Alemania del Este ( ‹Ver Tfd› Alemán : Ostdeutschland , pronunciado [ˈɔstˌdɔʏtʃlant]) ), oficialmente conocida comoRepública Democrática Alemana(RDA;Deutsche Demokratische Republik,pronunciado[ˈdɔʏtʃədemoˈkʁaːtɪʃəʁepuˈbliːk] en alemán: RDA ,RDA) fue un país deEuropa Centraldesdesu formaciónel 7 de octubre de 1949 hastasu reunificaciónconAlemania Occidentalel 3 de octubre de 1990. Hasta 1989, fue visto generalmente como unestado comunistay se describía a sí mismo como un"estado obrero y campesino"socialista[5]Laeconomía del paísestabaplanificada centralmenteyera de propiedad estatal.[6]Aunque la RDA tuvo que pagar importantes reparaciones de guerra a los soviéticos, su economía se convirtió en la más exitosa delBloque del Este.[7]
Antes de su creación, el territorio del país estaba administrado y ocupado por fuerzas soviéticas tras la Declaración de Berlín que abolió la soberanía alemana en la Segunda Guerra Mundial . El Acuerdo de Potsdam estableció la zona ocupada por los soviéticos , limitada al este por la línea Oder-Neiße . La RDA estaba dominada por el Partido Socialista Unificado de Alemania (SED), un partido comunista , antes de ser democratizada y liberalizada en 1989 como resultado de la presión contra los gobiernos comunistas provocada por las Revoluciones de 1989. Esto allanó el camino para la reunificación de Alemania del Este con Occidente. A diferencia del gobierno de Alemania Occidental, el SED no veía a su estado como el sucesor del Reich alemán (1871-1945) y abolió el objetivo de unificación en la constitución ( 1974 ). La RDA gobernada por el SED fue descrita a menudo como un estado satélite soviético ; los historiadores la describieron como un régimen autoritario . [8] [9]
Geográficamente, la RDA limitaba con el mar Báltico al norte, Polonia al este, Checoslovaquia al sureste y Alemania Occidental al suroeste y oeste. Internamente, la RDA también limitaba con el sector soviético de Berlín ocupado por los Aliados , conocido como Berlín Oriental , que también era administrado como la capital de facto del país . También limitaba con los tres sectores ocupados por Estados Unidos , Reino Unido y Francia, conocidos colectivamente como Berlín Occidental ( parte de facto de la RFA). La emigración a Occidente fue un problema importante ya que muchos emigrantes eran jóvenes bien educados; tal emigración debilitó económicamente al estado. En respuesta, el gobierno de la RDA fortificó su frontera interior alemana y luego construyó el Muro de Berlín en 1961. [10] Muchas personas que intentaron huir [11] [12] [13] fueron asesinadas por guardias fronterizos o trampas explosivas como minas terrestres . [14]
En 1989, numerosas fuerzas sociales, económicas y políticas en la RDA y en el extranjero, una de las más notables siendo las protestas pacíficas que comenzaron en la ciudad de Leipzig , llevaron a la caída del Muro de Berlín y al establecimiento de un gobierno comprometido con la liberalización. El año siguiente, se celebraron elecciones libres y justas en el país, [15] y comenzaron las negociaciones internacionales entre los cuatro antiguos países aliados y los dos estados alemanes. Las negociaciones llevaron a la firma del tratado de Solución Final , que reemplazó al Acuerdo de Potsdam sobre el estatus y las fronteras de una futura Alemania reunificada. La RDA dejó de existir cuando sus cinco estados ("Länder") se unieron a la República Federal de Alemania bajo el Artículo 23 de la Ley Fundamental , y su capital Berlín Oriental se unió a Berlín Occidental el 3 de octubre de 1990. Varios de los líderes de la RDA, en particular su último líder comunista Egon Krenz , fueron posteriormente procesados por delitos cometidos durante la era de la RDA. [16] [17]
El nombre oficial era Deutsche Demokratische Republik (República Democrática Alemana), abreviado habitualmente como DDR (RDA). Ambos términos se utilizaban en Alemania del Este, con un uso cada vez mayor de la forma abreviada, especialmente desde que Alemania del Este consideraba a los alemanes occidentales y a los berlineses occidentales como extranjeros tras la promulgación de su segunda constitución en 1968. Los alemanes occidentales, los medios de comunicación occidentales y los estadistas inicialmente evitaron el nombre oficial y su abreviatura, y en su lugar utilizaron términos como Ostzone (Zona Oriental), [18] Sowjetische Besatzungszone (Zona de Ocupación Soviética; a menudo abreviada como SBZ ) y sogenannte DDR [19] o "la llamada RDA". [20]
El centro del poder político en Berlín Oriental se llamaba, en Occidente, Pankow (la sede del mando de las fuerzas soviéticas en Alemania estaba en Karlshorst , un distrito en Berlín Oriental). [18] Sin embargo, con el tiempo, la abreviatura "DDR" también fue utilizada cada vez más de forma coloquial por los alemanes occidentales y los medios de comunicación de Alemania Occidental. [i]
Cuando los alemanes occidentales lo utilizaban, Westdeutschland ( Alemania Occidental ) era un término que casi siempre hacía referencia a la región geográfica de Alemania Occidental y no al área dentro de los límites de la República Federal de Alemania. Sin embargo, este uso no siempre era consistente y los berlineses occidentales usaban con frecuencia el término Westdeutschland para referirse a la República Federal. [21] Antes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Ostdeutschland (Alemania Oriental) se usaba para describir todos los territorios al este del Elba ( Elbia Oriental ), como se refleja en las obras del sociólogo Max Weber y el teórico político Carl Schmitt . [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
Al explicar el impacto interno del gobierno de la RDA desde la perspectiva de la historia alemana a largo plazo, el historiador Gerhard A. Ritter (2002) ha sostenido que el Estado de Alemania del Este se definía por dos fuerzas dominantes: el comunismo soviético por un lado, y las tradiciones alemanas filtradas a través de las experiencias de entreguerras de los comunistas alemanes por el otro. [27] A lo largo de su existencia, la RDA luchó constantemente con la influencia del Occidente más próspero, contra el cual los alemanes del Este continuamente medían su propia nación. Las notables transformaciones instituidas por el régimen comunista fueron particularmente evidentes en la abolición del capitalismo, la reforma de los sectores industrial y agrícola, la militarización de la sociedad y la orientación política tanto del sistema educativo como de los medios de comunicación.
Por otra parte, el nuevo régimen realizó relativamente pocos cambios en los dominios históricamente independientes de las ciencias, las profesiones de ingeniería, [28] : 185–189 las iglesias protestantes, [28] : 190 y en muchos estilos de vida burgueses. [28] : 190 La política social, dice Ritter, se convirtió en una herramienta de legitimación crítica en las últimas décadas y mezcló elementos socialistas y tradicionales casi por igual. [28]
En la Conferencia de Yalta durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, los aliados , es decir, Estados Unidos (EE. UU.), el Reino Unido (RU) y la Unión Soviética (URSS), acordaron dividir la derrotada Alemania nazi en zonas de ocupación [ 29] y dividir Berlín, la capital alemana, entre las potencias aliadas también. Inicialmente, esto significó la formación de tres zonas de ocupación, es decir, estadounidense, británica y soviética. Más tarde, se creó una zona francesa a partir de las zonas estadounidense y británica [30] .
El partido comunista gobernante, conocido como el Partido Socialista Unificado de Alemania (SED), se formó el 21 de abril de 1946 a partir de la fusión entre el Partido Comunista de Alemania (KPD) y el Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania (SPD). [31] Los dos primeros partidos eran notorios rivales cuando estaban activos antes de que los nazis consolidaran todo el poder y los criminalizaran, y las historias oficiales de Alemania del Este y la Unión Soviética retrataron esta fusión como una unión voluntaria de esfuerzos por parte de los partidos socialistas y un símbolo de la nueva amistad de los socialistas alemanes después de derrotar a su enemigo común; sin embargo, hay mucha evidencia de que la fusión fue más problemática de lo que comúnmente se retrata, y que las autoridades de ocupación soviéticas aplicaron una gran presión sobre la rama oriental del SPD para fusionarse con el KPD, y los comunistas, que tenían una mayoría, tenían un control prácticamente total sobre la política. [32] El SED siguió siendo el partido gobernante durante toda la duración del estado de Alemania del Este. Mantuvo estrechos vínculos con los soviéticos, que mantuvieron fuerzas militares en Alemania Oriental hasta la disolución del régimen soviético en 1991 ( Rusia continuó manteniendo fuerzas en el territorio de la antigua Alemania Oriental hasta 1994), con el propósito de contrarrestar las bases de la OTAN en Alemania Occidental.
Mientras Alemania Occidental se reorganizaba y obtenía su independencia de sus ocupantes (1945-1949), la RDA se estableció en Alemania Oriental en octubre de 1949. El surgimiento de los dos estados soberanos solidificó la división de Alemania de 1945. [33] El 10 de marzo de 1952, (en lo que se conocería como la " Nota de Stalin "), el Secretario General del Partido Comunista de la Unión Soviética , Joseph Stalin , emitió una propuesta para reunificar Alemania con una política de neutralidad, sin condiciones en las políticas económicas y con garantías para "los derechos del hombre y las libertades básicas, incluidas la libertad de expresión, prensa, persuasión religiosa, convicción política y reunión" y la libre actividad de los partidos y organizaciones democráticas. [34] Occidente objetó; la reunificación no era entonces una prioridad para el liderazgo de Alemania Occidental, y las potencias de la OTAN rechazaron la propuesta, afirmando que Alemania debería poder unirse a la OTAN y que tal negociación con la Unión Soviética sería vista como una capitulación.
En 1949, los soviéticos cedieron el control de Alemania Oriental al SED , encabezado por Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960), quien se convirtió en presidente de la RDA y ocupó el cargo hasta su muerte, mientras que el secretario general del SED, Walter Ulbricht, asumió la mayor parte de la autoridad ejecutiva. El líder socialista Otto Grotewohl (1894-1964) se convirtió en primer ministro hasta su muerte. [35]
El gobierno de Alemania del Este denunció los fracasos de Alemania Occidental en la consecución de la desnazificación y renunció a los vínculos con el pasado nazi , encarcelando a muchos ex nazis e impidiéndoles ocupar puestos gubernamentales. El SED se fijó como objetivo principal librar a Alemania del Este de todo rastro del nazismo . [36] Se estima que [ ¿cuándo? ] entre 180.000 y 250.000 personas fueron condenadas a prisión por motivos políticos. [37]
En las conferencias de Yalta y Potsdam de 1945, los aliados establecieron su ocupación militar y administración conjunta de Alemania a través del Consejo de Control Aliado (ACC), un gobierno militar de cuatro potencias (EE. UU., Reino Unido, URSS, Francia) vigente hasta la restauración de la soberanía alemana. En Alemania oriental, la Zona de Ocupación Soviética (SBZ – Sowjetische Besatzungszone ) comprendía los cinco estados ( Länder ) de Mecklemburgo-Pomerania Occidental , Brandeburgo , Sajonia , Sajonia-Anhalt y Turingia . [38] Los desacuerdos sobre las políticas a seguir en las zonas ocupadas llevaron rápidamente a una ruptura de la cooperación entre las cuatro potencias, y los soviéticos administraron su zona sin tener en cuenta las políticas implementadas en las otras zonas. Los soviéticos se retiraron del ACC en 1948; posteriormente, a medida que las otras tres zonas se unificaron cada vez más y se les concedió el autogobierno, la administración soviética instituyó un gobierno socialista separado en su zona. [39] [40]
Siete años después del Acuerdo de Potsdam de 1945 entre los Aliados sobre políticas alemanas comunes, la URSS, a través de la Nota de Stalin (10 de marzo de 1952), propuso la reunificación alemana y la retirada de las superpotencias de Europa central, que los tres aliados occidentales (Estados Unidos, Francia y el Reino Unido) rechazaron. El líder soviético Joseph Stalin , un partidario comunista de la reunificación, murió a principios de marzo de 1953. De manera similar, Lavrenti Beria , el primer viceprimer ministro de la URSS, promovió la reunificación alemana, pero fue destituido del poder ese mismo año antes de que pudiera actuar al respecto. Su sucesor, Nikita Khrushchev , rechazó la reunificación por considerarla equivalente a devolver Alemania Oriental para su anexión a Occidente; por lo tanto, la reunificación estuvo fuera de discusión hasta la caída del muro de Berlín en 1989.
Alemania del Este consideraba a Berlín Oriental como su capital, y la Unión Soviética y el resto del Bloque del Este reconocieron diplomáticamente a Berlín Oriental como capital. Sin embargo, los aliados occidentales cuestionaron este reconocimiento, considerando que toda la ciudad de Berlín era territorio ocupado gobernado por el Consejo de Control Aliado . Según Margarete Feinstein, el estatus de Berlín Oriental como capital fue en gran medida desconocido por Occidente y por la mayoría de los países del Tercer Mundo. [41] En la práctica, la autoridad del ACC se volvió irrelevante por la Guerra Fría , el estatus de Berlín Oriental como territorio ocupado se convirtió en gran medida en una ficción legal y el sector soviético de Berlín se integró completamente en la RDA. [42]
El conflicto cada vez más profundo de la Guerra Fría entre las potencias occidentales y la Unión Soviética sobre el estatus no resuelto de Berlín Occidental condujo al Bloqueo de Berlín (24 de junio de 1948 – 12 de mayo de 1949). El ejército soviético inició el bloqueo deteniendo todo el tráfico ferroviario, terrestre y marítimo de los Aliados hacia y desde Berlín Occidental. Los Aliados respondieron a los soviéticos con el Puente Aéreo de Berlín (1948-49) de alimentos, combustible y suministros a Berlín Occidental. [43]
El 21 de abril de 1946, el Partido Comunista de Alemania ( Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) y la parte del Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania ( Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – SPD) en la zona soviética se fusionaron para formar el Partido de Unidad Socialista de Alemania (SED – Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ), que luego ganó las elecciones de octubre de 1946 . El gobierno del SED nacionalizó infraestructuras y plantas industriales.
En marzo de 1948, la Comisión Económica Alemana ( Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission – DWK), bajo el presidente Heinrich Rau , asumió la autoridad administrativa en la zona de ocupación soviética, convirtiéndose así en el predecesor de un gobierno de Alemania del Este. [44] [45]
El 7 de octubre de 1949, el SED fundó la República Democrática Alemana (RDA), basada en una constitución política socialista que establecía su control del Frente Nacional Antifascista de la República Democrática Alemana (NF, Nationale Front der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik ), una alianza ómnibus de todos los partidos y organizaciones de masas de Alemania del Este. El NF fue creado para presentarse a las elecciones a la Volkskammer ( Cámara del Pueblo ), el parlamento de Alemania del Este. El primer y único presidente de la República Democrática Alemana fue Wilhelm Pieck . Sin embargo, después de 1950, el poder político en Alemania del Este estuvo en manos del Primer Secretario del SED, Walter Ulbricht . [5]
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El 16 de junio de 1953, los trabajadores que construían el nuevo bulevar Stalinallee en Berlín Oriental de acuerdo con los Dieciséis Principios de Diseño Urbano promulgados oficialmente por la RDA , se amotinaron contra un aumento del 10% en la cuota de producción. Inicialmente una protesta laboral, la acción pronto incluyó a la población en general, y el 17 de junio se produjeron protestas similares en toda la RDA, con más de un millón de personas en huelga en unas 700 ciudades y pueblos. Temiendo una contrarrevolución anticomunista , el 18 de junio de 1953 el gobierno de la RDA reclutó a las Fuerzas de Ocupación Soviéticas para ayudar a la policía a poner fin al motín; unas cincuenta personas murieron y 10.000 fueron encarceladas (véase Levantamiento de 1953 en Alemania del Este ). [ aclaración necesaria ] [46] [47]
Las reparaciones de guerra alemanas debidas a los soviéticos empobrecieron la zona de ocupación soviética y debilitaron gravemente la economía de Alemania del Este. En el período 1945-46, los soviéticos confiscaron y transportaron a la URSS aproximadamente el 33% de la planta industrial y a principios de la década de 1950 habían extraído unos 10 mil millones de dólares en reparaciones en productos agrícolas e industriales. [48] La pobreza de Alemania del Este, inducida o profundizada por las reparaciones, provocó la Republikflucht ("deserción de la república") a Alemania Occidental, debilitando aún más la economía de la RDA. Las oportunidades económicas occidentales indujeron una fuga de cerebros . En respuesta, la RDA cerró la frontera interior alemana y, en la noche del 12 de agosto de 1961, los soldados de Alemania del Este comenzaron a erigir el Muro de Berlín . [49]
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En 1971, Ulbricht fue destituido de su puesto de líder después de que el líder soviético Leonid Brezhnev apoyara su derrocamiento; [50] Erich Honecker lo reemplazó. Si bien el gobierno de Ulbricht había experimentado con reformas liberales, el gobierno de Honecker las revirtió. El nuevo gobierno introdujo una nueva Constitución de Alemania del Este que definía a la República Democrática Alemana como una "república de trabajadores y campesinos". [51]
Inicialmente, Alemania Oriental reclamó un mandato exclusivo para toda Alemania, una afirmación apoyada por la mayor parte del bloque comunista. Afirmó que Alemania Occidental era un estado títere de la OTAN constituido ilegalmente. Sin embargo, a partir de la década de 1960, Alemania Oriental comenzó a reconocerse como un país separado de Alemania Occidental y compartió el legado del estado alemán unido de 1871-1945 . Esto se formalizó en 1974 cuando se eliminó la cláusula de reunificación de la constitución revisada de Alemania Oriental. Alemania Occidental, en cambio, sostuvo que era el único gobierno legítimo de Alemania. Desde 1949 hasta principios de la década de 1970, Alemania Occidental sostuvo que Alemania Oriental era un estado constituido ilegalmente. Argumentó que la RDA era un estado títere soviético y con frecuencia se refirió a ella como la "zona de ocupación soviética". Los aliados de Alemania Occidental compartieron esta posición hasta 1973. Alemania Oriental fue reconocida principalmente por los países socialistas y por el bloque árabe , junto con algunos "simpatizantes dispersos". [52] Según la Doctrina Hallstein (1955), Alemania Occidental no estableció vínculos diplomáticos (formales) con ningún país –excepto los soviéticos– que reconociera la soberanía de Alemania Oriental.
A principios de los años 70, la Ostpolitik ("Política Oriental") de "Cambio a través del Acercamiento" del gobierno pragmático del Canciller de la RFA Willy Brandt estableció relaciones diplomáticas normales con los estados del Bloque del Este . Esta política llevó al Tratado de Moscú (agosto de 1970), el Tratado de Varsovia (diciembre de 1970), el Acuerdo de las Cuatro Potencias sobre Berlín (septiembre de 1971), el Acuerdo de Tránsito (mayo de 1972) y el Tratado Básico (diciembre de 1972), que renunciaba a cualquier reivindicación separada de un mandato exclusivo sobre Alemania en su conjunto y establecía relaciones normales entre las dos Alemanias. Ambos países fueron admitidos en las Naciones Unidas el 18 de septiembre de 1973. Esto también aumentó el número de países que reconocían a Alemania Oriental a 55, incluidos los EE. UU., el Reino Unido y Francia, aunque estos tres seguían negándose a reconocer a Berlín Oriental como capital e insistían en una disposición específica en la resolución de la ONU que aceptaba a las dos Alemanias en la ONU a tal efecto. [52] Después de la Ostpolitik, la visión de Alemania Occidental era que Alemania Oriental era un gobierno de facto dentro de una única nación alemana y una organización estatal de iure de partes de Alemania fuera de la República Federal. La República Federal siguió sosteniendo que no podía dentro de sus propias estructuras reconocer a la RDA de iure como un estado soberano bajo el derecho internacional; pero reconoció plenamente que, dentro de las estructuras del derecho internacional, la RDA era un estado soberano independiente. Por distinción, Alemania Occidental entonces se veía a sí misma dentro de sus propias fronteras, no sólo como el gobierno de facto y de iure , sino también como el único representante legítimo de iure de una "Alemania en su conjunto" latente. [53] Las dos Alemanias renunciaron a cualquier pretensión de representar a la otra internacionalmente; reconocieron que esto implicaba necesariamente un reconocimiento mutuo de cada una como capaces de representar a sus propias poblaciones de iure al participar en organismos y acuerdos internacionales, como las Naciones Unidas y el Acta Final de Helsinki .
Esta apreciación del Tratado Básico fue confirmada en una sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional Federal en 1973; [54]
La República Democrática Alemana es, en el sentido del derecho internacional, un Estado y, como tal, un sujeto de derecho internacional. Esta constatación es independiente del reconocimiento de la República Democrática Alemana en el derecho internacional por la República Federal de Alemania. Tal reconocimiento no sólo nunca ha sido pronunciado formalmente por la República Federal de Alemania, sino que, por el contrario, ha sido rechazado explícitamente en repetidas ocasiones. Si la conducta de la República Federal de Alemania hacia la República Democrática Alemana se evalúa a la luz de su política de distensión, en particular, la conclusión del Tratado como un reconocimiento de facto, entonces sólo puede entenderse como un reconocimiento de facto de un tipo especial. La característica especial de este Tratado es que, si bien es un tratado bilateral entre dos Estados, al que se aplican las normas del derecho internacional y que, como cualquier otro tratado internacional, tiene validez, se trata de un tratado entre dos Estados que forman parte de un Estado global de toda Alemania, aún existente, aunque incapaz de actuar por no estar reorganizado, con un único cuerpo político. [55]
Los viajes entre la RDA y Polonia, Checoslovaquia y Hungría quedaron exentos de visado a partir de 1972. [56]
Desde el principio, la recién formada RDA intentó establecer su propia identidad separada. [57] Debido al legado imperial y militar de Prusia , el SED repudió la continuidad entre Prusia y la RDA. El SED destruyó una serie de reliquias simbólicas de la antigua aristocracia prusiana ; las mansiones de los Junker fueron derribadas, el Berliner Stadtschloß fue arrasado y el Palacio de la República fue construido en su lugar, y la estatua ecuestre de Federico el Grande fue retirada de Berlín Oriental. En cambio, el SED se centró en la herencia progresista de la historia alemana, incluido el papel de Thomas Müntzer en la Guerra de los Campesinos Alemanes de 1524-1525 y el papel desempeñado por los héroes de la lucha de clases durante la industrialización de Prusia. Otras figuras y reformadores notables de la historia prusiana, como Karl Freiherr vom Stein (1757–1831), Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822), Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) y Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755–1813), fueron sostenidos por el SED como ejemplos y modelos a seguir.
El régimen comunista de la RDA basó su legitimidad en la lucha de militantes antifascistas. Una forma de "culto" de resistencia se estableció en el lugar conmemorativo del campo de Buchenwald, con la creación de un museo en 1958 y la celebración anual del juramento de Buchenwald realizado el 19 de abril de 1945 por los prisioneros que se comprometieron a luchar por la paz y la libertad. En la década de 1990, el "antifascismo de Estado" de la RDA dio paso al "anticomunismo de Estado" de la RFA. A partir de entonces, la interpretación dominante de la historia de la RDA, basada en el concepto de totalitarismo, condujo a la equivalencia de comunismo y nazismo. [58] La historiadora Anne-Kathleen Tillack-Graf muestra, con la ayuda del periódico Neues Deutschland , cómo los monumentos nacionales de Buchenwald , Sachsenhausen y Ravensbrück fueron instrumentalizados políticamente.
en la RDA, especialmente durante las celebraciones de la liberación de los campos de concentración. [59]
Aunque oficialmente se creó en Alemania Occidental en oposición al «mundo fascista», en 1954 el 32% de los empleados de la administración pública eran antiguos miembros del Partido Nazi . Sin embargo, en 1961, la proporción de antiguos miembros del NSDAP entre el personal superior de la administración del Ministerio del Interior era inferior al 10% en la RDA, en comparación con el 67% en la RFA. [60] Mientras que en Alemania Occidental se llevó a cabo un trabajo de memoria sobre el resurgimiento del nazismo, no fue así en el Este. En efecto, como señala Axel Dossmann, profesor de historia en la Universidad de Jena , "este fenómeno estaba completamente oculto. Para el SED (el partido comunista de Alemania del Este) era imposible admitir la existencia de neonazis, ya que la fundación de la RDA debía ser un estado antifascista. La Stasi los vigilaba, pero se los consideraba forasteros o matones de piel dura. Estos jóvenes crecieron escuchando un doble lenguaje. En la escuela estaba prohibido hablar del Tercer Reich y, en casa, sus abuelos les contaban cómo, gracias a Hitler , teníamos las primeras autopistas". El 17 de octubre de 1987, una treintena de skinheads se lanzaron violentamente contra una multitud de 2.000 personas en un concierto de rock en la Zionskirche sin que interviniera la policía. [61] En 1990, la escritora Freya Klier recibió una amenaza de muerte por escribir un ensayo sobre el antisemitismo y la xenofobia en la RDA. Por su parte, el vicepresidente del SPDA, Wolfgang Thierse , se quejó en Die Welt del ascenso de la extrema derecha en la vida cotidiana de los habitantes de la antigua RDA, en particular del grupo terrorista NSU, y la periodista alemana Odile Benyahia-Kouider explicó que "no es casualidad que el partido neonazi NPD haya experimentado un renacimiento a través del Este". [62]
La historiadora Sonia Combe observa que hasta los años 90 la mayoría de los historiadores de Alemania Occidental calificaron el desembarco de Normandía en junio de 1944 de «invasión», exculparon a la Wehrmacht de su responsabilidad por el genocidio de los judíos y fabricaron el mito de un cuerpo diplomático que «no sabía». Por el contrario, Auschwitz nunca fue un tabú en la RDA. Los crímenes de los nazis fueron objeto de numerosas producciones cinematográficas, teatrales y literarias. En 1991, el 16% de la población de Alemania Occidental y el 6% de la de Alemania Oriental tenían prejuicios antisemitas. En 1994, el 40% de los alemanes occidentales y el 22% de los alemanes orientales consideraban que se había puesto demasiado énfasis en el genocidio de los judíos. [60]
El historiador Ulrich Pfeil recuerda, sin embargo, que la conmemoración antifascista en la RDA tenía «un carácter hagiográfico y de adoctrinamiento». [63] Como en el caso de la memoria de los protagonistas del movimiento obrero alemán y de las víctimas de los campos, fue «escenificada, censurada, ordenada» y, durante los 40 años de régimen, fue un instrumento de legitimación, represión y mantenimiento del poder. [63]
En mayo de 1989, tras la indignación pública generalizada por la falsificación de los resultados de las elecciones locales, muchos ciudadanos de la RDA solicitaron visados de salida o abandonaron el país en contravención de las leyes de la RDA. El impulso para este éxodo de alemanes orientales fue la retirada de la valla electrificada a lo largo de la frontera de Hungría con Austria el 2 de mayo de 1989. Aunque formalmente la frontera húngara seguía cerrada, muchos alemanes orientales aprovecharon la oportunidad para entrar en Hungría a través de Checoslovaquia y luego hacer el cruce ilegal desde Hungría a Austria y a Alemania Occidental más allá. [64] En julio, 25.000 alemanes orientales habían cruzado a Hungría; [65] la mayoría de ellos no intentaron el arriesgado cruce a Austria, sino que permanecieron en Hungría o solicitaron asilo en las embajadas de Alemania Occidental en Praga o Budapest .
La apertura de una puerta fronteriza entre Austria y Hungría en el Picnic Paneuropeo del 19 de agosto de 1989 puso en marcha una reacción en cadena que condujo al fin de la RDA y a la desintegración del Bloque del Este. Fue la mayor huida en masa de Alemania del Este desde la construcción del Muro de Berlín en 1961. La idea de abrir la frontera en una ceremonia provino de Otto von Habsburg , quien se la propuso a Miklós Németh , entonces primer ministro húngaro, quien promovió la idea. [66] Los patrocinadores del picnic, Habsburg y el ministro de Estado húngaro Imre Pozsgay , que no asistieron al evento, vieron el evento planeado como una oportunidad para probar la reacción de Mijail Gorbachov a una apertura de la frontera en la Cortina de Hierro . En particular, probaba si Moscú daría a las tropas soviéticas estacionadas en Hungría la orden de intervenir. La Unión Paneuropea realizó una amplia publicidad para el picnic planeado a través de carteles y volantes entre los turistas de la RDA en Hungría. La rama austriaca de la Unión Paneuropea , que entonces estaba encabezada por Karl von Habsburg , distribuyó miles de folletos invitando a los ciudadanos de la RDA a un picnic cerca de la frontera en Sopron (cerca de la frontera de Hungría con Austria). [67] [68] [69] Los organizadores locales de Sopron no sabían nada de posibles refugiados de la RDA, pero previeron una fiesta local con participación austriaca y húngara. [70] Pero con el éxodo masivo en el Picnic Paneuropeo, el comportamiento vacilante posterior del Partido Socialista Unificado de Alemania del Este y la no intervención de la Unión Soviética rompieron las presas. Así se rompió la barrera del Bloque del Este. Decenas de miles de alemanes orientales, alertados por los medios de comunicación, se dirigieron a Hungría, que ya no estaba dispuesta a mantener sus fronteras completamente cerradas ni a obligar a sus tropas fronterizas a abrir fuego contra los fugitivos. El liderazgo de la RDA en Berlín Oriental no se atrevió a cerrar por completo las fronteras de su propio país. [67] [69] [71] [72]
El siguiente punto de inflexión importante en el éxodo se produjo el 10 de septiembre de 1989, cuando el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores húngaro, Gyula Horn, anunció que su país ya no restringiría el movimiento de personas de Hungría a Austria. En dos días, 22.000 alemanes orientales cruzaron a Austria; decenas de miles más lo hicieron en las semanas siguientes. [64]
Muchos otros ciudadanos de la RDA se manifestaron contra el partido gobernante , especialmente en la ciudad de Leipzig . Las manifestaciones de Leipzig se convirtieron en un acontecimiento semanal, con una participación de 10.000 personas en la primera manifestación el 2 de octubre, llegando a un máximo estimado de 300.000 a finales de mes. [73] Las protestas fueron superadas en Berlín Oriental, donde medio millón de manifestantes se manifestaron contra el régimen el 4 de noviembre. [73] Kurt Masur , director de la Orquesta de la Gewandhaus de Leipzig , dirigió las negociaciones locales con el gobierno y celebró reuniones municipales en la sala de conciertos. [74] Las manifestaciones finalmente llevaron a Erich Honecker a dimitir en octubre; fue reemplazado por un comunista ligeramente más moderado, Egon Krenz . [75]
La manifestación masiva del 4 de noviembre en Berlín Oriental coincidió con la apertura formal de la frontera de Checoslovaquia con Alemania Occidental. [76] Como el oeste era más accesible que nunca, 30.000 alemanes orientales cruzaron por Checoslovaquia sólo en los dos primeros días. Para intentar frenar el flujo de población hacia el exterior, el SED propuso una ley que flexibilizaba las restricciones de viaje. Cuando la Volkskammer la rechazó el 5 de noviembre, el gabinete y el politburó de la RDA dimitieron. [76] Esto dejó sólo una vía abierta para Krenz y el SED: abolir por completo las restricciones de viaje entre el este y el oeste.
El 9 de noviembre de 1989, se abrieron algunas secciones del Muro de Berlín, lo que permitió que miles de alemanes del Este cruzaran libremente hacia Berlín Occidental y Alemania Occidental por primera vez en casi 30 años. Krenz dimitió un mes después y el SED inició negociaciones con los líderes del incipiente movimiento democrático, Neues Forum , para programar elecciones libres y comenzar el proceso de democratización. Como parte de este proceso, el SED eliminó la cláusula de la constitución de Alemania del Este que garantizaba a los comunistas el liderazgo del estado. El cambio fue aprobado en la Volkskammer el 1 de diciembre de 1989 por una votación de 420 a 0. [77]
Alemania del Este celebró sus últimas elecciones en marzo de 1990. El ganador fue Alianza para Alemania , una coalición encabezada por la rama de Alemania Oriental de la Unión Demócrata Cristiana de Alemania Occidental , que abogó por una reunificación rápida. Se llevaron a cabo negociaciones ( Conversaciones 2+4 ) que involucraron a los dos estados alemanes y los antiguos aliados , que llevaron a un acuerdo sobre las condiciones para la unificación alemana. Por una votación de dos tercios en la Volkskammer el 23 de agosto de 1990, la República Democrática Alemana declaró su adhesión a la República Federal de Alemania. Los cinco estados originales de Alemania del Este que habían sido abolidos en la redistribución de distritos de 1952 fueron restaurados. [75] El 3 de octubre de 1990, los cinco estados se unieron oficialmente a la República Federal de Alemania, mientras que Berlín Oriental y Occidental se unieron como una tercera ciudad-estado (de la misma manera que Bremen y Hamburgo ). El 1 de julio, una unión monetaria precedió a la unión política: el "Ostmark" fue abolido y el "Deutsche Mark" de Alemania Occidental se convirtió en la moneda común.
Aunque la declaración de adhesión de la Volkskammer a la República Federal había iniciado el proceso de reunificación, el acto de reunificación en sí (con sus muchos términos, condiciones y calificaciones específicas, algunas de las cuales implicaban modificaciones a la Ley Fundamental de Alemania Occidental) se logró constitucionalmente mediante el posterior Tratado de Unificación del 31 de agosto de 1990, es decir, mediante un acuerdo vinculante entre la antigua República Democrática y la República Federal, que ahora se reconocían mutuamente como estados soberanos separados en el derecho internacional. [78] El tratado fue entonces votado para entrar en vigor antes de la fecha acordada para la unificación tanto por la Volkskammer como por el Bundestag con las mayorías de dos tercios requeridas constitucionalmente, lo que efectuó, por un lado, la extinción de la RDA y, por el otro, las modificaciones acordadas a la Ley Fundamental de la República Federal.
Las grandes desigualdades económicas y sociopolíticas entre las antiguas Alemanias exigieron subsidios gubernamentales para la plena integración de la República Democrática Alemana en la República Federal de Alemania. Debido a la desindustrialización resultante en la antigua Alemania Oriental, las causas del fracaso de esta integración siguen siendo objeto de debate. Algunos comentaristas occidentales sostienen que la deprimida economía oriental es una consecuencia natural de una economía dirigida demostradamente ineficiente . Pero muchos críticos de Alemania Oriental sostienen que el estilo de terapia de choque de la privatización , el tipo de cambio artificialmente alto ofrecido para el Ostmark y la velocidad con la que se implementó todo el proceso no dejaron margen para que las empresas de Alemania Oriental se adaptaran. [j]
Hubo cuatro períodos en la historia política de Alemania del Este. [79] Estos incluyeron: 1949-1961, que vio la construcción del socialismo; 1961-1970, después de que el Muro de Berlín cerró el escape, fue un período de estabilidad y consolidación; 1971-1985 se denominó la Era Honecker y vio vínculos más estrechos con Alemania Occidental; y 1985-1990 vio el declive y la extinción de Alemania del Este.
El partido político gobernante en Alemania del Este era el Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ( Partido Socialista Unificado de Alemania , SED). Fue creado en 1946 mediante la fusión dirigida por los soviéticos del Partido Comunista de Alemania (KPD) y el Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania (SPD) en la zona controlada por los soviéticos. Sin embargo, el SED se transformó rápidamente en un partido comunista de pleno derecho a medida que los socialdemócratas de mentalidad más independiente fueron expulsados. [80]
El Acuerdo de Potsdam comprometió a los soviéticos a apoyar una forma democrática de gobierno en Alemania, aunque su concepción de la democracia era radicalmente diferente de la de Occidente. Como en otros países del bloque soviético, se permitieron los partidos políticos no comunistas . No obstante, todos los partidos políticos de la RDA se vieron obligados a unirse al Frente Nacional de la Alemania Democrática , una amplia coalición de partidos y organizaciones políticas de masas, entre las que se encontraban:
Los partidos miembros estaban casi totalmente subordinados al SED y debían aceptar su " papel dirigente " como condición para su existencia. Sin embargo, los partidos tenían representación en la Cámara Popular y consiguieron algunos puestos en el gobierno.
En la Volkskammer también había representantes de organizaciones de masas como la Juventud Libre Alemana ( Freie Deutsche Jugend o FDJ ) o la Federación Sindical Alemana Libre . También existía una Federación Democrática de Mujeres de Alemania , con escaños en la Volkskammer .
Entre las organizaciones de masas no parlamentarias más importantes de la sociedad de Alemania del Este se encontraban la Asociación Alemana de Gimnasia y Deportes ( Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund o DTSB ) y la Solidaridad Popular ( Volkssolidarität ), una organización para personas mayores. Otra sociedad notable era la Sociedad para la Amistad Germano-Soviética .
Tras la caída del socialismo, el SED pasó a llamarse " Partido del Socialismo Democrático " (PDS), que continuó existiendo durante una década después de la reunificación antes de fusionarse con el WASG de Alemania Occidental para formar el Partido de Izquierda ( Die Linke ). El Partido de Izquierda sigue siendo una fuerza política en muchas partes de Alemania, aunque drásticamente menos poderoso que el SED. [81]
La bandera de la República Democrática Alemana estaba formada por tres franjas horizontales con los colores tradicionales de la democracia alemana: negro, rojo y dorado, y en el centro figuraba el escudo nacional de la RDA, compuesto por un martillo y un compás, rodeado por una corona de trigo como símbolo de la alianza de obreros, campesinos e intelectuales. Los primeros borradores del escudo de Fritz Behrendt contenían únicamente un martillo y una corona de trigo, como expresión del estado obrero y campesino. La versión final se basó principalmente en la obra de Heinz Behling.
El escudo de armas del estado con martillo, compás y corona de trigo se estableció mediante una ley del 26 de septiembre de 1955, que establecía que la bandera del estado seguiría siendo negra, roja y dorada. El escudo de armas se insertó en la bandera del estado mediante una ley del 1 de octubre de 1959. Hasta finales de los años 60, la exhibición pública de esta bandera en la República Federal de Alemania y en Berlín Occidental se consideraba una violación de la constitución y del orden público y se impedía mediante medidas policiales (véase la Declaración de los Ministros del Interior de la Federación y de los Länder de octubre de 1959). No fue hasta 1969 cuando el Gobierno Federal decretó que "la policía ya no debería intervenir en ningún lugar contra el uso de la bandera y el escudo de armas de la RDA".
El 31 de mayo de 1990, a petición del DSU, la primera Cámara Popular de la RDA, elegida libremente, decidió que el escudo de armas de la RDA debía retirarse en el plazo de una semana de los edificios públicos. Sin embargo, hasta el fin oficial de la república, siguió utilizándose de diversas formas, por ejemplo en documentos.
El texto "Resucitado de las ruinas" del himno nacional de la RDA es de Johannes R. Becher y la melodía de Hanns Eisler. Sin embargo, desde principios de los años 70 hasta finales de 1989, el texto del himno ya no se cantaba debido al pasaje "Deutschland einig Vaterland".
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El primer estandarte del presidente tenía forma de bandera rectangular de color negro, rojo y dorado, con la inscripción "President" en amarillo en la franja roja y "DDR" (contrariamente a la abreviatura oficial con puntos) en la franja inferior en letras negras. La bandera estaba rodeada por una franja de color amarillo. Un original del estandarte se encuentra en el Museo Histórico Alemán de Berlín.
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Las banderas de las unidades militares de la RDA llevaban el escudo nacional con una corona de dos ramas de olivo sobre un fondo rojo en la bandera de color negro, rojo y dorado.
Las banderas de la Armada Popular para los buques de guerra y los barcos llevaban el escudo de armas con una corona de olivo en rojo, y las de los buques y barcos auxiliares, una tela azul con una franja estrecha y central de color negro, rojo y dorado. Al igual que Gösch, la bandera estatal se utilizó en una forma reducida.
Los barcos y embarcaciones de la Brigada Fronteriza Costera en el Mar Báltico y los barcos de las tropas fronterizas de la RDA en el Elba y el Óder llevaban una barra verde en el frente, al igual que la bandera de servicio de las tropas fronterizas.
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Después de ser miembros de los Pioneros de Thälmann , un grupo de escolares de entre 6 y 14 años, los jóvenes de Alemania del Este generalmente se unían a las FDJ .
Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers, was a youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14 in East Germany.[82] They were named after Ernst Thälmann, the former leader of the Communist Party of Germany, who was executed at the Buchenwald concentration camp.[83]
The group was a subdivision of the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ, Free German Youth), East Germany's youth movement.[84] It was founded on 13 December 1948 and broke apart in 1989 on German reunification.[85] In the 1960s and 1970s, nearly all schoolchildren between ages 6 and 14 were organised into Young Pioneer or Thälmann Pioneer groups, with the organisations having "nearly two million children" collectively by 1975.[85]
The pioneer group was loosely based on Scouting, but organised in such a way as to teach schoolchildren aged 6 – 14 socialist ideology and prepare them for the Freie Deutsche Jugend, the FDJ.[85]
The program was designed to follow the Soviet Pioneer program Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. The pioneers' slogan was Für Frieden und Sozialismus seid bereit – Immer bereit" ("For peace and socialism be ready – always ready"). This was usually shortened to "Be ready – always ready". This was recited at the raising of the flag. One person said the first part, "Be ready!": this was usually the pioneer leader, the teacher or the head of the local pioneer group. The pioneers all answered "Always ready", stiffening their right hand and placing it against their forehead with the thumb closest and their little finger facing skywards.[85]
Both Pioneer groups would often have massive parades, honoring and celebrating the Socialist success of their nations.
Membership in the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers was formally voluntary. On the other hand, it was taken for granted by the state and thus by the school as well as by many parents. In practice, the initiative for the admission of all students in a class came from the school. As the membership quota of up to 98 percent of the students (in the later years of the GDR) shows, the six- or ten-year-olds (or their parents) had to become active on their own in order not to become members. Nevertheless, there were also children who did not become members. Rarely, students were not admitted because of poor academic performance or bad behavior "as a punishment" or excluded from further membership.
The pioneers' uniform consisted of white shirts and blouses bought by their parents, along with blue trousers or skirts until the 1970s and on special occasions. But often the only thing worn was the most important sign of the future socialist – the triangular necktie. At first this was blue, but from 1973, the Thälmann pioneers wore a red necktie like the pioneers in the Soviet Union, while the Young Pioneers kept the blue one. Pioneers wore their uniforms at political events and state holidays such as the workers' demonstrations on May Day, as well as at school festivals and pioneer events.[85]
The pioneer clothing consisted of white blouses and shirts that could be purchased in sporting goods stores. On the left sleeve there was a patch with the embroidered emblem of the pioneer organization and, if necessary, a rank badge with stripes in the color of the scarf. These rank badges were three stripes for Friendship Council Chairmen, two stripes for Group Council Chairmen and Friendship Council members, one stripe for all other Group Council members. In some cases, symbols for special functions were also sewn on at this point, for example a red cross for a boy paramedic. Dark blue trousers or skirts were worn and a dark blue cap served as a headgear with the pioneer emblem as a cockade. At the beginning of the 1970s, a windbreaker/blouson and a dark red leisure blouse were added.
However, the pioneer clothing was only worn completely on special occasions, such as flag appeals, commemoration days or festive school events, but it was usually not prescribed.
From the 1960s, the requirement of trousers/skirt was dispensed with in many places, and the dress code was also relaxed with regard to the cap. For pioneer afternoons or other activities, often only the triangular scarf was worn. In contrast to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, a blue scarf was common in the GDR. It was not until 1973, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the organization, that the red scarf was introduced for the Thälmann pioneers, while the young pioneers remained with the blue scarf. The change of color of the scarf was solemnly designed in the pioneer organization.
From 1988 there was an extended clothing range, consisting of a Nicki in the colors white, light yellow, turquoise or pink (with an imprint of the symbol of the pioneer organization), long and short trousers with a snap belt and, for the colder months, a lined windbreaker in red for girls and gray for boys.
Suitable pioneers were trained as paramedics; after their training, they wore the badge "Young Paramedic".
The Pioneer songs were sung at any opportunity, including the following titles:
Freie Deutsche Jugend, organization was meant for young people, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 25 and comprised about 75% of the young population of former East Germany.[87] In 1981–1982, this meant 2.3 million members.[88] After being a member of the Thälmann Pioneers, which was for schoolchildren ages 6 to 14, East German youths would usually join the FDJ.[89]
The FDJ increasingly developed into an instrument of communist rule and became a member of the 'democratic bloc' in 1950.[86] However, the FDJ's focus of 'happy youth life', which had characterised the 1940s, was increasingly marginalised following Walter Ulbricht's emphasis of the 'accelerated construction of socialism' at the 4th Parliament and a radicalisation of SED policy in July 1952.[90] In turn, a more severe anti-religious agenda, whose aim was to obstruct the Church youths' work, grew within the FDJ, ultimately reaching a high point in mid-April 1953 when the FDJ newspaper Junge Welt reported on details of the 'criminal' activities of the 'illegal' Junge Gemeinden FDJ gangs were sent to church meetings to heckle those inside and school tribunals interrogated or expelled students who refused to join the FDJ for religious reasons.[91]
Upon request, the young people were admitted to the FDJ from the age of 14. Membership was voluntary according to the statutes, but non-members had to fear considerable disadvantages in admission to secondary schools as well as in the choice of studies and careers and were also exposed to strong pressure from line-loyal teachers to join the organization. By the end of 1949, around one million young people had joined it, which corresponded to almost a third of the young people. Only in Berlin, where other youth organizations were also admitted due to the four-power status, the proportion of FDJ members in youth was limited to just under 5 percent in 1949. In 1985, the organization had about 2.3 million members, corresponding to about 80 percent of all GDR youths between the ages of 14 and 25. Most young people tacitly ended their FDJ membership after completing their apprenticeship or studies when they entered the workforce. However, during the period of military service in the NVA, those responsible (political officer, FDJ secretary) attached great importance to reviving FDJ membership. The degree of organisation was much higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
The FDJ clothing was the blue FDJ shirt ("blue shirt") – for girls the blue FDJ blouse – with the FDJ emblem of the rising sun on the left sleeve. The greeting of the FDJers was "friendship". Until the end of the GDR, the income-dependent membership fee was between 0.30 and 5.00 marks per month.
The Festival of Political Songs (‹See Tfd›German: Festival des politischen Liedes) was one of the largest music events in East Germany, held between 1970 and 1990. It was hosted by the Free German Youth and featured international artists.
The blue shirt (also: FDJ shirt or FDJ blouse) was since 1948 the official organizational clothing of the GDR youth organization Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ). On official occasions, FDJ members had to wear their blue shirts. The FDJ shirt – an FDJ blouse for girls – was a long-sleeved shirt of blue color with a folding collar, epaulettes and chest pockets. On the left sleeve was the FDJ symbol of the rising sun sewn up. Until the 1970s, the blue shirts were only made of cotton, later there was a cheaper variant made of polyester mixture.
The epaulettes of the blue shirt, in contrast to epaulettes on military uniforms, did not serve to make visible rank or unit membership, but were used at most to put a beret through. Official functions in the FDJ, for example FDJ secretary of a school or apprentice class, had no rank badges and could not be read on the FDJ shirt. However, the members of the FDJ order groups officially wore the FDJ shirt together with a red armband during their missions.
From the 1970s onwards, official patches and pins were issued for certain events, which could be worn on the FDJ shirt. There was no fixed wearing style. The orders and decorations that ordinary FDJ members received until the end of their membership at the age of 19 to 24 – usually the badge of good knowledge – were usually not worn. As a rule, only full-time FDJ members on the way to the nomenklatura at an older age achieved awards, which were also worn.
Until 1952, East Germany comprised the capital, East Berlin (though legally it was not fully part of the GDR's territory), and the five German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (in 1947 renamed Mecklenburg), Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt (named Province of Saxony until 1946), Thuringia, and Saxony, their post-war territorial demarcations approximating the pre-war German demarcations of the Middle German Länder (states) and Provinzen (provinces of Prussia). The western parts of two provinces, Pomerania and Lower Silesia, the remainder of which were annexed by Poland, remained in the GDR and were attached to Mecklenburg and Saxony, respectively.
The East German Administrative Reform of 1952 established 14 Bezirke (districts) and de facto disestablished the five Länder. The new Bezirke, named after their district centres, were as follows: (i) Rostock, (ii) Neubrandenburg, and (iii) Schwerin created from the Land (state) of Mecklenburg; (iv) Potsdam, (v) Frankfurt (Oder), and (vii) Cottbus from Brandenburg; (vi) Magdeburg and (viii) Halle from Saxony-Anhalt; (ix) Leipzig, (xi) Dresden, and (xii) Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz until 1953 and again from 1990) from Saxony; and (x) Erfurt, (xiii) Gera, and (xiv) Suhl from Thuringia.
East Berlin was made the country's 15th Bezirk in 1961 but retained special legal status until 1968, when the residents approved the new (draft) constitution. Despite the city as a whole being legally under the control of the Allied Control Council, and diplomatic objections of the Allied governments, the GDR administered the Bezirk of Berlin as part of its territory.
After receiving wider international diplomatic recognition in 1972–73, the GDR began active cooperation with Third World socialist governments and national liberation movements. While the USSR was in control of the overall strategy and Cuban armed forces were involved in the actual combat (mostly in the People's Republic of Angola and socialist Ethiopia), the GDR provided experts for military hardware maintenance and personnel training, and oversaw creation of secret security agencies based on its own Stasi model.
Already in the 1960s, contacts were established with Angola's MPLA, Mozambique's FRELIMO and the PAIGC in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. In the 1970s official cooperation was established with other socialist states, such as the People's Republic of the Congo, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Somali Democratic Republic, Libya, and the People's Republic of Benin.
The first military agreement was signed in 1973 with the People's Republic of the Congo. In 1979 friendship treaties were signed with Angola, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
It was estimated that altogether, 2,000–4,000 DDR military and security experts were dispatched to Africa. In addition, representatives from African and Arab countries and liberation movements underwent military training in the GDR.[92]
East Germany pursued an anti-Zionist policy; Jeffrey Herf argues that East Germany was waging an undeclared war on Israel.[93] According to Herf, "the Middle East was one of the crucial battlefields of the global Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West; it was also a region in which East Germany played a salient role in the Soviet bloc's antagonism toward Israel."[94] While East Germany saw itself as an "anti-fascist state", it regarded Israel as a "fascist state"[95] and East Germany strongly supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in its armed struggle against Israel. In 1974, the GDR government recognized the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".[96] The PLO declared the Palestinian state on 15 November 1988 during the First Intifada, and the GDR recognized the state prior to reunification.[97] After becoming a member of the UN, East Germany "made excellent use of the UN to wage political warfare against Israel [and was] an enthusiastic, high-profile, and vigorous member" of the anti-Israeli majority of the General Assembly.[93]
Ba'athist Iraq, due to its wealth of unexploited natural resources, was sought out as an ally of East Germany, with Iraq being the first Arab country to recognise East Germany on 10 May 1969, paving the way for other Arab League states to later do the same. East Germany attempted to play a decisive role in mediating the conflict between the Iraqi Communist Party and the Ba'ath Party and supported the creation of the National Progressive Front. The East German government also attempted to foster close relations with the Ba'athist regime of Hafez al-Assad during the early years of Assad's regime and, as it did in Iraq, used its influence to minimise tensions between the Syrian Communist Party and the Ba'athist regime.[98]
During the Cold War, especially during its early years, the East German government attempted to build closer diplomatic relations and trade links between Iceland and East Germany. By the 1950s, East Germany had become Iceland's fifth largest trading partner. East German influence in Iceland significantly declined in the 1970s and 1980s following a schism between the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the Icelandic Socialist Party over the Prague Spring, along with free market economic reforms implemented by Iceland during the 1960s.[99]
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 Cold War (1945–92), 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.
The Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) 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.[100][101] It was regarded by NATO officers as the best military in the Warsaw Pact.[102]The NVA consisted of the following branches:
The border troops of the Eastern sector were originally organised as a police force, the Deutsche Grenzpolizei, similar to the Bundesgrenzschutz in West Germany. It was controlled by the Ministry of the Interior. Following the remilitarisation of East Germany in 1956, the Deutsche Grenzpolizei was transformed into a military force in 1961, modeled after the Soviet Border Troops, and transferred to the Ministry of National Defense, as part of the National People's Army. In 1973, it was separated from the NVA, but it remained under the same ministry. At its peak, it numbered approximately 47,000 men.
After the NVA was separated from the Volkspolizei in 1956, the Ministry of the Interior maintained its own public order barracked reserve, known as the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (VPB). These units were, like the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, equipped as motorised infantry, and they numbered between 12,000 and 15,000 men.
The Ministry of State Security (Stasi) included the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, which was mainly involved with facilities security and plain clothes events security. They were the only public-facing wing of the Stasi. The Stasi numbered around 90,000 men, the Guards Regiment around 11,000–12,000 men.[103][104]
The Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse (combat groups of the working class) numbered around 400,000 for much of their existence, and were organised around factories. 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.
Every man was required to serve eighteen months of compulsory military service. For the medically unqualified and conscientious objectors, there were the Baueinheiten (construction units) or the Volkshygienedienst (people's sanitation service), both 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 and sanitation service soldiers were at a disadvantage when they rejoined the civilian sphere.[citation needed]
There is general consensus among academics that the GDR fulfilled most of the criteria to be considered a totalitarian state.[105] There is, however, ongoing debate as to whether the more positive aspects of the regime can sufficiently dilute the harsher aspects so as to make the totalitarian tag seem excessive. According to the historian Mary Fulbrook:
Even those who are most critical of the concept admit that the regime possessed most, if not all, of the objective traits associated with the term, i.e., rule by a single party or elite that dominated the state machinery; that centrally directed and controlled the economy; mass communication, and all forms of social and cultural organisation; that espoused an official, all-encompassing, utopian (or, depending on one's point of view, dystopian) ideology; and that used physical and mental terror and repression to achieve its goals, mobilise the masses, and silence opposition- all of which was made possible by the buildup of a vast state security service.[106]
The state security service (SSD) was commonly known as the Stasi, and it was fundamental to the socialist leadership's attempts to reach their historical goal. It was an open secret in the GDR that the Stasi read people's mail and tapped phone calls.[107] They also employed a vast network of unofficial informers who would spy on people more directly and report to their Stasi handlers. These collaborators were hired in all walks of life and had access to nearly every organisation in the country. At the end of the GDR in 1990 there were approximately 109,000 still active informants at every grade.[108] Repressive measures carried out by the Stasi can be roughly divided into two main chronological groupings: pre and post 1971, when Honecker came to power. According to the historian Nessim Ghouas, "There was a change in how the Stasi operated under Honecker in 1971. The more brutal aspects of repression seen in the Stalinist era (torture, executions, and physical repression descending from the GDR's earlier days) was changed with a more selective use of power."[109]
The more direct forms of repression such as arrest and torture could mean significant international condemnation for the GDR. However, the Stasi still needed to paralyse and disrupt what it considered to be 'hostile-negative'[110] forces (internal domestic enemies) if the socialist goal was to be properly realised. A person could be targeted by the Stasi for expressing politically, culturally, or religiously incorrect views; for performing hostile acts; or for being a member of a group which was considered sufficiently counter-productive to the socialist state to warrant intervention. As such, writers, artists, youth sub-cultures, and members of the church were often targeted.[111] If after preliminary research the Stasi found an individual warranted action against them then they would open an 'operational case'[111] in regard to them. There were two desirable outcomes for each case: that the person was either arrested, tried, and imprisoned for an ostensibly justified reason, or if this could not be achieved that they were debilitated through the application of Zersetzung (in German, "decomposition") methods.[112] In the Honecker era, Zersetzung became the primary method of Stasi repression, due in large part to an ambition to avoid political fallout from wrongful arrest.[k] Historian Mike Dennis says "Between 1985–1988, the Stasi conducted about 4,500 to 5,000 OVs (operational cases) per year."[111]
Zersetzung methods varied and were tailored depending on the individual being targeted. They are known to have included sending offensive mail to a person's house, the spreading of malicious rumours, banning them from traveling, sabotaging their career, breaking into their house and moving objects around etc. These acts frequently led to unemployment, social isolation, and poor mental health. Many people had various forms of mental or nervous breakdown. Similarly to physical imprisonment, Zersetzung methods had the effect of paralysing a person's ability to operate but with the advantage of the source being unknown or at least unprovable. There is ongoing debate as to whether weaponised directed energy devices, such as X-ray transmitters, were used in combination with the psychological warfare methods of Zersetzung.[113] About 135,000 children were educated in special residential homes; the worst of them was Torgau penal institution (till 1975).[114] The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims considers that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 victims of direct physical torture, Zersetzung, and gross human rights violations due to the Stasi.[115] Victims of historical Zersetzung can now draw a special pension from the German state.[116]
The East German economy began poorly because of the devastation caused by the Second World War, the loss of so many young soldiers, the disruption of business and transportation, the allied bombing campaigns that decimated cities, and reparations owed to the USSR. The Red Army dismantled and transported to Russia the infrastructure and industrial plants of the Soviet Zone of Occupation. By the early 1950s, the reparations were paid in agricultural and industrial products; and Lower Silesia, with its coal mines and Szczecin, an important natural port, were given to Poland by the decision of Stalin and in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.[48]
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 97% 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 ($22,600 in 2015 dollars) (this is based on an unreal official exchange rate). In 1976, the average annual growth of the GDP was 5 percent. This made the East German economy the richest in all of the Soviet Bloc until reunification in 1990.[7]
Notable East German exports were photographic cameras, under the Praktica brand; automobiles under the Trabant, Wartburg, and the IFA brands; hunting rifles, sextants, typewriters and wristwatches.
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 with 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".[117] At the production level, artificial prices made for a system of semi-barter and resource hoarding. For the consumer, it led to the substitution of GDR money with time, barter, and hard currencies. 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).[118]Economic issues would also persist in East Germany after the reunification of the west and the east. According to the federal office of political education (23 June 2009) 'In 1991 alone, 153 billion Deutschmarks had to be transferred to eastern Germany to secure incomes, support businesses and improve infrastructure... by 1999 the total had amounted to 1.634 trillion Marks net... The sums were so large that public debt in Germany more than doubled.'[119]
Loyalty to the SED was a primary criterion for getting a good job – professionalism was secondary to political criteria in personnel recruitment and development.[121]
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. Many, such as future politician Zeca Schall (who emigrated from Angola in 1988 as a contract worker) stayed in Germany after the Wende.[122]
By the mid-1980s, East Germany possessed a well-developed communications system. There were approximately 3.6 million telephones in usage (21.8 for every 100 inhabitants), and 16,476 Telex stations. Both of these networks were run by the Deutsche Post der DDR (East German Post Office). East Germany was assigned telephone country code +37; in 1991, several months after reunification, East German telephone exchanges were incorporated into country code +49.
An unusual feature of the telephone network was that, in most cases, direct distance 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 unification, the existing network was largely replaced, and area codes and dialing became standardised.
In 1976 East Germany inaugurated the operation of a ground-based radio station at Fürstenwalde for the purpose of relaying and receiving communications from Soviet satellites and to serve as a participant in the international telecommunications organization established by the Soviet government, Intersputnik.
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 four million were deported from the lands east of the Oder-Neisse line, which made the home of millions of Germans part of Poland and the Soviet Union.[123] This was in contrast from Poland, which increased during that time; from 24 million in 1950 (a little more than East Germany) to 38 million (more than twice of 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,[124] and after that time, East Germany had very low birth rates,[125] except for a recovery in the 1980s when the birth rate in East Germany was considerably higher than in West Germany.[126]
(1988 populations)
Religion became contested ground in the GDR, with the governing communists promoting state atheism, although some people remained loyal to Christian communities.[132] In 1957, the state authorities established a State Secretariat for Church Affairs to handle the government's contact with churches and with religious groups;[133] the SED remained officially atheist.[134]
In 1950, 85% of the GDR citizens were Protestants, while 10% were Catholics. In 1961, the renowned philosophical theologian Paul Tillich claimed that the Protestant population in East Germany had the most admirable Church in Protestantism, because the communists there had not been able to win a spiritual victory over them.[135] By 1989, membership in the Christian churches had dropped significantly. Protestants constituted 25% of the population, Catholics 5%. The share of people who considered themselves non-religious rose from 5% in 1950 to 70% in 1989.
When it first came to power, the Communist party asserted the compatibility of Christianity and Marxism–Leninism and sought Christian participation in the building of socialism. At first, the promotion of Marxist–Leninist atheism received little official attention. In the mid-1950s, as the Cold War heated up, atheism became a topic of major interest for the state, in both domestic and foreign contexts. University chairs and departments devoted to the study of scientific atheism were founded and much literature (scholarly and popular) on the subject was produced. This activity subsided in the late 1960s amid perceptions that it had started to become counterproductive. Official and scholarly attention to atheism renewed beginning in 1973, though this time with more emphasis on scholarship and on the training of cadres than on propaganda. Throughout, the attention paid to atheism in East Germany was never intended to jeopardise the cooperation that was desired from those East Germans who were religious.[136]
East Germany, historically, was majority Protestant (primarily Lutheran) from the early stages of the Protestant Reformation onwards. In 1948, freed from the influence of the Nazi-oriented German Christians, Lutheran, Reformed and United churches from most parts of Germany came together as the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD) at the Conference of Eisenach (Kirchenversammlung von Eisenach).
In 1969, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin[l] broke away from the EKD and formed the Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic (‹See Tfd›German: Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR, BEK), in 1970 also joined by the Moravian Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde. In June 1991, following the German reunification, the BEK churches again merged with the EKD ones.
Between 1956 and 1971, the leadership of the East German Lutheran churches gradually changed its relations with the state from hostility to cooperation.[137] From the founding of the GDR in 1949, the Socialist Unity Party sought to weaken the influence of the church on the rising generation. The church adopted an attitude of confrontation and distance toward the state. Around 1956 this began to develop into a more neutral stance accommodating conditional loyalty. The government 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 the churches felt was not in accordance with the will of God, the churches reserved their 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 made it clear that the East German state was not temporary. The loss of church members also made it clear to the leaders of the church that they had to come into some kind of dialogue with the state. The intentions behind the change of attitude varied from a traditional liberal Lutheran acceptance of secular power to a positive attitude toward socialist ideas.[138]
Manfred Stolpe became a lawyer for the Brandenburg 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 (BEK), where he negotiated with the government while at the same time working within the institutions of this Protestant body. He won the regional elections for the Brandenburg state assembly at the head of the SPD list in 1990. Stolpe remained in the Brandenburg government until he joined the federal government in 2002.
Apart from the Protestant state churches (‹See Tfd›German: Landeskirchen) united in the EKD/BEK and the Catholic Church there was a number of smaller Protestant bodies, including Protestant Free Churches (‹See Tfd›German: Evangelische Freikirchen) united in the Federation of the Free Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic and the Federation of the Free Protestant Churches in Germany, as well as the Free Lutheran Church, the Old Lutheran Church and Federation of the Reformed Churches in the German Democratic Republic. The Moravian Church also had its presence as the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine. There were also other Protestants such as Methodists, Adventists, Mennonites and Quakers.
The smaller Catholic Church in eastern Germany had a fully functioning episcopal hierarchy in full accord with the Vatican. During the early postwar years, tensions were high. The Catholic Church as a whole (and particularly the bishops) resisted both the East German state and Marxist–Leninist ideology. The state allowed the bishops to lodge protests, which they did on issues such as abortion.[138]
After 1945, the Church did fairly well in integrating Catholic exiles from lands to the east (which mostly became part of Poland) and in adjusting its institutional structures to meet the needs of a church within an officially atheist society. This meant an increasingly hierarchical church 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 Caritas, a Catholic charity organisation. By 1950, therefore, there existed a Catholic subsociety that was well adjusted to prevailing specific conditions and capable of maintaining Catholic identity.[139][page needed]
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 began 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.[140][need quotation to verify]
List of apostolic administrators:
About 600,000 children and youth were subordinate to East German residential child care system.
East Germany's culture was strongly influenced by communist thought and was marked by an attempt to define itself in opposition to the west, particularly West Germany and the United States. Critics of the East German state[who?] 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[which?] 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.[141]
GDR culture and politics were limited by the harsh censorship.[142] Compared to the music of the FRG, the freedom of art was less restricted by private-sector guidelines, but by guidelines from the state and the SED. Nevertheless, many musicians strove to explore the existing boundaries. Despite the state's support for music education, there were politically motivated conflicts with the state, especially among rock, blues and folk musicians and songwriters, as well as composers of so-called serious music.
A special feature of GDR culture is the broad spectrum of German rock bands. The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands in East Germany. Like most mainstream acts, they were members of the SED, appeared in state-run popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Other popular rock bands were Wir, City, Silly and Pankow. Most of these artists recorded on the state-owned AMIGA label. All were required to open live performances and albums with the East German national anthem.[citation needed]
Schlager, which was very popular in the west, also gained a foothold early on in East Germany, and numerous musicians, such as Gerd Christian, Uwe Jensen, and Hartmut Schulze-Gerlach gained national fame. From 1962 to 1976, an international schlager festival was held in Rostock, garnering participants from between 18 and 22 countries each year.[143] The city of Dresden held a similar international festival for schlager musicians from 1971 until shortly before reunification.[144] There was a national schlager contest hosted yearly in Magdeburg from 1966 to 1971 as well.[145]
Bands and singers from other socialist countries were popular, e.g. Czerwone Gitary from Poland known as the Rote Gitarren.[146][147] Czech Karel Gott, the Golden Voice from Prague, was beloved in both German states.[148] Hungarian band Omega performed in both German states, and Yugoslavian band Korni Grupa toured East Germany in the 1970s.[149][150]
West German television and radio could be received in many parts of the East. The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands – the so-called Die anderen Bands ("the other 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.[151] 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.[152]
The government of the GDR was invested in both promoting the tradition of German classical music, and in supporting composers to write new works in that tradition. Notable East German composers include Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, and Kurt Schwaen.
The birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Eisenach, was rendered as a museum about him, featuring more than three hundred instruments, which, in 1980, received some 70,000 visitors. In Leipzig, the Bach archive contains his compositions and correspondence and recordings of his music.[153]
Governmental support of classical music maintained some 168 publicly funded concert, opera, chamber, and radio orchestras, such as Gewandhausorchester and Thomanerchor in Leipzig; Sächsische Staatskapelle in Dresden; and Berliner Sinfonie Orchester and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.[154] Kurt Masur was their prominent conductor.[155]
All productions were subject to censorship. Texts had to be submitted and shows approved in advance; performances were watched. No one was exempt from this, not even famous artists with connections to the highest circles of the SED government. Under this pressure, strategies were developed to bring critical texts to the audience despite censorship. For example, Heinz Quermann always deliberately built an extreme gag into his entertainment programme so that the censors would have something to cut and the other gags would be less critically scrutinised. Tamara Danz of Silly founded the term "green elephant" (grüner Elefant) for such passages.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the youth of the GDR were also under the influence of the Beatles and their music. In the beginning, this music was still tolerated and supported by the GDR leadership, especially with the help of the FDJ. The high point of this era was 1965, when GDR bands not only got radio and television appearances, but were even allowed to make recordings. However, the SED realised that it could not control this movement, which was basically rebellious and oriented towards the West, and steer it in a direction it liked. The Leipzig Beat Revolt was a response, that most of the bands were therefore simply banned, the others were strictly controlled. For example, Thomas Natschinski's band had to change its English name "Team 4" to the German name "Thomas Natschinski and his group". Other bands were not so conformist. Renft in particular was repeatedly banned from performing and later also the blues rock band Freygang, whose members went into hiding and then played under pseudonyms.
Even convinced socialists like the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann were banned from performing because they had different ideas of socialism than the SED realised. In 1976, Wolf Biermann was allowed to tour in the West and this was immediately taken as an opportunity to denaturalise him and refuse him permission to return. Numerous artists protested against this and were forced to leave the country – some after serving prison sentences – including members of Renft, as well as Manfred Krug and Nina Hagen. Other artists left voluntarily. Veronika Fischer, for example, did not return from a performance in West Berlin in 1981, whereupon her songs were no longer allowed to be played by GDR radio stations.
West German productions were also subject to censorship in East Germany. For example, the song by Udo Jürgens Es war einmal ein Luftballon (Once Upon a Time There Was a Balloon) was put on the Index because of the line, "They know no borders, the balloons of the world". It was not until 1987 that Udo Jürgens was allowed to perform again in the GDR. Udo Lindenberg, for example, had similar problems. Despite all his efforts (such as his song Sonderzug nach Pankow (Special Train to Pankow)), he was only allowed to perform once before the fall of the Wall, at the Palast der Republik on the occasion of the event "Rock für den Frieden" (Rock for Peace) on 25 October 1983.
In the 1980s, censorship seemed to loosen up. Lyrics about the longing for freedom (including Albatros by Karat) became possible. But it was only in the course of the peaceful revolution that songs by Veronika Fischer were heard on the radio again in October 1989.
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.[156] Alternatively, other influences tried to establish a "working-class theatre", played for the working class by the working class.[citation needed]
After Brecht's death, conflicts began to arise between his family (around Helene Weigel) and other artists about Brecht's legacy, including Slatan Dudow,[157] Erwin Geschonneck,[158] Erwin Strittmatter, Peter Hacks, Benno Besson,[159] Peter Palitzsch[160] and Ekkehard Schall.[161]
In the 1950s, the Swiss director Benno Besson with the Deutsches Theater successfully toured Europe and Asia including Japan with The Dragon by Evgeny Schwartz. In the 1960s, he became the Intendant of the Volksbühne often working with Heiner Müller.[162]
In the 1970s, 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.[citation needed]
Theatre and cabaret had high status in the GDR, which allowed it to be very proactive. This often brought it into confrontation with the state. Benno Besson once said, "In contrast to artists in the west, they took us seriously, we had a bearing."[163][m]
The Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin is the last major building erected by the GDR, making it an exceptional architectural testimony to how Germany overcame its former division. Here, Berlin's great revue tradition lives on, today bringing viewers state-of-the-art shows.[164]
Important theatres include the Berliner Ensemble,[165] the Deutsches Theater,[166] the Maxim Gorki Theater,[167] and the Volksbühne.[168]
Television and radio in East Germany were state-run industries; the Rundfunk der DDR was the official radio broadcasting organisation from 1952 until unification. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin. Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), from 1972 to 1990 known as Fernsehen der DDR or DDR-FS, was the state television broadcaster from 1952. Reception of Western broadcasts was widespread.[169]
The prolific cinema of East Germany was headed by the DEFA,[170] 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. The East German 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).[171]
Frank Beyer's Jakob der Lügner (Jacob the Liar), about the Holocaust, and Fünf Patronenhülsen (Five Cartridges), about resistance against fascism, became internationally famous.[172]
Films about daily life, such as Die Legende von Paul und Paula, by Heiner Carow, and Solo Sunny, directed by Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase, were very popular.[173]
The film industry was remarkable for its production of Ostern, or Western-like movies. Amerindians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the North American westerns of the time, where they were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavs were often cast as Native Americans because of the small number of Native Americans in Europe. Gojko Mitić was well known in these roles, often playing the righteous, kindhearted and charming chief (Die Söhne der großen Bärin directed by Josef Mach). He became an honorary Sioux chief when he visited the United States in the 1990s, and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe one of 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 the Americas.[citation needed]
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, films representing or glorifying what the state viewed as capitalist ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish Olsen Gang or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.[citation needed]
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, several films depicting life in the GDR have been critically acclaimed.[174] Some of the most notable were Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker,[175] Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (won the Academy Award for bestberg Film in a Foreign Language) in 2006,[176] and Alles auf Zucker! (Go for Zucker) by Dani Levi. Each film is heavily infused with cultural nuances unique to life in the GDR.[177]
East Germany was very successful in the sports of cycling, weight-lifting, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, boxing, ice skating, and winter sports. The success is largely attributed to doping under the direction of Manfred Höppner, a sports doctor, described as the architect of East Germany's state-sponsored drug program.[178]
Anabolic steroids were the most detected doping substances in IOC-accredited laboratories for many years.[179][180] 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.[181] Another factor for success was the furtherance system for young people in the GDR. Sports teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in children of ages 6 to 10. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming).
Sports clubs were highly subsidized, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included 2 teams each. Football was the most popular sport. Club football teams such as Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo had successes in European competition. Many East German players such as Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten became integral parts of the reunified national football team.
The East and the West also competed via sport. GDR athletes dominated several Olympic sports; the SV Dynamo club of the security agencies won more than 200 Olympic medals. Of special interest was the only football match between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, a first-round match during the 1974 FIFA World Cup, which the East won 1–0; but West Germany, the host, went on to win the World Cup.[182]East Germany had a revolutionary technology for two-stroke engines called expansion chamber, allowing them to win motorcycle races with little competition. Racer Ernst Degner defected to Japan, taking the technology secret with him over to Suzuki. After the defection, East German motorcycle racing effectively ended.
Almost all East German highways, railroads, sewage systems and public buildings were in a state of disrepair at the time of reunification, as little was done to maintain infrastructure in the GDR's last decades. Unified German public spending has had to pour more than $2 trillion into the former East Germany, to make up for the region's neglect and malaise and bring it up to a minimal standard.[183]
The Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant narrowly avoided a Chernobyl-scale meltdown in 1976.[184] All East German nuclear power plants had to be shut down after reunification, because they did not meet Western safety standards.[185]
German historian Jürgen Kocka in 2010 summarized the consensus of most recent scholarship:
Conceptualizing the GDR as a dictatorship has become widely accepted, while the meaning of the concept dictatorship varies. Massive evidence has been collected that proves the repressive, undemocratic, illiberal, nonpluralistic character of the GDR regime and its ruling party.[9]
Many East Germans initially regarded the dissolution of the GDR positively,[186] but this reaction partly turned sour.[187] 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).[188] In 2004, Deborah Ascher Barnstone wrote, "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."[189]
In addition, many East German women found the West more appealing, and left the region never to return, leaving behind an underclass of poorly educated and jobless men.[190]
For the people who stayed in East Germany, a majority of them (57%) defend the GDR,[191] with 49% of those polled saying that "The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there", while 8% oppose all criticism of East Germany and say that "Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today".[191]
As of 2014, the vast majority of residents in the former GDR prefer to live in a unified Germany. However, a feeling of nostalgia persists among some, termed "Ostalgie" (a blend of Ost "east" and Nostalgie "nostalgia"). This was depicted in the Wolfgang Becker film Goodbye Lenin!. According to Klaus Schroeder, a historian and political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, some of the original residents of the GDR "still feel they don't belong or that they're strangers in unified Germany" as life in the GDR was "just more manageable". He warns German society should watch out in case Ostalgie results in a distortion and romanticization of the past.[192][193]
In 2023, a poll found that 40% of Germans living in the former East Germany identify as East Germans rather than German, which 52% identified as.[194][195]
The divide between the East and the West can be seen in contemporary German elections. The left-wing populist Die Linke party (which has roots in the SED) continues to have a stronghold and occasionally wins a plurality in the East, such as in the German State of Thuringia where it remains one of the major parties.[196] The region also sees disproportionate support for the Alternative for Germany, a right-wing populist party, particularly in the state of Saxony and Thuringia. This is in stark distinction from the West where the more centrist parties such as the CDU/CSU, SPD, The Greens, and the FDP dominate.
The far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was represented in the Saxon State Parliament from 2004 to 2014. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the NPD was represented from 2006 to 2016.
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There are more migrants in former West Germany than in former East Germany.[197][198][199]
All of the new states have populations where 90-95% of people do not have a migrant background.[197][198][199]
As of 2009, more Germans are non-believers in Eastern Germany than Western Germany.[200][201] Eastern Germany is perhaps the least religious region in the world.[202][203] An explanation for this, popular in other regions, is the aggressive state atheist policies of the German Democratic Republic's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. However, the enforcement of atheism existed only for the first few years. After that, the state allowed churches to have a relatively high level of autonomy.[204] Atheism is embraced by Germans of all ages, though irreligion is particularly common among younger Germans.[205]
Die Geschichte der DDR ist im wesentlichen zwischen zwei Polen einzubetten. Den einen Pol bildet die Sowjetisierung [...] Den anderen Pol bildeten deutsche Traditionen, vor allem die Vorstellungen der kommunistischen Arbeiterbewegung.[The history of the GDR is essentially embedded between two poles. Sovietization formed one pole [...] German traditions formed the other pole, above all the ideas of the communist workers' movement.]
In der Sozialpolitik hielten sich die Kontinuitäten und die Brüche mit der deutschen Tradition etwa die Waage. [...] Seit Mitte der sechziger Jahre, vor allem aber in der Ära Honecker, in der die 'Einheit von Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik' zum Leitprinzip erhoben wurde, wurde die Sozialpolitik die wohl wichtigste Legitimationsgrundlage des Staates.
... claims of East Berlin as the capital of the GDR, ... East Berlin was not recognized by the West and most Third World countries.
In the period between the Second World War and 1961, a total of 3.8 million people emigrated from East to West Germany.
The SED will refrain from talks with the churches, since it must be seen as an 'atheistic party against the Church'. Thus, negotiations must be led by the State, which is understood to be non-partisan, namely by the state Secretary for Church Affairs. But decisions on Church policies are to be made exclusively 'in the party' [...].
Today, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany.' The GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there,' say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: 'The GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today."'
