Editing East Germany (section)

===Administrative districts===
{{Main|Administrative divisions of East Germany|List of leaders of administrative divisions of East Germany}}
{{East Germany labelled map|float=right}}
Until 1952, East Germany comprised the capital, [[East Berlin]] (though legally it was not fully part of the GDR's territory), and the five [[States of Germany|German states]] of [[State of Mecklenburg (1945–1952)|Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]] (in 1947 renamed Mecklenburg), [[Brandenburg (1945–1952)|Brandenburg]], [[Saxony-Anhalt (1945–1952)|Saxony-Anhalt]] (named Province of Saxony until 1946), [[Thuringia]], and [[Saxony]]. The states' post-war territorial demarcations approximated the pre-war German demarcations of the [[Central Germany (cultural area)|Middle German]] ''Länder'' (states) and ''Provinzen'' ([[provinces of Prussia]]). The western parts of two provinces, [[Pomerania Province (1815-1945)|Pomerania]] and [[Lower Silesia]], the remainder of which were annexed by Poland, remained in the GDR and were attached to Mecklenburg and Saxony, respectively.

The [[East German Administrative Reform of 1952]] established 14 {{lang|de|Bezirke}} (districts) and ''de facto'' disestablished the five ''Länder''. The new {{lang|de|Bezirke}}, named after their district centres, were as follows: (i) [[Rostock]], (ii) [[Neubrandenburg]], and (iii) [[Schwerin]] created from the ''Land'' (state) of Mecklenburg; (iv) [[Potsdam]], (v) [[Frankfurt (Oder)]], and (vii) [[Cottbus]] from Brandenburg; (vi) [[Magdeburg]] and (viii) [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] from Saxony-Anhalt; (ix) [[Leipzig]], (xi) [[Dresden]], and (xii) [[Karl-Marx-Stadt]] (Chemnitz until 1953 and again from 1990) from Saxony; and (x) [[Erfurt]], (xiii) [[Gera]], and (xiv) [[Suhl]] from Thuringia.

East Berlin was made the country's 15th ''Bezirk'' in 1961 but retained special legal status until 1968, when the residents approved the new (draft) constitution. Despite the city as a whole being legally under the control of the [[Allied Control Council]], and diplomatic objections of the Allied governments, the GDR administered the ''Bezirk'' of Berlin as part of its territory.
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