eastern economy is a natural aftereffect of a demonstrably inefficient command economy. But many East German critics contend that the [[Finance:Shock therapy (economics)|shock-therapy]] style of [[Finance:Privatization|privatization]], the artificially high rate of exchange offered for the Ostmark, and the speed with which the entire process was implemented did not leave room for East German enterprises to adapt.{{efn|For example, the economist Jörg Roesler{{snd}}see: Jörg Roesler: Ein Anderes Deutschland war möglich. Alternative Programme für das wirtschaftliche Zusammengehen beider deutscher Staaten, in: Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, No. II/2010, pp.34–46. The historian Ulrich Busch argued that the currency union came too early; see Ulrich Busch: Die Währungsunion am 1. Juli 1990: Wirtschaftspolitische Fehlleistung mit Folgen, in: Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, No. II/2010, pp.&nbsp;5–24.}}

== Politics ==
[[File:SED Logo.svg|left|thumb|upright|SED logotype: the Communist–Social Democrat handshake of Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl, establishing the SED in 1946]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-M0925-406, New York, Fahnen vor dem UNO-Gebäude.jpg|left|thumb|upright|GDR flag at the United Nations headquarters, {{wipe|New York City}}, 1973]]
There were four periods in East German political history.<ref>{{Cite book |first=David P. |last=Conradt |title=The German Polity |date=2008 |page=20}}</ref> These included: 1949–61, which saw the building of socialism; 1961–1970 after the Berlin Wall closed off escape was a period of stability and consolidation; 1971–85 was termed the Honecker Era, and saw closer ties with West Germany; and 1985–90 saw the decline and extinction of East Germany.

=== Organization ===
The ruling political party in East Germany was the {{lang|de|Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands}} (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED). It was created in 1946 through the Soviet-directed merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet-controlled zone. However, the SED quickly transformed into a full-fledged Communist party as the more independent-minded Social Democrats were pushed out.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{harvnb|Weitz|1997|p={{page needed|date=September 2021}}}}</ref>

The Potsdam Agreement committed the Soviets to support a democratic form of government in Germany, though the Soviets' understanding of democracy was radically different from that of the West. As in other Soviet-bloc countries, [[Social:Bloc party (politics)|non-communist political parties]] were allowed. Nevertheless, every political party in the GDR was forced to join the National Front of Democratic Germany, a broad coalition of parties and mass political organisations, including:
* {{lang|de|Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands}} (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU), which merged with the West German CDU after reunification.
* {{lang|de|Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands}} (Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, DBD). The party merged with the West German CDU after reunification.
* {{lang|de|Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands}} (Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, LDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification.
* {{lang|de|Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands}} (National Democratic Party of Germany, NDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

[[File:Berlin, Palast der Republik -- um 1990 -- 2.jpg|thumb|The Palast der Republik, seat of the Volkskammer]]
[[File:Berlin DDR.jpg|thumb|Poster with the inscription "{{lang|de|Berlin – Hauptstadt der DDR}}", 1967]]
The member parties were almost completely subservient to the SED and had to accept its "leading role" as a condition of their existence. However, the parties did have representation in the Volkskammer and received some posts in the government.

The Volkskammer also included representatives from the ''[[Social:Mass movement (politics)|mass organisations]]'' like the Free German Youth ({{lang|de|Freie Deutsche Jugend}} or ''FDJ''), or the Free German Trade Union Federation. There was also a Democratic Women's Federation of Germany, with seats in the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}}.

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

After the fall of Socialism, the SED was renamed the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) which continued for a decade after reunification before merging with the West German WASG to form the Left Party ({{lang|de|Die Linke}}). The Left Party continues to be a political force in many parts of Germany, albeit drastically less powerful than the SED.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Mary Elise |last=Sarotte |title=1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe |edition=Second |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2014}}</ref>

=== State symbols ===
The flag of the German Democratic Republic consisted of three horizontal stripes in the traditional German-democratic colors black-red-gold with the national coat of arms of the GDR in the middle, consisting of hammer and compass, surrounded by a wreath of corn as a symbol of the alliance of workers, peasants and intelligentsia. First drafts of Fritz Behrendt's coat of arms contained only a hammer and wreath of corn, as an expression of the workers' and peasants' state. The final version was mainly based on the work of Heinz Behling.

By law of 26 September 1955, the state coat of arms with hammer, compass and wreath of corn was determined, as the state flag continues black-red-gold. By law of 1 October 1959, the coat of arms was inserted into the state flag. Until the end of the 1960s, the public display of this flag in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin was regarded as a violation of the constitution and public order and prevented by police measures (cf. the Declaration of the Interior Ministers of the Federation and the Länder, October 1959). It was not until 1969 that the Federal Government decreed "that the police should no longer intervene anywhere against the use of the flag and coat of arms of the GDR."

At the request of the DSU, the first freely elected People's Chamber of the GDR decided on 31 May 1990 that the GDR state coat of arms should be removed within a week in and on public buildings. Nevertheless, until the official end of the republic, it continued to be used in a variety of ways, for example on documents.

The text Resurrected from Ruins of the National Anthem of the GDR is by Johannes R. Becher, the melody by Hanns Eisler. From the beginning of the 1970s to the end of 1989, however, the text of the anthem was no longer sung due to the passage "Deutschland einig Vaterland".

{{Gallery
|align=center
|noborder=yes
|whitebg=no
|width=120
|height=120
|File:Coat of Arms of East Germany (1950–1953).svg
  |Provisional coat of arms of the GDR<br />(12 January 1950 to 28 May 1953)
|File:Coat of Arms of East Germany (1953-1955).svg
  |Provisional coat of arms of the GDR<br />(28 May 1953 to 26 September 1955)
|File:Coat of arms of East Germany.svg
  |Coat of arms of the GDR<br />(26 September 1955 to 2 October 1990)<br />
|File:Flag_of_Germany.svg
  |Flag of the GDR<br /> (7 October 1949 to 1 October 1959)
|File:Civil Ensign of East Germany (1959–1973).svg
  |Commercial flag<br /> (1959–1973)
|File:Flag_of_East_Germany.svg
  |Flag of the GDR<br /> (1 October 1959 to 3 October 1990)<br />
}}

==== Presidential standard ====
The first standard of the president had the shape of a rectangular flag in the colors black-red-gold with the inscription "President" in yellow in the red stripe, as well as "D.D.R." (contrary to the official abbreviation with dots) in the stripe below in black letters. The flag was surrounded by a stripe of yellow color. An original of the standard is in the German Historical Museum in Berlin.

{{Gallery
|align=center
|noborder=yes
|whitebg=no
|width=120
|height=120
|File:Flag of the President of East Germany (1951–1953).svg
  |Presidential standard 1951–1953<br /> (The emblem was already introduced on 12 January 1950, the standard was adopted on 29 January 1951.)
|File:Flag of the President of East Germany (1953–1955).svg
  |Presidential standard 1953–1955<br />(The emblem of the GDR was changed on 28 May 1953 and already resembled the final coat of arms of 1955.)
|File:Flag of the President of East Germany (1955–1960).svg
  |Standard of the president 1955–1960<br />(The standard was maintained until 7 September 1960, when Wilhelm Pieck died and the presidency was abolished.)
|File:Flag of the Chairman of the State Council of East Germany.svg
  |Standard of the chairman of the Council of State 1960–1990
}}

==== War and Service Flags and Symbols ====
The flags of the military units of the GDR bore the national coat of arms with a wreath of two olive branches on a red background in the black-red-gold flag.

The flags of the People's Navy for combat ships and boats bore the coat of arms with olive branch wreath on red, for auxiliary ships and boats on blue flag cloth with a narrow and centrally arranged black-red-gold band. As Gösch, the state flag was used in a reduced form.

The ships and boats of the Border Brigade Coast on the Baltic Sea and the boats of the border troops of the GDR on the Elbe and Oder carried a green bar on the Liekjust like the service flag of the border troops.

{{Gallery
|align=center
|noborder=yes
|whitebg=no
|height=72
|width=120
|File:Flag of NVA (East Germany).svg
  |Service flag of the National People's Army
|File:Flag of warships of VM (East Germany).svg
  |Service flag for combat ships and boats of the People's Navy
|File:Flag of auxiliary ships of VM (East Germany).svg
  |Service flag for auxiliary ships and boats of the People's Navy
|File:Flag of German post (East Germany).svg
  |Deutsche Post (1955–1973)
  |alt4=Service flag
|File:Flag of border brigade coast (East Germany).svg
  |Service flag for ships and boats of the Border Brigade Coast
|File:Flag of boats of border troops (East Germany).svg
  |Service flag of the border troops
|File:Flagge_des_Ministeriums_für_Staatssicherheit.svg
  |Flag of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi), East Germany, until 1990
}}
{{Gallery
|align=center
|noborder=yes
|whitebg=no
|height=120
|width=120
|File:Emblem_of_the_Stasi.svg
  |Emblem of the Ministry of State Security (MfS) (Stasi) of the GDR (until 1990)
|File:Coat_of_arms_of_NVA_(East_Germany).svg
  |Coat of arms of National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic (from 1956 until 1990)
|File:Emblem_of_the_Ground_Forces_of_NVA_(East_Germany).svg
  |Emblem of the Ground Forces of National People's Army (1956–1990) 
|File:Wappen Volksmarine NVA mit KM Orden.svg
  |The coat of arms of the People's Navy with the Order of Karl Marx (between 1956 and 1990)
|File:Emblem of aircraft NVA (East Germany) before 1959.svg
  |Emblem of Air Force of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic before 1959 (until 1956 the People's Police Air of the GDR)
|File:Emblem of aircraft of NVA (East Germany).svg
  |Emblem of aircraft of National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic (1959–1990)
|File:Vehicle roundel of Border Troops of GDR.svg
  |Emblem of the Grenztruppen used for vehicles (1949–1990)
|File:Volkspolizei Bereitschaft roundel.svg
  |The national ensign of the GDR Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (from 1962 to 1990)
|File:Wappen Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse.svg
  |Combat Groups of the Working Class coat of arms of the fighting groups of the working class, without oak leaves (between 1953 and 1990)
|File:Warsaw Pact Logo.svg
  |Logo of the Organization of the Warsaw Pact (14 May 1955)
}}

==== Political and social emblems ====
After being a member of the Thälmann Pioneers, which was for schoolchildren ages 6 to 14, East German youths would usually join the FDJ.
{{Gallery
|align=center
|noborder=yes
|whitebg=no
|width=120
|height=120
|File:Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands Logo.svg
  |Emblem of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1950–1990)
|File:Flagge der SED.svg
  |Flag of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1950–1990)
|File:Freie Deutsche Jugend.svg
  |Emblem of the Free German Youth
|File:Flagge der Freie Deutsche Jugend.svg
  |Flag of the Free German Youth
|File:Pionierorganisation Ernst Thaelmann-Emblem.svg
  |Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation Emblem (13 December 1948 – August 1990)
|File:Wimpel_Junge_Pioniere.svg
  |Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation Flag (13 December 1948 – August 1990)
}}

=== Young Pioneer programs ===
[[File:Pionierorganisation Ernst Thaelmann-Emblem.svg|left|thumb|upright|Pionierorganisation Ernst Thälmann, founded on 13 December 1948]]

==== Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation ====

''Young Pioneers'' and the ''Thälmann Pioneers'', was a youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14 in East Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rodden |first=John. |title=Repainting the little red schoolhouse : a history of Eastern German education, 1945–1995 |date=2002 |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-511244-X |oclc=39633454}}</ref> They were named after Ernst Thälmann, the former leader of the Communist Party of Germany, who was executed at the Buchenwald concentration camp.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Fulbrook |editor-first=Mary |title=Power and society in the GDR, 1961–1979 : the 'normalisation of rule'? |date=July 2013 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78238-101-3 |oclc=822668120}}</ref>

The group was a subdivision of the ''Freie Deutsche Jugend'' (FDJ, Free German Youth), East Germany's youth movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wegner |first=Gregory |date=February 1996 |title=In the Shadow of the Third Reich: The "Jugendstunde" and the Legitimation of Anti-Fascist Heroes for East German Youth |journal=German Studies Review |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=127–146 |doi=10.2307/1431716 |jstor=1431716 |issn=0149-7952}}</ref> It was founded on 13 December 1948 and broke apart in 1989 on German reunification.<ref name="plum">{{Cite book |last=Plum |first=Catherine J. |title=Antifascism & the historical identity of east German youth, 1961–1989 |date=2005 |oclc=63683865}}</ref> In the 1960s and 1970s, nearly all schoolchildren between ages 6 and 14 were organised into Young Pioneer or Thälmann Pioneer groups, with the organisations having "nearly two million children" collectively by 1975.<ref name="plum"/>

The pioneer group was loosely based on Scouting, but organised in such a way as to teach schoolchildren aged 6 – 14 socialist ideology and prepare them for the {{lang|de|Freie Deutsche Jugend}}, the FDJ.<ref name="plum"/>

The program was designed to follow the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet]] Pioneer program Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. The pioneers' slogan was {{lang|de|Für Frieden und Sozialismus seid bereit – Immer bereit}}" ("For peace and socialism be ready – always ready"). This was usually shortened to "Be ready – always ready". This was recited at the raising of the flag. One person said the first part, "Be ready!": this was usually the pioneer leader, the teacher or the head of the local pioneer group. The pioneers all answered "Always ready", stiffening their right hand and placing it against their forehead with the thumb closest and their little finger facing skywards.<ref name="plum"/>

[[File:Fotothek df roe-neg 0006436 010 Demonstrationszug - Pioniere, Fanfarenbläser, Tr.jpg|thumb|right|Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation Parade]]

Both Pioneer groups would often have massive parades, honoring and celebrating the Socialist success of their nations.

===== Membership =====
Membership in the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers was formally voluntary. On the other hand, it was taken for granted by the state and thus by the school as well as by many parents. In practice, the initiative for the admission of all students in a class came from the school. As the membership quota of up to 98 percent of the students (in the later years of the GDR) shows, the six- or ten-year-olds (or their parents) had to become active on their own in order not to become members. Nevertheless, there were also children who did not become members. Rarely, students were not admitted because of poor academic performance or bad behavior "as a punishment" or excluded from further membership.

===== Uniform =====
[[File:Uniform of the East German Young Pioneers.jpg|thumb|Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation uniform]]

The pioneers' uniform consisted of white shirts and blouses bought by their parents, along with blue trousers or skirts until the 1970s and on special occasions. But often the only thing worn was the most important sign of the future socialist – the triangular necktie. At first this was blue, but from 1973, the Thälmann pioneers wore a red necktie like the pioneers in the Soviet Union, while the Young Pioneers kept the blue one. Pioneers wore their uniforms at political events and state holidays such as the workers' demonstrations on May Day, as well as at school festivals and pioneer events.<ref name="plum"/>

The pioneer clothing consisted of white blouses and shirts that could be purchased in sporting goods stores. On the left sleeve there was a patch with the embroidered emblem of the pioneer organization and, if necessary, a rank badge with stripes in the color of the scarf. These rank badges were three stripes for Friendship Council Chairmen, two stripes for Group Council Chairmen and Friendship Council members, one stripe for all other Group Council members. In some cases, symbols for special functions were also sewn on at this point, for example a red cross for a boy paramedic. Dark blue trousers or skirts were worn and a dark blue cap with the pioneer emblem served as a cockadeas a headgear. At the beginning of the 1970s, a windbreaker/blouson and a dark red leisure blouse were added.

However, the pioneer clothing was only worn completely on special occasions, such as flag appeals, commemoration days or festive school events, but it was usually not prescribed.

From the 1960s, the requirement of trousers/skirt was dispensed with in many places, and the dress code was also relaxed with regard to the cap. For pioneer afternoons or other activities, often only the triangular scarf was worn. In contrast to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, a blue scarf was common in the GDR. It was not until 1973, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the organization, that the red scarf was introduced for the Thälmann pioneers, while the young pioneers remained with the blue scarf. The change of color of the scarf was solemnly designed in the pioneer organization.

From 1988 there was an extended clothing range, consisting of a Nicki in the colors white, light yellow, turquoise or pink (with an imprint of the symbol of the pioneer organization), long and short trousers with a snap belt and, for the colder months, a lined windbreaker in red for girls and gray for boys.

Suitable pioneers were trained as paramedics; after their training, they wore the badge "Young Paramedic".

===== Music =====
The Pioneer songs were sung at any opportunity, including the following titles:

* "Wir tragen die Blaue Fahne" – "We Carry the Blue Flag"
* "Unser kleiner Trompeter" – "Our Little Trumpeter"
* "Thälmann-Lied" – "Thälmann Song"
* "Pioniermarsch" – "Pioneers' March"
* "Der Volkspolizist" – " The People's Policeman"
* "Jetzt bin ich Junger Pionier" – "Now I Am a Young Pioneer"
* "Unsere Heimat" – "Our Heimat"
* "Die Heimat hat sich schön gemacht" – "Our Homeland Has Smartened Itself Up"
* "Auf zum Sozialismus" – "Onwards to Socialism"
* "Kleine weiße Friedenstaube" – "Little White Dove of Peace"
* "Lied der jungen Naturforscher" – "Song of the Young Nature Researchers"
* "Wenn Mutti früh zur Arbeit geht" – "When Mother Goes to Work in the Morning"
* "Gute Freunde" – "Good Friends"
* "Hab'n Se nicht noch Altpapier" – "Got Any Waste Paper?"
* "Pioniere voran!" – "Onwards, Pioneers!"
* "Laßt Euch grüßen, Pioniere" – "Greetings, Pioneers"
* "Immer lebe die Sonne" – "May There Always Be Sunshine"
* "Friede auf unserer Erde" – "Peace on Our Earth"

==== Free German Youth ====
[[File:Freie Deutsche Jugend.svg|right|thumb|upright|Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ) was founded on 7 March 1946 under the leadership of Erich Honecker.<ref name="Fulbrook, Mary 1989">Fulbrook, Mary. Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR 1949–1989. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 60.</ref> ]]
Freie Deutsche Jugend, organization was meant for young people, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 25 and comprised about 75% of the young population of former East Germany.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://flagspot.net/flags/de%7Dfdj.html |title=Free German Youth 1949–1990 (East Germany) |publisher=Flagspot.net |access-date=9 February 2013}}</ref> In 1981–1982, this meant 2.3&nbsp;million members.<ref>Dirk Jurich, ''Staatssozialismus und gesellschaftliche Differenzierung: eine empirische Studie'', p.32. LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, {{ISBN|3825898938}}</ref> After being a member of the Thälmann Pioneers, which was for schoolchildren ages 6 to 14, East German youths would usually join the FDJ.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/tp.htm |title=The Rules of the Thälmann Pioneers |publisher=Calvin.edu |access-date=9 February 2013 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>
[[File:Friesack, Tag der Republik, Friesack 1969.jpg|thumb|left|FDJ Organisation Parade]]

The FDJ increasingly developed into an instrument of communist rule and became a member of the 'democratic bloc' in 1950.<ref name="Fulbrook, Mary 1989"/> However, the FDJ's focus of 'happy youth life', which had characterised the 1940s, was increasingly marginalised following Walter Ulbricht's emphasis of the 'accelerated construction of socialism' at the 4th Parliament and a radicalisation of SED policy in July 1952.<ref>{{cite book |last=McDougall |first=Alan |title=Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement, 1946–1968 |series=Oxford Historical Monographs |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=2004 |pages=37–38}}</ref> In turn, a more severe anti-religious agenda, whose aim was to obstruct the Church youths' work, grew within the FDJ, ultimately reaching a high point in mid-April 1953 when the FDJ newspaper {{lang|de|Junge Welt}} reported on details of the 'criminal' activities of the 'illegal' {{lang|de|Junge Gemeinden}} FDJ gangs were sent to church meetings to heckle those inside and school tribunals interrogated or expelled students who refused to join the FDJ for religious reasons.<ref>{{cite book |last=McDougall |first=Alan |title=Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement, 1946–1968 |series=Oxford Historical Monographs |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=2004 |pages=43–45}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0521-414, Berlin, XII. Parlament der FDJ.jpg|left|thumb|upright|East Berlin: XII Parliament of the FDJ during the opening in the Great Hall of the Palace of the Republic.]]

===== Membership =====
Upon request, the young people were admitted to the FDJ from the age of 14. Membership was voluntary according to the statutes, but non-members had to fear considerable disadvantages in admission to secondary schools as well as in the choice of studies and careers and were also exposed to strong pressure from line-loyal teachers to join the organization. By the end of 1949, around one million young people had joined it, which corresponded to almost a third of the young people. Only in Berlin, where other youth organizations were also admitted due to the four-power status, the proportion of FDJ members in youth was limited to just under 5 percent in 1949. [6] In 1985, the organization had about 2.3 million members, corresponding to about 80 percent of all GDR youths between the ages of 14 and 25. Most young people tacitly ended their FDJ membership after completing their apprenticeship or studies when they entered the workforce. However, during the period of military service in the NVA, those responsible (political officer, FDJ secretary) attached great importance to reviving FDJ membership. The degree of organisation was much higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
[[File:Fotothek df ps 000054 ^ Pionierhaus ^ Zwickau.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Pioneer choir "August Bebel" Zwickau of the pioneer house "Wilhelm Pieck" in Zwickau (Schwanenschloß)]]

The FDJ clothing was the blue FDJ shirt ("blue shirt")– for girls the blue FDJ blouse – with the FDJ emblem of the rising sun on the left sleeve. The greeting of the FDJers was "friendship". Until the end of the GDR, the income-dependent membership fee was between 0.30 and 5.00 marks per month.

===== Music =====
The Festival of Political Songs ({{lang-de|Festival des politischen Liedes}}) was one of the largest music events in East Germany, held between 1970 and 1990. It was hosted by the Free German Youth and featured international artists.

===== Uniform =====
[[File:Blauhemd FDJ-Hemd GDR.jpg|thumb|upright|Uniform of the FDJ]]
[[File:Fotothek df n-06 0000347.jpg|thumb|upright|Members with the uniform of the FDJ]]

The blue shirt (also: FDJ shirt or FDJ blouse) was since 1948 the official organizational clothing of the GDR youth organization Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ). On official occasions, FDJ members had to wear their blue shirts. The FDJ shirt – an FDJ blouse for girls – was a long-sleeved shirt of blue color with a folding collar, epaulettes and chest pockets. On the left sleeve was the FDJ symbol of the rising sun sewn up. Until the 1970s, the blue shirts were only made of cotton, later there was a cheaper variant made of polyester mixture.

The epaulettes of the blue shirt, in contrast to epaulettes on military uniforms, did not serve to make visible rank or unit membership, but were used at most to put a beret through. Official functions in the FDJ, for example FDJ secretary of a school or apprentice class, had no rank badges and could not be read on the FDJ shirt. However, the members of the FDJ order groups officially wore the FDJ shirt together with a red armband during their missions.

From the 1970s onwards, official patches and pins were issued for certain events, which could be worn on the FDJ shirt. There was no fixed wearing style. The orders and decorations that ordinary FDJ members received until the end of their membership at the age of 19 to 24 – usually the badge of good knowledge – were usually not worn. As a rule, only full-time FDJ members on the way to the nomenklatura at an older age achieved awards, which were also worn.

== Education and social care ==

[[File:DDR Schulsystem.svg|thumb|East German schoolsystem]]

About 600,000 children and youth were subordinate to East German residential child care system.

== Population ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1984-0807-017, Leipzig, Familienszene.jpg|thumb|right|A woman and her husband, both medical students, and their triplets in East Germany in 1984. The GDR had state policies to encourage births among educated women.]]

{{Historical populations
|type =
|footnote = Source: DESTATIS
|1950 | 18,388,000
|1960 | 17,188,000
|1970 | 17,068,000
|1980 | 16,740,000
|1990 | 16,028,000
}}

The East German population declined by three million people throughout its forty-one year history, from 19&nbsp;million in 1948 to 16&nbsp;million in 1990; of the 1948 population, some four million were deported from the lands east of the Oder-Neisse line, which made the home of millions of Germans part of Poland and the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.populstat.info/Europe/germanec.htm |title=East Germany: country population |publisher=Populstat.info |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811041417/http://www.populstat.info/Europe/germanec.htm |archive-date=11 August 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> This was a stark contrast from Poland, which increased during that time; from 24&nbsp;million in 1950 (a little more than East Germany) to 38&nbsp;million (more than twice of East Germany's population). This was primarily a result of emigration—about one quarter of East Germans left the country before the Berlin Wall was completed in 1961,<ref>"In the period between the Second World War and 1961, a total of 3.8&nbsp;million people emigrated from East to West Germany." Laar, M. (2009). "The Power of Freedom. Central and Eastern Europe after 1945." Centre for European Studies, p. 58. {{cite web|url=http://www.poweroffreedombook.com/preview_PoF.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=5 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111025246/http://www.poweroffreedombook.com/preview_PoF.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2013}}</ref> and after that time, East Germany had very low birth rates,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.country-studies.com/germany/population---historical-background.html |title=Germany Population&nbsp;– Historical Background |publisher=Country-studies.com |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101133834/http://country-studies.com/germany/population---historical-background.html |archive-date=1 November 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> except for a recovery in the 1980s when the birth rate in East Germany was considerably higher than in West Germany.<ref>[http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/DE/Content/Publikationen/Fachveroeffentlichungen/Bevoelkerung/BroschuereGeburtenDeutschland,property=file.pdf Destatis.de] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813223808/http://www.destatis.de/jetspeed/portal/cms/Sites/destatis/Internet/DE/Content/Publikationen/Fachveroeffentlichungen/Bevoelkerung/BroschuereGeburtenDeutschland,property=file.pdf |date=13 August 2009}} page 17</ref>

=== Vital statistics ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|-
!
! width="70pt"|Average population (thousand)<ref>{{cite web |title=Population by area in 1,000 |url=https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/CurrentPopulation/Tables_/lrbev03.html |website=DESTATIS – Statistisches Bundesamt |access-date=11 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811063442/https://www.destatis.de/EN/FactsFigures/SocietyState/Population/CurrentPopulation/Tables_/lrbev03.html |archive-date=11 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
! width="70pt"|Live births
! width="70pt"|Deaths
! width="70pt"|Natural change
! width="70pt"|Crude birth rate (per 1,000)
! width="70pt"|Crude death rate (per 1,000)
! width="70pt"|Natural change (per 1,000)
! width="70pt"|Total fertility rate
|-
| 1946
|
|188,679||413,240||style="color: red"|−224,561
|10.2||22.4||style="color: red"|−12.1||1.30
|-
| 1947
|
|247,275||358,035||style="color: red"|−110,760
|13.1||19.0||style="color: red"|−5.9||1.75
|-
| 1948
|
|243,311||289,747||style="color: red"|−46,436
|12.7||15.2||style="color: red"|−2.4||1.76
|-
| 1949
|
|274,022||253,658||20,364
|14.5||13.4||style="color: red"|1.1||2.03
|-
| 1950
|18,388
|303,866||219,582||84,284
|16.5||11.9||4.6||style="color: blue"|2.35
|-
| 1951
|18,350
|310,772||208,800||101,972
|16.9||11.4||5.6||style="color: blue"|2.46
|-
| 1952
|18,300
|306,004||221,676||84,328
|16.6||12.1||4.6||style="color: blue"|2.42
|-
| 1953
|18,112
|298,933||212,627||86,306
|16.4||11.7||4.7||style="color: blue"|2.40
|-
| 1954
|18,002
|293,715||219,832||73,883
|16.3||12.2||4.1||style="color: blue"|2.38
|-
| 1955
|17,832
|293,280||214,066||79,215
|16.3||11.9||4.4||style="color: blue"|2.38
|-
| 1956
|17,604
|281,282||212,698||68,584
|15.8||12.0||3.9||style="color: blue"|2.30
|-
| 1957
|17,411
|273,327||225,179||48,148
|15.6||12.9||2.7||style="color: blue"|2.24
|-
| 1958
|17,312
|271,405||221,113||50,292
|15.6||12.7||2.9||style="color: blue"|2.22
|-
| 1959
|17,286
|291,980||229,898||62,082
|16.9||13.3||3.6||style="color: blue"|2.37
|-
| 1960
|17,188
|292,985||233,759||59,226
|16.9||13.5||3.4||style="color: blue"|2.35
|-
| 1961
|17,079
|300,818||222,739||78,079
|17.6||13.0||4.6||style="color: blue"|2.42
|-
| 1962
|17,136
|297,982||233,995||63,987
|17.4||13.7||3.7||style="color: blue"|2.42
|-
| 1963
|17,181
|301,472||222,001||79,471
|17.6||12.9||4.6||style="color: blue"|2.47
|-
| 1964
|17,004
|291,867||226,191||65,676
|17.1||13.3||3.9||style="color: blue"|2.48
|-
| 1965
|17,040
|281,058||230,254||50,804
|16.5||13.5||3.0||style="color: blue"|2.48
|-
| 1966
|17,071
|267,958||225,663||42,295
|15.7||13.2||2.5||style="color: blue"|2.43
|-
| 1967
|17,090
|252,817||227,068||25,749
|14.8||13.3||1.5||style="color: blue"|2.34
|-
| 1968
|17,087
|245,143||242,473||2,670
|14.3||14.2||0.1||style="color: blue"|2.30
|-
| 1969
|17,075
|238,910||243,732||style="color: red"|−4,822
|14.0||14.3||style="color: red"|−0.3||style="color: blue"|2.24
|-
| 1970
|17,068
|236,929||240,821||style="color: red"|−3,892
|13.9||14.1||style="color: red"|−0.2||style="color: blue"|2.19
|-
| 1971
|17,054
|234,870||234,953||style="color: red"|−83
|13.8||13.8||style="color: red"|−0.0||style="color: blue"|2.13
|-
| 1972
|17,011
|200,443||234,425||style="color: red"|−33,982
|11.7||13.7||style="color: red"|−2.0||1.79
|-
| 1973
|16,951
|180,336||231,960||style="color: red"|−51,624
|10.6||13.7||style="color: red"|−3.0||1.58
|-
| 1974
|16,891
|179,127||229,062||style="color: red"|−49,935
|10.6||13.5||style="color: red"|−3.0||1.54
|-
| 1975
|16,820
|181,798||240,389||style="color: red"|−58,591
|10.8||14.3||style="color: red"|−3.5||1.54
|-
| 1976
|16,767
|195,483||233,733||style="color: red"|−38,250
|11.6||13.9||style="color: red"|−2.3||1.64
|-
| 1977
|16,758
|223,152||226,233||style="color: red"|−3,081
|13.3||13.5||style="color: red"|−0.2||1.85
|-
| 1978
|16,751
|232,151||232,332||style="color: red"|−181
|13.9||13.9||style="color: red"|−0.0||1.90
|-
| 1979
|16,740
|235,233||232,742||2,491
|14.0||13.9||0.1||1.90
|-
| 1980
|16,740
|245,132||238,254||6,878
|14.6||14.2||0.4||1.94
|-
| 1981
|16,706
|237,543||232,244||5,299
|14.2||13.9||0.3||1.85
|-
| 1982
|16,702
|240,102||227,975||12,127
|14.4||13.7||0.7||1.86
|-
| 1983
|16,701
|233,756||222,695||11,061
|14.0||13.3||0.7||1.79
|-
| 1984
|16,660
|228,135||221,181||6,954
|13.6||13.2||0.4||1.74
|-
| 1985
|16,640
|227,648||225,353||2,295
|13.7||13.5||0.2||1.73
|-
| 1986
|16,640
|222,269||223,536||style="color: red"|−1,267
|13.4||13.5||style="color: red"|−0.1||1.70
|-
| 1987
|16,661
|225,959||213,872||12,087
|13.6||12.8||0.8||1.74
|-
| 1988
|16,675
|215,734||213,111||2,623
|12.9||12.8||0.1||1.67
|-
| 1989
|16,434
|198,992||205,711||style="color: red"|−6,789
|12.0||12.4||style="color: red"|−0.4||1.56
|-
| 1990
|16,028
|178,476||208,110||style="color: red"|−29,634
|11.1||12.9||style="color: red"|−1.8||style="color: red"|1.51
|-
| colspan="9" style="text-align: center;" | '''Source:'''<ref>{{cite web |title=Zusammenfassende Übersichten – Eheschließungen, Geborene und Gestorbene 1946 bis 2015 |url=https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Bevoelkerung/Bevoelkerungsbewegung/ZusammenEheschliessungenGeboreneGestorbene.html |publisher=DESTATIS – Statistisches Bundesamt |access-date=11 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811064452/https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Bevoelkerung/Bevoelkerungsbewegung/ZusammenEheschliessungenGeboreneGestorbene.html |archive-date=11 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|}

===Major cities===
[[File:19860910300NR Rostock Nördliche Altstadt Auf der Huder.jpg|thumb|right|Hanseatic-themed panel blocks in Rostock's city center in September 1986, at the time East Germany's largest coastal and port city, and the sixth largest city in the country]]
(1988 populations)
* East Berlin (1,200,000)
* Leipzig<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204439/leipzig/population|title=Leipzig, Germany Population 1950–2019|website=www.macrotrends.net|access-date=28 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928224946/https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204439/leipzig/population|archive-date=28 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> (556,000)
* [[Place:Dresden|Dresden]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204437/dresden/population|title=Dresden, Germany Population 1950–2019|website=www.macrotrends.net|access-date=28 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928224947/https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204437/dresden/population|archive-date=28 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> (520,000)
* Karl-Marx-Stadt<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Paxton|first=J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMjDDQAAQBAJ&q=karl+marx+stadt+population+1988&pg=PA526|title=The Statesman's Year-Book 1990–91|date=20 December 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-27119-7|language=en}}</ref> (314,437) (Chemnitz until 1953, reverted to original name in 1990)
* [[Place:Magdeburg|Magdeburg]]<ref name=":0" /> (290,579)
* Rostock<ref name=":0" /> (253,990)
* Halle (Saale)<ref name=":0" /> (236,044)
* [[Place:Erfurt|Erfurt]]<ref name=":0" /> (220,016)
* [[Place:Potsdam|Potsdam]]<ref name=":0" /> (142,862)
* Gera<ref name=":0" /> (134,834)
* [[Place:Schwerin|Schwerin]]<ref name=":0" /> (130,685)
* Cottbus<ref name=":0" /> (128,639)
* Zwickau<ref name=":0" /> (121,749)
* Jena<ref name=":0" /> (108,010)
* Dessau<ref name=":0" /> (103,867)

==Administrative districts==
[[File:DDR Verwaltungsbezirke farbig.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Districts of the German Democratic Republic in 1952]]

Until 1952, East Germany comprised the capital, East Berlin (though legally it was not fully part of the GDR's territory), and the five German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in 1947 renamed Mecklenburg), Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt (named Province of Saxony until 1946), Thuringia, and Saxony, their post-war territorial demarcations approximating the pre-war German demarcations of the Middle German ''Länder'' (states) and ''Provinzen'' (provinces of Prussia). The western parts of two provinces, Pomerania and Lower Silesia, the remainder of which were annexed by Poland, remained in the GDR and were attached to Mecklenburg and Saxony, respectively.

The East German Administrative Reform of 1952 established 14 {{lang|de|Bezirke}} (districts) and ''de facto'' disestablished the five ''Länder''. The new {{lang|de|Bezirke}}, named after their district centres, were as follows: (i) Rostock, (ii) Neubrandenburg, and (iii) [[Place:Schwerin|Schwerin]] created from the ''Land'' (state) of Mecklenburg; (iv) [[Place:Potsdam|Potsdam]], (v) Frankfurt (Oder), and (vii) Cottbus from Brandenburg; (vi) [[Place:Magdeburg|Magdeburg]] and (viii) Halle from Saxony-Anhalt; (ix) Leipzig, (xi) [[Place:Dresden|Dresden]], and (xii) Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz until 1953 and again from 1990) from Saxony; and (x) [[Place:Erfurt|Erfurt]], (xiii) Gera, and (xiv) Suhl from Thuringia.

East Berlin was made the country's 15th ''Bezirk'' in 1961 but retained special legal status until 1968, when the residents approved the new (draft) constitution. Despite the city as a whole being legally under the control of the [[Organization:Allied Control Council|Allied Control Council]], and diplomatic objections of the Allied governments, the GDR administered the ''Bezirk'' of Berlin as part of its territory.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0816-002, Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Platz, Brunnen.jpg|right|thumb|Uni-Riese (''University Giant'') in 1982. Built in 1972, it was once part of the Karl-Marx-University and is Leipzig's tallest building.]]

== Military ==
[[File:Nva-ehrenwache.jpg|thumb|right|upright|East German National People's Army changing-of-the-guard ceremony in East Berlin]]
The government of East Germany had control over a large number of military and paramilitary organisations through various ministries. Chief among these was the Ministry of National Defence. Because of East Germany's proximity to the West during the [[History:Cold War|Cold War]] (1945–92), its military forces were among the most advanced of the [[Organization:Warsaw Pact|Warsaw Pact]]. Defining what was a military force and what was not is a matter of some dispute.

=== National People's Army ===
The {{lang|de|Nationale Volksarmee}} (NVA) was the largest military organisation in East Germany. It was formed in 1956 from the {{lang|de|Kasernierte Volkspolizei}} (Barracked People's Police), the military units of the regular police (Volkspolizei), when East Germany joined the Warsaw Pact. From its creation, it was controlled by the Ministry of National Defence (East Germany). It was an all-volunteer force until an eighteen-month [[Social:Conscription|conscription]] period was introduced in 1962.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Tom |title=Comrades in Arms: Military Masculinities in East German Culture |date=3 February 2020 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York and Oxford |isbn=9781789205558 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_8irDwAAQBAJ |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Solsten|first=Eric|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/96020927/|title=Germany: A country study|collaboration=Library Of Congress. Federal Research Division|publisher=Library of Congress. Federal Research Division|year=1996|location=Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|pages=169–170}}</ref> It was regarded by NATO officers as the best military in the Warsaw Pact.<ref name="auto">{{cite news |last=Trainor |first=Bernard E. |title=East German Military: Warsaw Pact's Finest |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/world/east-german-military-warsaw-pact-s-finest.html |url-status=live |newspaper=The New York Times |date=8 November 1988 |access-date=31 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801003742/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/world/east-german-military-warsaw-pact-s-finest.html |archive-date=1 August 2018}}</ref>
The NVA consisted of the following branches:
* Land Forces of the National People's Army
* {{lang|de|Volksmarine}}{{snd}}People's Navy
* Air Forces of the National People's Army

=== Border troops ===
The border troops of the Eastern sector were originally organised as a police force, the {{lang|de|Deutsche Grenzpolizei}}, similar to the {{lang|de|Bundesgrenzschutz}} in West Germany. It was controlled by the Ministry of the Interior. Following the remilitarisation of East Germany in 1956, the {{lang|de|Deutsche Grenzpolizei}} was transformed into a military force in 1961, modeled after the Soviet Border Troops, and transferred to the Ministry of National Defense, as part of the National People's Army. In 1973, it was separated from the NVA, but it remained under the same ministry. At its peak, it numbered approximately 47,000 men.

=== Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft ===
After the NVA was separated from the {{lang|de|Volkspolizei}} in 1956, the Ministry of the Interior maintained its own public order barracked reserve, known as the {{lang|de|Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (VPB)}}. These units were, like the {{lang|de|Kasernierte Volkspolizei}}, equipped as motorised infantry, and they numbered between 12,000 and 15,000 men.

=== Stasi ===
The Ministry of State Security (Stasi) included the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, which was mainly involved with facilities security and plain clothes events security. They were the only public facing wing of the Stasi. The Stasi numbered around 90,000 men, the Guards Regiment around 11,000–12,000 men.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

=== Combat groups of the working class ===
The {{lang|de|Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse}} (combat groups of the working class) numbered around 400,000 for much of their existence, and were organised around factories. The KdA was the political-military instrument of the SED; it was essentially a "party Army". All KdA directives and decisions were made by the ZK's {{lang|de|[[Social:Politburo|Politbüro]]}}. They received their training from the Volkspolizei and the Ministry of the Interior. Membership was voluntary, but SED members were required to join as part of their membership obligation.

=== Conscientious objection ===

Every man was required to serve eighteen months of [[Social:Conscription|compulsory military service]]; for the medically unqualified and [[Social:Conscientious objector|conscientious objector]], there were the {{lang|de|Baueinheiten}} (construction units) or the {{lang|de|Volkshygienedienst}} (people's sanitation service) both established in 1964, two years after the introduction of conscription, in response to political pressure by the national [[Religion:Lutheranism|Lutheran]] Protestant Church upon the GDR's government. In the 1970s, East German leaders acknowledged that former construction soldiers and sanitation service soldiers were at a disadvantage when they rejoined the civilian sphere.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

== Foreign policy ==

=== Support of Third World socialist countries ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-Z1014-018, Berlin, Staatsoberhaupt Angolas an der Grenze.jpg|thumb|right|Angola's José Eduardo dos Santos during his visit to East Berlin]]

After receiving wider international diplomatic recognition in 1972–73, the GDR began active cooperation with Third World socialist governments and national liberation movements. While the USSR was in control of the overall strategy and Cuban armed forces were involved in the actual combat (mostly in the People's Republic of Angola and socialist Ethiopia), the GDR provided experts for military hardware maintenance and personnel training, and oversaw creation of secret security agencies based on its own Stasi model.

Already in the 1960s, contacts were established with Angola's MPLA, Mozambique's FRELIMO and the PAIGC in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. In the 1970s official cooperation was established with other socialist states, such as the People's Republic of the Congo, [[Place:South Yemen|People's Democratic Republic of Yemen]], Somali Democratic Republic, Libya, and the People's Republic of Benin.

The first military agreement was signed in 1973 with the People's Republic of the Congo. In 1979 friendship treaties were signed with Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

It was estimated that altogether, 2,000–4,000 DDR military and security experts were dispatched to Africa. In addition, representatives from African and Arab countries and liberation movements underwent military training in the GDR.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubinstein |first=Alvin Z. |title=Moscow's Third World Strategy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rOoyp-1UOH4C&pg=PA184 |url-status=live |date=16 July 1990 |page=184 |publisher=Princeton University Press |access-date=26 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201040239/https://books.google.com/books?id=rOoyp-1UOH4C&pg=PA184 |archive-date=1 December 2019 |isbn=0-691-02332-8}}</ref>

=== East Germany and the Middle East conflict ===
East Germany pursued an anti-Zionist policy; Jeffrey Herf argues that East Germany was waging an undeclared war on [[Place:Israel|Israel]].<ref name="Herf">{{cite book |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey |title=Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967–1989 |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-107-08986-0}}</ref> According to Herf, "the Middle East was one of the crucial battlefields of the global Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West; it was also a region in which East Germany played a salient role in the Soviet bloc's antagonism toward Israel."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey |title='At War with Israel': East Germany's Key Role in Soviet Policy in the Middle East |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=129–163 |year=2014 |s2cid=57566994 |doi=10.1162/JCWS_a_00450}}</ref> While East Germany saw itself as an "anti-fascist state", it regarded [[Place:Israel|Israel]] as a "fascist state"<ref>{{cite book |last=Laqueur |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Laqueur |title=The Road to Jerusalem: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967 |url=https://archive.org/details/roadtojerusalemt00laqu |url-access=registration |publisher=Macmillan |year=1968 |page=[https://archive.org/details/roadtojerusalemt00laqu/page/215 215] |isbn=978-0-02-568360-0}}</ref> and East Germany strongly supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in its armed struggle against Israel. In 1974, the GDR government recognized the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".<ref>''Israel's struggle in the UN''</ref> The PLO declared the [[Place:State of Palestine|Palestinian state]] on 15 November 1988 during the First Intifada, and the GDR recognized the state prior to reunification.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.berlinerkolleg.com/en/blog/gdr-and-plo-east-germanys-palestine-policy |title=The GDR and the PLO: East Germany's Palestine Policy |access-date=28 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505054314/http://www.berlinerkolleg.com/en/blog/gdr-and-plo-east-germanys-palestine-policy |archive-date=5 May 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> After becoming a member of the UN, East Germany "made excellent use of the UN to wage political warfare against Israel [and was] an enthusiastic, high-profile, and vigorous member" of the anti-Israeli majority of the General Assembly.<ref name="Herf" />

Ba'athist Iraq, due to its wealth of unexploited natural resources, was sought out as an ally of East Germany, with Iraq being the first Arab country to recognise East Germany on 10 May 1969, paving the way for other Arab League states to later do the same. East Germany attempted to play a decisive role in mediating the conflict between the Iraqi Communist Party and the Ba'ath Party and supported the creation of the National Progressive Front. The East German government also attempted to foster close relations with the Ba'athist regime of Hafez al-Assad during the early years of Assad's regime and, as it did in Iraq, used its influence to minimise tensions between the Syrian Communist Party and the Ba'athist regime.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trentin |first1=Massimiliano |date=17 July 2008 |title='Tough negotiations'. The two Germanys in Syria and Iraq, 1963–74 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682740802222155 |journal=Cold War History |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=353–380 |doi=10.1080/14682740802222155 |s2cid=218576332 |access-date=14 February 2023}}</ref>

=== Western Europe ===
During the Cold War, especially during its early years, the East German government attempted to build closer diplomatic relations and trade links between Iceland and East Germany. By the 1950s, East Germany had become Iceland's fifth largest trading partner. East German influence in Iceland significantly declined in the 1970s and 1980s following a schism between the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the Icelandic Socialist Party over the Prague Spring, along with free market economic reforms implemented by Iceland during the 1960s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ingimundarson |first1=V. |date=6 September 2010 |title=Targeting the Periphery: The Role of Iceland in East German Foreign Policy, 1949–89 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713999929 |journal=Cold War History |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=113–140 |doi=10.1080/713999929 |s2cid=153852878 |access-date=13 February 2023}}</ref>

=== Soviet military occupation ===

== Economy ==

[[File:DDR economy-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|left|Map of the East German economy, 8/1990]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0619-306, Trabant 601.jpg|thumb|upright|The Trabant automobile was a profitable product made in the German Democratic Republic.]]

The East German economy began poorly because of the devastation caused by the Second World War; the loss of so many young soldiers, the disruption of business and transportation, the allied bombing campaigns that decimated cities, and reparations owed to the USSR. The Red Army dismantled and transported to Russia the infrastructure and industrial plants of the Soviet Zone of Occupation. By the early 1950s, the reparations were paid in agricultural and industrial products; and Lower Silesia, with its coal mines and Szczecin, an important natural port, were given to Poland by the decision of Stalin and in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.<ref name="Norman M. Naimark 1949, pp. 167-9"/>

The socialist centrally planned economy of the German Democratic Republic was like that of the USSR. In 1950, the GDR joined the COMECON trade bloc. In 1985, [[Social:Collective|collective]] (state) enterprises earned 96.7% of the net national income. To ensure stable prices for goods and services, the state paid 80% of basic supply costs. The estimated 1984 per capita income was $9,800 ($22,600 in 2015 dollars) (this is based on an unreal official exchange rate). In 1976, the average annual growth of the GDP was approximately five percent. This made the East German economy the richest in all of the Soviet Bloc until reunification in 1990.<ref name="Econ stats"/>

Notable East German exports were [[Physics:Camera|photographic cameras]], under the Praktica brand; automobiles under the [[Engineering:Trabant|Trabant]], Wartburg, and the IFA brands; hunting rifles, [[Astronomy:Sextant|sextant]]s, typewriters and [[Engineering:Watch|wristwatches]].

Until the 1960s, East Germans endured shortages of basic foodstuffs such as [[Chemistry:Sugar|sugar]] and coffee. East Germans with friends or relatives in the West (or with any access to a [[Finance:Hard currency|hard currency]]) and the necessary {{lang|de|Staatsbank}} [[Finance:Foreign currency account|foreign currency account]] could afford Western products and export-quality East German products via Intershop. Consumer goods also were available, by post, from the Danish Jauerfood, and Genex companies.

The government used money and prices as political devices, providing highly subsidised prices for a wide range of basic goods and services, in what was known as "the second pay packet".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boroch |first=Wilfried |date=1996 |title=Social policy as an institutional transformation problem |journal=Transition Economies |volume=31 |number=3 |pages=139–146}}</ref> At the production level, artificial prices made for a system of semi-barter and resource hoarding. For the consumer, it led to the substitution of GDR money with time, barter, and hard currencies. The socialist economy became steadily more dependent on financial infusions from hard-currency loans from West Germany. East Germans, meanwhile, came to see their soft currency as worthless relative to the Deutsche Mark (DM).<ref>{{cite book |first=Jonathan R. |last=Zatlin |title=The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany |date=2007}}</ref>
Economic issues would also persist in the east of Germany after the reunification of the west and the east. According to the federal office of political education (23 June 2009) 'In 1991 alone, 153 billion Deutschmarks had to be transferred to eastern Germany to secure incomes, support businesses and improve infrastructure... by 1999 the total had amounted to 1.634 trillion Marks net... The sums were so large that public debt in Germany more than doubled.'<ref>The shortest history of Germany, James Hawes (2018), federal office of political education [23 June 2009]</ref>

=== Consumption and jobs ===
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:0 15px"
|-
|+ align="right" |'''Growth in GDP per capita in East and West Germany'''<ref>{{cite book |title=High Growth of an Underachiever? |last=Sleifer |first=Jaap |year=2006 |pages=66 |chapter=Planning Ahead and Falling Behind: The East German Economy in Comparison with West Germany 1936–2002 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=9783050085395 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80vnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
|
| '''East Germany'''
| '''West Germany'''
|-
| 1945–1960
| align="right" | 6.2
| align="right" | 10.9
|-
| 1950–1960
| align="right" | 6.7
| align="right" | 8.0
|-
| 1960–1970
| align="right" | 2.7
| align="right" | 4.4
|-
| 1970–1980
| align="right" | 2.6
| align="right" | 2.8
|-
| 1980–1989
| align="right" | 0.3
| align="right" | 1.9
|-
| '''Total 1950–1989'''
| align="right" | 3.1
| align="right" | 4.3
|}

Loyalty to the SED was a primary criterion for getting a good job, professionalism was secondary to political criteria in personnel recruitment and development.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter W. |last=Sperlich |title=Oppression and Scarcity: The History and Institutional Structure of the Marxist-Leninist Government of East Germany and Some Perspectives on Life in a Socialist System |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xm9Fd3QgEcC |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=191 |isbn=978-0-275-97565-4 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516134941/https://books.google.com/books?id=3xm9Fd3QgEcC |archive-date=16 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in 1963 with a series of secret international agreements, East Germany recruited workers from Poland, Hungary, Cuba, Albania, Mozambique, Angola and North Vietnam. They numbered more than 100,000 by 1989. Many, such as future politician Zeca Schall (who emigrated from Angola in 1988 as a contract worker) stayed in Germany after the Wende.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zeca-schall-im-portraet-ich-liebe-thueringen-ich-liebe-deutschland/1578230.html |title=Ich liebe Thüringen, ich liebe Deutschland |trans-title=I love Thuringia, I love Germany |language=de |access-date=20 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201235008/http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zeca-schall-im-portraet-ich-liebe-thueringen-ich-liebe-deutschland/1578230.html |archive-date=1 February 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Religion ==
{{bar box
|title=Religion in East Germany, 1950
|left1=Religion
|right1=Percent
|float=right
|bars=
{{bar percent|Protestant|DeepSkyBlue|85|85%}}
{{bar percent|[[Organization:Catholic Church|Catholic]]|DarkBlue|10|10%}}
{{bar percent|Unaffiliated|LightGrey|5|5%}}}}
{{bar box
|title=Religion in East Germany, 1989
|left1=Religion
|right1=Percent
|float=right
|bars=
{{bar percent|Protestant|DeepSkyBlue|25|25%}}
{{bar percent|[[Organization:Catholic Church|Catholic]]|DarkBlue|5|5%}}
{{bar percent|Unaffiliated|LightGrey|70|70%}}}}

Religion became contested ground in the GDR, with the governing communists promoting [[Philosophy:State atheism|state atheism]], although some people remained loyal to Christian communities.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Mary |last=Fulbrook |title=The Limits Of Totalitarianism: God, State and Society in the GDR |journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |date=January 1957 |volume=7 |number=1 |pages=25–52|doi=10.2307/3679269 |jstor=3679269 |s2cid=162448768 }}</ref> In 1957, the state authorities established a [[Religion:State Secretary for Church Affairs|State Secretariat for Church Affairs]] to handle the government's contact with churches and with religious groups;<ref>{{cite web |last=Toth |first=Helena |title=Dialogue as a Strategy of Struggle: Religious Politics in East Germany, 1957–1968 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/EF8B25B6831AAC5687891F10C5BD4646/S0960777320000065a.pdf/div-class-title-dialogue-as-a-strategy-of-struggle-religious-politics-in-east-germany-1957-1968-div.pdf |website=Contemporary European History |publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} |page=174}}</ref> the SED remained officially atheist.<ref>{{cite book |last=de Silva |first=Brendan |chapter=The Protestant Church and the East German State: an organisational perspective |editor1-last=Cooke |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Grix |editor2-first=Jonathan |title=East Germany: Continuity and Change |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAR5nQudwUUC |url-status=live |series=German Monitor |issue=46 |publisher=Rodopi B.V. |location=Amsterdam |publication-date=2000 |pages=104–105 |isbn=978-90-420-0579-2 |access-date=21 September 2015 |quote='The SED will refrain from talks with the churches, since it must be seen as an "atheistic party against the Church". Thus, negotiations must be led by the State, which is understood to be non-partisan, namely by the state Secretary for Church Affairs. But decisions on Church policies are to be made exclusively "in the party" [...].' |year=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603024922/https://books.google.com/books?id=PAR5nQudwUUC |archive-date=3 June 2016 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

In 1950, 85% of the GDR citizens were Protestants, while 10% were [[Organization:Catholic Church|Catholics]]. In 1961, the renowned philosophical theologian [[Biography:Paul Tillich|Paul Tillich]] claimed that the Protestant population in East Germany had the most admirable Church in Protestantism, because the communists there had not been able to win a spiritual victory over them.<ref>Paul Tillich. Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 20.</ref> By 1989, membership in the Christian churches had dropped significantly. Protestants constituted 25% of the population, Catholics 5%. The share of people who considered themselves non-religious rose from 5% in 1950 to 70% in 1989.

=== State atheism ===

When it first came to power, the Communist party asserted the compatibility of Christianity and Marxism-Leninism and sought Christian participation in the building of socialism. At first, the promotion of Marxist-Leninist atheism received little official attention. In the mid-1950s, as the Cold War heated up, atheism became a topic of major interest for the state, in both domestic and foreign contexts. University chairs and departments devoted to the study of scientific atheism were founded and much literature (scholarly and popular) on the subject was produced. This activity subsided in the late 1960s amid perceptions that it had started to become counterproductive. Official and scholarly attention to atheism renewed beginning in 1973, though this time with more emphasis on scholarship and on the training of cadres than on propaganda. Throughout, the attention paid to atheism in East Germany was never intended to jeopardise the cooperation that was desired from those East Germans who were religious.<ref>Fulbrook, "The Limits Of Totalitarianism: God, State and Society in the GDR"</ref>

=== Protestantism ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-W0613-039, Sitzung des Martin-Luther-Komitees.jpg|upright=1.25|thumb|right|A 1980 meeting between representatives of the BEK and Erich Honecker]]

East Germany, historically, was majority Protestant (primarily Lutheran) from the early stages of the Protestant Reformation onwards. In 1948, freed from the influence of the [[Social:Nazism|Nazi-oriented]] German Christians, Lutheran, [[Religion:Calvinism|Reformed]] and United churches from most parts of Germany came together as the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD) at the Conference of Eisenach (''Kirchenversammlung von Eisenach'').

In 1969, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin{{efn|The Eastern churches were the Evangelical Church of Anhalt, Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia#Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (EKiBB, East Ambit, for East Berlin and Brandenburg), Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Ecclesiastical Region, Evangelical Church in Greifswald, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony (KPS), Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia and Evangelical Church of the Union (East Region, for EKiBB-East Ambit, Görlitz, Greifswald and KPS, and since 1970 for Anhalt too).}} broke away from the EKD and formed the ''{{ill|Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic|de|Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR}}'' ({{lang-de|link=no|Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR}}, BEK), in 1970 also joined by the Moravian ''Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde''. In June 1991, following the German reunification, the BEK churches again merged with the EKD ones.

Between 1956 and 1971, the [[Philosophy:Leadership|leadership]] of the East German Lutheran churches gradually changed its relations with the state from hostility to cooperation.<ref>Martin Onnasch, "Konflikt und Kompromiss: Die Haltung der evangelischen Kirchen zu den gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen in der DDR am Anfang der fünfziger Jahre," ["Conflict and compromise: the position of the Protestant churches with regard to social changes in the GDR at the beginning of the 1950s"], ''Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte / Halbjahresschrift für Theologie und Geschichtswisseschaft,'' 1990, Vol. 3 Issue 1, pp.&nbsp;152–165.</ref> From the founding of the GDR in 1949, the Socialist Unity Party sought to weaken the influence of the church on the rising generation. The church adopted an attitude of confrontation and distance toward the state. Around 1956 this began to develop into a more neutral stance accommodating conditional loyalty. The government was no longer regarded as illegitimate; instead, the church leaders started viewing the authorities as installed by God and, therefore, deserving of obedience by Christians. But on matters where the state demanded something which the churches felt was not in accordance with the will of God, the churches reserved their right to say no. There were both structural and intentional causes behind this development. Structural causes included the hardening of Cold War tensions in Europe in the mid-1950s, which made it clear that the East German state was not temporary. The loss of church members also made it clear to the leaders of the church that they had to come into some kind of dialogue with the state. The intentions behind the change of attitude varied from a traditional liberal Lutheran acceptance of secular power to a positive attitude toward socialist ideas.<ref name="Stephen R. Bowers 1982, pp 73-86">{{Cite journal |first=Stephen R. |last=Bowers |title=Private Institutions in Service to the State: The German Democratic Republic's Church in Socialism |journal=East European Quarterly |date=Spring 1982 |volume=16 |number=1 |pages=73–86}}</ref>

Manfred Stolpe became a lawyer for the Brandenburg Protestant Church in 1959 before taking up a position at church headquarters in Berlin. In 1969 he helped found the {{lang|de|Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR}} (BEK), where he negotiated with the government while at the same time working within the institutions of this Protestant body. He won the regional elections for the Brandenburg state assembly at the head of the SPD list in 1990. Stolpe remained in the Brandenburg government until he joined the federal government in 2002.

Apart from the Protestant state churches ({{lang-de|link=no|Landeskirchen}}) united in the EKD/BEK and the [[Organization:Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] there was a number of smaller Protestant bodies, including Protestant Free Churches ({{lang-de|link=no|Evangelische Freikirchen}}) united in the {{ill|Federation of the Free Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic|de|Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in der DDR}} and the {{ill|Federation of the Free Protestant Churches in Germany|de|Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden in Deutschland}}, as well as the Free Lutheran Church, the Old Lutheran Church and Federation of the Reformed Churches in the German Democratic Republic. The Moravian Church also had its presence as the {{lang|de|Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine}}. There were also other Protestants such as [[Religion:Methodism|Methodists]], Adventists, Mennonites and [[Religion:Quakers|Quakers]].

=== Catholicism ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0710-035, Dresden, Katholikentreffen.jpg|thumb|Katholikentag, Dresden, 1987<br />(left to right) Bishop Karl Lehmann and Cardinals Gerhard Schaffran, Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) and Joachim Meisner]]

The smaller Catholic Church in eastern Germany had a fully functioning episcopal hierarchy in full accord with the Vatican. During the early postwar years, tensions were high. The Catholic Church as a whole (and particularly the bishops) resisted both the East German state and Marxist-Leninist ideology. The state allowed the bishops to lodge protests, which they did on issues such as abortion.<ref name="Stephen R. Bowers 1982, pp 73-86"/>

After 1945, the Church did fairly well in integrating Catholic exiles from lands to the east (which mostly became part of Poland) and in adjusting its institutional structures to meet the needs of a church within an officially atheist society. This meant an increasingly hierarchical church structure, whereas in the area of religious education, press, and youth organisations, a system of temporary staff was developed, one that took into account the special situation of Caritas, a Catholic charity organisation. By 1950, therefore, there existed a Catholic subsociety that was well adjusted to prevailing specific conditions and capable of maintaining Catholic identity.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bernd |last=Schaefer |title=The East German State and the Catholic Church, 1945–1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=96QzpCRH2agC |year=2010 |publisher=[[Company:Berghahn Books|Berghahn Books]] |isbn=978-1-84545-852-2|access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603062014/https://books.google.com/books?id=96QzpCRH2agC |archive-date=3 June 2016 |url-status=live}} ch 1</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2014}}

With a generational change in the episcopacy taking place in the early 1980s, the state hoped for better relations with the new bishops, but the new bishops instead began holding unauthorised mass meetings, promoting international ties in discussions with theologians abroad, and hosting ecumenical conferences. The new bishops became less politically oriented and more involved in pastoral care and attention to spiritual concerns. The government responded by limiting international contacts for bishops.<ref>{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Webb |title=Routledge Companion to Central and Eastern Europe since 1919 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omjBEYM3IK4C&pg=PA185 |year=2008 |publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]], Taylor & Francis |page=185 |isbn=978-0-203-92817-2 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427110838/https://books.google.com/books?id=omjBEYM3IK4C&pg=PA185 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=September 2015}}

List of apostolic administrators:
* Erfurt-Meiningen
* Görlitz
* Magdeburg
* Schwerin

== Culture ==
East Germany's culture was strongly influenced by communist thought and was marked by an attempt to define itself in opposition to the west, particularly West Germany and the United States. Critics of the East German state{{who|date=November 2015}} have claimed that the state's commitment to Communism was a hollow and cynical tool, Machiavellian in nature, but this assertion has been challenged by studies{{which|date=November 2014}} that have found that the East German leadership was genuinely committed to the advance of scientific knowledge, economic development, and social progress. However, Pence and Betts argue, the majority of East Germans over time increasingly regarded the state's ideals to be hollow, though there was also a substantial number of East Germans who regarded their culture as having a healthier, more authentic mentality than that of West Germany.<ref>Pence and Betts, ''Socialist modern: East German everyday culture and politics''. page 37 for Maaz, 58.</ref>

GDR culture and politics were limited by the harsh censorship.<ref name="ed">{{cite web |url=http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/whos-watching-who/tales-archive/secrets-of-east-german-censorship/ |website=blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk |title=The Secret of East German Censorship – Who's Watching Who? |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216091214/http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/whos-watching-who/tales-archive/secrets-of-east-german-censorship/ |archive-date=16 December 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Compared to the music of the FRG, the freedom of art was less restricted by private-sector guidelines, but by guidelines from the state and the SED. Nevertheless, many musicians strove to explore the existing boundaries. Despite the state's support for music education, there were politically motivated conflicts with the state, especially among rock, blues and folk musicians and songwriters, as well as composers of so-called serious music.

=== Music ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0321-0204-001, Berlin, Volksbühne, Oktoberklub, Hartmut König.jpg|thumb|The ''Oktoberklub'' in 1967]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-W0115-047, Berlin, Frank Schöbel bei Autogrammstunde.jpg|thumb|Pop singer Frank Schöbel (center) giving autographs in 1980.]]

A special feature of GDR culture is the broad spectrum of German rock bands. The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands in East Germany. Like most mainstream acts, they were members of the SED, appeared in state-run popular youth magazines such as ''Neues Leben'' and ''Magazin''. Other popular rock bands were {{ill|Wir (band)|de|Wir (Band)|lt=Wir}}, City, Silly and Pankow. Most of these artists recorded on the state-owned AMIGA label. All were required to open live performances and albums with the East German national anthem.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Schlager, which was very popular in the west, also gained a foothold early on in East Germany, and numerous musicians, such as {{ill|Gerd Christian|de}}, {{ill|Uwe Jensen|de|Uwe Jensen (Schlagersänger)}}, and {{ill|Hartmut Schulze-Gerlach|de}} gained national fame. From 1962 to 1976, an international schlager festival was held in Rostock, garnering participants from between 18 and 22 countries each year.<ref>[http://www.wdr4.de/musik/schallplattenbar/ostseelaender100.html Bericht auf wdr4.de vom 22. Juli 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127174942/http://www.wdr4.de/musik/schallplattenbar/ostseelaender100.html |date=27 January 2016}}, retrieved 30 September 2014.</ref> The city of [[Place:Dresden|Dresden]] held a similar international festival for schlager musicians from 1971 until shortly before reunification.<ref>Götz Hintze: ''Rocklexikon der DDR''. 2. Auflage. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, {{ISBN|3-89602-303-9}}, Eintrag zum Internationalen Schlagerfestival Dresden</ref> There was a national schlager contest hosted yearly in Magdeburg from 1966 to 1971 as well.<ref>[http://www.aus-der-ddr.de/person/chris_doerk-pid_4000005786.html Informationen zu Chris Doerk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428041438/http://www.aus-der-ddr.de/person/chris_doerk-pid_4000005786.html |date=28 April 2016}}, retrieved 23 December 2010.</ref>

Bands and singers from other socialist countries were popular, e.g. Czerwone Gitary from Poland known as the {{lang|de|Rote Gitarren}}.<ref name="rote-gitarren">{{cite web |url=http://www.rote-gitarren.de/ |title=ROTE GITARREN – Die Offizielle Homepage |language=de |trans-title=ROTE GITARREN – The official homepage |website=rote-gitarren.de |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019152614/http://www.rote-gitarren.de/ |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="deutsche-mugge">{{cite web |url=http://www.deutsche-mugge.de/portraits/3782-rote-gitarren.html |title=Rote Gitarren |language=de |website=Deutsche Mugge |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019152122/http://www.deutsche-mugge.de/portraits/3782-rote-gitarren.html |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Czech Karel Gott, the Golden Voice from Prague, was beloved in both German states.<ref name="ddr-tanzmusik">{{cite web |url=http://www.ddr-tanzmusik.de/index.php/Karel_Gott |title=Karel Gott |language=de |website=DDR-Tanzmusik |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019152122/http://www.ddr-tanzmusik.de/index.php/Karel_Gott |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hungarian band Omega performed in both German states, and Yugoslavian band Korni Grupa toured East Germany in the 1970s.<ref name="deutsche-mugge2">{{cite web |url=http://www.deutsche-mugge.de/portraits/2372-omega.html |title=Omega |language=de |website=Deutsche Mugge |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019153245/http://www.deutsche-mugge.de/portraits/2372-omega.html |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opusteno.rs/biografije-poznatih-f151/biografija-muzicar-dado-topic-t18595.html |title=Biografija: Muzičar Dado Topić |website=Opusteno.rs |access-date=19 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412013943/http://opusteno.rs/biografije-poznatih-f151/biografija-muzicar-dado-topic-t18595.html |archive-date=12 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

West German television and radio could be received in many parts of the East. The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands – the so-called Die anderen Bands ("the other bands") – were {{lang|de|Die Skeptiker}}, {{ill|Die Art|de}} and Feeling B. Additionally, hip hop culture reached the ears of the East German youth. With videos such as ''Beat Street'' and ''Wild Style'', young East Germans were able to develop a hip hop culture of their own.<ref>Brown, Timothy S. "'Keeping it Real' in a Different 'Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany." In The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, page.137–150. London; A</ref> East Germans accepted hip hop as more than just a music form. The entire street culture surrounding rap entered the region and became an outlet for oppressed youth.<ref>Elfein, Dietmar. From Krauts with Attitudes to Turks with Attitudes: Some Aspects of Hip-Hop History in Germany. Popular Music, vol. 17:3, pp. 225–265, October 1998.</ref>

The government of the GDR was invested in both promoting the tradition of German classical music, and in supporting composers to write new works in that tradition. Notable East German composers include Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, and Kurt Schwaen.

The birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Eisenach, was rendered as a museum about him, featuring more than three hundred instruments, which, in 1980, received some 70,000 visitors. In Leipzig, the Bach archive contains his compositions and correspondence and recordings of his music.<ref name="Davies1977">{{cite book |last=Davies |first=Cecil William |title=Theatre for the People: The Story of the Volksbühne |publisher=Manchester University Press |date=1 January 1977 |page=126 |isbn=978-0-7190-0666-1}}</ref>

Governmental support of classical music maintained some 168 publicly funded concert, opera, chamber, and radio orchestras, such as Gewandhausorchester and Thomanerchor in Leipzig; Sächsische Staatskapelle in Dresden; and Berliner Sinfonie Orchester and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lys |first1=Franziska |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9JBDwAAQBAJ&dq=east+Germany+support+classical+music+orchestra+fifty&pg=PA131 |title=Virtual Walls?: Political Unification and Cultural Difference in Contemporary Germany |last2=Dreyer |first2=Michael |date=2017 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-57113-980-1 |language=en}}</ref> Kurt Masur was their prominent conductor.<ref name="spiegel">{{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-conductor-kurt-masur-the-spirit-of-1989-has-been-exhausted-a-721851.html |title=Interview With Conductor Kurt Masur: 'The Spirit of 1989 Has Been Exhausted' |newspaper=Spiegel Online |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019152621/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-conductor-kurt-masur-the-spirit-of-1989-has-been-exhausted-a-721851.html|archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=live |date=12 October 2010}}</ref>

==== Censorship in the music sector ====
All productions were subject to censorship. Texts had to be submitted and shows approved in advance; performances were watched. No one was exempt from this, not even famous artists with connections to the highest circles of the SED government. Under this pressure, strategies were developed to bring critical texts to the audience despite censorship. For example, Heinz Quermann always deliberately built an extreme gag into his entertainment programme so that the censors would have something to cut and the other gags would be less critically scrutinised. Tamara Danz of Silly founded the term "green elephant" (''grüner Elefant'') for such passages.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the youth of the GDR were also under the influence of the Beatles and their music. In the beginning, this music was still tolerated and supported by the GDR leadership, especially with the help of the FDJ. The high point of this era was 1965, when GDR bands not only got radio and television appearances, but were even allowed to make recordings. However, the SED realised that it could not control this movement, which was basically rebellious and oriented towards the West, and steer it in a direction it liked. The Leipzig Beat Revolt was a response, that most of the bands were therefore simply banned, the others were strictly controlled. For example, Thomas Natschinski's band had to change its English name "Team 4" to the German name "Thomas Natschinski and his group". Other bands were not so conformist. Renft in particular was repeatedly banned from performing and later also the blues rock band Freygang, whose members went into hiding and then played under pseudonyms.

Even convinced socialists like the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann were banned from performing because they had different ideas of [[Social:Socialism|socialism]] than the SED realised. In 1976, Wolf Biermann was allowed to tour in the West and this was immediately taken as an opportunity to denaturalise him and refuse him permission to return. Numerous artists protested against this and were forced to leave the country – some after serving prison sentences – including members of Renft, as well as Manfred Krug and Nina Hagen. Other artists left voluntarily. Veronika Fischer, for example, did not return from a performance in West Berlin in 1981, whereupon her songs were no longer allowed to be played by GDR radio stations.

But West German productions were also subject to censorship. For example, the song by Udo Jürgens Es war einmal ein Luftballon (Once Upon a Time There Was a Balloon) was put on the Index because of the line, "They know no borders, the balloons of the world". It was not until 1987 that Udo Jürgens was allowed to perform again in the GDR. Udo Lindenberg, for example, had similar problems. Despite all his efforts (such as his song Sonderzug nach Pankow (Special Train to Pankow)), he was only allowed to perform once before the fall of the Wall, at the Palast der Republik on the occasion of the event "Rock für den Frieden" (Rock for Peace) on 25 October 1983.

In the 1980s, censorship seemed to loosen up. Lyrics about the longing for freedom (including Albatros by Karat) became possible. But it was only in the course of the peaceful revolution that songs by Veronika Fischer were heard on the radio again in October 1989.

=== Theatre ===
[[File:Bertolt-Brecht.jpg|thumb|upright|Playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)]]

East German theatre was originally dominated by [[Biography:Bertolt Brecht|Bertolt Brecht]], who brought back many artists out of exile and reopened the ''Theater am Schiffbauerdamm'' with his Berliner Ensemble.<ref name="NYTimesTynan">{{cite web|last=Tynan|first=Kenneth|title=Brecht Would Not Applaud His Theater Today|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/10/specials/tynan-brecht.html|website={{wipe|The New York Times}}|access-date=1 September 2016|date=11 January 1976|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914115241/https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/10/specials/tynan-brecht.html|archive-date=14 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Alternatively, other influences tried to establish a "Working Class Theatre", played for the working class by the working class.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

After Brecht's death, conflicts began to arise between his family (around Helene Weigel) and other artists about Brecht's legacy, including Slatan Dudow,<ref>Joshua Feinstein, ''The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949–1989'' (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 80–109. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-5385-6}}</ref> Erwin Geschonneck,<ref>Patrick Harkin, "Brecht on 17 June: Establishing the Facts", in ''Edinburgh German Yearbook 5: Brecht and the GDR: Politics, Culture, Posterity'' (Rochester NY: Camden House, 2011), 84–99. {{ISBN |978-1-57113-492-9}}</ref> Erwin Strittmatter, Peter Hacks, Benno Besson,<ref>Ela E. Gezen, ''Brecht, Turkish Theater, and Turkish-German Literature: Reception, Adaptation, and Innovation After 1960'' (London: Boydell & Brewer, 2018), 80–85. {{ISBN|978-1-64014-024-0}}</ref> Peter Palitzsch<ref>Manfred Wekwerth, ''Daring to Play: A Brecht Companion'' (London: Routledge, 2012), 101–7. {{ISBN|978-1-136-70911-1}}</ref> and Ekkehard Schall.<ref>Laura Bradley, ''Brecht and Political Theatre: The Mother on Stage'' (London: Clarendon Press, 2006), 108–12 and 129-31. {{ISBN|978-0-19-928658-4}}</ref>

In the 1950s, the Swiss director Benno Besson with the Deutsches Theater successfully toured Europe and Asia including Japan with ''The Dragon'' by Evgeny Schwartz. In the 1960s, he became the Intendant of the Volksbühne often working with Heiner Müller.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

In the 1970s, a parallel theatre scene sprung 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Theatre and cabaret had high status in the GDR, which allowed it to be very proactive. This often brought it into confrontation with the state. Benno Besson once said, "In contrast to artists in the west, they took us seriously, we had a bearing."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berlinstory-andtravels.info/2016/01/25/east-germany/|title=Berlin East germany|website=www.berlinstory-andtravels.info|access-date=19 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222050829/http://www.berlinstory-andtravels.info/2016/01/25/east-germany/|archive-date=22 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{efn|This quote has no cross-referencing to ground its authenticity. For a detailed overview of the issues of Brecht's legacy after his death within the Berliner Ensemble, see David Barnett, ''A History of the Berliner Ensemble'' ({{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}, 2015), 146–70. {{ISBN|978-1-107-05979-5}}.}}

The Friedrichstadt-Palast in [[Place:Berlin|Berlin]] is the last major building erected by the GDR, making it an exceptional architectural testimony to how Germany overcame its former division. Here, Berlin's great revue tradition lives on, today bringing viewers state-of-the-art shows.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.palast.berlin/en |title=Friedrichstadt-Palast |access-date=8 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304055516/https://www.palast.berlin/en/ |archive-date=4 March 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:VolksbühBerlJan08.JPG|thumb|Volksbühne]]

Important theatres include the Berliner Ensemble,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.berliner-ensemble.de |title=Das BE{{snd}}ein Theater für Zeitgenossen |publisher=Berliner-ensemble.de |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530033027/http://www.berliner-ensemble.de/ |archive-date=30 May 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> the Deutsches Theater,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.deutsches-theater.de |title=Deutsches Theater: Home |publisher=Deutsches-theater.de |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326013548/http://www.deutsches-theater.de/ |archive-date=26 March 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> the Maxim Gorki Theater,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gorki.de |title=Gorki.de |publisher=Gorki.de |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323211142/http://gorki.de/ |archive-date=23 March 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the Volksbühne.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de |title=Volksbühne Berlin |publisher=Volksbuehne-berlin.de |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323154731/http://www.volksbuehne-berlin.de/ |archive-date=23 March 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Cinema ===
The prolific cinema of East Germany was headed by the DEFA,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.defa-stiftung.de |title=DEFA{{snd}}Stiftung{{snd}}Home |publisher=Defa-stiftung.de |access-date=28 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080426152958/http://www.defa-stiftung.de/ |archive-date=26 April 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''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. The East German industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children's movies (''Das kalte Herz'', film versions of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and modern productions such as ''Das Schulgespenst'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=LISUM |first=Filmernst-Kinobüro im |title=Filmdatenbank {{!}} Das Schulgespenst {{!}} Inhalt |url=https://www.filmernst.de/Filme/Filmdetails.html?movie_id=24 |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Filmernst {{!}} Das Kompetenzzentrum für Film – Schule – Kino im Land Brandenburg |language=de}}</ref>

Frank Beyer's ''Jakob der Lügner'' (Jacob the Liar), about [[Social:The Holocaust|the Holocaust]], and ''Fünf Patronenhülsen'' (Five Cartridges), about resistance against fascism, became internationally famous.<ref>Beate Müller, ''Stasi-Zensur-Machtdiskurse: Publikationsgeschichten und Materialien zu Jurek Beckers Werk'' (Berlin: Max Niemeyer, 2006), 129–30. {{ISBN|978-3-484-35110-3}}</ref>

Films about daily life, such as ''Die Legende von Paul und Paula'', by Heiner Carow, and ''Solo Sunny'', directed by Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase, were very popular.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heiduschke |first1=Sebastian |title=The Women's Film, Konrad Wolf, and Defa After the "Biermann Affair": Solo Sunny (Konrad Wolf, 1980) |date=2013 |pages=115–121 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, New York |doi=10.1057/9781137322326_14 |isbn=978-1-137-32232-6 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322326_14 |access-date=21 January 2022}}</ref> {{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

The film industry was remarkable for its production of ''Ostern'', or Western-like movies. Amerindians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the North American westerns of the time, where they were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavs were often cast as Native Americans because of the small number of Native Americans in Europe. Gojko Mitić was well known in these roles, often playing the righteous, kindhearted and charming [[Social:Tribal chief|chief]] (''Die Söhne der großen Bärin'' directed by Josef Mach). He became an honorary Sioux chief when he visited the United States in the 1990s, 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 the Americas.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Cinemas in the GDR also showed foreign films. Czechoslovak and Polish productions were more common, but certain western movies were shown, though the numbers of these were limited because it cost foreign exchange to buy the licences. Further, films representing or glorifying what the state viewed as capitalist ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish ''Olsen Gang'' or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, several films depicting life in the GDR have been critically acclaimed.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheenascott/2019/11/05/the-berlin-wall-and-the-cinema-films-made-after-1989/?sh=716591bb683e|last=Scott|first=Sheena |date=5 November 2019 |title=Films And The Fall Of The Berlin Wall: A Cinematic History, Post-1989 |journal=Forbes}}</ref> Some of the most notable were ''Good Bye Lenin!'' by Wolfgang Becker,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cook |first=Roger F. |date=28 June 2007 |title=Good Bye, Lenin! : Free-Market Nostalgia for Socialist Consumerism |journal=Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies |language=en |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=206–219 |doi=10.1353/smr.2007.0027 |s2cid=201759614 |issn=1911-026X}}</ref> ''Das Leben der Anderen'' (The Lives of Others) by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (won the Academy Award for best Film in a Foreign Language) in 2006,<ref name="test">[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/awards 2006 Academy Award for "The Lives of Others"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010025327/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/awards |date=10 October 2011}},</ref> and ''Alles auf Zucker!'' (Go for Zucker) by Dani Levi. Each film is heavily infused with cultural nuances unique to life in the GDR.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Enns |first=A. |date=1 December 2007 |title=The politics of Ostalgie: post-socialist nostalgia in recent German film |journal=Screen |volume=48 |issue=4|pages=475–491 |doi=10.1093/screen/hjm049 |issn=0036-9543}}</ref>

=== Sport ===
East Germany was very successful in the sports of cycling, weight-lifting, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, boxing, ice skating, and winter sports. The success is largely attributed to doping under the direction of Manfred Höppner, a sports doctor, described as the architect of East Germany's state-sponsored drug program.<ref>{{cite news |last=Helmstaedt |first=Karin |title=East German Doping Trial |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/east-german-doping-trial/article4165918/ |access-date=5 September 2019 |work=The Globe and Mail |date=19 July 2000 |location=Berlin}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0615-0011, X. Fußball-WM, DDR-Nationalmannschaft.jpg|thumb|left|The East German football team lining up before a match against Australia on 15 June 1974]]<nowiki> </nowiki>[[Chemistry:Anabolic steroid|Anabolic steroid]]s were the most detected doping substances in IOC-accredited laboratories for many years.<ref>Hartgens and Kuipers (2004), p. 515</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Anabolic steroids in sport: biochemical, clinical and analytical perspectives |journal=Annals of Clinical Biochemistry |volume=40 |issue=Pt 4 |pages=321–356 |date=July 2003 |pmid=12880534 |doi=10.1258/000456303766476977 |url=http://acb.rsmjournals.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=12880534 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629013117/http://acb.rsmjournals.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=12880534 |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2012 |last1=Kicman |first1=A. T. |last2=Gower |first2=D. B. |s2cid=24339701}}</ref> The development and implementation of a state-supported sports doping program helped East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in sport during the 1970s and 1980s, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records.<ref>
'''Sources''':
*{{cite news |last=Tagilabue |first=John |title=Political Pressure Dismantles East German Sports Machine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/12/sports/political-pressure-dismantles-east-german-sports-machine.html |newspaper={{wipe|The New York Times}}|date=12 February 1991 |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120034114/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/12/sports/political-pressure-dismantles-east-german-sports-machine.html |archive-date=20 November 2018 |url-status=live|ref=none}}
*{{cite news |last=Janofsky |first=Michael |title=Olympics; Coaches Concede That Steroids Fueled East Germany's Success in Swimming |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/03/sports/olympics-coaches-concede-that-steroids-fueled-east-germany-s-success-in-swimming.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=3 December 1991 |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120034603/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/03/sports/olympics-coaches-concede-that-steroids-fueled-east-germany-s-success-in-swimming.html |archive-date=20 November 2018 |url-status=live|ref=none}}
*{{cite web |last=Kirschbaum |first=Erik |title=East German Dope Still Leaves Tracks |url=http://www.rediff.com/sports/2000/sep/15germ.htm |date=15 September 2000 |access-date=12 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603040130/http://www.rediff.com/sports/2000/sep/15germ.htm |archive-date=3 June 2008 |url-status=live|ref=none}}
*{{cite book |last=Ungerleider |first=Steven |title=Faust's Gold: Inside the East German doping machine |date=2001 |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-26977-3 |edition=1st |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/faustsgold00stev|ref=none}}
*{{cite web |title=Sports Doping Statistics Reach Plateau in Germany |url=https://www.dw.com/en/sports-doping-statistics-reach-plateau-in-germany/a-786574 |publisher={{Lang|de|Deutsche Welle|italic=no}} |date=26 February 2003 |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001233942/https://www.dw.com/en/sports-doping-statistics-reach-plateau-in-germany/a-786574 |archive-date=1 October 2018 |url-status=live|ref=none}}
*{{cite news |last=Longman |first=Jere |title=Drug Testing; East German Steroids' Toll: 'They Killed Heidi' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/26/sports/drug-testing-east-german-steroids-toll-they-killed-heidi.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=26 January 2004 |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001234004/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/26/sports/drug-testing-east-german-steroids-toll-they-killed-heidi.html |archive-date=1 October 2018 |url-status=live|ref=none}}
</ref> Another factor for success was the furtherance system for young people in the GDR. Sports teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in children of ages 6 to 10. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming).

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Karin Janz.png|right|thumb|upright|Karin Janz, who won world and Olympic gold medals in artistic gymnastics for East Germany]] -->
Sports clubs were highly subsidized, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included 2 teams each. Football was the most popular sport. Club football teams such as Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo had successes in European competition. Many East German players such as Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten became integral parts of the reunified national football team.

The East and the West also competed via sport; GDR athletes dominated several Olympic sports; the SV Dynamo club of the security agencies won more than 200 Olympic medals. Of special interest was the only football match between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, a first-round match during the 1974 FIFA World Cup, which the East won 1–0; but West Germany, the host, went on to win the World Cup.<ref>{{cite web |title=1974 FIFA World Cup Germany, Germany FR |url=https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/germany1974/teams/team=44023/matches.html |website=FIFA.com |access-date=27 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127142420/http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/germany1974/teams/team=44023/matches.html |archive-date=27 January 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
East Germany had a revolutionary technology for two-stroke engines called [[Engineering:Expansion chamber|expansion chamber]], allowing them to win motorcycle races with little competition. Racer [[Biography:Ernst Degner|Ernst Degner]] defected to Japan, taking the technology secret with him over to Suzuki. After the defection, East German motorcycle racing effectively ended.
=== Television and radio ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-U1109-022, Berlin, Sandmännchen.jpg|thumb|Gerhard Behrendt with character from the stop-animation series ''Sandmännchen'']]
Television and radio in East Germany were state-run industries; the ''Rundfunk der DDR'' was the official radio broadcasting organisation from 1952 until unification. The organization was based in the ''Funkhaus Nalepastraße'' in East Berlin. ''Deutscher Fernsehfunk'' (DFF), from 1972 to 1990 known as ''Fernsehen der DDR'' or DDR-FS, was the state television broadcaster from 1952. Reception of Western broadcasts was widespread.<ref name=Cooke>{{cite book |last=Cooke |first=Paul |title=Representing East Germany Since Unification: From Colonization to Nostalgia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7ajL_aNu6oC&pg=PA146 |url-status=live |date=August 2005 |page=146 |publisher=Berg Publishers |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326211319/http://books.google.com/books?id=H7ajL_aNu6oC&pg=PA146 |archive-date=26 March 2015 |isbn=978-1-84520-189-0}}</ref>

== Industry ==
=== Transportation ===
* Deutsche Reichsbahn (East Germany)
* Interflug

=== Telecommunications ===
By the mid-1980s, East Germany possessed a well-developed communications system. There were approximately 3.6&nbsp;million telephones in usage (21.8 for every 100 inhabitants), and 16,476 Telex stations. Both of these networks were run by the Deutsche Post der DDR (East German Post Office). East Germany was assigned telephone country code +37; in 1991, several months after reunification, East German telephone exchanges were incorporated into country code +49.

An unusual feature of the telephone network was that, in most cases, direct distance dialing for long-distance calls was not possible. Although area codes were assigned to all major towns and cities, they were only used for switching international calls. Instead, each location had its own list of dialing codes with shorter codes for local calls and longer codes for long-distance calls. After unification, the existing network was largely replaced, and area codes and dialing became standardised.

In 1976 East Germany inaugurated the operation of a ground-based radio station at Fürstenwalde for the purpose of relaying and receiving communications from Soviet satellites and to serve as a participant in the international telecommunications organization established by the Soviet government, [[Organization:Intersputnik|Intersputnik]].

== Totalitarianism and repression ==
There is general consensus among academics that the GDR fulfilled most of the criteria to be considered a totalitarian state.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fulbrook |first1=Mary |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler |date=2015 |publisher=Berghahn books |isbn=9781785330278 |page=3}}</ref> There is, however, ongoing debate as to whether the more positive aspects of the regime can sufficiently dilute the harsher aspects so as to make the totalitarian tag seem excessive. According to the historian Mary Fulbrook:

{{Blockquote|Even those who are most critical of the concept admit that the regime possessed most, if not all, of the objective traits associated with the term, i.e. rule by a single party or elite that dominated the state machinery; that centrally directed and controlled the economy; mass communication, and all forms of social and cultural organisation; that espoused an official, all-encompassing, utopian (or, depending on one's point of view, dystopian) ideology; and that used physical and mental terror and repression to achieve its goals, mobilise the masses, and silence opposition- all of which was made possible by the buildup of a vast state security service.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fulbrook |first1=Mary |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler |date=2015 |publisher=Berghahn books |isbn=9781785330278 |page=3}}</ref>}}

The state security service (SSD) was commonly known as the Stasi, and it was fundamental to the socialist leadership's attempts to reach their historical goal. It was an open secret in the GDR that the Stasi read people's mail and tapped phone calls.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ghouas |first1=Nessim |title=The Conditions Means and Methods of the MfS in the GDR: An Analysis of the Post and Telephone Control |date=2004 |publisher=Cuvillier Verlag |isbn=3898739880 |page=58}}</ref> They also employed a vast network of unofficial informers who would spy on people more directly and report to their Stasi handlers. These collaborators were hired in all walks of life and had access to nearly every organisation in the country. At the end of the GDR in 1990 there were approximately 109,000 still active informants at every grade.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Glaeser |first1=Andreas |title=Power/Knowledge Failure: Epistemic Practices and Ideologies of the Secret Police in Former East Germany |journal=Social Analysis |date=2003 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=10–26|doi=10.3167/015597703782353023}}</ref> Repressive measures carried out by the Stasi can be roughly divided into two main chronological groupings: pre and post 1971, when Honecker came to power. According to the historian Nessim Ghouas, "There was a change in how the Stasi operated under Honecker in 1971. The more brutal aspects of repression seen in the Stalinist era (torture, executions, and physical repression descending from the GDR's earlier days) was changed with a more selective use of power."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ghouas |first1=Nessim |title=The Conditions Means and Methods of the MfS in the GDR: An Analysis of the Post and Telephone Control |date=2004 |publisher=Cuvillier Verlag |isbn=3898739880 |page=59}}</ref>

The more direct forms of repression such as arrest and torture could mean significant international condemnation for the GDR. However, the Stasi still needed to paralyse and disrupt what it considered to be 'hostile-negative'<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy- quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}</ref> forces (internal domestic enemies) if the socialist goal was to be properly realised. A person could be targeted by the Stasi for expressing politically, culturally, or religiously incorrect views; for performing hostile acts; or for being a member of a group which was considered sufficiently counter-productive to the socialist state to warrant intervention. As such, writers, artists, youth sub-cultures, and members of the church were often targeted.<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality">{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=114 |chapter=Tackling the enemy- quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}</ref> If after preliminary research the Stasi found an individual warranted action against them then they would open an 'operational case'<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality"/> in regard to them. There were two desirable outcomes for each case: that the person was either arrested, tried, and imprisoned for an ostensibly justified reason, or if this could not be achieved that they were debilitated through the application of [[Unsolved:Zersetzung|Zersetzung]] (transl. decomposition) methods.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Glaeser |first1=Andreas |title=Political Epistemics: The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism |date=2011 |publisher=[[Organization:University of Chicago Press|University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0226297941 |pages=492–494}}</ref> In the Honecker era, Zersetzung became the primary method of Stasi repression, due in large part to an ambition to avoid political fallout from wrongful arrest.{{efn|'In the age of detente, the Stasi's main method of combating subversive activity was 'operational decomposition' ({{lang|de|operative Zersetzung}}) which was the central element in what Hubertus Knabe has called a system of 'quiet repression' ({{lang|de|lautlose Unterdrukung}}). This was not a new departure as 'dirty tricks' had been widely used in the 1950s and 1960s. The distinctive feature was the primacy of operational decomposition over other methods of repression in a system to which historians have attached labels such as post-totalitarianism and modern dictatorship.'{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy- quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}}} The historian Mike Dennis states that "Between 1985–1988, the Stasi conducted about 4,500 to 5,000 OVs (operational cases) per year."<ref name="The Stasi: Myth and Reality"/>

Zersetzung methods varied and were tailored depending on the individual being targeted. They are known to have included sending offensive mail to a person's house, the spreading of malicious rumours, banning them from traveling, sabotaging their career, breaking into their house and moving objects around etc. These acts frequently led to unemployment, social isolation, and poor mental health. Many people had various forms of mental or nervous breakdown. Similarly to physical imprisonment, Zersetzung methods had the effect of paralysing a person's ability to operate but with the advantage of the source being unknown or at least unprovable. There is ongoing debate as to whether weaponised [[Physics:Directed-energy weapon|directed energy devices]], such as X-ray transmitters, were used in combination with the psychological warfare methods of Zersetzung.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fulbrook |first1=Mary |title=The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker |date=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300144246 |page=245}}</ref> About 135,000 children were educated in special residential homes, the worst of them was Torgau penal institution (till 1975).<ref>[https://en.stsg.de/cms/node/884 The East German penal system in Torgau from 1950 to 1990]</ref> The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims considers that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 victims of direct physical torture, Zersetzung, and gross human rights violations due to the Stasi.<ref>{{cite web |title=After the fall: The hidden trauma behind the Berlin Wall |url=https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/788?ref=tjournal.ru |website=irct.org |publisher=IRCT |access-date=9 September 2021 |archive-date=9 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909114942/https://irct.org/media-and-resources/latest-news/article/788?ref=tjournal.ru |url-status=dead}}</ref> Victims of historical Zersetzung can now draw a special pension from the German state.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Oltermann |first1=Philip |title='I've been shafted twice': Stasi victims and their quest for compensation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/06/ive-been-shafted-twice-stasi-victims-and-their-quest-for-compensation |work={{wipe|The Guardian}} |date=6 November 2019 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref>
 
== Official and public holidays ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! English name
! German name
! Remarks
|-
| 1 January
| New Year's Day
| ''{{lang|de|Neujahr}}''
| &nbsp;
|-
| March–April
| [[Religion:Good Friday|Good Friday]]
| ''{{lang|de|Karfreitag}}''
| &nbsp;
|-
| March–April
| Easter Sunday
| ''{{lang|de|Ostersonntag}}''
| &nbsp;
|-
| March–April
| [[Religion:Easter Monday|Easter Monday]]
| ''{{lang|de|Ostermontag}}''
| Was not an official holiday after 1967.
|-
| 1 May
| [[Social:International Workers' Day|International Workers' Day]]/May Day
| ''{{lang|de|Tag der Arbeit}}'' (name in FRG)
| The official name was ''{{lang|de|Internationaler Kampf- und Feiertag der Werktätigen}}'' (approx. 'International Day of the Struggle and Celebration of the Workers')
|-
| 8 May
| Victory in Europe Day
| ''{{lang|de|Tag der Befreiung}}''
| The translation means "Day of Liberation"
|-
| April–June
| Father's Day/Ascension Day
| ''{{lang|de|Vatertag/Christi Himmelfahrt}}''
| Thursday after the 5th Sunday after Easter. Was not an official holiday after 1967.
|-
| May–June
| Whit Monday
| ''{{lang|de|Pfingstmontag}}''
| 50 days after Easter Sunday
|-
| 7 October
| Republic Day
| ''{{lang|de|Tag der Republik}}''
| National holiday
|-
| November
| Day of Repentance and Prayer
| ''{{lang|de|Buß- und Bettag}}''
| Wednesday before Totensonntag. Originally a Protestant feast day, it was demoted as an official holiday in 1967.
|-
| 25 December
| First Day of Christmas
| ''{{lang|de|1. Weihnachtsfeiertag}}''
| &nbsp;
|-
| 26 December
| Second Day of Christmas
| ''{{lang|de|2. Weihnachtsfeiertag}}''
| &nbsp;
|}

== Legacy ==
=== Decrepit infrastructure ===
Almost all East German highways, railroads, sewage systems and public buildings were in a state of disrepair at the time of reunification, as little was done to maintain infrastructure in the GDR's last decades. Unified German public spending has had to pour more than $2 trillion into the former East Germany, to make up for the region's neglect and malaise and bring it up to a minimal standard.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beard |title=30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany recalls the economic gulf between East and West |date=4 November 2019 |url=https://www.marketplace.org/2019/11/04/30-years-after-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-germany-recalls-the-economic-gulf-between-east-and-west/ |publisher=NPR/Market Place}}</ref>

The Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant narrowly avoided a Chernobyl-scale meltdown in 1976.<ref>{{cite news|title=76 E. German Nuclear Incident Described|agency=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-21-mn-999-story.html}}</ref> All East German nuclear power plants had to be shut down after reunification, because they did not meet Western safety standards.<ref>{{cite news |title=East German nuclear plant demolition proves challenging |url=https://www.dw.com/en/east-german-nuclear-plant-demolition-proves-challenging/a-5096451 |agency=DW}}</ref>

=== Authoritarianism ===
German historian Jürgen Kocka in 2010 summarized the consensus of most recent scholarship:

{{blockquote|Conceptualizing the GDR as a dictatorship has become widely accepted, while the meaning of the concept dictatorship varies. Massive evidence has been collected that proves the repressive, undemocratic, illiberal, nonpluralistic character of the GDR regime and its ruling party.<ref name="UPNE"/>}}

=== Ostalgie ===
[[File:Karte btw linke17z endg.svg|thumb|Percentage of {{ill|Zweitstimme|de|lt=party votes}} for Die Linke in the 2017 federal election]]
{{stack|[[File:Ostalgie.jpg|thumb|right|A booth selling East German and communist-themed memorabilia in Berlin]]}}
Many East Germans initially regarded the dissolution of the GDR positively,<ref>Martin Blum, "Remaking the East German Past: 'Ostalgie,' Identity, and Material Culture," ''Journal of Popular Culture,'' Winter 2000, Vol. 34 Issue 3, pp.&nbsp;229–54.</ref> but this reaction partly turned sour.<ref>{{cite book |first=Leonie |last=Naughton |title=That Was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the "New" Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AugFhjJZz0QC&pg=PA14 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Organization:University of Michigan Press|University of Michigan Press]] |page=14 |isbn=978-0-472-08888-1 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521031132/https://books.google.com/books?id=AugFhjJZz0QC&pg=PA14 |archive-date=21 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> West Germans often acted as if they had "won" and East Germans had "lost" in unification, leading many East Germans (''Ossis'') to resent West Germans (''Wessis'').<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Bickford |title=Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sELghp1BIbgC&pg=PA10 |year=2011 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=10 |isbn=978-0-8047-7396-6 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427060712/https://books.google.com/books?id=sELghp1BIbgC&pg=PA10 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2004, Ascher Barnstone wrote, "East Germans resent the wealth possessed by West Germans; West Germans see the East Germans as lazy opportunists who want something for nothing. East Germans find 'Wessis' arrogant and pushy, West Germans think the 'Ossis' are lazy good-for-nothings."<ref>{{cite book |last=Barnston |first=Ascher |title=The Transparent State: Architecture and Politics in Postwar Germany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dkO_WwhyXWMC&pg=PA92 |url-status=live |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2005 |page=92 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507070723/https://books.google.com/books?id=dkO_WwhyXWMC&pg=PA92 |archive-date=7 May 2016 |isbn=978-0-203-79988-8}}</ref>

In addition, many East German women found the West more appealing, and left the region never to return, leaving behind an underclass of poorly educated and jobless men.<ref>{{cite news |last=Connolly |first=Kate |title=Educated women leave east German men behind |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/01/germany.kateconnolly |url-status=live |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2007 |access-date=16 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117063245/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/01/germany.kateconnolly |archive-date=17 November 2018}}</ref>

For the people who stayed in East Germany, a majority of them (57%) defend the GDR,<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Bonstein|first=Julia|date=2009-07-03|title=Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism|language=en|work=Der Spiegel|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html|access-date=|issn=2195-1349|quote=Today, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there," say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: "The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."}}</ref> with 49% of those polled saying that "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there", while 8% oppose all criticism of East Germany and say that "Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today".<ref name=":1" />

As of 2014, the vast majority of residents in the former GDR prefer to live in a unified Germany. However, a feeling of nostalgia persists among some, termed "Ostalgie" (a blend of {{lang|de|Ost}} "east" and {{lang|de|Nostalgie}} "nostalgia"). This was depicted in the Wolfgang Becker film ''Goodbye Lenin!''. According to Klaus Schroeder, a historian and political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, some of the original residents of the GDR "still feel they don't belong or that they're strangers in unified Germany" as life in the GDR was "just more manageable". He warns German society should watch out in case Ostalgie results in a distortion and romanticization of the past.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/cifr/2017/10/02/rewriting-ideal-history-the-ostalgie-expression-in-goodbye-lenin-2003/ |title=Rewriting ideal history: The Ostalgie expression in ''Goodbye, Lenin'' (2003) |date=2 October 2017 |access-date=9 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Ostalgia: Romanticizing the GDR |date=3 October 2013 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/ostalgia-romanticizing-the-gdr/a-17959366 |access-date=19 March 2021 |work=Deutsche Welle |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>

=== Electoral consequences ===
The divide between the East and the West can be seen in contemporary German elections. The left-wing populist [[Social:The Left (Germany)|Die Linke]] party (which has roots in the SED) continues to have a stronghold and occasionally wins a plurality in the East, such as in the German State of Thuringia where it remains one of the major party.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Welle (www.dw.com) |first=Deutsche |title=Why is everyone in Germany talking about Thuringia and AfD? |url=https://www.dw.com/en/why-is-everyone-in-germany-talking-about-thuringia-and-afd/a-52277013 |date=6 February 2020 |access-date=18 March 2021 |work=Deutsche Welle |language=en-GB}}</ref> The region also sees disproportionate support for the [[Earth:Alternative for Germany|Alternative for Germany]], a right-wing populist party, particularly in the state of Saxony. This is in stark distinction from the West where the more centrist parties such as the CDU/CSU, SPD, The Greens, and the FDP dominate.

=== Religion ===
As of 2009, more Germans are non-believers in Eastern Germany than Western Germany.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Only the Old Embrace God in Former East Germany |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/report-shows-highest-percentage-of-atheists-in-former-east-germany-a-828526.html |magazine=Spiegel |access-date=2 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=East Germany world's most godless area |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20120420/42081/ |access-date=31 December 2021 |website=The Local |date=20 April 2012}}</ref> Eastern Germany is perhaps the least religious region in the world.<ref name="godless">{{cite news |year=2012 |title=Why Eastern Germany is the Most Godless Place On Earth |newspaper=Die Welt |url=http://www.worldcrunch.com/why-eastern-germany-most-godless-place-planet/culture-society/why-eastern-germany-is-the-most-godless-place-on-earth/c3s5177/#.UHNiqk3Ex_0 |url-status=dead |access-date=24 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826093254/http://www.worldcrunch.com/why-eastern-germany-most-godless-place-planet/culture-society/why-eastern-germany-is-the-most-godless-place-on-earth/c3s5177/#.UHNiqk3Ex_0 |archive-date=26 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="atheistic">{{cite web |year=2012 |title=East Germany the "most atheistic" of any region |url=http://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2012/05/east-germany-the-most-atheistic-of-any-region.html |access-date=24 May 2009 |publisher=Dialog International}}</ref> An explanation for this, popular in other regions, is the aggressive state atheist policies of the German Democratic Republic's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. However, the enforcement of atheism existed only for the first few years. After that, the state allowed churches to have a relatively high level of autonomy.<ref name="nogod">{{cite web |year=2012 |title=Eastern Germany: the most godless place on Earth |url=http://www.worldcrunch.com/why-eastern-germany-most-godless-place-planet/culture-society/why-eastern-germany-is-the-most-godless-place-on-earth/c3s5177/#.UHNiqk3Ex_0|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826093254/http://www.worldcrunch.com/why-eastern-germany-most-godless-place-planet/culture-society/why-eastern-germany-is-the-most-godless-place-on-earth/c3s5177/#.UHNiqk3Ex_0 |archive-date=26 August 2012 |access-date=24 May 2009 |work={{wipe|The Guardian}}}}</ref> Atheism is embraced by Germans of all ages, though irreligion is particularly common among younger Germans.<ref name="onlyold">{{cite news |year=2012 |title=Only the Old embrace God in former East-Germany |work=Spiegel Online |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/report-shows-highest-percentage-of-atheists-in-former-east-germany-a-828526.html |access-date=24 May 2009}}</ref>

== See also ==
*History of Germany (1945–1990)
*Leadership of East Germany
*Inner German relations

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist|45em}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Judt|first=Tony|year=2005|title=Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945}}
* {{cite book|last=McCauley|first=Martin|title=The German Democratic Republic since 1945|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=1983|isbn=978-0-333-26219-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Weitz|first=Eric D.|title=Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State|location=Princeton, New Jersey|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1997}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
=== General ===
{{refbegin}}
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* Allinson, Mark. ''Politics and Popular Opinion in East Germany 1945–68'' (2000)
* {{cite book|author=Anon.|title=The German Democratic Republic|url=https://archive.org/details/GDR1986|location=Dresden|publisher=Zeit im Bild|date=1986|oclc=221026743|ref=none}}
* Augustine, Dolores. ''Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945–1990'' (2007) 411pp
* Baylis, Thomas A., David H Childs, Erwin L. Collier, and Marilyn Rueschemeyer, eds. ''East Germany in Comparative Perspective'' (Routledge, 1989)
* Berger, Stefan, and Norman LaPorte, eds. ''The Other Germany: Perceptions and Influences in British-East German Relations, 1945–1990'' (Augsburg, 2005).
* Berger, Stefan, and Norman LaPorte, eds. ''Friendly Enemies: Britain and the GDR, 1949–1990'' (2010) [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38136 online review]
* Berghoff, Hartmut, and Uta Andrea Balbier, eds. ''The East German Economy, 1945–2010: Falling Behind Or Catching Up?'' ({{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}, 2013).
* Betts, Paul. ''Within Walls: Private Life in the German Democratic Republic'', Oxford: [[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]], 2013
* Childs, David H. ''The Fall of the GDR'', Longman [https://web.archive.org/web/20120222073111/http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/Bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000004463 Personed.co.uk], 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-582-31569-3}}, {{ISBN|0-582-31569-7}}
* Childs, David H. & Richard Popplewell. ''The Stasi: East German Intelligence and Security Service'', Palgrave Macmillan [https://web.archive.org/web/20120310001432/http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?is=0333772075 Palgrave.com], [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stasi-Intelligence-Security-Service-1917-89/dp/0333772075 Amazon.co.uk] 1996.
* Childs, David H. ''The GDR: Moscow's German Ally'', George Allen & Unwin, 1983. {{ISBN|0-04-354029-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-04-354029-9}}.
* Childs, David H. ''The Two Red Flags: European Social Democracy & Soviet Communism Since 1945,'' Routledge, 2000.
* De La Motte and John Green, "Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? The German Democratic Republic and What became of it", Artery Publications. 2015
* Fulbrook, Mary. ''The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker'' (Yale University Press, 2005). 352 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|0-300-10884-2}}.
* Fulbrook; Mary. ''Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949–1989'' (Oxford University Press, 1995).
* Fulbrook, Mary and Andrew I. Port, eds., ''Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler'' (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2013).
*Funke, Mark (2021)."Hall of Mirrors: The Antiquarian Book Trade in Communist Germany." ''The Book Collector'' 70 no.4 (winter): 603–617.
* Gray, William Glenn. ''Germany's Cold War: The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949–1969'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2003). [https://www.questia.com/library/105880340/germany-s-cold-war-the-global-campaign-to-isolate online]
* Grieder, Peter. ''The German Democratic Republic'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), scholarly history.
* Grix, Jonathan. ''The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the GDR'' Macmillan, 2000
* {{cite book |last=Heitzer |first=Heinz |date=1981 |title=GDR: An Historical Outline |url=https://archive.org/details/GDRHistoricalOutline/page/n1 |location=Dresden |publisher=Zeit im Bild |oclc=1081050618 |ref=none }}
* Hoyer, Katja. ''Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990'' (2023)
* Jarausch, Konrad H., and Eve Duffy; ''Dictatorship as Experience: Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR'' (Berghahn Books, 1999).
* Kupferberg, Feiwel. ''The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic'' (2002) 228pp; [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=7461 online review]
* McAdams, A. James. "East Germany and Détente" (Cambridge University Press, 1985).
* McAdams, A. James. "Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification" (Princeton University Press, 1992 and 1993).
* McLellan, Josie. ''Love in the Time of Communism: Intimacy and Sexuality in the GDR''. (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
* Naimark, Norman M. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949'' (1997) [https://www.amazon.com/Russians-Germany-History-Occupation-1945-1949/dp/0674784065/ excerpt and text search]
* Pence, Katherine and Paul Betts. ''Socialist Modern: East German Everyday Culture and Politics'', Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008
* Port, Andrew I. ''Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic''. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
* {{cite journal|last=Preuss|first=Evelyn I.|date=2005|title=The Wall You Will Never Know|url=https://www.academia.edu/17812963|journal=Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal|volume=36|pages=19–31|ref=none}}
* Ritter, Gerhard A. "Die DDR in der Deutschen Geschichte", [The GDR in German history] ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', April 2002, Vol. 50, Issue 2, pp.&nbsp;171–200.
* Pritchard, Gareth, ''The Making of the GDR 1945–53: From Antifascism to Stalinism'' (2000)
* Pucci, M. (2020). ''Security Empire: The Secret Police in Communist Eastern Europe'' (Yale-Hoover Series on Authoritarian Regimes). New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Steiner, André. ''The Plans That Failed: An Economic History of East Germany, 1945–1989'' (2010)
* Sarotte, Mary Elise. ''Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall'', New York: Basic Books, 2014
* Spilker, Dirk. ''The East German Leadership and the Division of Germany: Patriotism and Propaganda 1945–1953.'' (2006). [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23832 online review]
* Stokes, Raymond G. ''Constructing Socialism: Technology and Change in East Germany, 1945–1990'' (2000)
* Zatlin, Jonathan R. ''The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany'' (2007). 377 pp. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=22672 online review]
{{div col end}}
{{refend}}

=== Historiography and memory ===
{{refbegin}}
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* Bridge, Helen. ''Women's Writing and Historiography in the GDR'' (Oxford University Press, 2002).
* Hodgin, Nick, and Caroline Pearce, eds. ''The GDR remembered: representations of the East German state since 1989'' (Camden House, 2011). [https://www.amazon.com/GDR-Remembered-Representations-Literature-Linguistics/dp/1571134344/ excerpt]
* Kwiet, Konrad. "Historians of the German Democratic Republic on Antisemitism and Persecution." ''The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook'' 21.1 (1976): 173–198.
* {{cite book |last=Port |first=Andrew I. |title=Becoming East Germans: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities After Hitler |chapter=The Banalities of East German Historiography |chapter-url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/FulbrookBecoming_intro.pdf |editor1-last=Fulbrook |editor1-first=Mary |editor1-link=Mary Fulbrook |editor2-last=Port |editor2-first=Andrew I. |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-85745-974-9|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Port |first=Andrew I. |chapter=Central European History since 1989: Historiographical Trends and Post-Wende 'Turns'|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/13599221 |title=Central European History |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=238–248 |date=2015 |doi=10.1017/S0008938915000588|s2cid=151405931|ref=none}}
* Ritter, Gerhard A. "Die DDR in der Deutschen Geschichte", [The GDR in German history] ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', April 2002, Vol. 50 Issue 2, pp.&nbsp;171–200.
* Ross, Corey. ''The East German Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of the GDR'' (Oxford University Press, 2002).
* Saunders, Anna, and Debbie Pinfold, eds. ''Remembering and rethinking the GDR: multiple perspectives and plural authenticities'' (Springer, 2012).
* Steding, Elizabeth Priester. "Losing Literature: The Reduction of the GDR to History". ''German Politics & Society'' 32.4 (2014): 39–55. Argues the history of East Germany is taught in 21st-century German schools, but not its literature.
{{div col end}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.grenzmuseum.de/en/the-german-bordermuseum-schifflersgrund-2/ Border Museum at Schifflersgrund]
* [http://www.ddr-museum.de/en/ DDR Museum Berlin{{snd}}Culture of GDR]
* [http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=5528 AHF{{snd}}Nationale Volksarmee : NVA]
* {{Webarchive |url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100408072804/http://www.ddr.innerdeutsche-grenze.info/ |date = 8 April 2010 |title = ''That was the GDR''}} {{in lang |de}}
* [https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/gdrmain.htm East German Propaganda, Calvin University]
* "[https://scrc.gmu.edu/finding_aids/scenesfrombehindthewall.html Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany 1989/90" Exhibit Collection C0235], Special Collections Research Center, [[Organization:George Mason University|George Mason University]] Libraries.
* [http://www.industrieform-ddr.de/ Geschichte des ostdeutschen Designs{{snd}}history of east German design] {{in lang|de}}
* {{Webarchive |url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004721/http://www.ostberlin.de/en/ |date = 28 September 2007 |title = East Berlin, past and present}}
* [http://www.ddr-fotos.de/gdr_photos.htm Pictures of the GDR 1949–1973]
* [https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/O8BABAKB RFE/RL East German Subject Files], Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest
* {{Webarchive |url = https://archive.today/20130102085515/http://colnect.com/en/stamps/series/country/2979 |date = 2 January 2013 |title = Stamps Catalog of the German Democratic Republic}}
* [http://eastgermany.info/EastGermanAnthem.htm East German anthem with English and German lyrics]
* [https://omniatlas.com/maps/europe/19491007/ Map – Europe 1949: NATO and the Two Germanys (omniatlas.com)]
* [http://www.mauerkarte.de/ Mauerkarte – Detailed interactive map of the border between East and West Germany]

{{S-start}}
{{s-bef|before = Allied Occupation Zones in Germany<br />and the<br />Soviet Military Administration in Germany<br />(1945–1949)}}
{{s-ttl|title = {{nowrap|German Democratic Republic}}<br />{{nobold|(concurrent with the<br />{{nowrap|Federal Republic of Germany}})}}|years = 1949–1990}}
{{s-aft|after = {{wipe|Germany}}}}
{{S-end}}

[[Category:Former countries in Europe]]

{{Sourceattribution|East Germany}}