Definition of German Democratic Republic

After the end of World War II, Germany lost territories to its neighbors (such as almost all of Prussia at the hands of Poles and a part of the Soviets), and what remained was divided, under status occupation, among the four victorious great powers: the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR.

However, this divided Germany would suffer the vicissitudes of history, and what this held was the confrontation between a western and capitalist bloc, led by the United States, and an eastern and communist bloc, led by the USSR. Germany, already divided, would see this division continued as a result of the Cold War.

The German Democratic Republic, a country that encompassed the former German territories that had come under Soviet administration, was founded in 1949 in response to the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany a few months before.

The latter encompassed all the territories occupied by the Western Allied powers, France, Great Britain and the United States.

What anecdote, we will explain that the place of proclamation of the GDR was the former headquarters of the Luftwaffe, the military air forces German buildings during the Second World War, which had not been seriously damaged during the war (the building, In fact, it continues today in service to the German federal government), and that it would be converted into the seat of the parliament of the new condition.

The reunification of Germany into a single state was on the tables and in the collective consciousness of the German people, but according to the mainstream among historians, the fear of Soviets, French and British mainly, although in general of all the neighbors of the old country to have the same thing happen again as in 1914 and 1939, it dissuaded all parties involved.

The guilt of the German people, with more or less nuances, also constituted a compelling reason for Germany to be divided into two states.

The GDR, led by a party socialist-unified communist, he remained in the area of ​​influence of the Soviet Union, being one of the founders of the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

A characteristic of East German society was its militarization.

As in the other countries of the communist orbit, the GDR government led by Walter Ulbricht first and foremost Erich Honecker later (they were not the only leaders in the country, but they were the longest-lived and most important), sought to imbue to population of a certain character, with guidelines on the way of life that ran from top to bottom.

Militarization did not just show itself in the form of Soviet occupation forces first and foremost. allegedly "allies" later (although with a clear control mission), but of an army whose number of effective and resources it far exceeded those required for a country the size of the GDR (108,333 square kilometers and over 16-17 million inhabitants depending on the moment).

From the schools, interest in the military branch was already fostered, controlling the performance of the students and inviting those who were better in various disciplines to join the popular army in the future, entering the different academies military.

Another example of the explicit militarism in which the children lived were the kinderpanzer, replicas of scale tanks that allowed to carry a driver and a passenger, and with which battles were simulated, all of them camps for children.

Citizens were strictly controlled by the Stasi, the political police.

Like its counterpart from the Nazi period (of which, by the way and although it may seem paradoxical, it recruited many agents), this organization of safety, espionage and counterintelligence, he wove a vast network of collaborators who denounced their neighbors without much hesitation.

The Stasi not only controlled the citizenship and the interior of the country, but also carried out espionage tasks abroad, achieving some excellent results if we take into account the size of the country, of the same agency, and its possibilities.

Thus, the most notorious case happened in 1974, when it was discovered that Günter Guillaume, secretary of the Chancellor of the FRG, Willy Brandt, was in fact a spy for East Germany.

In 1953 the GDR passed its worst crisis, with social protests known as the Uprising of '53.

Although these riots were not as important historically as the Soviet interventions of Czechoslovakia and Hungary, forced the intervention of Soviet forces based in the country, and provoked several dead.

Postwar divided Berlin would be a constant source of clashes between the Warsaw Pact and NATO.

Crossed by a wall built by the East German government that divided it, Berlin was an enclave divided between the four powers and located within East Germany.

The surveillance was harsh and expeditious, and attempts to escape the GDR by this route frequent, so that there were many deaths throughout the history of the Berlin Wall.

Among the emblems of the GDR we find the Travan car, and the ampelmännchen road sign.

East Germany would also seek to be an industrial power among its immediate neighbors, the rest of the European countries of the communist orbit.

The GDR disappeared engulfed by Perestroika. A mistake in words Günter Schabowski, a government official, on the night of November 9, 1989, they opened the Berlin Wall, which was the beginning of the end for the GDR.

Asked by a journalist, Schabowski stated that foreign travel was allowed without restrictions or the need for visas or other permits. The citizens of the GDR, especially in East Berlin, then flocked to the borders, just as, in a sense conversely, many West Germans to visit relatives, relatives or see other places in Germany that until then had banned.

In a matter of a year, and due to social pressures in line with the winds of change that blew from Moscow and swept across the Eastern European bloc, administration of the RDA collapsed.

The interest of the FRG and of the German citizens in general in reunification made it possible for Germany to revert to being a single federal country in 1990. The Democratic Republic German happened to exist only in history books.

Years after reunification, many former GDR citizens feel nostalgic for that country, known in Germany as Ostalgie.

This feeling is based on mentally eliminating everything bad about the RDA (although it is admitted and excused) to bring out everything that, in the opinion of those who affirm it, was good about the country and its model of society.

Photo: Fotolia - jro

Issues in German Democratic Republic