Overview[]
East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic or GDR (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), was a state in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War period. From 1949 to 1990, it administered the region of Germany that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II—the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line.
History[]
The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR, behinde the Berlin Wall. The German 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. 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.
The GDR established the Ministry for State Security, or "Stasi", which aided the Soviet Army in suppressing uprisings in 1953. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party (SED), though other friendly parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation, the National Front of Democratic Germany.
Economy[]
It was mixed agricultural and industrial command economy.
Also see[]
- The NDR
- Berlin airlift
- Berlin Blockade
- Berlin Tempelhof Airport
- Berlin Wall
- Inner German Border
- Checkpoint Charlie
- Warsaw Pact
- The 1988 Forst Zinna Rail Disaster
- June 16-17 East German uprising of 1953
Sources[]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany
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