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East German

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East German

"GDR" redirects here. For other uses, see GDR (disambiguation).
This article is about the country that existed from 1949 to 1990. For the historical eastern provinces, see Former eastern territories of Germany. For the modern east of Germany, see New states of Germany.

German Democratic Republic
Deutsche Demokratische Republik
Satellite state of the Soviet Union[1][2][3][4]


Flag Emblem
Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!
"Workers of the world, unite!"
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
"Risen from Ruins"
The German Democratic Republic in 1990.
Capital East Berlin
Languages Official language:
Minority languages:
Government Marxist–Leninist communist state
General Secretary
 -  1949–1950 Wilhelm Pieck
 -  1949–1950 Otto Grotewohl
 -  1950–1971 Walter Ulbricht
 -  1971–1989 Erich Honecker
 -  1989 Egon Krenz
Head of State
 -  1949–1960 Wilhelm Pieck (first)
 -  1990 Sabine Berg.-Pohl (last)
Head of Government
 -  1949–1964 Otto Grotewohl (first)
 -  1990 Lothar de Maizière (last)
Legislature Volkskammer
 -  State Chamber Länderkammera
Historical era Cold War
 -  Constitution adopted 7 October 1949
 -  Uprising of 1953 16 June 1953
 -  Berlin Crisis 4 June 1961
 -  Peaceful Revolution 9 October 1989
 -  Final Settlement 12 September 1990
 -  Reunification 3 October 1990
 -  1990 108,333 km² (41,828 sq mi)
 -  1950 est. 18,388,000b 
 -  1970 est. 17,068,000 
 -  1990 est. 16,111,000 
     Density 148.7 /km²  (385.2 /sq mi)
Currency Mark der DDR,
Deutsche Mark
(from 1 July 1990)
Internet TLD .ddc
Calling code +37
Today part of  Germany
^a Dissolved by the Volkskammer on 8 December 1958.
^b Population statistics according to Statistisches Bundesamt.[5]


After failures to negotiate the terms for peaceful reunification of the country, the Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. The East was often described as a satellite state of the Soviet Union.[7] Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949. Soviet forces however remained in the country throughout the Cold War to counter the heavy US military presence in the West. The Stasi security force was established to defend the state against political subversion and was helped by the Soviet Army to suppress an anti-Stalinist uprising in 1953. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party (SED) with other parties functioning in its alliance organisation, the National Front of Democratic Germany.

The economy was centrally planned, and predominantly state owned. Its population declined from more than 18 million in 1950 to 16 million in 1990. A subsidy system was used to keep down the prices of a large range of basic goods and services. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the USSR, it became the richest economy in the Eastern Bloc. Nonetheless it did not match the economic growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem — as many of the emigrants were young well-educated people, it further weakened the state economically. The government tried to stop people leaving by fortifying its western borders and in 1961 by establishing the Berlin Wall. Several hundred people were killed by border guards.

In 1989, a peaceful revolution in the GDR led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and emergence of a government committed to liberalization. The following year, free elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was reunited on 3 October 1990.

Naming conventions

The official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic), usually abbreviated to DDR. 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 purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone (The Eastern Zone),[8] Sowjetische Besatzungszone (Soviet Occupation Zone; often abbreviated to SBZ), and sogenannte DDR (so-called GDR).[9] Another name was Middle Germany, referring to the location of East Germany in the geographic centre of unified pre-1937 Germany. Usage of the latter term, because it was clearly based on geographic location, was sometimes picked up by East Germans. The center of political power in East Berlin was referred to as Berlin-Karlshorst. In the 1950s, this geographic designation referred to the seat of command of the Soviet forces in East Germany.[8]

Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also increasingly used colloquially by West Germans and West German media.[10] Ostdeutschland (an ambiguous term meaning simultaneously East or Eastern Germany) was not commonly used in East or West German common parlance to refer to the German Democratic Republic, because Ostdeutschland usually referred to the former eastern territories of Germany.

The term Westdeutschland (West Germany) when used by West Germans was almost always a reference to the geographic region of Western Germany but not to the area within the boundaries of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, this use was not always consistent, as, for example, West Berliners frequently used the term Westdeutschland to denote the Federal Republic.


Further information: History of Germany

According to German historian Jürgen Kocka (2010):


However, according to John Green (Morningstaronline, 2009):

One of the GDR’s greatest achievements was the creation of a more egalitarian society. Measures were introduced to counter class and gender privilege and increase the educational and career prospects of working-class children. The GDR was a society largely free of existential fears. Everyone had a right to education, a job and a roof over their head. Emphasis was placed on society not on individualism, and on co-operation and solidarity. As a result, the GDR became probably the most egalitarian society in Europe. Full gender equality and equal pay were also enshrined in legislation.



At the Yalta Conference during World War II, the Allies (the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union) agreed on dividing a defeated Germany into occupation zones,[13] and on dividing Berlin, the German capital, among the Allied powers as well. Initially this meant the construction of three zones of occupation, i.e., American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved out of the American and British zones.

GDR created 1949

The ruling Communist party, known as the Socialist Unity Party (SED), was formed in April 1946 from the merger between the German Communist Party (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) by mandate of Joseph Stalin. The two former parties were notorious rivals when they were active before the Nazis consolidated all power and criminalised their agitation. The unification of the two parties was symbolic of the new friendship of German socialists in defeating their common enemy; however, Communists who made a majority had virtually total control over policy.[14] As Walter Ulbricht noted, everything was made to look democratic while in reality Communists retained control in the background. They were totally loyal to Stalin, and realized their regime would collapse if it lost the backing of the Soviet army—as indeed happened in 1989. Historians debate whether the decision to form a separate country was initiated by Stalin or by the SED.[15]

As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from the occupation, the German Democratic Republic was established in East Germany in 1949. The creation of the two states made the 1945 division of Germany permanent.[16] On 10 March 1952, (in what would become known as the "Stalin Note") Stalin put forth 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.[17] However, leadership of West Germany saw reunification as a rather abstract goal. Western powers chose to decline on this proposal, due to belief that Germany should be able to join NATO and that such a negotiation with the Soviet Union would be seen as a capitulation. Afterwards, there had been several debates about whether a real chance for reunification had been missed in 1952.

In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the Socialist Unity Party, headed by Wilhelm Pieck (1876–1960), who became president of the GDR and remained officially 'Number One' until his death in 1960, while most executive authority was assumed by SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht. Socialist leader Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964) became prime minister until his death. In a major speech to an SED party conference on 28 March 1956, Grotewohl condemned abuses in the legal system. He denounced illegal arrests, called for more respect for civil rights, and even asked the parliament to develop lively debate.[18]

West Germany saw itself as the legal successor to the Third Reich, shouldering the burdens of legal responsibility for its crimes. By contrast, East Germany renounced ties to the Nazi past, styling itself the "anti-fascist rampart" and proclaiming itself the first socialist state on German soil. It refused to admit existences of anti-semitism and refused to recognize Israel or reimburse victims of the Holocaust.[19] The SED set a primary goal of ridding the GDR of all traces of the fascist regime, by allegedly ensuring democratic elections and the protection of individual liberties in building up socialism.[20]

Soviet role

In 1955, the USSR declared the Soviet occupation zone – the historic middle portion of Germany – to be a sovereign state named the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic, established in 1949), while the Red Army and the Western Allies' occupation forces remained in place under the tripartite Potsdam Agreement (1945) which established the Allied Occupation of Germany.[21]


Zones of occupation

Further information: Allied-occupied Germany


Yet, seven years after the Allies’ Potsdam Agreement to a unified Germany, the USSR via the Stalin Note (10 March 1952) proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe, which the three Western Allies (the United States, France, the United Kingdom) rejected. Soviet leader 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 an internal (Party) coup d'état deposed him from government in mid-1953, 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 went unconsidered until the German Democratic Republic collapsed in 1989.

East Germany and the Eastern Bloc diplomatically recognised East Berlin as the capital city of the German Democratic Republic, but the Western Allies disputed said recognition, considering the entire city of Berlin an occupied territory governed by the martial law of the Allied Control Council. According to Margarete Feinstein, East Berlin's status as the capital was largely unrecognized by the West and most Third World countries.[23] In practice, the ACC’s authority was rendered moot by the Cold War, and the East German government ignored the legal restrictions on integration of East Berlin into the GDR.

Abetted by ACC’s weakness, Cold War political conflicts among the Allies over the status of West Berlin provoked the Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949), in which the Soviet army stopped 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 keep West Berlin alive.[24]


Part of a series on the
History of Germany
Germany portal

In 1946, the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – SPD) merged to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED – Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) (21 April 1945), which then won the elections of 1946, held under the oversight of the Soviet army. Being a Marxist-Leninist political party, the SED's government nationalised infrastructure and industrial plants.


On 7 October 1949, the SED established the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic – GDR), based on a socialist political constitution establishing its control of the anti-fascist National Front of the German Democratic Republic (NF – 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 Volkskammer ("People's Chamber"), the East German parliament. The first (and only) President of the German Democratic Republic was Wilhelm Pieck. However, after 1950, the true ruler of East Germany was Walter Ulbricht, the First Secretary of the SED.[27]

On 16 June 1953, workers constructing the new Stalinallee boulevard in East Berlin rioted against a 10% production quota increase. Initially a labour protest, it soon included the general populace, who added their anti-Soviet discontent to the workers' civil disobedience, 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 Volkspolizei ("People's Police") in suppressing the rioters; some fifty people were killed and some 10,000 were jailed.[28][29] (See Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.)


The poverty of East Germany induced by reparations provoked the Republikflucht ("flight from the republic") to West Germany, aggravating the emigration, continual since the 1940s, from the Soviet zone of Germany to the Western Allied zones, further weakening the GDR's economy. Western economic opportunities and lack of political freedom in East Germany induced a brain drain. In response, the GDR closed the Inner German Border, and on the night of 12–13 August 1961, East German soldiers began erecting the Berlin Wall which prevented anyone from escaping.[31]

In 1971, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had Ulbricht removed; Erich Honecker replaced him. While the Ulbricht government had experimented with liberal reform, the Honecker government increased controls upon the populace of the GDR. The new government introduced a new East German Constitution which defined the German Democratic Republic as a "republic of workers and peasants" and hardly mentioned the word "German".[32]

Initially, East Germany maintained that it was the only lawful government of Germany. However, from the 1960s onward, East Germany held itself out as a separate country from West Germany, and shared the legacy of the united German state of 1871–1945. West Germany, in contrast, claimed an exclusive mandate for all 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 regime and thus illegitimate. This position was shared by most of the world, until 1973. East Germany was recognized only by Communist countries and the Arab bloc, along with some "scattered sympathizers".[33] According to the Hallstein Doctrine (1955), West Germany also did not diplomatically recognize any country – except the USSR – that recognized East German sovereignty.

But in the early 1970s, the Ostpolitik ("Eastern Policy") of "Change Through Rapprochement" of the pragmatic government of FRG Chancellor Willy Brandt, established normal diplomatic relations with the East Bloc states and the GDR. In the event, 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) established normal relations between the Germanies, later allowing their integration to the United Nations. This also increased the number of countries recognizing East Germany to 55, including the US, UK and France, though the last 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.[33]

GDR identity

From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity. Because of Marx's abhorrence of Prussia, the SED repudiated continuity between Prussia and the GDR. The SED destroyed the Junker manor houses, wrecked the Berlin city palace and removed the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great from East Berlin. Instead the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including Thomas Müntzer's role in the German Peasants' War and the role played by the heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. Nevertheless, as early as 1956 East Germany's Prussian heritage asserted itself in the NVA.

As a result of the Ninth Party Congress in May 1976, East Germany after 1976–77 considered its own history as the essence of German history, in which West Germany was only an episode. It laid claim to reformers such as Karl Freiherr vom Stein, Karl August von Hardenberg, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Gerhard von Scharnhorst.

In the early 1980s, West Germany adopted the line of "two German states in one German nation". While it respected East Germany's independence, it formally maintained that the GDR was merely a de facto government within a single German nation of which the FRG was the sole representative. For instance, it did not treat East Germans as foreigners.

Die Wende

Main articles: Die Wende and German reunification

In 1989, following widespread public anger over the faking of results of local government elections that spring, many citizens applied for exit visas or left the country contrary to DDR laws. In August 1989 Hungary removed its border restrictions and unsealed its border, and more than 13,000 people left East Germany by crossing the "green" border via Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to Austria and West Germany.[34] Many others demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig. Kurt Masur, the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, led local negotiations with the government and held town meetings in the concert hall.[35] The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October, and he was replaced by a slightly more moderate communist, Egon Krenz.

On 9 November 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Krenz resigned a few days later, and the SED abandoned power shortly afterward. Although there were some limited attempts to create a permanent democratic East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for unification with West Germany.

East Germany held its last elections in March 1990. The winner was a coalition headed by the East German branch of West Germany's Christian Democratic Union, which advocated speedy reunification. After some negotiations (2+4 Talks) were held involving the two German states and the former Allied Powers which led to agreement on the conditions for German unification. The five original East German states that had been abolished in 1952 were recreated. 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 Bremen and Hamburg). On 1 July a currency-union had preceded the political union - the "Ostmark" was abolished, the Western German "Deutsche Mark" became common currency. The great economic and socio-political inequalities between the former Germanies required government subsidy for the full integration of East Germany to the Federal German Republic. Because of the deindustrialization taking place in the outcome of this economic reunion, the matter is disputed in political conflicts up to the present day. Most times the lack of efficiency of the East German Economy is highlighted and the de-industrialization seen as natural outcome of the "Wende". But many East German critics point out that the shock-therapy style of privatization did not leave room for east German Enterprises to adapt.[36]





The Potsdam Agreement committed the Soviets to supporting a democratic form of government in Germany, and as in some other Warsaw Pact countries, other non-communist political parties were allowed. Nevertheless, every political party in the GDR had to register with the National Front of Democratic Germany, an alliance of parties and mass political organisations, including:

Elections took place at the Volkskammer but were effectively controlled by the SED/state hierarchy, as Hans Modrow has noted. Elections were held in less-than-secret conditions, with voters given the choice of approving or rejecting "unity lists" put forward by the National Front and predetermining the distribution of seats given to the different parties and mass organisations. As was the case in most communist countries, approval rates of 90% or more were routine.

Voting in East Germany was relatively simple. To vote yes, a voter simply took the ballot paper, which contained only one name—that of the approved candidate—and dropped it into the voting box. A voter could vote against the candidate by crossing out his or her name, but had to do so in a separate voting booth without any secrecy. The consequences for such an act of defiance were severe—loss of one's job or expulsion from school, and close surveillance by the Stasi.[38]

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

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

Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) which subsequently merged with the West German WASG to form the Left Party (Die Linke). The Left Party continues to be a political force in many parts of Germany, albeit drastically less powerful than the SED.


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 Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91), its military forces were among the most advanced of the Warsaw Pact. Defining what was a military force and what was not is a matter of some dispute.

National People's Army

The Nationale Volksarmee was the largest military organisation in East Germany. It was formed in 1956 from the 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 conscription period was introduced in 1962. It mixed elements of Soviet and German military thinking and doctrine, and was considered one of the most professional and best prepared military forces in the world. The NVA consisted of the following branches:

  1. Army (Landstreitkräfte)
  2. Navy (Volksmarine – People's Navy)
  3. Air Force–Air Defence (Luftstreitkräfte/Luftverteidigung)

Border Troops






Combat Groups of the Working Class

These Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse numbered around 400,000 for much of their existence, and were organised around factories and neighbourhoods. 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 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 compulsory military service; for the medically unqualified and conscientious objector, there were the Baueinheiten construction units, established in 1964, two years after the introduction of conscription, in response to political pressure by the national Lutheran Protestant Church upon the GDR’s government. In the 1970s, East German leaders acknowledged that former construction soldiers were at a disadvantage when they rejoined the civilian sphere.

Administrative districts

Until 1952, the GDR comprised the East Berlin capital city and the five German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in 1947 renamed: Mecklenburg), Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony, their post-war territorial demarcations approximating the pre-war German demarcations of the Middle German Länder (states) and Provinzen (provinces of Prussia). Moreover, the western parts of two provinces, Pomerania and Lower Silesia, although prevailingly annexed by Poland, remained politically integral to the GDR.

The East German Administrative Reform of 1952 disestablished the five states and established 14 Bezirke (districts), named per their capital cities: (i) Rostock, (ii) Neubrandenburg, (iii) Schwerin, (iv) Potsdam, (v) Frankfurt (Oder), (vi) Magdeburg, (vii) Cottbus, (viii) Halle, (ix) Leipzig, (x) Erfurt, (xi) Dresden, (xii) Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz until 1953 and again in 1990), (xiii) Gera, and (xiv) Suhl; East Berlin was denominated a Bezirk (district) in 1961.

The disestablished Länder (states), demarcated as Bezirke (districts), were renamed so: the northern Land (state) Mecklenburg was divided among the Bezirke Rostock, Schwerin, and Neubrandenburg; Brandenburg (containing Berlin) was divided into the Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), and Cottbus districts; Saxony-Anhalt was divided into the Halle and Magdeburg districts; the south-western state of Thuringia was divided into the Erfurt, Gera, and Suhl districts; and the south-eastern state of Saxony was divided among the Leipzig, Dresden, and Karl-Marx-Stadt districts.

East Berlin, the capital city of the German Democratic Republic, formed the Bezirk Berlin, the country’s fifteenth district, retaining special legal status until 1968, when the residents voted in approving the new (draft) constitution. Regardless of the city's four-occupying-power-status, the ACC, and diplomatic objections of the Allied governments, the GDR administered the Bezirk Berlin as sovereign territory.

Major cities

(1988 populations)

* "Bezirksstadt" (centre of district)


The East German population declined by three million people throughout its forty-one year history, from 19 million in 1948 to 16 million in 1990; of the 1948 population, some 4 million were deported from the lands east of the Oder-Neisse line.[39] This compares starkly with Poland, which increased during that time from 24 million in 1950 (a little more than East Germany) to 38 million (more than twice 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,[40] and after that time, East Germany had very low birth rates,[41] except for a recovery in the 1980s when the birth rate in East Germany was considerably higher than in West Germany,[42] and in general the birth rate per woman was never much lower than in West Germany, except during the 1990s.



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, 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 ($21,000 in 2008 dollars). In 1976, the average annual growth of the GDP was approximately five percent. This made East German economy the richest in all of the Soviet Bloc until 1990 after the Communist collapse in the country.[43]


Until the 1960s, East Germans endured shortages of basic foodstuffs such as sugar and coffee. East Germans with friends or relatives in the West (or any access to a hard currency) and the necessary Staatsbank 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".[44] The economic results were highly negative, and created an increasing differential with the prosperity in West Germany. At the production level, artificial prices made for an inefficient, backward system of semi-barter and resource-hoarding. For the consumer, it led to the substitution of GDR money with time, barter, and hard-currencies. Ironically, 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).[45]

Consumption and jobs

In East Germany, it has been said that people who were disgruntled resorted to nasty jokes at the expense of the oppressive regime; their names were recorded, and too many jokes would land a man in prison.[46] However, this is mostly anecdotal and does not necessarily reflect the typical result of such dissent and disagreement with the system.

According to some western commentators, throughout its history the main criterion for getting a good job was unblinking loyalty to the Communist party bosses. Even in the electronics industry, a relatively modern and competitive sector of the GDR's economy, the criteria of professionalism were secondary to political criteria in personnel recruitment and development. Dubious loyalty meant exclusion from the university and from good jobs.[47]

No worker could be sacked, unless for serious misconduct or incompetence. However, even in such cases, other alternative work would be offered. The other side of the coin was that there was also a social obligation to work – the GDR had no system of unemployment benefit because the concept of unemployment did not exist.

With a very low birth rate and a high rate of exodus, East Germany was losing workers. The lack of large wealth differentials and class privilege made for a more cohesive and balanced society. For some such egalitarianism was not amenable and the lure of higher salaries and business opportunities in the West remained strong. This led to a steady haemorrhaging of skilled workers and professionals before the wall was built in 1961.

The solution was to import low-skilled workers from other Communist countries. 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. According to Raymond G. Stokes, an industrial economics historian, their working conditions were bleak, and although they were officially equal to their German counterparts, the foreign workers remained at the bottom of the social ladder with almost no rights.[48] However, this is disputable since many of these workers came from other socialist countries which were considered fraternal and having equal status (such as Poland and Hungary as fellow Comecon and Warsaw Pact states).


Religion was contested ground in the GDR, with the Communists promoting state atheism, although some people were loyal to Christian communities.[49] In 1957, the State Secretariat for Church Affairs was established to handle the government's contact with churches and religious groups, allowing the SED to maintain its stance as an "atheistic party against the Church".[50]


At the beginning, the Communist party had asserted the compatibility of Christianity and Marxism and sought Christian participation in the building of socialism. At first the question of atheism received little official attention. In the mid-1950s, as the Cold War heated up, atheism became suddenly a topic of major interest for the regime for propaganda purposes, both domestic and foreign. University chairs and departments devoted to the study of 'scientific atheism' were founded and much literature (scholarly and popular) on the subject was produced. Then this activity rather quickly subsided in the late 1960s amid perceptions that atheistic propaganda was becoming counterproductive; but official and scholarly attention to atheism was renewed beginning in 1973, though this time there was more emphasis on scholarship and the training of cadre than propaganda. Throughout, attention paid to atheism in East Germany always reflected politics and was never intended to jeopardise the cooperation that was desired from those East Germans who were religious.[51]


East Germany historically was about 90% Protestant. Between 1956 and 1971 the leadership of the East German Lutheran Church changed its relations with the state from hostility to cooperation.[52] From the founding of the GDR in 1949, the Communist Party tried to weaken the influence of the church on the rising generation. The church therefore adopted an attitude of confrontation and distance regarding the Communist authorities. Around 1956 this firm stand against the regime began to wither in favour of a more neutral stance and conditional loyalty. The regime 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 was not in accordance with the will of God, the church reserved its 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 took away the temporary character of the East German state. The loss of church members and discrimination against young Christians also made it clear to the leaders of the church that they had to come into some kind of dialogue with the authorities. The intentions behind the change of attitude varied from a traditional Lutheran acceptance of secular power to a positive attitude toward socialist ideas. There was also a will to cooperate in order to have the ability to criticise from within a position of loyalty.[53]

Manfred Stolpe (b. 1936) became a lawyer for the Protestant church in 1959 before taking up a position at church headquarters in Berlin. In 1969 he helped found the Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR, where he negotiated with the Communist government while at the same time working within the truly democratic system of the church's institutions. The international outlook he gained through the church's ecumenical activities helped him in his new job after winning the regional elections for the state of Brandenburg at the head of the SPD list in 1990. Despite accusations of having colluded with the Communist government, Stolpe, cleared of the charges, remained at the head of the Brandenburg government until he joined the federal government in 2002.


The smaller Roman Catholic Church had a fully functioning episcopal hierarchy that was in full accord with the Vatican. During the early postwar years, tensions were high. The Catholic Church as a whole and particularly the bishops were resistant to both the regime and Marxist ideology, and the state allowed the bishops to lodge protests, which they did on issues such as abortion. The bishops were, however, closely observed by the Stasi.[53]

After 1945, the Church did fairly well in integrating Catholic exiles from lands to the east (which were given to Poland) and adjusting its institutional structures against the threats of an atheistic state. Within the Church, this meant an increasingly hierarchical 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 the Caritas, a charity organisation. They were hardly affected by Communist attempts to force them into line. By 1950, therefore, there existed a Catholic subsociety that was well adjusted to prevailing specific conditions and capable of maintaining Catholic identity.[54]

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 showed increasing independence from the state by 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.[55]


East Germany's culture was strongly influenced by communism and particularly Stalinism and was described by East German psychoanalyst Hans-Joachim Maaz in 1990 as having produced a "Congested Feeling" among East Germans as a result of the East German state's goal to protect people from dangers of deviant cultural influence and dangers of popular expression deviating from the state's ideals through enforcing official ideals through physical and psychological repression of these tendencies via its institutions, particularly the Stasi. Critics of the East German state 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 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.[56]


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

Influences from the West were heard because West German TV and radio could be received in many parts of the East (an exception being Dresden with its geographical position in the Elbe valley, although limited reception of Western radio was still possible there). The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands were Die Skeptiker, Die Art 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.[57] 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.[58]

Dissident singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann, although professing to be a dedicated Communist, was not permitted to perform in public, and was deprived of his East German citizenship in 1976, while visiting West Germany. He was not allowed to return to East Germany until 1989.

Singer Nina Hagen, who is the stepdaughter of Biermann, was exiled at the same time.




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



After 1975 many artists left the GDR because of increasing censorship. 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.


Important theatres include: Berliner Ensemble;[59]Deutsches Theater;[60] Maxim-Gorki-Theater;[61] and Volksbühne[62]


The prolific cinema of East Germany was headed by the DEFA,[63] Deutsche Film AG, which was subdivided in different local groups, for example Gruppe Berlin, Gruppe Babelsberg or Gruppe Johannisthal, where the local teams shot and produced films. Besides folksy movies, the movie-industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children's movies (Das kalte Herz, film versions of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and modern productions such as Das Schulgespenst).




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

Cinemas in the GDR also showed 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, movies representing or glorifying capitalistic ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish Olsen Gang or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, several movies depicting life in the GDR have been critically acclaimed. Some of the most notable were Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker, 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,[64] Alles auf Zucker! (Go for Zucker) by Dani Levi. Each film is heavily infused with cultural nuances unique to life in the GDR.



Another supporting reason was doping in East Germany, especially with anabolic steroids, the most detected doping substances in IOC-accredited laboratories for many years.[65][66] 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.[67]

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


Successful athletes
Track-suit diplomacy


Television and radio

Television and radio in East Germany were state controlled; the Rundfunk der DDR was the official radio broadcasting organisation from 1952 until German reunification. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin. Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), from 1972–1990 known as Fernsehen der DDR or DDR-FS, was the state television broadcaster from 1952. Reception of Western radio (and even television) broadcasts was widespread.[68]



An unusual feature of the telephone network was that in most cases, direct 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 reunification, the existing network was largely replaced, and area codes and dialing became standardised.



Date English Name German Name Remarks
1 January New Year's Day Neujahr  
Moveable feast Good Friday Karfreitag  
Moveable feast Easter Sunday Ostersonntag  
Moveable feast Easter Monday Ostermontag Was not an official holiday after 1967.
1 May May Day Tag der Arbeit International Workers' Day
Moveable feast Whitmonday Pfingstmontag 50 days after Easter Sunday
7 October Republic Day Tag der Republik National holiday
Moveable feast Day of Repentance and Prayer Buß- und Bettag Penultimate Wednesday before the fourth Sunday before 25 December. Was not an official holiday after 1967.
25 December First Day of Christmas 1. Weihnachtsfeiertag  
26 December Second Day of Christmas 2. Weihnachtsfeiertag  


Main article: Ostalgie

The end of the Cold War division of Germany and unification in 1990 inspired initial euphoria.[69]

But for many East Germans, this joy quickly turned to dismay.[70] 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).[71] Barnstone finds that, "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."[72] Additionally, the dislocations, especially the closure of obsolete factories in the east, the end of Communism, the disappearance of East Germany and German unification were hardest for East Germany, where unemployment skyrocketed and many East German professionals quickly fled for better jobs in West Germany.

These and other effects of unification led many East Germans to begin to think of themselves more strongly as "East" Germans rather than as simply as "Germans". In many former GDR citizens this produced a longing for certain aspects of the former East Germany, such as full employment and other perceived benefits of the GDR state, termed "Ostalgie" (a blend of Ost "east" and Nostalgie "nostalgia") and depicted in the Wolfgang Becker film Goodbye Lenin!.

Danish historian Feiwel Kupferberg (2002) argues that the real difficulty in German reunification was the sharply different ways the West Germans and East Germans interpreted their Nazi past. The West Germans confronted the past and atoned for it, and meanwhile transformed the FRG into a prosperous, free democracy that expressed the values of both individual freedom and responsibility.[73] By contrast, the East Germans took hold of Moscow's official interpretation that East Germany was the "victor of history"[74] and represented the successful opposition to the Nazis. This myth, Kupferberg argues, allowed the GDR to attack the West Germans as historically complicit in the Nazi crimes because it had the same capitalist economy which had produced Hitler in the first place. East Germany was now pure, because it had rejected fascism and its twin, capitalism.[75] This attitude, Kupferberg argues, allowed middle classes that had supported Hitler to often retain powerful roles in East Germany.[76] Granville concludes that Kupferberg, "articulates well the thesis that the rigid communist system in the GDR inculcated passivity, helplessness, and amoral pragmatism in its citizens."[77]

See also

East Germany portal


References and bibliography

  • ISBN 0-582-31569-7
  • 1996.
  • Fulbrook, Mary. The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker Yale University Press, 2005. 352 pp. ISBN 0-300-10884-2.
  • Fulbrook; Mary. Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949–1989 Oxford University Press, 1995
  • Gray, William Glenn. Germany's Cold War: The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949–1969 University of North Carolina Press. 2003
  • Jarausch, Konrad H., and Eve Duffy; Dictatorship as Experience: Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR Berghahn Books, 1999

External links

  • Border Museum at Schifflersgrund
  • AHF – Nationale Volksarmee : NVA
  • (German)
  • (German)
  • Translations of propaganda materials from the GDR.
  • (German) Geschichte des ostdeutschen Designs – history of east German design
  • DDR Museum Berlin – Culture of GDR
  • Interactive Map of the Berlin Wall
  • East Berlin, past and present
  • Pictures of the GDR 1949–1973
  • RFE/RL East German Subject Files Open Society Archives, Budapest
  • Stamps Catalog of the German Democratic Republic
  • East German anthem with English and German lyrics
Countries of the world · Europe
Preceded by
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
and the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
German Democratic Republic
(concurrent with the
Federal Republic of Germany)

Succeeded by
Federal Republic of Germany

