West Germany

right West Germany was the informal English name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990, during which years the Federal Republic did not include the German Democratic Republic (informally known in English as East Germany). Since the German Democratic Republic disbanded itself, with its constituent Länder acceding to the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, the Federal Republic has been known simply as Germany. West Germany was declared "fully sovereign" May 5, 1955, although the British, French and US militaries remained in the country, just as the Soviet Army remained in East Germany. West Germany's seat of government and de facto capital was Bonn although Berlin was symbolically named as the de jure capital in the West German Basic Law. Germans sometimes now refer to the old West Germany as die Bonner Republik – the Bonn Republic. See also: History of Germany since 1945, German reunification, and West Berlin.

Notes

# In German, Westdeutschland was more often used to distinguish the contiguous western states from West Berlin, which was in the middle of East Germany. In German, the western German state was, like its eastern counterpart, usually known by its initials: BRD (from Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany). Category:West Germany Germany, West ko:서독

1949

1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday.

Events

January-February

- January 4 - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage
- January 4 - February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish
- January 5 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
- January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
- January 22 - Communist forces enter Peking
- January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
- January 25 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
- January 26 - Australian Citizenship comes into being.
- February 1 - Rationing of clothes ends in Britain
- February 8 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian Communist government.
- February 12 - The Vatican announces the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Cardinal Mindszenty.
- February 14 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
- February 14 - Antonio Carmona re-elected president of Portugal for lack of opposing candidate
- February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- February 22 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March-April

Yukon, Oklahoma
- March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires
- March 1 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch
- March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight. It was refueled in flight four times.
- March 3 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds.
- March 12 - The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California as the first train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
- March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
- March 31 - The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada as its 10th province.
- April 1 - Éire leaves the Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland
- April 4 - NATO is formed.
- April 18 - Éire formally became the Republic of Ireland.
- April 20 - Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it rans aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks
- April 23 - Chinese communist troops take Nanking
- April 29 - News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist

May-June

- May 5 - The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
- May 9 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
- May 11 - Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.
- May 11 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
- May 12 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
- May 20 - The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
- May 22 - After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
- May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
- EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.
- June 2 - Transjordan becomes kingdom of Jordan
- June 6 - With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
- June 8 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
- June 8 - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
- June 29 - Last US troops withdraw from South Korea
- June 29 - Dock strike in the UK
- June 29 - Beginning of Apartheid - The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages
- July 31 - Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after the nightfall under heavy fire from both sides of the river and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day

August

- August 5 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 8000
- August 5 - 6.75 Richter scale earthquake kills 6000 in Ecuador
- August 8 - Bhutan becomes independent
- August 14 - Gang of Salvatore Giuliano explodes mines under police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily
- August 14 - Military coup in Syria ousts the president
- August 28 - Last surviving veterans of the United States Civil War meet in Indianapolis - all six
- August 29 - First meeting of the Council of Europe
- August 29 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.

September

- September 5 - A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
- September 6 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
- September 7 - Federal Republic of Germany officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor
- September 9 - Albert Guay affair: dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec
- September 13 - Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal
- September 17 - Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbor with the loss of over 118 lives.
- September 24 - Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.
- September 29 - First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
- September 29 - Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October-December

- October 1 - Birth of the People's Republic of China.
- October 7 - Democratic Republic of Germany DDR established officially
- October 13 - Severe flooding in Guatemala
- October 16 - Civil war ends in Greece - communist troops surrender
- October 17 - Chinese communist troops take Canton,_China
- October 27 - An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes near the Azores. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
- November 24 - Opening day at the ski resort Squaw Valley California.
- November 26 - The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution. [http://lawmin.nic.in/coi.htm]
- December 8 - Nationalist Chinese finish their evacuation to Taiwan.
- December 10- Robert Gordon (Bob) Menzies elected.
- December 14 - Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.
- December 15 - Typhoon strikes fishing fleet off Korea - several thousand reported dead.
- December 16 - Sukarno elected president of Republic of Indonesia.
- December 17 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China.
- December 27 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.
- December 30 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.

An Unknown Date

- The Fourth Geneva Convention is signed.
- Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to sail round Cape Horn.

Births

January

- January 2 - Christopher Durang, American playwright
- January 7 - Steven Williams, American actor
- January 8 - Wolfgang Puck, Austrian chef
- January 10 - George Foreman, American boxer
- January 10 - James Lapine, American stage director and librettist
- January 10 - Linda Lovelace, American actress (d. 2002)
- January 11 - Kalev Ots, Estonian statesman
- January 12 - Wayne Wang, Hong Kong-born film director
- January 13 - Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)
- January 14 - Lawrence Kasdan, American director and screenwriter
- January 17 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
- January 18 - Philippe Starck, French designer
- January 19 - Robert Palmer, English musician (d. 2003)
- January 20 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
- January 24 - John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
- January 30 - Peter Agre, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- January 31 - Ken Wilber, American philosopher

February

- February 2 - Brent Spiner, American actor
- February 9 - Jim Sheridan, Irish film director
- February 10 - Maxime Le Forestier, French singer
- February 10 - Harold Sylvester, American actor
- February 15 - Ken Anderson, American football player
- February 18 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
- February 19 - Dan Bunten, American computer game designer(d. 1998)
- February 22 - Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- February 25 - Ric Flair, American professional wrestler

March

- March 2 - Gates McFadden, American actress
- March 2 - Eddie Money, American singer
- March 2 - JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player
- March 3 - Jesse Jefferson, baseball player
- March 6 - Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan
- March 6 - Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer
- March 7 - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician
- March 10 - Larry Wall, American computer programmer
- March 12 - Bill Payne, American musician (Little Feat)
- March 13 - Julia Migenes, American soprano
- March 16 - Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor
- March 16 - Victor Garber, Canadian actor
- March 17 - Patrick Duffy, American actor
- March 22 - Fanny Ardant, French actress
- March 23 - Ric Ocasek, American musician (The Cars)
- March 24 - Nick Lowe, American musician
- March 26 - Patrick Süskind, German writer
- March 30 - Marcia Ball, American musician
- March 30 - Lene Lovich, American singer

April-June

- April 1 - Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman
- April 1 - Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer
- April 3 - Richard Thompson, British musician and songwriter
- April 6 - Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 7 - John Oates, American musician (Hall and Oates)
- April 14 - John Shea, American actor
- April 16 - Sandy Hawley, Canadian jockey
- April 17 - Claudia de Santa-Fe, American painter and sculptor
- April 18 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
- May 4 - John Force, American race car driver
- May 9 - Billy Joel, American musician
- May 18 - Rick Wakeman, English musician and songwriter (Yes)
- May 18 - Bill Wallace, Canadian musician (The Guess Who)
- May 19 - Archie Manning, American football player
- May 24 - Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician
- May 26 - Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
- May 26 - Hank Williams Jr., American singer
- May 31 - Tom Berenger, American actor
- June 8 - Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist
- June 13 - Ann Druyan, writer
- June 14 - Jimmy Lea, English musician (Slade)
- June 14 - Harry Turtledove, American historian and novelist
- June 21 - John Agard, British poet and playwright
- June 21 - Jane Urquhart, Canadian author
- June 24 - Albert Zappelli, American Educator

July-September

- July 3 - Jan Smithers, American actress
- July 15 - Carl Bildt, Prime Minister of Sweden
- July 17 - Charlie Steiner, American sportscaster
- July 22 - Alan Menken, American composer
- July 26 - Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen)
- August 6 - Alan Campbell, Irish minister
- August 7 - Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze
- August 12 - Mark Knopfler, Swiss guitarist
- August 15 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
- August 23 - Shelley Long, American actress
- August 23 - Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
- August 25 - Martin Amis, English novelist
- August 31 - Richard Gere, American actor
- August 31 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 1 - P.A. Sangma, Indian politician
- September 3 - Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria (d. 2004)
- September 7 - Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper
- September 7 - Gloria Gaynor, American singer
- September 14 - Eikichi Yazawa, Japanese singer
- September 15 - Joe Barton, American politician
- September 17 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress Elvira
- September 18 - Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)
- September 23 - Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter
- September 27 - Mike Schmidt, baseball player

October-December

- October 1 - Isaac Bonewits, American author and occultist
- October 2 - Lorraine Bracco, American actress
- October 8 - Sigourney Weaver, American actress
- October 14 - Katy Manning, British actress
- October 20 - Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
- October 21 - Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
- October 22 - Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (d. 1990)
- November 5 - Armin Shimerman, American actor
- November 6 - Arturo Sandoval, Cuban musician
- November 7 - Aiswarya, Queen of Nepal (d. 2001)
- November 7 - Judi Bari, American environmental activist (d. 1997)
- November 24 - Nicholas Richard Ainger, British politician
- November 26 - Juanin Clay, American actress (d. 1995)
- November 29 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born dancer and actor (d. 1995)
- December 3 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler (d. 1997)
- December 4 - Jeff Bridges, American actor
- December 4 - Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born comedienne, actress, and singer
- December 7 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor
- December 12 - Bill Nighy, English actor
- December 13 – Randy Owen, lead singer of the country music band Alabama
- December 14 - Bill Buckner, baseball player
- December 15 - Don Johnson, American actor
- December 17 - Paul Rodgers, British singer (Free)
- December 22 - Maurice Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
- December 22 - Robin Gibb, Australian musician (The Bee Gees)
- December 24 - Randy Neugebauer, American politician
- December 25 - Sissy Spacek, American actress
- December 25 - Joe Louis Walker, American musician
- December 26 - José Ramos Horta, Foreign Minister of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Unknown date

- William Hope, Canadian actor

Deaths

- January 6 - Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)
- January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)
- January 14 - Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)
- January 28 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
- February 12 - Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
- March 30 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
- April 19 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
- May 6 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- May 9 - Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)
- May 22 - James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)
- May 22 - Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)
- June 10 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- June 14 - Russell Doubleday, American author and publisher (b. 1872)
- July 9 - Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)
- July 12 - Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)
- July 18- Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)
- August 18 - Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)
- August 30 - Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)
- September 8 - Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
- September 13 - August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
- September 19 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)
- September 19 - Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)
- October 27 - Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)
- October 27 - Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)
- December 6 - Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885)
- December 11 - Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)
- December 16 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
- December 28 - Hervey Allen, American author (b. 1889)
- December 28 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Yukawa Hideki
- Chemistry - William Francis Giauque
- Medicine - Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
- Literature - William Faulkner
- Peace - John Boyd Orr Category:1949 ko:1949년 ms:1949 ja:1949年 simple:1949 th:พ.ศ. 2492

German Democratic Republic

East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a socialist state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in East Berlin on October 7, 1949, five weeks after the Federal Republic of Germany in western Germany. It was declared fully sovereign in 1954. Soviet troops remained based on the four-power Potsdam agreement, largely to counterbalance the U.S. presence in West Germany during the Cold War. East Germany was a member of the Warsaw Pact. In the first and last free elections of the GDR on March 18, 1990, the leading communist party SED lost the majority in the Volkskammer (the parliament of the GDR), of which they had been guaranteed in the previous elections. On August 23 the Volkskammer decided that the territory of East Germany (including East Berlin) would accede to the ambit of the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990. As a result of German reunification on that date, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist.

History

Main articles: History of the German Democratic Republic, History of Germany The territories of East Germany were settled by Germanic peoples during the last few centuries BC. During the post-Roman migration period, many of these populations left for other lands, and Slavic Wends settled in their wake. German imperial rulers reconquered the area during the Middle Ages. The newly acquired land was organised in margravates, German feudal states on the land of Slavs. Consequent waves of German settlements, which in subsequent centuries later included French Hugenots and Jews, gradually modified the originally Slavic composition of the land, except for the small community of Sorbs in Lusatia, and eventually most of what is now East Germany formed a large part of the historical Kingdom of Prussia. In Imperial Germany and later during the time of the Weimar Republic, territory that would become East Germany was situated in the center of the state. This territory was known as "Mitteldeutschland" (Middle Germany), while the designation "East" was reserved for provinces such as eastern Pomerania, eastern Brandenburg, Silesia and East and West Prussia. During WWII, Allied leaders decided at the Yalta Conference that post-war borders of Poland would be moved westward to the Oder-Neisse line, just as Soviet borders were also moved westward into formerly Polish territory. Discussions at Yalta and Potsdam also outlined the planned occupation and administration of post-war Germany under a four-power Allied Control Council, or ACC (composed of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union). At the end of World War II, at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, four of the victorious countries France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into four occupation zones. Each country would control a part of Germany until its sovereignty was restored. The Länder (states) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, and the eastern sector of Greater Berlin fell in the Soviet Sector of Germany, or SBZ. Soviet objections to economic and political reforms in western (US, UK, and French) occupation zones led to Soviet withdrawal from the ACC in 1948 and subsequent evolution of the SBZ into East Germany. Concurrently, the western occupation zones consolidated to form West Germany (or the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG). Just as Germany was divided after the war, Berlin, the former capital, of Germany was divided into four sectors. Since Berlin was entirely enclosed in the Soviet part of Germany, the areas of Berlin being held under the control of the UK, the United States and France soon became known as West Berlin while the Soviet sector became known as East Berlin. Conflict over the status of West Berlin led to the Berlin Airlift. The increasing prosperity of West Germany and growing political oppression in the East led large numbers of East Germans to flee to the West. East Germany adopted a socialist republic and became part of the Warsaw Pact, while West Germany became a liberal parliamentary republic and part of NATO. The first leader of East Germany was Wilhelm Pieck. He was the first (and last) president of the GDR. The East German Constitution defined the country as "a Republic of Workers and Peasants." On June 17, 1953, following a production quota increase of 10 percent for workers building East Berlin's new showcase boulevard, the Stalinallee, demonstrations broke out in East Berlin and other industrial centers. Later that day, Soviet troops and tanks suppressed the demonstrations killing at least 125 (See Straße des 17. Juni and Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany). Since the 1940s, refugees had been leaving the Soviet zone of Germany to start a new life in the west. Although the inter-German border was largely closed by the mid-1950s (see GDR border system), the sector borders in Berlin were relatively easy to cross. In 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. The Stasi spied extensively on the citizens to suppress dissenters through its network of 175,000 informants and 90,000 agents. In 1971, Erich Honecker replaced Ulbricht in what was technically a coup, with the blessing of the USSR. East Germany was generally regarded as the most economically advanced member of the Warsaw Pact. Before the 1970s, the official position of West Germany was that of the Hallstein Doctrine which involved non-recognition of East Germany. In the early 1970s, Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. Competition with the West was carried on also on an athletic level. East German athletes dominated several Olympic disciplines. Of special interest was the only football match ever to occur between West and East Germany, a first round match during the 1974 World Cup. Though West Germany was the host and the eventual champion, East beat West 1-0. In August 1989 Hungary removed its border restrictions and several thousand people fled East Germany by crossing the "green" border into Hungary and then on to Austria and West Germany. Many others peacefully demonstrated against the ruling party. These demonstrations eventually forced the resignation of Honecker; in October he was replaced, albeit briefly, by Egon Krenz. On November 9 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, resulting in emotional scenes as hundreds of thousands of East Germans crossed into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Soon the whole authoritarian system of East Germany fell apart. Although there were some small attempts to create a permanent non-authoritarian East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for reunification with West Germany. After some negotiations (2+4 Talks, involving the two Germanies and the victory powers United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), conditions for German reunification were agreed upon. Thus, on October 3 1990 the East German population was the first from the Eastern Bloc to join the European Economic Community as a part of the reunified Federal Republic of Germany. The East German territory was reorganized into what is now the city of Berlin and five states, reconstituting political entities that had been abolished in 1950. To this day, there remain many differences between the former East Germany and West Germany (e.g. in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs and other matters) and thus it is still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. The Eastern German economy has struggled since German re-unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east.
Politics
Main article: Politics of East Germany The equivalent of the Communist Party in East Germany was the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED), which along with other parties, was part of the National Front of Democratic Germany. It was created in 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet controlled zone. Following reunification, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The other political parties ran under the joint slate of the National Front, controlled by the SED, for elections to the Volkskammer, the East German Parliament. (Elections took place, but were effectively controlled by the SED/state hierarchy, as for example Hans Modrow has noted.) In West Germany, the KPD was banned in 1956. #Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU), merged with the West-German CDU after reunification #Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, DBD), merged with the West-German CDU after reunification #Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, LDPD), merged with the West-German FDP after reunification #Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany, NDPD), merged with the West-German FDP after reunification The Volkskammer also included representatives from the mass organisations like the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend or FDJ), or the Free German Trade Union Federation. In an attempt to include women in the political life in East Germany, there was even a Democratic Women's Federation of Germany with seats in the Volkskammer. Non-parliamentary mass organisations which nevertheless played a key role 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.
Persons of note in East Germany
Society for German-Soviet Friendship Representatives of the SED regime - see also Leaders of East Germany
- Hermann Axen, editor-in-chief of the SED paper "Neues Deutschland" 1956-1978, SED secretary for international relations 1966-1989
- Johannes R. Becher, first minister for culture 1954-1958, wrote the lyrics of the national anthem
- Hilde Benjamin, vice president of the supreme court 1949-1953, minister for justice 1953-1967, dubbed "red guillotine" for her relentless persecution of political opponents
- Otto Grotewohl, Chairman of the East German SPD 1945-1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946-54; Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1949-64
- Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the SED 1971-89; Chairman of the Council of State, 1976-89
- Margot Honecker née Feist, minister for education 1963-1989
- Heinz Keßler, minister for defence 1985-1989 (deputy minister since 1957)
- Egon Krenz, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and chairman of Council of State October - December 1989, he was Honnecker's deputy and "crown prince" since 1983
- Erich Mielke, Stasi Minister 1957-1989
- Günter Mittag, SED secretary for economics 1962-1973, 1976-1989
- Hans Modrow, SED district secretary for Dresden 1973-1989, last SED prime minister November 1989 - March 1990
- Wilhelm Pieck, Chairman of the East German KPD 1945-1946; joint chairman of the SED 1946-54; State President 1949-60
- Günter Schabowski, SED district secretary for Berlin 1985-1989; as party spokesperson he caused the fall of the Berlin wall
- Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, head of the department of "commercial coordination" in the ministry of foreign trade.
- Karl Schirdewan, SED secretary 1953-1958, dismissed for "faction building"
- Horst Sindermann, Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1973-1976; president of parliament 1976-1989
- Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, chief propagandist on East German television
- Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1964-73, 1976-89; Chairman of the Council of State, 1973-76
- Harry Tisch, head of the Free German Trade Union Federation 1975-1989
- Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the SED 1950-71; Chairman of the Council of State, 1960-73)
- Markus "Mischa" Wolf, head of the GDR's intelligence departmenet 1952-1989 Other persons:
- Rudolf Bahro, dissident
- Wolf Biermann, singer/songwriter and dissident, citizenship withdrawn in 1976 when he was on tour in West Germany
- Ibrahim Böhme, dissident, first chairman of the East German Social Democrats in 1989-1990, resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer
- Bärbel Bohley, artist and dissident
- Rainer Eppelmann, Protestant pastor, dissident, minister for defence and disarmament March - October 1990
- Jürgen Fuchs, writer and dissident
- Gregor Gysi, lawyer to dissidents, chairman of the SED/PDS November 1989 - 1998, allegedly former Stasi informer
- Wolfgang Harich, intellectual sentenced to prison for counterrevolutionary activities
- Robert Havemann, dissident
- Walter Janka, publisher who was sentenced to prison in 1957 for "counterrevolutionary activities"
- Gustav Just, reform-minded journalist sentenced to four years imprisonment in 1957
- Lothar de Maiziere, first (and only) freely elected prime minister April - October 1990, allegedly former Stasi informer
- Markus Meckel, Protestant pastor, deputy chairman of the East German Social Democrats 1989-1990, GDR foreign minister April - August 1990
- Wolfgang Schnur, lawyer to dissidents, opposition politician (Democratic Awakening in 1990 but resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer
Subdivisions
Main article: Subdivisions of East Germany In 1952, the Länder of East Germany were abolished, and East Germany was divided into fifteen Bezirke (districts), each named after the largest city: Rostock; Schwerin; Neubrandenburg; Magdeburg; Potsdam; Berlin; Frankfurt (Oder); Cottbus; Halle; Erfurt; Leipzig; Dresden; Karl-Marx-Stadt (now again Chemnitz); Gera; Suhl
Economy
Main article: Economy of the German Democratic Republic Economy of the German Democratic Republic Like other East European communist states, East Germany had a centrally planned economy (CPE), similar to the one in the former Soviet Union, in contrast to the more familiar market economies or mixed economies of most Western states. The state established production targets and prices and allocated resources, codifying these decisions in a comprehensive plan or set of plans. The means of production were almost entirely state owned. In 1985, for example, state-owned enterprises or collectives earned 96.7 percent of total net national income. To secure constant prices for inhabitants, the state bore 80% of costs of basic supplies, from bread to housing. Advocates of CPEs considered this organizational form to have important advantages. First, the government could harness the economy to serve the political and economic objectives of the leadership. Consumer demand, for example, could be restrained in favor of greater investment in basic industry or channeled into desired patterns, such as reliance on public transportation rather than on private automobiles. Second, CPEs could maximize the continuous utilization of all available resources. Under CPEs, neither unemployment nor idle plants should have existed beyond minimal levels, and the economy should have developed in a stable manner, unimpeded by inflation or recession. Third, CPEs could serve social rather than individual ends; under such a system, the leadership could distribute rewards, whether wages or perquisites, according to the concept of "social value" of the service performed, not according to supply and demand on an open market. Critics of CPEs identified several characteristic problems. First, given the complexities of economic processes, the plan must be a simplification of reality. Individuals and producing units can be given directives or targets, but in carrying out the plan they may select courses of action that conflict with the overall interests of society as determined by the planners. Such courses of action might include, for example, ignoring quality standards, producing an improper product mix, or using resources wastefully. Second, critics contended that CPEs have build-in obstacles to innovation and efficiency in production; managers of producing units, frequently having limited discretionary authority, see as their first priority a strict fulfillment of the plan targets rather than, for example, development of new techniques or diversification of products. Third, the system of allocating goods and services in CPEs was thought to be inefficient. Most of the total mix of products was distributed according to the plan, with the aid of a rationing mechanism known as the System of Material Balances. But since no one could predict perfectly the actual needs of each producing unit, some units received too many goods and others too few. The managers with surpluses were hesitant to admit they had them, for CPEs were typically "taut," that is, they carried low inventories and reserves. Managers preferred to hoard whatever they had and then to make informal trades when they were in need and could find someone else whose requirements complemented their own. Finally, detractors argued that in CPEs prices did not reflect the value of available resources, goods, or services. In market economies, prices, which are based on cost and utility considerations, permit the determination of value, even if imperfectly. In CPEs, prices were determined administratively, and the criteria the state used to establish them were sometimes unrelated to costs. Prices often varied significantly from the actual social or economic value of the products for which they had been set and were not a valid basis for comparing the relative value of two or more products to society. East German economists and planners were well aware of the alleged strengths and weaknesses of their system of planned economy. They contended that Western critics overstated the disadvantages and that in any case these problems were not inherent in the system itself. They directed their efforts toward preserving the fundamental framework of the system while introducing modifications that could address the problems just noted. 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. More important was the supervision of the SED's Politburo, which monitored and directed ongoing economic processes. That key group, however, could concern itself with no more than the general, fundamental, or extremely serious economic questions, for it also had the full range of other matters on its agenda. At the head of the government organs responsible for formally adopting and carrying out policies elaborated by the party congress and Politburo was the Council of Ministers, which had more than forty members and was in turn headed by a Presidium of sixteen. The Council of Ministers supervised and coordinated the activities of all other central bodies responsible for the economy, and it played a direct and specific role in important cases. The State Planning Commission (sometimes called the Economic General Staff of the Council of Ministers) advised the Council of Ministers on possible alternative economic strategies and their implications, translated the general targets set by the council into planning directives and more specific plan targets for each of the ministries beneath it, coordinated short-, medium-, and long-range planning, and mediated interministerial disagreements. The individual ministries had major responsibility for the detailed direction of the different sectors of the economy. The ministries were responsible within their separate spheres for detailed planning, resource allocation, development, implementation of innovations, and generally for the efficient achievement of their individual plans. Directly below the ministries were the centrally directed trusts, or Kombinate. Intended to be replacements for the Associations of Publicly Owned Enterprises--the largely administrative organizations that previously served as a link between the ministries and the individual enterprises--the Kombinate resulted from the merging of various industrial enterprises into large-scale entities in the late-1970s, based on interrelationships between their production activities. The Kombinate included research enterprises, which the state incorporated into their structures to provide better focus for research efforts and speedier application of research results to production. A single, united management directed the entire production process in each Kombinat, from research to production and sales. The reform also attempted to foster closer ties between the activities of the Kombinate and the foreign trade enterprises by subordinating the latter to both the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Kombinate. The goal of the Kombinat reform measure was to achieve greater efficiency and rationality by concentrating authority in the hands of midlevel leadership. The Kombinat management also provided significant input for the central planning process. By the early 1980s, establishment of Kombinate for both centrally managed and district-managed enterprises was essentially complete. Particularly from 1982 to 1984, the government established various regulations and laws to define more precisely the parameters of these entities. These provisions tended to reinforce the primacy of central planning and to limit the autonomy of the Kombinate, apparently to a greater extent than originally planned. As of early 1986, there were 132 centrally managed Kombinate, with an average of 25,000 employees per Kombinat. District-managed Kombinate numbered 93, with an average of about 2,000 employees each. At the base of the entire economic structure were the producing units. Although these varied in size and responsibility, the government gradually reduced their number and increased their size. The number of industrial enterprises in 1985 was only slightly more than one-fifth that of 1960. Their independence decreased significantly as the Kombinate became fully functional. In addition to the basic structure of the industrial sector, a supplementary hierarchy of government organs reached down from the Council of Ministers and the State Planning Commission to territorial rather than functional subunits. Regional and local planning commissions and economic councils, subordinate to the State Planning Commission and the Council of Ministers, respectively, extended down to the local level. They considered such matters as the proper or optimal placement of industry, environmental protection, and housing. The agricultural sector of the economy had a somewhat different place in the system, although it too was thoroughly integrated. It was almost entirely collectivized except for private plots. The collective farms were formally self-governing. They were, however, subordinate to the Council of Ministers through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Foodstuffs. A complex set of relationships also connected them with other cooperatives and related industries, such as food processing. The fact that East Germany had a planned economy did not mean that a single, comprehensive plan was the basis of all economic activity. An interlocking web of plans having varying degrees of specificity, comprehensiveness, and duration was in operation at all times; any or all of these may have been modified during the continuous process of performance monitoring or as a result of new and unforeseen circumstances. The resultant system of plans was extremely complex, and maintaining internal consistency between the various plans was a considerable task. Operationally, short-term planning was the most important for production and resource allocation. It covered one calendar year and encompassed the entire economy. The key targets set at the central level were overall rate of growth of the economy, volume and structure of the domestic product and its uses, utilization of raw materials and labor and their distribution by sector and region, and volume and structure of exports and imports. Beginning with the 1981 plan, the state added assessment of the ration of raw material use against value and quantity of output to promote more efficient use of scarce resources. Medium-range (five-year) planning used the same indicators, although with less specificity. Although the five-year plan was duly enacted into law, it is more properly seen as a series of guidelines rather than as a set of direct orders. It was typically published several months after the start of the five-year period it covered, after the first one-year plan had been enacted into law. More general than a one-year plan, the five-year plan was nevertheless specific enough to integrate the yearly plans into a longer time frame. Thus it provided continuity and direction. In the early 1970s, long-term, comprehensive planning began. It too provided general guidance, but over a longer period (fifteen or twenty years), long enough to link the five-year plans in a coherent manner. In the first phase of planning, the centrally determined objectives were divided and assigned to appropriate subordinate units. After internal consideration and discussion had occurred at each level and suppliers and buyers had completed negotiations, the separate parts were reaggregated into draft plans. In the final stage, which follows the acceptance of the total package by the State Planning Commission and the Council of Ministers, the finished plan was redivided among the ministries, and the relevant responsibilities were distributed once more to the producing units. The production plan was supplemented by other mechanisms that control supplies and establish monetary accountability. One such mechanism was the System of Material Balances, which allocated materials, equipment, and consumer goods. It acted as a rationing system, ensuring each element of the economy access to the basic goods it needed to fulfill its obligations. Since most of the goods produced by the economy were covered by this control mechanism, producing units had difficulty obtaining needed items over and above their allocated levels. Another control mechanism was the assignment of prices for all goods and services. These prices served as a basis for calculating expenses and receipts. Enterprises had every incentive to use these prices as guidelines in decision making. Doing so made plan fulfillment possible and earned bonus funds of various sorts for the enterprise. These bonuses were not allocated indiscriminately for gross output but were awarded for such accomplishments as the introduction of innovations or reduction of labor costs. The system functioned smoothly only when its component parts were staffed with individuals whose values coincided with those of the regime or at least complemented regime values. Such a sharing took place in part through the integrative force of the party organs whose members occupied leading positions in the economic structure. Efforts were also made to promote a common sense of purpose through mass participation of almost all workers and farmers in organized discussion of economic planning, tasks, and performance. An East German journal reported, for example, that during preliminary discussion concerning the 1986 annual plan, 2.2 million employees in various enterprises and work brigades of the country at large contributed 735,377 suggestions and comments. Ultimate decision making, however, came from above. The private sector of the economy was small but not entirely insignificant. In 1985 about 2.8 percent of the net national product came from private enterprises. The private sector included private farmers and gardeners; independent craftsmen, wholesalers, and retailers; and individuals employed in so-called free-lance activities (artist, writers, and others). Although self-employed, such individuals were strictly regulated. in 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. The SED leadership, for example, had been encouraging private initiative as part of the effort to upgrade consumer services. In addition to those East Germans who were self-employed full time, there were others who engaged in private economic activity on the side. The best known and most important examples were families on collective farms who also cultivated private plots (which can be as large as 5,000 m²). Their contribution was significant; according to official sources, in 1985 the farmers privately owned about 8.2 percent of the hogs, 14.7 percent of the sheep, 32.8 percent of the horses, and 30 percent of the laying hens in the country. Professionals such as commercial artists and doctors also worked privately in their free time, subject to separate tax and other regulations. Their impact on the economic system, however, was negligible. More difficult to assess, because of its covert and informal nature, was the significance of that part of the private sector called the "second economy." As used here, the term includes all economic arrangements or activities that, owing to their informality or their illegality, took place beyond state control or surveillance. The subject has received considerable attention from Western economists, most of whom are convinced that it is important in CPEs. In the mid-1980s, however, evidence was difficult to obtain and tended to be anecdotal in nature. One kind of informal economic activity included private arrangements to provide goods or services in return for payment. An elderly woman might have hired a neighbor boy to haul coal up to her apartment, or an employed woman might have paid a neighbour to do her washing. Closely related would be instances of hiring an acquaintance to repair a clock, tune up an automobile, or repair a toilet. Such arrangements take place in any society, and given the serious deficiencies in the East German service sector, they may have been more necessary than in the West. They were doubtlessly common, and because they were considered harmless, they were not the subject of any significant governmental concern. There was another kind of private economic activity, however, that did concern the government: the stealing and selling of goods for profit by individuals who had ready access to them. For example, an individual might siphon gasoline from a public vehicle and sell it to a friend. No statistics are available on such practices. Surface impressions, however, suggest that they are not very common or significant, certainly not as significant as may be the case in other socialist states where they were reportedly quasi-institutionalized. Another common activity that was troublesome if not disruptive was the practice of offering a sum of money beyond the selling price to individuals selling desirable goods, or giving something special as partial payment for products in short supply. Such ventures may have been no more than offering someone Trinkgeld (a tip), but they may have also involved Schmiergeld (money used to "grease" a transaction) or Beziehungen (special relationships). Opinions in East Germany varied as to how significant these practices were. But given the abundance of money in circulation and frequent shortages in luxury items and durable consumer goods, most people were perhaps occasionally tempted to provide a "sweetener," particularly for such things as automobile parts or furniture. These irregularities did not appear to constitute a major economic problem. However, the East German press occasionally reported prosecutions of particularly egregious cases of illegal "second economy" activity, involving what are called "crimes against socialist property" and other activities that are in "conflict and contradiction with the interests and demands of society" (as one report described the situation).
Culture
Main article: Culture of the German Democratic Republic
GDR mainstream
Rock bands were expected to sing in German only. This seemed a logical constraint by Party leaders but it was somewhat unpopular amongst young people. Another problem for the authorities was having to check song texts very carefully for anti-socialist tendencies. The band Renft, for example, was prone to political misbehaviour, which eventually led to its breakdown. The Puhdys and Karat were popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at anti-socialist thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like most mainstream acts, they appeared in popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Influences from the West were heard everywhere, because TV and radio that came from the Klassenfeind (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.
Bach
On a more traditional level, the East German government celebrated the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory, and spent a great deal of money converting his house in Eisenach 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.
Miscellaneous topics

- Germany
- West Germany
- History of Germany since 1945
- History of East Germany
- Berlin
- East Berlin
- West Berlin
- Bonn Forces
- National People's Army
- Stasi
- Volkspolizei
- Conscientious objection in East Germany Media
- Aktuelle Kamera, GDR's main TV news show
- Radio Berlin International
- Der Tunnel, a film about a mass evacuation to West Berlin through a tunnel Other
- Interflug - The airline of the GDR
- Tourism in East Germany
- Education in East Germany
- GDR jokes
- Ostalgie
- Highest point: Fichtelberg (1,214 m)
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External links

- [http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/01/politics-of-mourning.html "The Politics of Mourning"]
- [http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=5528 AHF - Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)]
- [http://www.auferstanden-aus-ruinen.de/ Auferstanden aus Ruinen]
Countries of the world | Europe Category:Cold War
- Germany, East als:Deutsche Demokratische Republik ko:독일민주공화국 ms:Jerman Timur ja:ドイツ民主共和国 th:เยอรมนีตะวันออก