Editing Brandenburg (section)

===East Germany ===
[[File:Glienicke Bridge GB23840.jpg|thumb|[[Glienicke Bridge]], which connected East Germany to the American sector of West Berlin, became known for the exchange of captured spies.]]
After the foundation of [[East Germany]] in 1949, Brandenburg formed one of its component states. The State of Brandenburg was completely dissolved in 1952 by the [[Council of Ministers of the GDR|Socialist government of East Germany]], doing away with all component states. The East German government then divided Brandenburg among several ''Bezirke'' or districts. (See [[Administrative division of the German Democratic Republic]]). Most of Brandenburg lay within the [[Cottbus (Bezirk)|Bezirke of Cottbus]], [[Frankfurt (Bezirk)|Frankfurt]], or [[Potsdam (Bezirk)|Potsdam]], but parts of the former province passed to the [[Schwerin (Bezirk)|Schwerin]], [[Neubrandenburg (Bezirk)|Neubrandenburg]] and [[Magdeburg (Bezirk)|Magdeburg districts]] (town [[Havelberg]]). East Germany relied heavily on [[lignite]] (the lowest grade of coal) as an energy source, and lignite strip mines marred areas of south-eastern Brandenburg. The industrial towns surrounding Berlin were important to the East German economy, while rural Brandenburg remained mainly agricultural.