Everything about East Germany totally explained
The
German Democratic Republic (
GDR;,
DDR; commonly known in English as
East Germany) was a
socialist state created by the
Soviet Union in the Soviet Zone of
occupied Germany and the
Soviet sector of
occupied Berlin. East Germany existed from 1949 until 1990, when its re-established states
acceded to the adjacent
Federal Republic of Germany (
West Germany), thus producing the current form of the state of
Germany.
Until 1952 it consisted of the
German states of
Mecklenburg,
Brandenburg,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia, and
Saxony. Those were formed by pre-war German provinces or what was left of them with the new borders after the
Potsdam Agreement.
It claimed
East Berlin as its capital.
Prior to reunification, it consisted of 14 smaller districts and East Berlin which received the equivalent status of a district in 1961. The districts were named after their metropolises: Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Schwerin, Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), Magdeburg, Cottbus, Halle, Leipzig, Erfurt, Dresden, Karl-Marx-Stadt (called Chemnitz until 1953 and again after 1990), Gera, and Suhl.
In 1955 the Republic was declared by the
Soviet Union to be fully
sovereign; however,
Soviet troops remained, based on the four-power Potsdam agreement, just as British, Canadian and American forces remained in West Germany. As
NATO troops remained in
West Berlin and West Germany, East Germany and Berlin in particular became focal points of
Cold War tensions. East Germany was a member of the
Warsaw Pact and a close ally of the Soviet Union. Following the initial opening of sections of the
Berlin Wall on
November 9 1989, new elections were held on
March 18 1990, and the governing party, the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany, lost its majority in the
Volkskammer (the East German parliament) soon after. On
August 23, the Volkskammer decided that the territory of the Republic would accede to the
ambit of the
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany on
October 3 1990. As a result of the
unification on that date, the German Democratic Republic officially ceased to exist.
History
Germanic peoples during the last few centuries
BC. During the post-Roman
migration period, many of these populations left for other lands, and
Slavic Wends settled in their wake. German imperial rulers conquered the area during the
Middle Ages. The newly acquired land was organized in
margravates, German feudal states on the land of Slavs. Consequent waves of German settlements, which in subsequent centuries later included French
Hugenots and Jews, gradually modified the originally Slavic composition of the land, except for the small community of
Sorbs in
Lusatia, and eventually most of what is now East Germany formed a large part of the historical
Kingdom of Prussia.
In
Imperial Germany and later during the time of the
Weimar Republic, territory that would become East Germany was situated in the center of the state. This territory was known as "Mitteldeutschland" (Middle Germany), while the designation "East" was reserved for provinces such as eastern
Pomerania, eastern
Brandenburg,
Silesia and
East and
West Prussia. During
World War II, Allied leaders decided at the
Yalta Conference that post-war borders of Poland would be moved westward to the
Oder-Neisse line, just as Soviet borders were also moved westward into formerly Polish territory.
Discussions at Yalta and Potsdam also outlined the planned occupation and administration of post-war Germany under a four-power
Allied Control Council, or ACC (composed of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union). At the end of World War II, at the
Potsdam Conference in 1945,
France, the
United Kingdom, the United States and the
Soviet Union decided to divide
Germany into four occupation zones. Each country would control a part of
Germany until its sovereignty was restored.
The
Länder (states) of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Brandenburg,
Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia, fell in the Soviet Zone of Germany (in German:
Sowjetische Besatzungszone, or SBZ). Soviet objections to economic and political changes in western (US, UK, and French) occupation zones led to Soviet withdrawal from the ACC in 1948 and subsequent evolution of the SBZ into East Germany, including the Soviet sector of Berlin. Concurrently, the Western occupation zones consolidated to form
West Germany (or the
Federal Republic of Germany, FRG).
Officially, both the western Allies and the Communists committed to maintaining a unified Germany after the war in the
Potsdam Agreement, at least on paper. The 1952
Stalin Note proposed
German reunification and
superpower disengagement from
Central Europe, but the
United States and its allies rejected the offer.
Stalin died in early 1953. Though powerful Soviet politician
Lavrenty Beria briefly pursued the idea of German unification once more following Stalin's death, he was arrested and removed from office in a
coup d'etat in mid-1953. His successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, firmly rejected the idea of handing eastern Germany over to be annexed, marking the end of any serious consideration of the unification idea until the collapse of the Communist East German government in 1989.
Just as
Germany was divided after the war,
Berlin, the former capital of Germany, was divided into four sectors. East Germany and the rest of the
Eastern bloc considered
East Berlin to be the capital of East Germany, although the legality of this was disputed by the
western Allies, as the entire city was formally considered an
occupied territory governed by
martial law through the
Allied Control Council. In practice, the Allied Control Council quickly became moot as the
Cold War intensified, and the eastern government ignored the technical legal restrictions on how East Berlin could be used.
Conflict over the status of
West Berlin led to the
Berlin Blockade, when the Soviet government prohibited overland transit between the western zones of Germany and West Berlin, prompting the massive
Berlin Airlift.
The first leader of East Germany was
Wilhelm Pieck, the first (and as it turned out, only) President of the Republic. However, after 1950 the real power rested with
Walter Ulbricht, first secretary of the
Socialist Unity Party, the ruling
Communist party.
On
June 16,
1953, following a production quota increase of 10 percent for workers building East Berlin's new boulevard the Stalinallee, (today's
Karl-Marx-Allee), demonstrations by disgruntled workers broke out in
East Berlin. The next day the protests spread across East Germany with more than a million on strike and demonstrations in 700 communities. Fearing revolution the government requested the aid of Soviet occupation troops and on the morning of the 18th tanks and soldiers were dispatched who dealt harshly with protesters. The result was some fifty deaths and a wave of arrests and jail sentences numbering over 10,000. Transit between West and East Berlin was relatively free at the time, meaning that the protests and the harsh Soviet reaction unfolded in full view of many western observers.
See Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.
During the early stages of the occupation, the
Red Army seized a great deal of industrial equipment from eastern Germany to be shipped back to the
Soviet Union as
war reparations, crippling the East German economy for years. The increasing economic prosperity of
West Germany led large numbers of East Germans to
flee to the West. Since the 1940s, East Germans had been leaving the Soviet zone of Germany to emigrate to the west. The ongoing emigration of East Germans further strained the East German economy. Although the border between the two German states was largely closed by the mid-1950s (see
Inner German border), the sector borders in Berlin were relatively easy to cross. Due to the lure of higher salaries in the West and political oppression in the East, many skilled workers (such as doctors) crossed into the West, causing a '
brain drain' in the East. However, on the night of
August 13 1961, East German troops sealed the border between West and East Berlin and started to build the
Berlin Wall, literally and physically enclosing West Berlin. Travel was greatly restricted into, and out of, East Germany. A highly effective security force called the
Stasi monitored the lives of East German citizens to suppress dissenters through its network of informants and agents.
In 1971, Ulbricht was forced out as head of state under Soviet pressure, and replaced by
Erich Honecker. Ulbricht had experimented with a few reforms, but Honecker tightened the reins and imposed a
new constitution that used the word "German" sparingly and defined the country as a "republic of workers and peasants." East Germany was generally regarded as the most economically advanced member of the
Warsaw Pact.
Until the 1970s, West Germany regarded East Germany as an illegally constituted state, and under the
Hallstein Doctrine refused to have diplomatic relations with any country (except the Soviet Union) that recognized East Germany as a separate country. In the early 1970s,
Ostpolitik led by
Willy Brandt led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. The
Treaty of Moscow (August 1970), the
Treaty of Warsaw (December 1970), the
Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the
Transit Agreement (May 1972), and the
Basic Treaty (December 1972) helped to normalize relations between East and West Germany and led to both German states joining the
United Nations.
Competition with the West was also conducted on a sporting level. East German athletes dominated several
Olympic disciplines. Of special interest was the only
football match ever to occur between West and East Germany, a first round match during the
1974 World Cup. Though
West Germany was the host and the eventual champion, East beat West 1-0.
In 1989, following widespread public anger over the results of local government elections that spring, many citizens applied for exit visas, or left the country illegally. In August 1989
Hungary removed its border restrictions and unsealed its border and more than 13,000 people left East Germany by crossing the "green" border via
Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to
Austria and West Germany. Many others
demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig.
Kurt Masur, the conductor of the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra led local negotiations with the government, and held town meetings in the concert hall. The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October, and he was replaced by a slightly more liberal Communist,
Egon Krenz.
On
November 9 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Soon, the governing party of East Germany resigned. Although there were some small attempts to create a permanent, democratic East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for unification with
West Germany. After some negotiations (
2+4 Talks, involving the two German states and the former
Allied Powers United States,
France,
United Kingdom, and the
Soviet Union), conditions for German unification were agreed upon. East Germany recreated the original
five states that had been abolished in 1952. On
October 3 1990; the five East German states officially joined the
Federal Republic of Germany, while East and West Berlin united as a third city-state (in the same manner as
Bremen and
Hamburg).
To this day, there remain vast differences between the former East Germany and
West Germany (for example, in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs and other matters) and thus it's still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. The Eastern German economy has struggled since unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east.
Politics
Political organization
The ruling political party in East Germany was the
Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (
Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED). It was created in 1946 through the Soviet-directed merger of the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet controlled zone.
The
Potsdam Agreement committed the Soviets to supporting a democratic form of government in Germany, and, unlike other Soviet satellites, other political parties were permitted.
All parties operating in East Germany were forced to join the "
National Front of Democratic Germany", ostensibly a united coalition of anti-
fascist political parties. It was completely controlled by the SED. Members included:
Elections took place to a parliament called the
Volkskammer, but were effectively controlled by the SED/state hierarchy, as
Hans Modrow has noted. Elections were held in less-than-secret conditions, with voters given the choice of approving or rejecting "unity lists" put forward by the National Front. As was the case in most Communist countries, approval rates of 90 percent or more were routine.
The Volkskammer also included representatives from the
mass organisations like the
Free German Youth (
Freie Deutsche Jugend or
FDJ), or the
Free German Trade Union Federation. In an attempt to include women in the political life of East Germany, there was a
Democratic Women's Federation of Germany, with seats in the Volkskammer.
Important non-parliamentary mass organisations in East German society included the
German Gymnastics and Sports Association (
Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund or
DTSB), and
People's Solidarity (
Volkssolidarität, an organisation for the elderly). Another society of note (and very popular during the late 1980s) was the
Society for German-Soviet Friendship.
A highly effective
secret police force called the
Stasi infiltrated and reported on most private activity in East Germany, limiting opportunity for non-sanctioned political organisation. All formal organisations except for
churches were directly controlled by the East German government. Churches were permitted to operate more or less free from government control, as long as they abstained from political activity.
Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) which subsequently merged with the West German
WASG to form the
Left Party (
Die Linke). The Left Party continues to be a political force in many parts of Germany, albeit drastically less powerful than the SED.
Persons of note in East Germany
Political representatives
Hermann Axen, editor-in-chief of the SED paper "Neues Deutschland" 1956–1978, SED secretary for international relations 1966-1989
Johannes R. Becher, first minister for culture 1954–1958, wrote the lyrics of the national anthem
Hilde Benjamin, Vice President of the GDR Supreme Court 1949–1953, Minister of Justice 1953–1967, dubbed "red guillotine" for her relentless persecution of political opponents
Otto Grotewohl, Chairman of the East German SPD 1945–1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946–1954; Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1949–1964
Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the SED Central Committee 1971–1989; Chairman of the Council of State 1976–1989
Margot Honecker née Feist, minister for education 1963–1989
Heinz Kessler, Minister of Defence 1985–1989 (deputy minister since 1957)
Egon Krenz, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and chairman of Council of State from October to December 1989; he'd been Honnecker's deputy and "crown prince" since 1983
Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security 1957–1989
Günter Mittag, SED secretary for economics 1962–1973, 1976–1989
Hans Modrow, SED district secretary for Dresden 1973–1989, last SED prime minister November 1989 – March 1990
Wilhelm Pieck, Chairman of the East German KPD 1945–1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946–1954; State President 1949–1960
Günter Schabowski, SED district secretary for Berlin 1985–1989; as party spokesperson he caused the fall of the Berlin wall
Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, head of the department of "commercial coordination" in the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Karl Schirdewan, SED secretary 1953–1958, dismissed for "faction building"
Horst Sindermann, Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1973–1976; president of parliament 1976–1989
Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, telecaster on East German television, infamous for his propaganda programme "Der schwarze Kanal"
Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) 1964–1973 and 1976–1989; Chairman of the Council of State 1973–1976
Harry Tisch, head of the Free German Trade Union Federation 1975–1989
Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the SED Central Committee 1950–1971; Chairman of the Council of State 1960–1973)
Markus "Mischa" Wolf, head of the GDR's foreign intelligence department 1952–1986
Other notable East Germans
Uwe Ampler, racing cyclist
Manfred von Ardenne, physicist and inventor
Rudolf Bahro, journalist and politician
Michael Ballack, captain of Germany national football team
Jurek Becker, writer ("Jacob the Liar")
Benno Besson, dramatist, actor and director, pupil of Bertolt Brecht and one of the most important directors of German language of this time
Frank Beyer, film director
Wolf Biermann, singer/songwriter and dissident, citizenship withdrawn in 1976 when he was on tour in West Germany
Ibrahim Böhme, first chairman of the East German Social Democrats in 1989–1990, resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer
Bärbel Bohley, painter
Thomas Brasch, writer, poet and dramatist
Bertolt Brecht, dramatist, poet and director, reopened the "Berliner Ensemble" in 1949, important person of Communistic Exile and Resistance
Ernst Degner, Grand Prix motorcycle road racer
Hanns Eisler, composer
Rainer Eppelmann, Protestant pastor, minister for defence and disarmament from March to October 1990
Klaus Fuchs, physicist and spy
Erwin Geschonneck, actor
Gregor Gysi, lawyer to artists, chairman of the SED/PDS November 1989–1998
Nina Hagen, punk singer
Peter Hacks, dramatist
Wolfgang Harich, intellectual sentenced to prison for counterrevolutionary activities
Robert Havemann, chemist and intellectual critic of government, communistic resistance fighter in World War 2
Karin Büttner-Janz, scientist and gymnast of the 20th century.
John Heartfield, photographer
Bernhard Heisig, painter ("Leipziger Schule")
Uli Herzner, Fashion designer, Project Runway contestant
Henry Hübchen, actor
Sigmund Jähn, cosmonaut, first German in space
Walter Janka, communist resistance fighter in WW2, sentenced in 1957 for "counterrevolutionary activities",
Gustav Just, journalist
Walter Kaaden, engineer
Uwe Raab, racing cyclist
Ernst Busch, famous singer, songwriter and musician
Manfred Krug, actor and jazz singer
Olaf Ludwig, racing cyclist
Lothar de Maizière, first (and only) freely elected prime minister, from April to October 1990
Kurt Masur, conductor and political activist
Wolfgang Mattheuer, painter ("Leipziger Schule")
Markus Meckel, Protestant pastor, deputy chairman of the East German Social Democrats 1989–1990, GDR foreign minister from April to August 1990
Armin Mueller-Stahl, actor
Heiner Müller, writer and dramatist, worked with the director Benno Besson at Volksbühne
All 6 members of the industrial metal band Rammstein.
Wolfgang Schnur, lawyer to dissidents, opposition politician (Democratic Awakening in 1990 but resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer
Erwin Strittmatter, writer ("Der Laden")
Werner Tübke, painter ("Leipziger Schule")
Jan Ullrich - professional cyclist, Tour de France winner 1997
Katarina Witt, figure skater
Christa Wolf, writer ("Kassandra")
Fritz Geißler, composer
Paul Van Dyk, trance music DJ and producer
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany since 2005
Hermann Kant, writer ("Der Aufenthalt")
Military of East Germany
Like all Soviet bloc countries, East Germany had its own military force. The main military force was called the Nationale Volksarmee with 4 branches of service. Since East Germany was at the main hotline of the Cold War, East Germany's military was the most advanced in the whole Warsaw pact, excluding the Soviet Union. It was battle ready at all times, ready to be mobilized in a future war with NATO. The East German military was composed into 4 groups:
Army
Navy
Air Force
Border Guards
and some paramilitary forces in reserve in case war broke out like the Combat Groups of the Working Class and in some cases, the Stasi.
All young East German men had to join the Nationale Volksarmee. Attendance was compulsory for 18 months, except for serious medical reasons. An alternative service of the so called Baueinheiten (construction units) wasn't created until 1964 under pressure from the national Protestant church.
Administrative divisions
In 1952, as part of the reforms designed to centralize power in the hands of the SED's Politbüro, the five Länder of East Germany were abolished, and East Germany was divided into fifteen Bezirke (districts), each named after the largest city: the northern Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was divided between the Bezirke Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg; Brandenburg (surrounding Berlin) was reorganized into the Bezirke of Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus; Saxony-Anhalt split into the Bezirke of Halle and Magdeburg; the south-western Land Thuringia became the Bezirke of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl; finally, the south-eastern Land Saxony was divided between Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and following the GDR's collapse again known as Chemnitz). The GDR capital, East Berlin formed the 15th Bezirk, though it retained a special legal status in the GDR until 1968, when East Berliners voted with the rest of the GDR to approve the draft of the new constitution. From this point onwards, irrespective of the Four Power Status and the western allies' objections that East Berlin was merely the Soviet occupied sector of the German capital, East Berlin was treated as a Bezirk like any other.
Economy
East Germany's economy had a poor start in the aftermath of World War II's devastation. The Soviet Union demanded heavy reparation payments, and Lower Silesia, which contained coal mines, and Stettin, a prominent natural port, were given to Poland.
Like other East European socialist states, East Germany had a centrally planned economy (CPE), similar to the one in the former Soviet Union, in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies of most Western states. The GDR became a member of the COMECON trading block in 1950. The state established production targets and prices and allocated resources, codifying these decisions in a comprehensive plan or set of plans. The means of production were almost entirely state owned. In 1985, for example, state-owned enterprises or collectives earned 96.7 percent of total net national income. To secure constant prices for inhabitants, the state bore 80% of costs of basic supplies, from bread to housing. The per capita income in 1989 was an estimated $27,100, though the currency conversion used to create this figure is difficult to conduct. In 1976 average annual GDP growth was roughly 5.9%.
Examples of products exported are cameras under the Praktica brand, automobiles under the Trabant, Wartburg and IFA brands, hunting rifles, sextants and watches.
In the 1970s the World Bank reported the GDR had a higher GDP per capita of population than the UK .
The ultimate directing force in the economy, as in every aspect of the society, was the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), particularly its top leadership. The party exercised its leadership role formally during the party congress, when it accepted the report of the general secretary, and when it adopted the draft plan for the upcoming five-year period.
The private sector of the economy was small but not entirely insignificant. In 1985 about 2.8 percent of the net national product came from private enterprises. The private sector included private farmers and gardeners; independent craftsmen, wholesalers, and retailers; and individuals employed in so-called free-lance activities (artists, writers, and others). Although self-employed, such individuals were strictly regulated; in some cases the tax rate exceeded 90 %. In 1985, for the first time in many years, the number of individuals working in the private sector increased slightly. According to East German statistics, in 1985 there were about 176,800 private entrepreneurs, an increase of about 500 over 1984. Certain private sector activities were quite important to the system because those craftsmen provided rare, specially made spare parts.
Culture
Music
Artists were expected to sing songs only in German at first, which changed with the end of the sixties. This seemed a logical constraint by the Party leaders but it was rather unpopular among young people. There were strict rules that regulated that all artistic activity ought to be censored for any open or implied anti-socialist tendencies. The band Renft, for example, was prone to political misbehaviour, which eventually led to its split.
The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at critical thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like most mainstream acts, they appeared in popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Other popular rock bands were Wir, Dean Reed, City, Silly and Pankow. Most of these artists recorded on the state-owned AMIGA label.
Influences from the West were heard everywhere, because TV and radio that came from the Klassenfeind (class enemy, meaning "enemy of the working class") could be received in many parts of the East, too (a notorious exception being Dresden, with its geographically disadvantageous position in the Elbe valley, giving it the nickname of “Valley of the Clueless”). The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands were Die Skeptiker, as well as Feeling B. 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. 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.
Classical music was highly supported, so that there existed over 50 classical symphony orchestras in a country with a population about 16 million.
See also:
Thomanerchor Leipzig
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Berliner Sinfonie Orchester
Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory and his birthplace in Eisenach was turned into a museum of his life, which, among other things, included more than 300 instruments from Bach's life. In 1980 this museum was receiving more than 70,000 visitors annually.
In Leipzig, an enormous archive with recordings of all of Bach's music was compiled, along with many historical documents and letters both to and from him.
Every other year, school children from across East Germany gathered for a Bach competition held in East Berlin. Every four years an international Bach competition for keyboard and strings was held.
Theatre
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. Alternatively, other influences tried to establish a "Working Class Theatre", played for the working class by the working class.
After Brecht's death, conflicts began to arise between his family (around Helene Weigel) and other artists about Brecht's heritage. Heinz Kahlau, Slatan Dudow, Erwin Geschonneck, Erwin Strittmatter, Peter Hacks, Benno Besson, Peter Palitzsch and Ekkehard Schall were considered to be among Bertolt Brecht's scholars and followers.
In the 1950s the Swiss director Benno Besson with the Deutsches Theater successfully toured Europe and Asia including Japan with "The Dragon" by Jewgenij Schwarz. In the 1960s, he became the Intendant of the Volksbühne often working with Heiner Müller.
After 1975 many artists left the GDR due to increasing censorship. A parallel theatre scene grew 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.
Theatre and Cabaret had high status in the GDR, which allowed it to be very pro-active. This often brought it into confrontation with the State. Benno Besson once said: "At least they took us seriously, we'd a bearing."
Important theatres:
Deutsches Theater(External Link
)
Berliner Ensemble(External Link)
Volksbühne(External Link)
Maxim Gorki Theater(External Link)
Cinema
In the GDR, the movie industry was very active. The head-group for film-productions was the DEFA (External Link), Deutsche Film AG, which was subdivided in different local groups, for example Gruppe Berlin, Gruppe Babelsberg or Gruppe Johannisthal, where the local teams shot and produced films. Besides folksy movies, the movie-industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children's movies ("Das kalte Herz", film versions of the Grimm brothers fairy-tales and modern productions such as "Das Schulgespenst").
Frank Beyer's "Jakob der Lügner" (about persecution of Jews in Third Reich) and, "Fünf Patronenhülsen"(Five Bullet Shells) about resistance against fascism, became internationally famous.
Movies about problems of everyday life such as "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" (directed by Heiner Carow) and "Solo Sunny" (directed by Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase) were also very popular.
The film industry was remarkable for its production of Ostern, or Western-like movies. Indians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the American westerns of the time, where Indians were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavians were often cast as the Indians, due to the small number of American Indians in eastern 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 of America in the 90s 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 America. See also Spaghetti Western and the West German Winnetou films (adaptations of novels of Karl May).
Because of censorship a certain number of very remarkable movies were forbidden at this time and reissued after the Wende in 1990. Examples are "Spur der Steine" (directed by Frank Beyer) and "Der geteilte Himmel" (directed by Konrad Wolf).
Cinemas in the GDR also showed foreign films. Czechoslovak and Polish productions were more common, but also certain western movies were shown, but the numbers were limited because it cost foreign exchange to buy the licences. Further, movies representing or glorifying capitalistic ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish "Olsen Gang" or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.
Jazz
Sports
For a small country, the people of East Germany achieved some remarkable results in many sports including cycling, weightlifting, swimming, track and field, boxing, skating and other winter sports.
One reason for the success was started with late 1960s leadership of Dr. Manfred Hoeppner. Anabolic steroid doping allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records.
Another factor for success was the furtherance-system for young people in GDR. When some children were aged around 6 until 10 years old (or older) sport-teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in every pupil. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar-schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming). This policy was also used for talented pupils with regard to music or mathematics.
Sports clubs were highly subsidized, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included each 2 teams (excluding the school and university sport). Football (soccer) was the most popular sport after team handball. Club football sides like Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and FC Hansa Rostock did have some success in European competition. Many East German players became integral parts of the reunified national football team, for example Matthias Sammer. Other sports enjoyed great popularity like figure skating, especially because of sportswomen like Katharina Witt.
East Germans patriotically supported their athletes to success in international competitions for similar reasons as those in other countries, and this no doubt played its part in the success that state enjoyed. However, as with other Soviet states, a widely held perception existed that international athletic success advertised their political and economic system to a worldwide audience. In the special case of East Germany, being the minority section of the divided Cold War era Germany, the particular success of that state was considered to foster international acceptance of the GDR as a state in its own right.
Stamps and philately
Communist States gave much importance to philately and the GDR was one of those which printed the most beautiful stamps. However, their philatelic value was sometimes questioned in the West since GDR stamps were usually part of a 3- or 4-stamp series and one of them would be very difficult to find and then would acquire an expensive value in the philatelic market. In the 1970s, as several States, such as the GDR, Paraguay, and later some Emirates, would print beautiful stamps that wouldn't be in normal circulation but would rather be sold directly in the international market, philatelical associations began to disqualify some of these products.
Television and radio
Television and radio in East Germany was state controlled. Rundfunk der DDR was the official radio broadcasting organisation from 1952 until German reunification. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin. Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), from 1972–1990 known as Fernsehen der DDR or DDR-FS, was the state television broadcaster from 1952.
Telecommunications
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 dialing for long distance calls wasn't 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. This was due to the way the calls were routed over the trunk network. After reunification, 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 serve as a participant in the international telecommunications organization established by the Soviet government, Intersputnik.
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