German Democratic Republic
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"DDR" redirects here. For other uses of the acronym DDR, see DDR (disambiguation).
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"GDR" redirects here. For another use, see Global Depository Receipt.
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"East Germany" redirects here. For the historical eastern German provinces, see Historical Eastern Germany.
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| Anthem: Auferstanden aus Ruinen | |||||
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| Capital | East Berlin |
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| Language(s) | German | ||||
| Government | Socialist republic | ||||
| Head of State | |||||
| - 1949 – 1960 | Wilhelm Pieck | ||||
| - 1990 | Sabine Bergmann-Pohl | ||||
| Head of Government | |||||
| - 1949 – 1964 | Otto Grotewohl | ||||
| - 1990 | Lothar de Maizière | ||||
| Legislature | Volkskammer | ||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||
| - Established | October 7, 1949 | ||||
| - Final Settlement | September 25, 1990 | ||||
| - German reunification | October 3, 1990 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - 1990 | 108,333 km2 41,828 sq mi |
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| Population | |||||
| - 1990 est. | 16,111,000 | ||||
| Density | 148.7 /km² 385.2 /sq mi |
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| Currency | East German mark | ||||
The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or DDR; known in English as East Germany) was a communist state which existed from 1949 to 1990. The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany on October 7, 1949, following the creation in May 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") in the zones occupied by the United States, Britain and France. Berlin (in practice, East Berlin) was claimed as its capital.
It covered the current states of Germany Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony and the eastern part of Berlin.
The Republic was declared fully sovereign in 1955; however, Soviet troops remained based on the four-power Potsdam agreement. As American troops remained in West Berlin and West Germany, the GDR and Berlin in particular became focal points of Cold War tensions. The GDR was a member of the Warsaw Pact and a close ally of the Soviet Union. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 and strong popular pressure, free elections were held on March 18, 1990, and the ruling Communist party, the SED, lost its majority in the Volkskammer (the GDR parliament) soon after. On August 23, the Volkskammer decided that the territory of the Republic would accede to the ambit of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990. As a result of German reunification on that date, the German Democratic Republic officially ceased to exist.
Contents |
[edit] History
| History of Germany |
|---|
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| Ancient times |
| Germanic peoples |
| Migration Period |
| Frankish Empire |
| Medieval times |
| Holy Roman Empire |
| East Colonisation |
| Building a nation |
| Confederation of the Rhine |
| German Confederation |
| North German Confederation |
| Imperial Germany |
| German Empire |
| Germany during World War I |
| Weimar Republic |
| Weimar Republic |
| Nazi Germany |
| Nazi Germany |
| World War II |
| Post-war Germany |
| Since 1945 |
| Occupation and Division |
| Expulsion |
| East Germany |
| West Germany |
| German reunification |
| Present day Germany |
| Modern Germany |
| Topical |
| Military history of Germany |
| Timeline of German history |
| History of German |
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The territories of East Germany were settled by Germanic peoples during the last few centuries BC. During the post-Roman migration period, many of these populations left for other lands, and Slavic Wends settled in their wake. German imperial rulers conquered the area during the Middle Ages. The newly acquired land was organised in margravates, German feudal states on the land of Slavs. Consequent waves of German settlements, which in subsequent centuries later included French Hugenots and Jews, gradually modified the originally Slavic composition of the land, except for the small community of Sorbs in Lusatia, and eventually most of what is now East Germany formed a large part of the historical Kingdom of Prussia.
In Imperial Germany and later during the time of the Weimar Republic, territory that would become East Germany was situated in the center of the state. This territory was known as "Mitteldeutschland" (Middle Germany), while the designation "East" was reserved for provinces such as eastern Pomerania, eastern Brandenburg, Silesia and East and West Prussia. During WWII, Allied leaders decided at the Yalta Conference that post-war borders of Poland would be moved westward to the Oder-Neisse line, just as Soviet borders were also moved westward into formerly Polish territory.
Discussions at Yalta and Potsdam also outlined the planned occupation and administration of post-war Germany under a four-power Allied Control Council, or ACC (composed of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union). At the end of World War II, at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into four occupation zones. Each country would control a part of Germany until its sovereignty was restored.
The Länder (states) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, and the eastern sector of Greater Berlin fell in the Soviet Sector of Germany, or SBZ. Soviet objections to economic and political reforms in western (US, UK, and French) occupation zones led to Soviet withdrawal from the ACC in 1948 and subsequent evolution of the SBZ into East Germany. Concurrently, the Western occupation zones consolidated to form West Germany (or the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG).
Officially, both the western Allies and the Communists committed to maintaining a unified Germany after the war in the Potsdam Agreement, at least on paper. The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but the United States and its allies rejected the offer. Stalin died in early 1953. Though powerful Soviet politician Lavrenty Beria briefly pursued the idea of German reunification once more following Stalin's death, he was arrested and removed from office in a coup d'etat in mid-1953. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, firmly rejected the idea of handing eastern Germany over to capitalism, marking the end of any serious consideration of the reunification idea until the collapse of Communism in 1989.
Just as Germany was divided after the war, Berlin, the former capital of Germany, was divided into four sectors. Since Berlin was entirely enclosed in the Soviet part of Germany, the areas of Berlin being held under the control of the UK, the United States and France soon became known as West Berlin while the Soviet sector became known as East Berlin. East Berlin was the de facto capital of East Germany, although the legality of this was disputed by the western Allies, as the entire city was formally considered an occupied territory governed by martial law through the Allied Control Council. In practice, the Allied Control Council quickly became moot as the Cold War intensified, and the eastern government ignored the technical legal restrictions on how eastern Berlin could be used.
Conflict over the status of West Berlin led to the Berlin Blockade, when the GDR government briefly prohibited overland transit between West Germany and West Berlin, prompting the massive Berlin Airlift.
The first leader of East Germany was Wilhelm Pieck. He was the first (and last) President of the Republic. The East German Constitution defined the country as a "republic of workers and peasants."
On June 17, 1953, following a production quota increase of 10 percent for workers building East Berlin's new showcase boulevard, the Stalinallee, demonstrations broke out in East Berlin and other industrial centers. The demonstrations became violent, and Soviet troops and tanks were dispatched to suppress the demonstrations, killing at least 125. The incident proved a tremendous embarrassment internationally for the Communists, who maintained that the east Germans liked Communism and were much happier than workers in the west. Transit between West and East Berlin was relatively free at the time, meaning that the protests and their violent suppression unfolded in full view of many western observers. See Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.
During the early stages of the occupation, the Soviet army seized a great deal of industrial equipment from eastern Germany to be shipped back to the Soviet Union as war reparations, crippling the East German economy for years. The increasing prosperity of West Germany and growing political oppression in the East led large numbers of East Germans to flee to the West. Since the 1940s, refugees had been leaving the Soviet zone of Germany to start a new life in the west. The ongoing exodus of East Germans further strained the troubled East German economy. Although the inter-German border was largely closed by the mid-1950s (see German Democratic Republic border system), the sector borders in Berlin were relatively easy to cross. Due to the lure of a better quality of life in the West, many skilled workers (such as doctors) crossed into the West, causing a 'brain drain' in the East. However, on the night of August 13, 1961, East German troops sealed the border between West and East Berlin and started to build the Berlin Wall, literally and physically enclosing West Berlin. Travel was greatly restricted into, and out of, East Germany. A highly effective secret police force called the Stasi spied extensively on East German citizens to suppress dissenters through its network of 175,000 informants and 90,000 agents.
In 1971, Erich Honecker replaced Walter Ulbricht in what was technically a coup, with the blessing of the USSR. East Germany was generally regarded as the most economically advanced member of the Warsaw Pact. Before the 1970s, the official position of West Germany was that of the Hallstein Doctrine which involved non-recognition of East Germany. In the early 1970s, Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. 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) helped to normalise relations between East and West Germany and led to both Germanies joining the United Nations.
Competition with the West was carried on also on an athletic level. East German athletes dominated several Olympic disciplines. Of special interest was the only football match ever to occur between West and East Germany, a first round match during the 1974 World Cup. Though West Germany was the host and the eventual champion, East beat West 1-0.
In September 1989 Hungary removed its border restrictions and unsealed its border and more than 13,000 people fled East Germany by crossing the "green" border via Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to Austria and West Germany.[1] Many others peacefully demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig. These demonstrations eventually forced the resignation of Honecker; in October he was replaced, albeit briefly, by Egon Krenz.
On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, resulting in emotional scenes as hundreds of thousands of East Germans crossed into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Soon the whole authoritarian system of East Germany fell apart. Although there were some small attempts to create a permanent non-authoritarian East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for reunification with West Germany. After some negotiations (2+4 Talks, involving the two Germanies and the former Allied Powers United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), conditions for German reunification were agreed upon. Thus, on October 3, 1990 the East German population was the first from the Eastern Bloc to join the European Economic Community as a part of the reunified Federal Republic of Germany. The East German territory was reorganized into what is now the city-state of Berlin and five federal states, reconstituting political entities that had been abolished in 1950. The name of Mecklenburg state was altered to include the phrase "Vorpommern" or Western Pomerania and is now officially known as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The use of this historical term had been prohibed by the East German officials due to the sensitive issue of the Oder-Neisse frontier with Poland.
To this day, there remain many differences between the former East Germany and West Germany (for example, in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs and other matters) and thus it is still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. The Eastern German economy has struggled since German re-unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east.
[edit] Politics
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[edit] Political organization
The ruling political party in East Germany was the 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. As the Potsdam Agreement had committed the Soviets to supporting a democratic form of government in Germany, other political parties were technically permitted, although in practice they had no political power and were not allowed to meaningfully question or oppose government policy. Along with other parties, the SED was part of the "National Front of Democratic Germany", ostensibly a united coalition of anti-fascist political parties.
The other political parties ran under the joint slate of the National Front, controlled by the SED, for elections to the Volkskammer, the East German Parliament. Elections took place, but were effectively controlled by the SED/state hierarchy, as Hans Modrow has noted.
- Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU), merged with the West-German CDU after reunification
- Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, DBD). This party was of special importance because of farmers' role in the economy. The party merged with the West German CDU after reunification.
- Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, LDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification
- Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany, NDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification.
The Volkskammer also included representatives from the mass organisations like the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend or FDJ), or the Free German Trade Union Federation. In an attempt to include women in the political life of East Germany, there was a Democratic Women's Federation of Germany, with seats in the Volkskammer.
Important non-parliamentary mass organisations in East German society included the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund or DTSB), and People's Solidarity (Volkssolidarität, an organisation for the elderly). Another society of note (and very popular during the late 1980s) was the Society for German-Soviet Friendship.
A highly effective secret police force called the Stasi infiltrated and reported on most private activity in East Germany, limiting opportunity for non-sanctioned political organization. All formal organizations except for churches were directly controlled by the East German government. Churches were permitted to operate more or less free from government control, so long as they abstained from political activity.
Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) and then the Left Party (die Linke), which continues to be a political force in Berlin and other areas of the former East Germany, albeit drastically less powerful than the SED.
[edit] Persons of note in East Germany
[edit] Political Representatives
- Hermann Axen, editor-in-chief of the SED paper "Neues Deutschland" 1956-1978, SED secretary for international relations 1966-1989
- Johannes R. Becher, first minister for culture 1954-1958, wrote the lyrics of the national anthem
- Hilde Benjamin, vice president of the supreme court 1949-1953, minister for justice 1953-1967, dubbed "red guillotine" for her relentless persecution of political opponents
- Otto Grotewohl, Chairman of the East German SPD 1945-1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946-54; Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1949-64
- Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the SED 1971-89; Chairman of the Council of State, 1976-89
- Margot Honecker née Feist, minister for education 1963-1989
- Heinz Keßler, minister for defence 1985-1989 (deputy minister since 1957)
- Egon Krenz, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and chairman of Council of State October - December 1989, he had been Honnecker's deputy and "crown prince" since 1983
- Erich Mielke, Stasi Minister 1957-1989
- Günter Mittag, SED secretary for economics 1962-1973, 1976-1989
- Hans Modrow, SED district secretary for Dresden 1973-1989, last SED prime minister November 1989 - March 1990
- Wilhelm Pieck, Chairman of the East German KPD 1945-1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946-54; State President 1949-60
- Günter Schabowski, SED district secretary for Berlin 1985-1989; as party spokesperson he caused the fall of the Berlin wall
- Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, head of the department of "commercial coordination" in the ministry of foreign trade.
- Karl Schirdewan, SED secretary 1953-1958, dismissed for "faction building"
- Horst Sindermann, Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1973-1976; president of parliament 1976-1989
- Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, telecaster on East German television, "famous" for his propaganda programme "Der schwarze Kanal"
- Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1964-73, 1976-89; Chairman of the Council of State, 1973-76
- Harry Tisch, head of the Free German Trade Union Federation 1975-1989
- Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the SED 1950-71; Chairman of the Council of State, 1960-73)
- Markus "Mischa" Wolf, head of the GDR's foreign intelligence department 1952-1986
[edit] Artists and Otherwise Important Persons
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[edit] Administrative divisions
In 1952, as part of the reforms designed to centralise power in the hands of the SED's Politbüro, the five Länder of East Germany were abolished, and East Germany was divided into fifteen Bezirke (districts), each named after the largest city: the northern Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was divided between the Bezirke Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg; Brandenburg (surrounding Berlin) was reorganised into the Bezirke of Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus; Sachsen-Anhalt split into the Bezirke of Halle and Magdeburg; the south-western Land Thüringen (Thuringia) was picked apart to produce the Bezirke of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl; finally, the south-eastern Land Sachsen (Saxony) was divided between Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and following the GDR's collapse again known as Chemnitz. The GDR capital, Berlin formed the 15th Bezirk, though it retained a special legal status in the GDR until 1968, when East Berliners voted with the rest of the GDR to approve the draft of the new constitution. From this point onwards, irrespective of the Four Power Status and the western allies' objections that East Berlin was merely the Soviet occupied sector of the German capital, Berlin was treated as a Bezirk like any other.
[edit] Economy
Like other East European socialist states, East Germany had a centrally planned economy (CPE), similar to the one in the former Soviet Union, in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies of most Western states. The state established production targets and prices and allocated resources, codifying these decisions in a comprehensive plan or set of plans. The means of production were almost entirely state owned. In 1985, for example, state-owned enterprises or collectives earned 96.7 percent of total net national income. To secure constant prices for inhabitants, the state bore 80% of costs of basic supplies, from bread to housing.
The ultimate directing force in the economy, as in every aspect of the society, was the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands--SED), particularly its top leadership. The party exercised its leadership role formally during the party congress, when it accepted the report of the general secretary, and when it adopted the draft plan for the upcoming five-year period.
The private sector of the economy was small but not entirely insignificant. In 1985 about 2.8 percent of the net national product came from private enterprises. The private sector included private farmers and gardeners; independent craftsmen, wholesalers, and retailers; and individuals employed in so-called free-lance activities (artist, writers, and others). Although self-employed, such individuals were strictly regulated; in some cases the tax rate exceeded 90 %. In 1985, for the first time in many years, the number of individuals working in the private sector increased slightly. According to East German statistics, in 1985 there were about 176,800 private entrepreneurs, an increase of about 500 over 1984. Certain private sector activities were quite important to the system because those craftsmen provided rare, specially made spare parts.
[edit] Culture
[edit] Music
For ideological reasons artists were expected to sing songs only in German at first, which changed with the end of the sixties. This seemed a logical constraint by the Party leaders but it was rather unpopular among young people. There were strict rules that regulated that all artistic activity ought to be censored for any open or implied anti-socialist tendencies. The band Renft, for example, was prone to political misbehaviour, which eventually led to its split.
The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at critical thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like most mainstream acts, they appeared in popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Other popular rock bands were Wir, Dean Reed, City and Pankow.
Influences from the West were heard everywhere, because TV and radio that came from the Klassenfeind (class enemy, meaning "enemy of the working class") could be received in many parts of the East, too (a notorious exception being Dresden, with its geographically disadvantageous position in the Elbe valley, giving it the nickname of “Valley of the Clueless”). The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands were Die Skeptiker, as well as Feeling B.
Classical music was highly supported, so that there existed over 50 classical symphony orchestras in a country with a population about 16 million. See also:
- Thomanerchor Leipzig
- Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
- Berliner Sinfonie Orchester
- Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory and his birthplace in Eisenach was turned into a museum of his life, which, among other things, included more than 300 instruments from Bach's life. In 1980 this museum was receiving more than 70,000 visitors annually.
In Leipzig, an enormous archive with recordings of all of Bach's music was compiled, along with many historical documents and letters both to and from him.
Every other year, school children from across East Germany gathered for a Bach competition held in East Berlin. Every four years an international Bach competition for keyboard and strings was held.
The birthplace of Martin Luther and the houses of Goethe and Schiller were also turned into museums. There were over 300 such folk museums in the GDR.
[edit] Theatre
East German theatre was in the beginning strongly dominated by Bertolt Brecht, who brought back a lot of artists from antifascist resistance and reopened Theater am Schiffbauerdamm with his Berliner Ensemble. On the other side, some streams tried to establish pure workers theater, played by workers with plays about workers.
After Brecht died, there were a lot of conflicts beetween the artists and his family (around Helene Weigel) about the heritage of Brecht. Heinz Kahlau, Slatan Dudow, Erwin Geschonneck, Erwin Strittmatter, Peter Hacks, Benno Besson, Peter Palitzsch and Ekkehard Schall are counted among Bertolt Brecht's scholars and followers.
In the 1950s the Swiss Benno Besson had success with "The Dragon" by Jewgenij Schwarz, so that he travelled with Deutsches Theater all-around Europe and Asia (also in Japan). He became the Intendant at Volksbühne in the 1960s and worked often with Heiner Müller.
Because of censorship a lot of artists left the GDR from 1975. A parallel development was that some artists went to small-city theaters, to create theater beyond Berlin. For example Peter Sodann founded the neues theater in Halle/Saale and Frank Castorf was at theater Anklam.
Theatre and Cabaret had a very important status in the GDR for the people and so it was a very active and movable scene, which was reason for its contention with the state. Benno Besson said once about that: "At least they took us serious, we had a bearing."
Important theatres:
- Deutsches Theater [1]
- Berliner Ensemble [2]
- Volksbühne [3]
- Maxim Gorki Theater [4]
[edit] Cinema
In the GDR, the movie industry was very active. The head-group for film-productions was the DEFA [5], Deutsche Film AG, which was subdivided in different local groups, for example Gruppe Berlin, Gruppe Babelsberg or Gruppe Johannisthal, where the local teams shot and produced films. Besides folksy movies, the movie-industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children movies ("Das kalte Herz", picturizations of fairy-tales according to Grimm-brothers and also modern productions like "Das Schulgespenst").
Movies about persecution of Jews in Third Reich like "Jakob der Lügner" and the resistance against fascism "Fünf Patronenhülsen" (both directed by Frank Beyer) became internationally famous.
Also movies about the problems in daily life like "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" (directed by Heiner Carow) or "Solo Sunny" (directed by Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase) were very popular.
The film industry was remarkable for its production of Ostern, or Westerns. Indians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the American westerns of the time, where Indians were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavians were often cast as the Indians, due to the shortage of authentic American Indians in eastern Europe. Gojko Mitić is the most famous actor in this part, often playing the righteous, kindhearted and charming chief ("Die Söhne der großen Bärin" directed by Josef Mach). He became honorary chief of the tribe of Sioux when he visited the United States of America in the 90s and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe one his movies. American actor and singer Dean Reed, an expatriate who lived in East Germany, also starred in several films. These films were part of the phenomenon of Europe producing alternative films about the colonization of America. See also Spaghetti Western and the West German Winnetou films (adaptations of novels of Karl May).
Because of censorship a certain number of very remarkable movies were forbidden at this time and reissued after the Wende in 1990. Examples are "Spur der Steine" (directed by Frank Beyer) and "Der geteilte Himmel" (directed by Konrad Wolf).
In cinemas of the GDR, not only own productions were shown. Besides the Czech, Polish a.s.o. productions also certain foreign movies were shown, but the numbers were limited because it did cost foreign exchange to buy the licences. 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.
[edit] Sports
For a small country, people of East Germany achieved some remarkable results in many sports including cycling, weightlifting, track and field, boxing, skating and other winter sports. One reason for the success was started with late 1960s leadership of Dr. Manfred Hoeppner, when his policy of steroid administration to many athletes was established. This program allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records. This success continued even after the international steroid testing policy was established, thanks to the advanced use of chemicals that made steroids detection avoidance possible.[6]
An even much more important reason for the success was the furtherance-system for young people in GDR. When some children were aged around 6 until 10 years old (or older) sport-teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in every pupil. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar-schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming). This policy was also used for talented pupils with regard to music or mathematics.
Sports clubs were highly supported, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included each 2 teams (excluding the school and university sport). Football (soccer) was the most popular sport after team handball, although the national team was rarely successful in comparison to the West German national team, which won the World Cup three times before reunification. Club football sides like Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena and 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig did have some success in European competition. Many East German players became integral parts of the reunified national football team, for example Matthias Sammer. Other sports enjoyed great popularity like figure skating, especially because of sportswomen like Katharina Witt.
One of the reasons for the East German ambition to be so successful in world sports, was on the one hand similar to those of the USSR or the United States as a part of this certain kind of competition. On the other hand it was an attempt to be accepted internationally as a state in its own right.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Berlin Wall (1961 - 1989) German Notes, Accessed 2006-10-24
[edit] References
- Thomas A. Baylis, David Childs, and Marilyn Rueschemeyer, eds.; East Germany in Comparative Perspective Routledge. 1989
- 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
- William Glenn Gray; Germany's Cold War: The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949-1969 University of North Carolina Press. 2003
- Jonathan Grix; The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the GDR Macmillan, 2000
- Konrad H. Jarausch and Eve Duffy; Dictatorship as Experience: Towards a Socio-Cultural History of the GDR Berghahn Books, 1999
[edit] Holidays
| Date | English Name | German Name | Remarks |
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| January 1 | New Year's Day | Neujahr | |
| March 8 | Women's Day | Internationaler Frauentag | Was not a day off. |
| Moveable feast | Good Friday | Karfreitag | |
| Moveable feast | Easter Sunday | Ostersonntag | |
| Moveable feast | Easter Monday | Ostermontag | Was not an official Holiday after 1967. |
| May 1 | May Day | Tag der Arbeit | Labour Day |
| Moveable feast | Father's Day / Ascension Day | Vatertag / Christi Himmelfahrt | Thursday after the 5th Sunday after Easter. Was not an official holiday nor a day off, but still widely celebrated. |
| Moveable feast | Whitmonday | Pfingstmontag | 50 days after Easter Sunday |
| October 7 | Republic Day | Tag der Republik | National holiday |
| December 25 | First Day of Christmas | 1. Weihnachtsfeiertag | |
| December 26 | Second Day of Christmas | 2. Weihnachtsfeiertag |
[edit] See also
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Forces |
Media
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Transport
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Other
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[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- "The Politics of Mourning"
- AHF - Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)
- (German) Auferstanden aus Ruinen
- On the Other Side of the Wall - An American living in East Berlin.
- Translations of propaganda materials from the GDR.
- DDR Museum Berlin - Culture of the GDR
- East Berlin, Past and Present
| Preceded by: Allied Occupation Zones in Germany |
Government of Germany 1949-1990 Concurrent with: |
Succeeded by: Germany |
