Known as East Germany or East Germany, a former republic located in central Europe, it is limited to the north with the Baltic Sea, to the east with Poland, to the south with the current Republic Czech Republic and to the west with the former Federal Republic of Germany.
East Germany occupied an area of 108,178 kilometers in length. It was officially constituted as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on October 7, 1949, as one of the successor states of Germany defeated in World War II. The other state was the Federal Republic of Germany. East Germany ceased to exist as an independent state on October 3, 1990, after the reunification of the two Germanys, which retained the name of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The German Democratic Republic occupied the zones that currently constitute the German states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The republic designated East Berlin as its capital. At the time of reunification, it had about 16 million inhabitants.
Walter Ulbricht ruled East Germany for over 25 years. Determined to transform the country following communist precepts, he developed a foreign policy to strengthen relations with other communist states, joining the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (COMECON) and participating in the founding of the Warsaw Pact.
From 1971, with the appointment of Erich Honecker as leader of the Unified Socialist Party, relations with West Germany improved. In 1972, Willy Brandt signed some agreements that allowed the access of the population of the Federal Republic to West Berlin and, in 1973, diplomatic relations were resumed. Honecker, who rose to the presidency in 1976, was the first East German head of state to officially visit the Federal Republic.
The Communist government was dissolved in 1989 after Hungary canceled an agreement established 20 years earlier with East Germany, allowing thousands of citizens to cross the border into Austria and then West Germany, where they were granted political asylum. With the political crisis of 1989, Honecker was forced to resign from the presidency and Egon Krenz took over as president and party leader. In November, the Berlin Wall was opened, other existing barriers to immigration came down, and hundreds of thousands of East Germans left for East Berlin.
German Civilization
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