Editing East Germany (section)

== Economy ==
{{Main|Economy of East Germany}}

[[File:DDR economy-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Map of the East German economy (August 1990)]]The East German economy began poorly due to the devastation caused by the Second World War, the loss of so many young soldiers, the disruption of business and transportation, the Allied bombing campaigns that decimated cities, and reparations owed to the USSR. The [[Red Army]] dismantled and transported lots of infrastructure and industrial plants of the Soviet Zone of Occupation to the Soviet Union. By the early 1950s, the reparations were paid in agricultural and industrial products; and [[Lower Silesia]], with its coal mines, and [[Szczecin]], an important natural port, were given to Poland by the decision of Stalin and in accordance with the [[Potsdam Agreement]].<ref name="Norman M. Naimark 1949, pp. 167-9"/>

The socialist [[centrally planned economy]] of the German Democratic Republic was like that of the USSR. In 1950, the GDR joined the [[COMECON]] trade bloc. In 1985, [[collective]] (state) enterprises earned 97% of the net national income. To ensure stable prices for goods and services, the state paid 80% of basic supply costs. The estimated 1984 per capita income was $9,800 ($22,600 in 2015 dollars) (this is based on an unreal official exchange rate). In 1976, the average annual growth of the GDP was 5 percent. This made the East German economy the richest in all of the [[Soviet Bloc]] until reunification in 1990.<ref name="Econ stats"/>[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0619-306, Trabant 601.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Trabant]] automobile was a profitable product made in the German Democratic Republic.|left]]

Notable East German exports were [[camera|photographic cameras]], under the [[Praktica]] brand; automobiles under the [[Trabant]], [[Wartburg (marque)|Wartburg]], and [[Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau|IFA]] brands; hunting rifles, [[sextant]]s, [[typewriter]]s, and [[watch|wristwatches]].

Until the 1960s, East Germans endured shortages of basic foodstuffs such as [[sugar]] and [[coffee]]. East Germans with friends or relatives in the West (or with any access to a [[hard currency]]) and the necessary {{lang|de|[[Staatsbank]]}} [[foreign currency account]] could afford Western products and export-quality East German products via [[Intershop]]. Consumer goods also were available, by post, from the Danish [[Jauerfood]], and Genex companies.

The government used money and prices as political devices, providing highly subsidised prices for a wide range of basic goods and services, in what was known as "the second pay packet".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boroch |first=Wilfried |date=1996 |title=Social policy as an institutional transformation problem |journal=[[Transition Economies]] |volume=31 |pages=139–146 |number=3}}</ref> At the production level, artificial prices made for a system of semi-barter and resource hoarding. For the consumer, it led to the substitution of GDR money with time, barter, and hard currencies. The socialist economy became steadily more dependent on financial infusions from hard currency loans from West Germany. East Germans, meanwhile, came to see their soft currency as worthless relative to the Deutsche Mark (DM).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zatlin |first=Jonathan R. |title=The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany |date=2007}}{{page?|date=September 2024}}</ref> Economic issues would also persist in East Germany after the reunification of the West and the East. According to Manfred Görtemaker, "In 1991 alone, 153 billion DM had to be transferred to eastern Germany to secure incomes, support businesses and improve infrastructure. [...] From 1991 to 1999, this resulted in a total of 1.634 trillion [DM]. [...] The sums were so large that public debt in Germany more than doubled. [...]"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Görtemaker |first=Manfred |date=2009-03-26 |title=Probleme der inneren Einigung |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutsche-einheit/deutsche-teilung-deutsche-einheit/43787/probleme-der-inneren-einigung |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQ1vDwAAQBAJ |title=The Shortest History of Germany: From Roman Frontier to the Heart of Europe - A Retelling for Our Times |publisher=The Experiment, LLC |date=2019 |isbn=9781615195701 |chapter=Federal Office of Political Education}}<!-- This book (or just its particular Google Books page?) doesn't mark pages, unfortunately --></ref>

=== Consumption and jobs ===
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:0 15px"
|-
|+ align="right" |'''Growth in GDP per capita in East and West Germany'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sleifer |first=Jaap |title=High Growth of an Underachiever? |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |date=2006 |isbn=9783050085395 |pages=66 |chapter=Planning Ahead and Falling Behind: The East German Economy in Comparison with West Germany 1936–2002 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80vnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
|
| '''East Germany'''
| '''West Germany'''
|-
| 1945–1960
| align="right" | 6.2
| align="right" | 10.9
|-
| 1950–1960
| align="right" | 6.7
| align="right" | 8.0
|-
| 1960–1970
| align="right" | 2.7
| align="right" | 4.4
|-
| 1970–1980
| align="right" | 2.6
| align="right" | 2.8
|-
| 1980–1989
| align="right" | 0.3
| align="right" | 1.9
|-
| '''Total 1950–1989'''
| align="right" | 3.1
| align="right" | 4.3
|}

Loyalty to the SED was a primary criterion for getting a good job – professionalism was secondary to political criteria in personnel recruitment and development.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sperlich |first=Peter W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xm9Fd3QgEcC |title=Oppression and Scarcity: The History and Institutional Structure of the Marxist-Leninist Government of East Germany and Some Perspectives on Life in a Socialist System |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-275-97565-4 |page=191 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516134941/https://books.google.com/books?id=3xm9Fd3QgEcC |archive-date=16 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in 1963 with a series of secret international agreements, East Germany recruited workers from [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]], [[Cuba]], [[Albanian People's Republic|Albania]], [[People's Republic of Mozambique|Mozambique]], [[People's Republic of Angola|Angola]], and [[North Vietnam]]. They numbered more than 100,000 by 1989. Many, such as future politician Zeca Schall (who emigrated from Angola in 1988 as a contract worker), stayed in Germany after the [[Wende (Germany)|Wende]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Ich liebe Thüringen, ich liebe Deutschland |trans-title=I love Thuringia, I love Germany |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zeca-schall-im-portraet-ich-liebe-thueringen-ich-liebe-deutschland/1578230.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201235008/http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zeca-schall-im-portraet-ich-liebe-thueringen-ich-liebe-deutschland/1578230.html |archive-date=1 February 2017 |access-date=20 January 2017 |language=de}}</ref>

=== Transportation ===
* [[Deutsche Reichsbahn (East Germany)]]
* [[Interflug]]

=== Telecommunications ===
{{further|Telecommunications in Germany|Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc}}
By the mid-1980s, East Germany possessed a well-developed communications system. There were approximately 3.6&nbsp;million telephones in usage (21.8 for every 100 inhabitants), and 16,476 [[Teletypewriter message|Telex]] stations. The [[Deutsche Post der DDR]] (East German Post Office) operated both these networks. East Germany was assigned telephone country code [[+37]]; in 1991, several months after reunification, East German telephone exchanges were incorporated into country code +49.

An unusual feature of the telephone network was that, in most cases, [[direct distance dialing]] for [[long-distance call]]s was not possible. Although [[area codes]] were assigned to all major towns and cities, they were only used for switching international calls. Instead, each location had its own list of dialing codes with shorter codes for [[local call]]s and longer codes for long-distance calls. After unification, the existing network was largely replaced, and area codes and dialing became standardised.

In 1976 East Germany inaugurated the operation of a ground-based radio station at [[Fürstenwalde]] for the purpose of relaying and receiving communications from Soviet satellites and to serve as a participant in the international telecommunications organization established by the Soviet government, [[Intersputnik]].