German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic ←   ← 1949–1990 → Flag Coat of arms Motto "Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!" ("Workers of all nations, unite !") Anthem "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" ("Risen from Ruins") Capital East Berlin Language(s) Official: German Unofficial minority languages: Sorbian Government Socialist republic Communist state Chairman of the Council of State  - 1949–60 Wilhelm Pieck (President)  - 1960–73 Walter Ulbricht  - 1973–76 Willi Stoph  - 1976–89 Erich Honecker  - 1989 Egon Krenz  - 1989–90 Manfred Gerlach Chairman of the Council of Ministers  - 1949–64 Otto Grotewohl  - 1964–73 Willi Stoph  - 1973–76 Horst Sindermann  - 1976–89 Willi Stoph  - 1989–90 Hans Modrow  - 1990 Lothar de Maizière Legislature Volkskammer Historical era Cold War  - Established 7 October 1949  - Final settlement 25 September 1990  - German reunification 3 October 1990 Area  - 1990 108,333 km2 (41,828 sq mi) Population  - 1990 est. 16,111,000       Density 148.7 /km2  (385.2 /sq mi) Currency Mark der DDR (M) until 30 June 1990, named: 1948–64 Deutsche Mark (DM) 1964–67 Mark der Deutschen Notenbank (MDN) Deutsche Mark (DM) as of 1 July 1990 Today part of Germany

The German Democratic Republic, abbreviated as GDR (in German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), mistakenly known in English as East Germany, was a Communist state created by the Soviet Union in the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin. The GDR existed from 1949 until 1990, when its constituent states acceded to the adjacent Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), thus producing the current form of the state of Germany.

History

The name

The name East Germany was created after World War II by the occupiers of this part of Germany, the Soviet Union. The name is a forgery, since this area is historically the middle of Germany and not Eastern Germany (i.e: Pomerania, East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, Danzig, etc.). Patriotic Germans call this area Mitteldeutschland or Middle Germany.

Parts

It consisted of the current states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Saxony; it claimed the eastern part of Berlin as its capital.

Politics

In 1955 the wholly communist German Democratic Republic was declared by the Soviet Union to be "fully sovereign"; however, Soviet troops remained. As NATO troops remained in West Berlin and West Germany, the DDR and Berlin in particular became focal points of Cold War tensions. Middle Germany (DDR) was a member of the Warsaw Pact and a puppet state of the Soviet Union.

The "Freie Deutsche Jugend" (FDJ, Free German Youth) was the youth movement of the GDR. It was founded on 13 December 1948 and dissolved in 1989. Many considered the FDJ as a "communist Hitler Youth".

Military

The army of the GDR was created in 1956 with the name of Nationale Volksarmee. After 1990 it was merged into the Bundeswehr.

Railways

During the lifetime of the DDR its railways continued to use the pre-1945 name of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Fall of the Wall (Mauerfall)

Following the initial opening of small sections of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, new 'elections' were held on March 18, 1990, and the governing party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, lost its majority in the Volkskammer (the parliament of the DDR) soon after. On 18 May 1990, the two German states signed a treaty agreeing on monetary, economic, and social union. It came into force on 1 July 1990, with the West German Deutsche Mark replacing the East German mark as the official currency of East Germany.

Reunification

The Volkskammer, the Parliament of East Germany, passed a resolution on 23 August 1990 declaring the accession (Beitritt) of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and the extension of the field of application of the Federal Republic's Basic Law to the territory of East Germany as allowed by article 23 of the West German Basic Law, effective 3 October 1990. This Declaration of Accession (Beitrittserklärung) was formally presented by the President of the Volkskammer to the President of the West German Bundestag by means of a letter dated 25 August 1990. Thus, formally, the procedure of reunification by means of the accession of East Germany to West Germany, and of East Germany's acceptance of the Basic Law already in force in West Germany, was initiated as the unilateral, sovereign decision of East Germany, as allowed by the provisions of article 23 of the West German Basic Law as it then existed. As a result of the part-unification on that date, the German Democratic Republic officially ceased to exist.

Population

	Average population (thousand)	Live births	Deaths	Natural change	Crude birth rate (per 1,000)	Crude death rate (per 1,000)	Natural change (per 1,000)	Total fertility rate
1946		188,679	413,240	−224,561	10.2	22.4	−12.1
1947		247,275	358,035	−110,760	13.1	19.0	−5.9	1.75
1948		243,311	289,747	−46,436	12.7	15.2	−2.4	1.76
1949		274,022	253,658	20,364	14.5	13.4	1.1	2.03
1950	18,388	303,866	219,582	84,284	16.5	11.9	4.6	2.35
1951	18,350	310,772	208,800	101,972	16.9	11.4	5.6	2.46
1952	18,300	306,004	221,676	84,328	16.6	12.1	4.6	2.42
1953	18,112	298,933	212,627	86,306	16.4	11.7	4.7	2.40
1954	18,002	293,715	219,832	73,883	16.3	12.2	4.1	2.38
1955	17,832	293,280	214,066	79,215	16.3	11.9	4.4	2.38
1956	17,604	281,282	212,698	68,584	15.8	12.0	3.9	2.30
1957	17,411	273,327	225,179	48,148	15.6	12.9	2.7	2.24
1958	17,312	271,405	221,113	50,292	15.6	12.7	2.9	2.22
1959	17,286	291,980	229,898	62,082	16.9	13.3	3.6	2.37
1960	17,188	292,985	233,759	59,226	16.9	13.5	3.4	2.35
1961	17,079	300,818	222,739	78,079	17.6	13.0	4.6	2.42
1962	17,136	297,982	233,995	63,987	17.4	13.7	3.7	2.42
1963	17,181	301,472	222,001	79,471	17.6	12.9	4.6	2.47
1964	17,004	291,867	226,191	65,676	17.1	13.3	3.9	2.48
1965	17,040	281,058	230,254	50,804	16.5	13.5	3.0	2.48
1966	17,071	267,958	225,663	42,295	15.7	13.2	2.5	2.43
1967	17,090	252,817	227,068	25,749	14.8	13.3	1.5	2.34
1968	17,087	245,143	242,473	2,670	14.3	14.2	0.1	2.30
1969	17,075	238,910	243,732	−4,822	14.0	14.3	−0.3	2.24
1970	17,068	236,929	240,821	−3,892	13.9	14.1	−0.2	2.19
1971	17,054	234,870	234,953	−83	13.8	13.8	−0.0	2.13
1972	17,011	200,443	234,425	−33,982	11.7	13.7	−2.0	1.79
1973	16,951	180,336	231,960	−51,624	10.6	13.7	−3.0	1.58
1974	16,891	179,127	229,062	−49,935	10.6	13.5	−3.0	1.54
1975	16,820	181,798	240,389	−58,591	10.8	14.3	−3.5	1.54
1976	16,767	195,483	233,733	−38,250	11.6	13.9	−2.3	1.64
1977	16,758	223,152	226,233	−3,081	13.3	13.5	−0.2	1.85
1978	16,751	232,151	232,332	−181	13.9	13.9	−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	−1,267	13.4	13.5	−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	−6,789	12.0	12.4	−0.4	1.56
1990	16,028	178,476	208,110	−29,634	11.1	12.9	−1.8	1.51
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