Editing East Germany (section)

== History ==
{{History of Germany}}
{{Main|History of East Germany}}
{{Further|History of Germany}}

[[File:Soviet Sector Germany.png|thumb|On the basis of the [[Potsdam Conference]], the Allies jointly occupied Germany west of the [[Oder–Neisse line]]. This territory later became two independent countries.<br/>''Light grey'': territories annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union.<br/>''Dark grey'': West Germany (formed from the US, UK, and French occupation zones, including [[West Berlin]]).<br/>''Red'': East Germany (formed from the Soviet occupation zone, including [[East Berlin]]).]]

Explaining the internal impact of the GDR government from the perspective of German history in the long term, historian [[Gerhard A. Ritter]] (2002) has argued that two dominant forces defined the East German state: [[Soviet communism]] on the one hand, and German traditions filtered through the interwar experiences of German communists on the other.<ref>Compare: {{Cite journal |last=Ritter |first=Gerhard A. |author-link=Gerhard A. Ritter |date=April 2002 |title=Die DDR in der deutschen Geschichte |trans-title=The GDR in German history |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |language=de |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=171–172 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116143839/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2019 |access-date=16 November 2019 |quote=Die Geschichte der DDR ist im wesentlichen zwischen zwei Polen einzubetten. Den einen Pol bildet die Sowjetisierung [...] Den anderen Pol bildeten deutsche Traditionen, vor allem die Vorstellungen der kommunistischen Arbeiterbewegung. |trans-quote=The history of the GDR is essentially embedded between two poles. Sovietization formed one pole [...] German traditions formed the other pole, above all the ideas of the communist workers' movement.}}</ref> Throughout its existence, the GDR consistently grappled with the influence of the more prosperous West, against which East Germans continually measured their own nation. The notable transformations instituted by the communist regime were particularly evident in the abolition of capitalism, the overhaul of industrial and agricultural sectors, the militarization of society, and the political orientation of both the [[Education in East Germany|educational system]] and the media.

On the other hand, the new regime made relatively few changes in the historically independent domains of the sciences, the engineering professions,<ref name="ritter2"/>{{rp|185–189}} the Protestant churches,<ref name="ritter2"/>{{rp|190}} and in many bourgeois lifestyles.<ref name="ritter2"/>{{rp|190}} Social policy, says Ritter, became a critical legitimization tool in the last decades and mixed socialist and traditional elements about equally.<ref name="ritter2">{{Cite journal |last=Ritter |first=Gerhard A. |author-link=Gerhard A. Ritter |date=April 2002 |title=Die DDR in der deutschen Geschichte |trans-title=The GDR in German history |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |language=de |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=171–200 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116143839/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/2002_2_2_ritter.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2019 |access-date=16 November 2019 |quote=In der Sozialpolitik hielten sich die Kontinuitäten und die Brüche mit der deutschen Tradition etwa die Waage. [...] Seit Mitte der sechziger Jahre, vor allem aber in der Ära Honecker, in der die 'Einheit von Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik' zum Leitprinzip erhoben wurde, wurde die Sozialpolitik die wohl wichtigste Legitimationsgrundlage des Staates.}}</ref>

=== Origins ===
At the [[Yalta Conference]] during World War II, the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]{{Snd}}the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and the Soviet Union (USSR){{Snd}}agreed to divide defeated [[Nazi Germany]] into [[Allied-occupied Germany|occupation zones]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yalta Conference |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514081136/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWyalta.htm |archive-date=14 May 2011 |access-date=25 September 2010 |website=spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk}}</ref> as well as divide Berlin, the German capital, among the Allied powers. Initially, this meant the formation of three zones of occupation (i.e., American, British, and Soviet). Later, a French zone was carved out of the US and British zones.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information |first=Bureau of Public Affairs |date=2008-07-18 |title=Allied Occupation of Germany, 1945-52 |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cwr/107189.htm |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=2001-2009.state.gov |language=en}}</ref>

=== 1949 establishment ===
{{Eastern Bloc sidebar}}

The ruling communist party, known as the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED), formed on 21 April 1946 from [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|the merger]] between the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) and the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD).<ref>On the discussion about Social Democrats joining the SED see Steffen Kachel, Entscheidung für die SED 1946 – ein Verrat an sozialdemokratischen Idealen?, in: ''[[Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung]]'', No. I/2004.{{date?}}</ref> The two former parties had previously been notorious rivals before the Nazis consolidated all power and criminalized them. Official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties and as symbolic of the new friendship of German socialists after defeating their common enemy.<ref name=":4"/> However, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than was commonly portrayed; that the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD, and the communists, who held a majority, had virtually total control over policy.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |author=Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland |title=LeMO Kapitel: Zwangsvereinigung zur SED |trans-title=LeMO Chapter: Forced Association to the SED |url=http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614213527/http://www.hdg.de/lemo/html/Nachkriegsjahre/PolitischerNeubeginn/sed.html |archive-date=14 June 2012 |access-date=15 July 2012 |website=hdg.de |language=de}}</ref> The SED remained the ruling party for the entire duration of the East German state. It had close ties with the Soviets, which maintained [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|military forces in East Germany]] until the dissolution of the Soviet regime in 1991 ([[Russia]] continued to maintain forces in the territory of the former East Germany until 1994), with the purpose of countering [[NATO]] bases in West Germany.

As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from its occupiers (1945–1949), the GDR was established in East Germany in October 1949. The emergence of the two sovereign states solidified the 1945 division of Germany.<ref>See [http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm Anna M. Cienciala "History 557 Lecture Notes"] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100620054515/http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect17.htm |date= 20 June 2010}}</ref> On 10 March 1952, (in what would become known as the "[[Stalin Note]]") the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], [[Joseph Stalin]], issued a proposal to reunify Germany with a policy of neutrality, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for "the rights of man and basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, press, religious persuasion, political conviction, and assembly" and free activity of democratic parties and organizations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steininger |first=Rolf |author-link=Rolf Steininger |title=The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification |date=1990 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York}}</ref> The West demurred; reunification was not then a priority for the [[leadership]] of West Germany, and the NATO powers declined the proposal, asserting that Germany should be able to join [[NATO]] and that such a negotiation with the Soviet Union would be seen as a capitulation.

In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the SED, headed by [[Wilhelm Pieck]] (1876–1960), who became [[President of the German Democratic Republic|President of the GDR]] and held the office until his death, while the [[First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED general secretary]] [[Walter Ulbricht]] assumed most executive authority. Socialist leader [[Otto Grotewohl]] (1894–1964) became [[Council of Ministers of East Germany|prime minister]] until his death.<ref>Roth, Gary. "Review of Hoffmann, Dierk: ''Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): Eine politische Biographie''" H-German, H-Net Reviews. November 2010. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 online] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121017042506/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31618 |date = 17 October 2012}}</ref>

The government of East Germany denounced West German failures in accomplishing [[denazification]] and renounced ties to the [[Nazism|Nazi]] past, imprisoning many former Nazis and preventing them from holding government positions. The SED set a primary goal of ridding East Germany of all traces of Nazism.<ref>Gomez Gutiérrez, J.J. & Bruschi, V. (2003). "Socialist Unity Party of Germany". In N. Schlager (Ed.), ''St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide: Major Events in Labor History and Their Impact.'' St. James Press.</ref> It is estimated that{{when|date=December 2020}} between 180,000 and 250,000 people were sentenced to imprisonment on political grounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic |url=https://communistcrimes.org/en/political-prisoners-german-democratic-republic |access-date=24 November 2020 |website=Political prisoners in the German Democratic Republic {{!}} Communist Crimes |language=en}}</ref>

=== Zones of occupation ===
{{Further|Allied-occupied Germany|Soviet occupation zone of Germany}}

In the Yalta and [[Potsdam Conference|Potsdam]] conferences of 1945, the Allies established their joint military occupation and administration of Germany via the [[Allied Control Council]] (ACC), a four-power (US, UK, USSR, France) [[military occupation|military government]] effective until the restoration of German sovereignty. In eastern Germany, the Soviet Occupation Zone (''Sowjetische Besatzungszone'', SBZ) comprised the five states (''Länder'') of [[Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]], [[Brandenburg]], [[Saxony]], [[Saxony-Anhalt]], and [[Thuringia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Edward N. |author-link=Edward N. Peterson |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38207545 |title=Russian Commands and German Resistance: The Soviet Occupation, 1945–1949 |date=1999 |publisher=P. Lang |isbn=0-8204-3948-7 |location=New York |pages=5 |oclc=38207545}}</ref> Disagreements over the policies to be followed in the occupied zones quickly led to a breakdown in cooperation between the four powers, and the Soviets administered their zone without regard to the policies implemented in the other zones. The Soviets withdrew from the ACC in 1948; subsequently, as the other three zones were increasingly unified and granted self-government, the Soviet administration instituted a separate socialist government in its zone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Edward N. |author-link=Edward N. Peterson |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38207545 |title=Russian Commands and German Resistance: The Soviet Occupation, 1945–1949 |date=1999 |publisher=P. Lang |isbn=0-8204-3948-7 |location=New York |oclc=38207545}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stokes |first=Raymond G. |author-link=Raymond G. Stokes |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51480817 |title=Constructing Socialism: Technology and Change in East Germany 1945–1990 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=0-8018-7299-5 |location=Baltimore |oclc=51480817}}</ref>

[[File:Deutschland Bundeslaender 1949.png|thumb|left|upright|West Germany (blue) comprised the Western Allies' zones, excluding disputed [[Saar (protectorate)|Saarland]] (purple); the Soviet zone, East Germany (red) surrounded West Berlin (yellow).]]

Seven years after the Allies' 1945 [[Potsdam Agreement]] on common German policies, the USSR via the [[Stalin Note]] (10 March 1952) proposed [[German reunification]] and [[superpower disengagement]] from Central Europe, which the three Western Allies (US, UK, France) rejected.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ruggenthaler |first=Peter |date=2011 |title=The 1952 Stalin Note on German Unification: The Ongoing Debate |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26924047 |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=172–212 |doi=10.1162/JCWS_a_00145 |issn=1520-3972 |jstor=26924047}}</ref> Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]], a Communist proponent of reunification, died in early March 1953. Similarly, [[Lavrenty Beria]], the First Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR, pursued German reunification but was removed from power that same year before he could act on the matter. His successor, [[Nikita Khrushchev]], rejected reunification as equivalent to returning East Germany for annexation to the West; hence reunification was off the table until the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|fall of the Berlin wall]] in 1989.

[[File:West and East Berlin.svg|thumb|Map of West and East Berlin bisected by the Berlin Wall]]

East Germany regarded East Berlin as its capital, and the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc diplomatically recognized East Berlin as the capital. However, the Western Allies disputed this recognition, and considered the entire city of Berlin to be [[military occupation|occupied territory]] governed by the ACC. According to Margarete Feinstein, the West and most [[Third World]] countries largely unrecognized East Berlin's status as the capital.<ref name="German Democratic Republic page 78">{{Cite book |last=Feinstein |first=Margarete Myers |title=State Symbols: The Quest for Legitimacy in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, 1949–1959 |date=2001 |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |isbn=9780391041035 |page=78 |quote=... claims of East Berlin as the capital of the GDR, ... East Berlin was not recognized by the West and most Third World countries.}}</ref> In practice, the [[Cold War]] nullified the ACC's authority, East Berlin's status as occupied territory largely became a [[legal fiction]], and the Soviet sector of Berlin fully integrated into the GDR.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulbrook |first=Mary |author-link=Mary Fulbrook |title=Becoming East German: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler |last2=Port |first2=Andrew I. |publisher=Berghahn Books |date=2013 |isbn=9780857459756}}</ref>

The deepening Cold War conflict between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union over the unresolved status of West Berlin led to the [[Berlin Blockade]] (24 June 1948{{snd}}12 May 1949). The Soviet army initiated the blockade by halting all Allied rail, road, and water traffic to and from West Berlin. The Allies countered the Soviets with the [[Berlin Airlift]] (1948–49) of food, fuel, and supplies to West Berlin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haydock |first=Michael D. |title=City Under Siege: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948–1949 |date=2000}}</ref>

=== Partition ===

On 21 April 1946 the [[Communist Party of Germany]] ({{lang|de|Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands}}; KPD) and the part of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] ({{lang|de|Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands}}; SPD) in the Soviet zone merged to form the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] ({{lang|de| Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands}}; SED), which then won the [[1946 Soviet occupation zone state elections|elections of October 1946]]. The SED government [[nationalization|nationalised]] infrastructure and industrial plants.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19000-3301, Berlin, DDR-Gründung, Wahl Pieck, Grotewohl.jpg|thumb|left|GDR leaders: President [[Wilhelm Pieck]] and Prime Minister [[Otto Grotewohl]], 1949]]

In March 1948 the [[German Economic Commission]] ({{lang|de|Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission}}; DWK) under its chairman [[Heinrich Rau]] assumed administrative authority in the Soviet occupation zone, thus becoming the predecessor of the East German government.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weitz|1997|p=350}} Following a Soviet order in February 1948, the German Economic Commission became a nascent state structure for all intents and purposes, with competence far beyond the economy proper; it gained the power to issue orders and directives to all German organs within the Soviet Occupation Zone.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|McCauley|1983|p=38}} The DWK had become the ''de facto'' government of the Soviet zone. Its chairman was Heinrich Rau (SED), and four of his six deputies were also SED members.</ref>

On 7 October 1949 the SED established the German Democratic Republic ({{lang|de|Deutsche Demokratische Republik}}; GDR), based on a socialist political constitution establishing its control of the [[anti-Fascism|Anti-Fascist]] [[National Front (East Germany)|National Front of the German Democratic Republic]] ({{lang|de|Nationale Front der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik}}; NF), an omnibus alliance of every party and mass organisation in East Germany. The NF was established to stand for election to the [[People's Chamber]] ({{lang|de|Volkskammer}}), the East German parliament. The first and only president of the German Democratic Republic was [[Wilhelm Pieck]]. However, after 1950, political power in East Germany was held by the First Secretary of the SED, [[Walter Ulbricht]].<ref name="MajorOsmond"/>

[[File:Opvolger van Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Bestanddeelnr 911-5926 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright| SED First Secretary, [[Walter Ulbricht]], 1960]]

On 16 June 1953, workers constructing the new {{lang|de|[[Stalinallee]]}} boulevard in East Berlin, according to the GDR's officially promulgated [[The Sixteen Principles of Urban Design|Sixteen Principles of Urban Design]], rioted against a 10% production-quota increase. Initially a labour protest, the action soon included the general populace, and on 17 June similar protests occurred throughout the GDR, with more than a million people [[general strike|striking]] in some 700 cities and towns. Fearing anti-communist [[counter-revolution]], on 18 June 1953 the government of the GDR enlisted the [[Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany|Soviet Occupation Forces]] to aid the police in ending the riot; some fifty people were killed and 10,000 were jailed (see [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany]]).{{Clarify|reason=I don't understand the transition between the previous paragraph and this one.|date=January 2020}}<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,894998,00.html East Berlin 17 June 1953: Stones Against Tanks] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110123034004/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,894998,00.html |date= 23 January 2011}}, {{Lang|de|Deutsche Welle}}. Retrieved 16 May 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1975 |title=Beria's Fall and Ulbricht's Survival |journal=[[Soviet Studies]] |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=381–395 |doi=10.1080/09668137508411013 |author-first=Victor |author-last=Baras}}</ref>

The German [[war reparations]] owed to the Soviets impoverished the Soviet Zone of Occupation and severely weakened the East German economy. During 1945–46 the Soviets confiscated and transported to the USSR approximately 33% of the industrial plants, and by the early 1950s had extracted some US$10&nbsp;billion in reparations in agricultural and industrial products.<ref name="Norman M. Naimark 1949, pp. 167-9">[[Norman M. Naimark]]. ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949.'' Harvard University Press, 1995. {{ISBN| 0-674-78405-7}} pp.&nbsp;167–169.</ref> The poverty of East Germany, induced or deepened by reparations, provoked the {{lang|de|[[Republikflucht]]}} ("desertion from the republic") to West Germany, further weakening the GDR's economy. Western economic opportunities induced a [[brain drain]]. In response, the GDR closed the [[inner German border]], and on the night of 12 August 1961, East German soldiers began erecting the [[Berlin Wall]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Frederick |author-link=Frederick Taylor (historian) |title=Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–1989 |date=2006 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=9780060786137}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R1220-401, Erich Honecker (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright| [[Erich Honecker]], head of state (1971–1989)]]

In 1971, Ulbricht was removed from leadership after Soviet leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]] supported his ouster;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allinson |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Allinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osIeBAAAQBAJ |title=Contemporary Germany: Essays and Texts on Politics, Economics & Society |last2=Leaman |first2=Jeremy |last3=Parkes |first3=Stuart |last4=Tolkiehn |first4=Barbara |date=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-317-87977-0 |location=London and New York |page=39 |language=de |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref> [[Erich Honecker]] replaced him. While the Ulbricht government had experimented with liberal reforms, the Honecker government reversed them. The new government introduced a new [[East German Constitution]] which defined the German Democratic Republic as a "republic of workers and peasants".<ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 1979 |title=Soviet-GDR Relations in the Honecker Era |journal=East Central Europe |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=152–172 |doi=10.1163/187633079X00150 |author-first=Henry |author-last=Krisch}}</ref>

Initially, East Germany claimed an [[exclusive mandate]] for all of Germany, a claim supported by most of the Communist Bloc. It claimed that West Germany was an illegally constituted [[puppet state]] of NATO. However, from the 1960s onward, East Germany began recognizing itself as a separate country from West Germany and shared the legacy of the [[German Reich|united German state of 1871–1945]]. This was formalized in 1974 when the reunification clause was removed from the revised East German constitution. West Germany, in contrast, maintained that it was the only legitimate government of Germany. From 1949 to the early 1970s, West Germany maintained that East Germany was an illegally constituted state. It argued that the GDR was a Soviet puppet-state and frequently referred to it as the "Soviet occupation zone". West Germany's allies shared this position until 1973. East Germany was recognized primarily by socialist countries and the [[Arab bloc|Arab Bloc]], along with some "scattered sympathizers".<ref name="time">{{Cite magazine |date=1 January 1973 |title=East Germany: The Price of Recognition |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903634,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111218025533/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903634,00.html |archive-date=18 December 2011 |access-date=21 October 2011 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]}}</ref> According to the [[Hallstein Doctrine]] (1955), West Germany did not establish (formal) diplomatic ties with any country{{snd}}except the Soviets{{snd}}that recognized East German sovereignty.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0801-026, Helsinki, KSZE-Konferenz, Schlussakte.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb| Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) [[Helmut Schmidt]], Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) [[Erich Honecker]], U.S. president [[Gerald Ford]] and Austrian chancellor [[Bruno Kreisky]] signing the [[Helsinki Accords|Helsinki Act]]]]

In the early 1970s, the {{lang|de|[[Ostpolitik]]}} ('Eastern Policy') of "Change Through Rapprochement" of the pragmatic government of [[West Germany|FRG]] [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] [[Willy Brandt]], established normal diplomatic relations with the [[Eastern Bloc]] states. This policy saw the [[Treaty of Moscow (1970)|Treaty of Moscow]] (August 1970), the [[Treaty of Warsaw (1970)|Treaty of Warsaw]] (December 1970), the [[Four Power Agreement on Berlin]] (September 1971), the [[Transit Agreement (1972)|Transit Agreement]] (May 1972), and the [[Basic Treaty (1972)|Basic Treaty]] (December 1972), which relinquished any separate claims to an [[exclusive mandate]] over Germany as a whole and established normal relations between the two Germanies. Both countries were admitted into the United Nations on 18 September 1973. This also increased the number of countries recognizing East Germany to 55, including the US, UK and France, though these three still refused to recognize East Berlin as the capital, and insisted on a specific provision in the UN resolution accepting the two Germanies into the UN to that effect.<ref name="time"/> Following the Ostpolitik, West Germany viewed East Germany as a ''de facto'' government within a single German nation and a ''de jure'' state organisation of parts of Germany outside the Federal Republic. The Federal Republic continued to maintain that it could not within its own structures recognize the GDR ''de jure'' as a sovereign state under international law; but it fully acknowledged that, within the structures of international law, the GDR was an independent sovereign state. By distinction, West Germany then viewed itself as being within its own boundaries, not only the ''de facto'' and ''de jure'' government, but also the sole ''de jure'' legitimate representative of a dormant "Germany as whole".{{Sfn|Quint|1991|p=14}} The two German governments each relinquished any claim to represent the other internationally, which they acknowledged as necessarily implying a mutual recognition of each other as both capable of representing their own populations ''de jure'' in participating in international bodies and agreements, such as the [[United Nations]] and the [[Helsinki Accords|Helsinki Final Act]].

This assessment of the Basic Treaty was confirmed in a decision of the [[Federal Constitutional Court]] in 1973:<ref>{{Citation |last=Kommers |first=Donald P. |title=The Constitutional Jursiprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany |page=308 |date=2012 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|the German Democratic Republic is in the international-law sense a State and as such a subject of international law. This finding is independent of recognition in international law of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany. Such recognition has not only never been formally pronounced by the Federal Republic of Germany but on the contrary repeatedly explicitly rejected. If the conduct of the Federal Republic of Germany towards the German Democratic Republic is assessed in the light of its détente policy, in particular, the conclusion of the Treaty as de facto recognition, then it can only be understood as de facto recognition of a special kind. The special feature of this Treaty is that while it is a bilateral Treaty between two States, to which the rules of international law apply and which like any other international treaty possesses validity, it is between two States that are parts of a still existing, albeit incapable of action as not being reorganized, comprehensive State of the Whole of Germany with a single body politic.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Texas Law: Foreign Law Translations 1973 |url=https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220152049/https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |access-date=7 December 2016 |publisher=[[University of Texas]]}}</ref>}}

Travel between the GDR and Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary became visa-free from 1972.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zuelow |first=Eric G. E. |title=Touring Beyond the Nation: A Transnational Approach to European Tourism History |date=2011 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7546-6656-1 |page=220}}</ref>

=== GDR identity ===
[[File:Karl Marx memorial.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Karl Marx]] monument in [[Chemnitz]] (renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt 1953–1990)]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0816-002, Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Platz, Brunnen.jpg|right|thumb|[[City-Hochhaus Leipzig|Uni-Riese]] ("University Giant") in 1982. Built in 1972, it was once part of the [[University of Leipzig|Karl-Marx-University]] and is Leipzig's tallest building.]]

From the beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity.<ref>[[David Priestland]], ''Red Flag: A History of Communism'', New York: [[Grove Press]], 2009.</ref> Because of the imperial and military legacy of [[Prussia]], the SED repudiated continuity between Prussia and the GDR. The SED destroyed a number of symbolic relics of the former [[Prussian aristocracy]]{{Snd}}[[Junker (Prussia)|Junker]] manor-houses were torn down, the [[City Palace, Berlin|Berliner Stadtschloß]] was razed and the [[Palace of the Republic, Berlin|Palace of the Republic]] was built in its place, and the [[equestrian statue of Frederick the Great]] was removed from East Berlin. Instead, the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including [[Thomas Müntzer]]'s role in the [[German Peasants' War]] (1524–1525) and the roles of heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. The SED upheld other notable figures and reformers from Prussian history{{Snd}}such as [[Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein|Karl Freiherr vom Stein]] (1757–1831), [[Karl August von Hardenberg]] (1750–1822), [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]] (1767–1835), and [[Gerhard von Scharnhorst]] (1755–1813){{Snd}}as examples and role models.

==== Remembrance of the Third Reich ====
The communist regime of the GDR based its legitimacy on the struggle of anti-fascist militants. The [[Buchenwald Resistance]], a resistance group, was established at the memorial site of the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]], with the creation of a museum in 1958, and the annual celebration of the Buchenwald oath taken on 19 April 1945 by the prisoners who pledged to fight for peace and freedom. In the 1990s, the 'state anti-fascism' of the GDR gave way to the 'state anti-communism' of the FRG. From then on, the dominant interpretation of GDR history, based on the concept of totalitarianism, led to the equivalence of communism and Nazism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |date=April 2020 |title=À Buchenwald, les antifascistes ont perdu la guerre mémorielle |trans-title=In Buchenwald, the anti-fascists have lost the memory war |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2020/04/COMBE/61583 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung 'Neues Deutschland' über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |date=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=2–3, 88–91 |language=de |trans-title=GDR politics of remembrance. Shown in the report of the daily newspaper 'Neues Deutschland' on the national memorial sites in Buchenwald, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen}}</ref>

Although officially built in opposition to the 'fascist world' in West Germany, 32% of GDR public administration employees in 1954 were former members of the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP). However, in 1961, the share of former NSDAP members among the senior Interior Ministry administration staff was less than 10% in the GDR, compared to 67% in the FRG.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Combe |first=Sonia |date=January 2021 |title=Antisémite, l'Allemagne de l'Est ? |trans-title=Anti-Semite, East Germany? |url=https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2021/01/COMBE/62660 |website=Le Monde diplomatique |language=fr}}</ref> While a work of memory on the resurgence of Nazism was carried out in West Germany, this was not the case in the East.

On 17 October 1987, around thirty [[Skinhead|skinheads]] threw themselves into a crowd of 2,000 people at a rock concert in the [[Zionskirche, Dresden|Zionskirche]] without the police intervening.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |title=L'Allemagne paiera |date=2013 |pages=166–167 |language=fr |trans-title=Germany will pay}}</ref> In 1990, the writer [[Freya Klier]] received a death threat for writing an essay on [[antisemitism]] and [[xenophobia]] in the GDR. SPDA Vice President [[Wolfgang Thierse]], for his part, complained in ''[[Die Welt]]'' about the rise of the extreme right in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the former GDR, in particular the terrorist group NSU, with the German journalist Odile Benyahia-Kouider explaining that "it is no coincidence that the neo-Nazi party NPD has experienced a renaissance via the East".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benyahia-Kouider |first=Odile |author-link=Odile Benyahia-Kouider |title=L'Allemagne paiera |date=2013 |pages=179 |language=fr |trans-title=Germany Will Pay}}</ref>

The historian Sonia Combe observes that until the 1990s, the majority of West German historians described the [[Normandy landings]] in June 1944 as an "invasion", exonerated the [[Wehrmacht]] of its responsibility for the genocide of the Jews, and fabricated the myth of a diplomatic corps that "did not know". In contrast, [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] was never a taboo in the GDR. The Nazis' crimes were the subject of extensive film, theatre, and literary productions. In 1991, 16% of the population in West Germany and 6% in East Germany had antisemitic prejudices. In 1994, 40% of West Germans and 22% of East Germans felt that too much emphasis was placed on the genocide of the Jews.<ref name=":2"/>

Historian [[Ulrich Pfeil]], nevertheless, recalls the fact that anti-fascist commemoration in the GDR had "a hagiographic and indoctrination character".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Pfeil |first=Ulrich |author-link=Ulrich Pfeil |date=9 April 2020 |title=Die DDR als Zankapfel in Forschung und Politik |trans-title=The GDR as a Bone of Contention in Research and Politics |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/307645/die-ddr-als-zankapfel-in-forschung-und-politik/#footnode48-48 |website=[[Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung]] |language=de}}</ref> As in the case of the memory of the protagonists of the German labour movement and the victims of the camps, it was "staged, censored, ordered" and, during the 40 years of the regime, was an instrument of legitimisation, repression, and maintenance of power.<ref name=":3"/>

=== ''Die Wende'' (German reunification) ===
{{Main|Die Wende|Peaceful Revolution|German reunification}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1104-437, Berlin, Demonstration am 4. November.jpg|thumb| Demonstration on [[Alexanderplatz]] in East Berlin on 4 November 1989]]
In May 1989, following widespread public anger over the faking of local government election results, many GDR citizens applied for exit visas or [[Republikflucht|left the country]] contrary to GDR laws. The impetus for this exodus of East Germans was the removal of the electrified fence along [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]]'s border with [[Austria]] on 2 May 1989. Although formally the Hungarian frontier was still closed, many East Germans took the opportunity to enter Hungary via [[Czechoslovakia]], and then make the illegal crossing from Hungary to Austria and to West Germany beyond.<ref name="Judt612"/> By July, 25,000 East Germans had crossed into Hungary;<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Berlin Wall (1961–89) |url=http://www.germannotes.com/hist_east_wall.shtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050419213613/http://www.germannotes.com/hist_east_wall.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2005 |access-date=24 October 2006 |website=German Notes}}</ref> most of them did not attempt the risky crossing into Austria but remained instead in Hungary or claimed asylum in West German embassies in [[Prague]] or [[Budapest]].

The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] on 19 August 1989 then triggered a chain reaction leading to the end of the GDR and the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc. It was the largest mass escape from East Germany since the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The idea of opening the border at a ceremony came from [[Otto von Habsburg]], who proposed it to [[Miklós Németh]], then Hungarian Prime Minister, who promoted the idea.<ref>Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> The patrons of the picnic, Habsburg and Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]], who did not attend the event, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s reaction to an opening of the border on the [[Iron Curtain]]. In particular, it tested whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene. The [[Paneuropean Union]] advertised extensively for the planned picnic with posters and flyers distributed among GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, then headed by [[Karl von Habsburg]], distributed thousands of brochures inviting GDR citizens to a picnic near the border at Sopron (near Hungary's border with Austria).<ref name="Hilde Szabo 2014">{{Cite news |last=Szabo |first=Hilde |date=16 August 1999 |title=Die Berliner Mauer begann im Burgenland zu bröckeln |trans-title=The Berlin Wall began to crumble in Burgenland |url=https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/welt-europa/weltpolitik/364731_Die-Berliner-Mauer-begann-im-Burgenland-zu-broeckeln.html |work=[[Wiener Zeitung]] |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lahodynsky |first=Otmar |date=9 August 2014 |title=Paneuropäisches Picknick: Die Generalprobe für den Mauerfall |trans-title=Pan-European picnic: the Dress Rehearsal for the Fall of the Berlin Wall |magazine=[[profil (magazine)|profil]] |language=de}}</ref><ref name="Die Zeit 2014">{{Cite news |last=Greven |first=Ludwig |date=19 August 2014 |title=Und dann ging das Tor auf |trans-title=And then the Gate Opened |url=https://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/2014-08/ddr-flucht-1989-grenzpicknick-sopron |work=Die Zeit}}</ref> The local Sopron organizers knew nothing of possible GDR refugees, but envisaged a local party with Austrian and Hungarian participation.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lahodynsky |first=Otmar |date=13 June 2019 |title=Eiserner Vorhang: Picknick an der Grenze |trans-title=Iron curtain: Picnic at the Border |magazine=[[profil (magazine)|profil]] |language=de}}</ref> But with the mass exodus at the picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus, the barrier of the Eastern Bloc was broken. Tens of thousands of East Germans, alerted by the media, made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or force its border troops to open fire on escapees. The GDR leadership in East Berlin did not dare to completely lock down their own country's borders.<ref name="Hilde Szabo 2014"/><ref name="Die Zeit 2014"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Roser |first=Thomas |date=17 August 2014 |title=DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln |trans-title=Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world |url=https://www.diepresse.com/3855470/ddr-massenflucht-ein-picknick-hebt-die-welt-aus-den-angeln |work=[[Die Presse]] |language=de |publication-place=Vienna}}</ref><ref>{{ill|Frank, Michael (journalist)|de|Michael Frank}} {{Cite news |date=17 May 2010 |title=Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit |trans-title=Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/paneuropaeisches-picknick-mit-dem-picknickkorb-in-die-freiheit-1.170802-0 |work=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] |language=de}}</ref>

The next major turning point in the exodus came on 10 September 1989, when Hungarian Foreign Minister [[Gyula Horn]] announced that his country would no longer restrict movement from Hungary into Austria. Within two days, 22,000 East Germans crossed into Austria; tens of thousands more did so in the following weeks.<ref name="Judt612">{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=612}}</ref>

Many other GDR citizens [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|demonstrated against the ruling party]], especially in the city of [[Leipzig]]. The Leipzig demonstrations became a weekly occurrence, with a turnout of 10,000 people at the first demonstration on 2 October, and a peak of an estimated 300,000 by the end of the month.<ref name="Judt613"/> The protests were surpassed in East Berlin, where half a million demonstrators turned out against the regime on 4 November.<ref name="Judt613">{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=613}}</ref> [[Kurt Masur]], conductor of the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra]], led local negotiations with the government and held town meetings in the concert hall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Darnton |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Darnton |title=Berlin Journal |date=1992 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |pages=98–99}}</ref> The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October; he was replaced by a slightly more moderate communist, [[Egon Krenz]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book |last=Sarotte |first=Mary Elise |author-link=Mary Elise Sarotte |title=Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall |date=2014 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |isbn=9780465064946 |location=New York}}</ref>

The massive demonstration in East Berlin on 4 November coincided with Czechoslovakia formally opening its border to West Germany.<ref name="Judt614">{{harvnb|Judt|2005|page=614}}</ref> With the West more accessible than ever before, 30,000 East Germans made the crossing via Czechoslovakia in the first two days alone. To try to stem the outward flow of the population, the SED proposed a law loosening travel restrictions. When the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} rejected it on 5 November, the Cabinet and [[Politburo]] of the GDR resigned.<ref name="Judt614"/> This left only one avenue open for Krenz and the SED: completely abolishing travel restrictions between East and West.

On 9 November 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing freely into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time in nearly 30 years. Krenz resigned a month later, and the SED opened negotiations with the leaders of the incipient Democratic movement, [[Neues Forum]], to schedule free elections and begin the process of democratization. As part of this process, the SED eliminated the clause in the East German constitution guaranteeing the Communists leadership of the state. The change was approved in the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} on 1 December 1989 by a vote of 420 to 0.{{sfn|Judt|2005|page=615}}
[[File:Logo of the Alliance for Germany.png|thumb|Logo of the [[Alliance for Germany]] coalition, which was led by the [[Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)]]]]
East Germany held [[1990 East German general election|its last election in March 1990]]. The winner was [[Alliance for Germany]], a coalition headed by the East German branch of West Germany's [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]], which advocated speedy reunification. Negotiations ([[Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany|2+4]] Talks) were held involving the two German states and the former [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], which led to agreement on the conditions for German unification. By a two-thirds vote in the {{lang|de|Volkskammer|italic=no}} on 23 August 1990, the German Democratic Republic declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany. The five original [[New states of Germany|East German states]] that had been abolished in the 1952 redistricting were restored.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> On 3 October 1990, the five 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]]). On 1 July, a currency union preceded the political union: the [[East German mark|Ostmark]] was abolished, and the Western German [[Deutsche Mark]] became the common currency.

Although the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}}'s declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated the process of reunification, the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions, and qualifications, some of which involved amendments to the West German Basic Law) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990 – that is, through a binding agreement between the former Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic, now recognising each other as separate sovereign states in international law.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kommers |first=Donald P. |title=The Constitutional Jursiprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |date=2012 |page=309}}</ref> The treaty was then voted into effect prior to the agreed date for unification by both the {{lang|de|Volkskammer}} and the [[Bundestag]] by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand the extinction of the GDR, and on the other the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic.

The wide economic and socio-political inequalities between the former German states required government subsidies for the full integration of the GDR into the FRG. Because of the resulting [[deindustrialization]] in former East Germany, the causes of the failure of this integration continue to be debated. Some western commentators{{Who|date=January 2025}} claim that the depressed eastern economy is a natural aftereffect of a demonstrably inefficient [[command economy]]. But many East German critics contend that the [[Shock therapy (economics)|shock-therapy]] style of [[privatization]], the artificially high [[rate of exchange]] offered for the Ostmark, and the speed with which the entire process was implemented did not leave room for East German enterprises to adapt.{{efn|For example, the economist Jörg Roesler{{snd}}see: Jörg Roesler: Ein Anderes Deutschland war möglich. Alternative Programme für das wirtschaftliche Zusammengehen beider deutscher Staaten, in: [[Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung]], No. II/2010, pp. 34–46. Historian Ulrich Busch argued that the currency union came too early; see Ulrich Busch: Die Währungsunion am 1. Juli 1990: Wirtschaftspolitische Fehlleistung mit Folgen, in: [[Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung]], No. II/2010, pp.&nbsp;5–24.}}