Proclamation of the GDR. German Democratic Republic



GERMANY. STORY. 1948-2000
Divided Germany: 1949-1990. The history of Germany and the history of the Cold War in the period 1949-1990 are closely related to each other. The division of the country was one of the most important results of the rivalry between the two superpowers - the USA and the USSR. German reunification became possible in 1990, following the collapse of the communist system and as a result of a significant improvement in relations between East and West. The creation of independent German states in 1949 (the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic) cemented the division of the country into two hostile societies. Under the rule of the SED, East Germany became a country with a dictatorial one-party system, a centralized economy and total state control. In contrast, West Germany became a democratic state with a market economy. As the Cold War deepened, relations between the two Germanys became increasingly strained, although they never completely broke down. Since the 1960s, there had been a marked increase in the volume of trade, and numerous personal contacts between the inhabitants of divided Germany showed that the citizens of the two countries could never become complete strangers to each other. In addition, the Federal Republic of Germany was a refuge for millions of Germans who fled the GDR (mainly in the 1940s and 1950s). Nevertheless, the development of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany proceeded in divergent directions. The construction of the Berlin Wall (1961), in combination with other methods of border security, firmly isolated the GDR. In 1968, the East German government declared that the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany had nothing in common except language. The new doctrine even denied historical community: the GDR personified everything noble and progressive in German history, the FRG - everything backward and reactionary. Creation of the German Democratic Republic. In the Soviet occupation zone, the creation of the German Democratic Republic was legitimized by the institutions of the People's Congresses. The 1st German People's Congress met in December 1947, and was attended by the SED, LDPD, a number of public organizations and the KPD from the western zones (the CDU refused to take part in the congress). Delegates came from all over Germany, but 80% of them represented residents of the Soviet occupation zone. The 2nd Congress was convened in March 1948, attended by delegates only from East Germany. It elected the German People's Council, whose task was to develop a constitution for a new democratic Germany. The Council adopted a constitution in March 1949, and in May of that year elections for delegates to the 3rd German People's Congress took place, following the model that had become the norm in the Soviet bloc: voters could only vote for a single list of candidates, the vast majority of whom were members of the SED . The 2nd German People's Council was elected at the congress. Although the SED delegates did not constitute a majority in this council, the party secured a dominant position through the party leadership of delegates from public organizations (youth movement, trade unions, women's organization, cultural league). On October 7, 1949, the German People's Council proclaimed the creation of the German Democratic Republic. Wilhelm Pieck became the first president of the GDR, and Otto Grotewohl became the head of the Provisional Government. Five months before the adoption of the constitution and the proclamation of the GDR, the Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed in West Germany. Since the official creation of the GDR occurred after the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, East German leaders had a reason to blame the West for the division of Germany. Economic difficulties and worker discontent in the GDR. Throughout its existence, the GDR constantly experienced economic difficulties. Some were the result of scarce natural resources and poor economic infrastructure, but most were the result of policies pursued by the Soviet Union and East German authorities. There were no deposits of such important minerals as coal and iron ore on the territory of the GDR. There was also a lack of high-class managers and engineers who fled to the West. In 1952, the SED proclaimed that socialism would be built in the GDR. Following the Stalinist model, the leaders of the GDR imposed a rigid economic system with central planning and state control. Heavy industry was given priority for development. Ignoring the dissatisfaction of citizens caused by the shortage of consumer goods, the authorities tried by all means to force workers to increase labor productivity. After Stalin's death, the workers' situation did not improve, and they responded with an uprising on June 16-17, 1953. The action began as a strike by East Berlin construction workers. The unrest immediately spread to other industries in the capital, and then to the entire GDR. The strikers demanded not only an improvement in their economic situation, but also the holding of free elections. The authorities were in a state of panic. The paramilitary "People's Police" lost control of the situation, and the Soviet military administration brought in tanks. After the events of June 1953, the government switched to a policy of carrots and sticks. More lenient economic policies (the New Deal) included lower production standards for workers and increased production of some consumer goods. At the same time, large-scale repressions were carried out against the instigators of unrest and disloyal functionaries of the SED. About 20 demonstrators were executed, many were thrown into prison, almost a third of party officials were either removed from their posts or transferred to other jobs with the official motivation “for losing contact with the people.” Nevertheless, the regime managed to overcome the crisis. Two years later, the USSR officially recognized the sovereignty of the GDR, and in 1956 East Germany formed its armed forces and became a full member of the Warsaw Pact. Another shock for the countries of the Soviet bloc was the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956), at which Chairman of the Council of Ministers N.S. Khrushchev denounced Stalin's repressions. The revelations of the leader of the USSR caused unrest in Poland and Hungary, but in the GDR the situation remained calm. The improvement in the economic situation caused by the new course, as well as the opportunity for dissatisfied citizens to “vote with their feet”, i.e. emigrate across the open border in Berlin helped prevent a repeat of the events of 1953. Some softening of Soviet policies after the 20th Congress of the CPSU encouraged those members of the SED who did not agree with the position of Walter Ulbricht, a key political figure in the country, and other hardliners. The reformers, led by Wolfgang Harich, a university teacher. Humboldt in East Berlin, advocated democratic elections, workers' control in production and the "socialist unification" of Germany. Ulbricht managed to overcome this opposition of the “revisionist deviationists.” Harich was sent to prison, where he stayed from 1957 to 1964.
Berlin Wall. Having defeated the supporters of reforms in their ranks, the East German leadership began accelerated nationalization. In 1959, mass collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of numerous small enterprises began. In 1958, about 52% of land was owned by the private sector; by 1960 it had increased to 8%. Showing support for the GDR, Khrushchev took a tough line against Berlin. He demanded that the Western powers effectively recognize the GDR, threatening to close access to West Berlin. (Until the 1970s, the Western powers refused to recognize the GDR as an independent state, insisting that Germany must be unified in accordance with the post-war agreements.) Once again, the scale of the exodus from the GDR assumed daunting proportions for the government. In 1961, more than 207 thousand citizens left the GDR (in total, more than 3 million people moved to the West since 1945). In August 1961, the East German government blocked the flow of refugees by ordering the construction of a concrete wall and barbed wire fence between East and West Berlin. Within a few months, the border between the GDR and West Germany was equipped.
Stability and prosperity of the GDR. The exodus of the population stopped, specialists remained in the country. It became possible to carry out more effective government planning. As a result, the country managed to achieve modest levels of prosperity in the 1960s and 1970s. The rise in living standards was not accompanied by political liberalization or a weakening of dependence on the USSR. The SED continued to tightly control the areas of art and intellectual activity. East German intellectuals experienced significantly greater restrictions on their creativity than their Hungarian or Polish colleagues. The nation's well-known cultural prestige rested largely on left-leaning older writers such as Bertolt Brecht (with his wife, Helena Weigel, who directed the famous Berliner Ensemble theater group), Anna Seghers, Arnold Zweig, Willy Bredel and Ludwig Renn. . But several new significant names also appeared, among them Christa Wolf and Stefan Geim. It should also be noted that East German historians, such as Horst Drexler and other researchers of German colonial policy 1880-1918, in whose works a reassessment of individual events in recent German history were carried out. But the GDR was most successful in increasing its international prestige in the field of sports. A developed system of state sports clubs and training camps has produced high-quality athletes who have achieved amazing success at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 1972.
Changes in the leadership of the GDR. By the late 1960s, the Soviet Union, still tightly in control of East Germany, began to show dissatisfaction with Walter Ulbricht's policies. The leader of the SED actively opposed the new policy of the West German government led by Willy Brandt, aimed at improving relations between West Germany and the Soviet bloc. Dissatisfied with Ulbricht's attempts to sabotage Brandt's eastern policy, the Soviet leadership achieved his resignation from party posts. Ulbricht retained the insignificant post of head of state until his death in 1973. Ulbricht was succeeded as first secretary of the SED by Erich Honecker. A native of the Saarland, he joined the Communist Party at an early age and, after his release from prison at the end of World War II, became a professional SED functionary. For many years he headed the youth organization "Free German Youth". Honecker intended to strengthen what he called "real socialism." Under Honecker, the GDR began to play a prominent role in international politics, especially in relations with Third World countries. After the signing of the Basic Treaty with West Germany (1972), the GDR was recognized by the majority of countries in the world community and in 1973, like the FRG, became a member of the UN.
Collapse of the GDR. Although there were no further mass protests until the late 1980s, the East German population never fully adapted to the SED regime. In 1985, about 400 thousand citizens of the GDR applied for a permanent exit visa. Many intellectuals and church leaders openly criticized the regime for its lack of political and cultural freedoms. The government responded by increasing censorship and expelling some prominent dissidents from the country. Ordinary citizens expressed outrage at the system of total surveillance carried out by an army of informants who were in the service of the Stasi secret police. By the 1980s, the Stasi had become something of a corrupt state within a state, controlling its own industrial enterprises and even speculating on the international foreign exchange market. The coming to power in the USSR of M. S. Gorbachev and his policies of perestroika and glasnost undermined the basis for the existence of the ruling SED regime. East German leaders recognized the potential danger early and abandoned perestroika in East Germany. But the SED could not hide information about changes in other countries of the Soviet bloc from the citizens of the GDR. West German television programs, which residents of the GDR watched much more often than East German television products, widely covered the progress of reforms in Eastern Europe. The dissatisfaction of most East German citizens with their government reached a climax in 1989. While neighboring Eastern European states quickly liberalized their regimes, the SED cheered the brutal suppression of the June 1989 Chinese student demonstration in Tiananmen Square. But it was no longer possible to contain the tide of impending changes in the GDR. In August, Hungary opened its border with Austria, allowing thousands of East German holidaymakers to emigrate to the west. At the end of 1989, popular discontent resulted in colossal protest demonstrations in the GDR itself. "Monday demonstrations" quickly became a tradition; hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of major cities of the GDR (the most massive protests took place in Leipzig) demanding political liberalization. The GDR leadership was divided over how to deal with the dissatisfied, and it also became clear that it was now left to its own devices. At the beginning of October, M.S. arrived in East Germany to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the GDR. Gorbachev, who made it clear that the Soviet Union would no longer interfere in the affairs of the GDR to save the ruling regime. Honecker, who had just recovered from major surgery, advocated the use of force against protesters. But the majority of the SED Politburo did not agree with his opinion, and in mid-October Honecker and his main allies were forced to resign. Egon Krenz became the new General Secretary of the SED, as did Honecker, the former leader of the youth organization. The government was headed by Hans Modrow, secretary of the Dresden district committee of the SED, who was known as a supporter of economic and political reforms. The new leadership tried to stabilize the situation by meeting some of the demonstrators' particularly widespread demands: the right to free exit from the country was granted (the Berlin Wall was opened on November 9, 1989) and free elections were proclaimed. These steps turned out to be insufficient, and Krenz, having served as head of the party for 46 days, resigned. At a hastily convened congress in January 1990, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), and a truly democratic party charter was adopted. The chairman of the renewed party was Gregor Gysi, a lawyer by profession who defended several East German dissidents during the Honecker era. In March 1990, citizens of the GDR participated in the first free elections in 58 years. Their results greatly disappointed those who had hoped for the preservation of a liberalized but still independent and socialist GDR. Although several newly emerged parties advocated a "third way" distinct from Soviet communism and West German capitalism, a bloc of parties allied with the West German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won a landslide victory. This voting bloc demanded unification with West Germany. Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German CDU, became the first (and last) freely elected prime minister of the GDR. The short period of his reign was marked by great changes. Under the leadership of de Maizières, the previous management apparatus was quickly dismantled. In August 1990, five states abolished in the GDR in 1952 were restored (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia). On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist, uniting with the Federal Republic of Germany.
Creation of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1947, American occupation authorities have put pressure on West German political leaders to create unified government structures for the Western occupation zones. The Germans, fearing that such actions would consolidate the division of the country, were in no hurry to take concrete steps. Nevertheless, the London Conference (of the three Western victorious countries) in the spring of 1948 gave official sanction for the convening of a constituent assembly (Parliamentary Council) to develop a constitution for West Germany. The Berlin blockade of 1948-1949 made it possible to overcome German resistance. The mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuther, urged West German politicians to meet the wishes of the Allies, arguing that the actions of the Soviet administration had already led to the division of Germany. On September 1, 1948, the Parliamentary Council, which included representatives of the parliaments (landtags) of the states of the western zones and West Berlin, met in Bonn to develop the Basic Law. The largest factions were the two parties - CDU and SPD (27 delegates each). The Free Democratic Party (FDP) received 5 seats, the Communists, the conservative German Party (NP) and the Center Party - 2 seats each. The adoption of the Basic Law was not an easy task. The Parliamentary Council was subject to pressure from two sides. The Western Allies insisted on maintaining their control over the country even after the constitution came into force, the Germans sought the maximum possible sovereignty. The German side itself was split on the issue of state structure. Most delegates supported the idea of ​​federalism in one form or another, but the SPD, FDP and the left wing of the CDU favored a strong central government, while the right wing of the CDU, including its Bavarian partner the Christian Social Union (CSU), insisted on a looser federal structure. The Parliamentary Council worked quickly and efficiently under the leadership of its president, Konrad Adenauer (CDU), and the chairman of the drafting committee, Carlo Schmid (SPD). In May 1949, a compromise document was approved. It provided for the introduction of the posts of Federal Chancellor (Prime Minister) with broad powers and the Federal President with limited powers. A bicameral system was created from a Bundestag elected in general elections and a Bundesrat (federal council) with broad rights to represent the interests of the federal states. The document was called the "Basic Law" to emphasize that its creators were aware of its temporary nature, since the constitution was to be written for the whole of post-war Germany.
Adenauer era: 1949-1963. The first elections to the Bundestag were held in August 1949. The majority of seats in parliament were won by the CDU/CSU coalition (139 seats), followed by the SPD (131 seats). The FDP won 52 seats, the Communists - 15, the remaining 65 seats were shared by smaller parties. There were many politicians in the ranks of the CDU and SPD who advocated the creation of a “grand coalition” government of the CDU and SPD, but the leaders of the Christian Democrats and the SPD, Adenauer and Kurt Schumacher, rejected this plan. Instead, Adenauer organized a center-right coalition consisting of the CDU/CSU, the FDP of the German Party. In 1953, it was joined by a party created by German immigrants from Eastern Europe (until 1955). The coalition remained in power until 1950, when the FDP left it. She was replaced by the cabinet of the CDU/CSU and the German Party. Adenauer, who entered politics at the beginning of the century and was an active opponent of the Nazi regime (for which he was imprisoned), remained as chancellor until 1963. Although the “Old Man,” as the Germans called him, concentrated his efforts on foreign policy affairs, his success it owes primarily to the West German “economic miracle.” In 1949, the country's war-damaged national economy produced only 89% of its 1936 output, but skillful economic policies made it possible to bring West Germany to an unprecedentedly high level of prosperity. In 1957, West German industry, under Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard, doubled production compared to 1936, and Germany became one of the leading industrial powers in the world. Economic growth made it possible to cope with the constant flow of refugees from East Germany, and the number of unemployed was constantly falling. By the early 1960s, West Germany was forced to massively attract foreign workers (guest workers) from Southern Europe, Turkey and North Africa. In the field of foreign policy, Adenauer firmly sought to achieve two interrelated goals - the restoration of the full sovereignty of West Germany and the integration of the country into the community of Western countries. To do this, West Germany needed to win the trust of the Americans and the French. Adenauer was a supporter of European integration from the very beginning. An important step in this direction was the entry of West Germany into the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), created in 1951, of which France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg became members (the ECSC Treaty was ratified by the Bundestag in January 1952). The attitude towards Adenauer was also influenced by West Germany's agreement to pay compensation to Israel and private victims of Nazi crimes against Jews. An important milestone in the policy of reconciliation with France pursued by Adenauer was the conclusion of the Franco-German cooperation agreement (1963), which was the result of negotiations with French President Charles de Gaulle. The beneficial results of the policy aimed at alliance with Western countries soon made themselves felt. In 1951, the Western allies agreed to change the occupation status, and on May 26, 1952, representatives of the United States, Great Britain and France, together with the West German Chancellor, signed the Bonn Agreement, according to which the military occupation was ended and the country's sovereignty was restored. Almost all states that were not part of the Soviet bloc recognized West Germany as an independent state. In 1957, a lightning-fast step was taken towards the unification of Germany: the Saar region, which had been governed by the French administration since 1945, became part of West Germany. Some of the steps taken by Adenauer in the field of foreign policy were very controversial. Despite the presence of significant forces in the country opposed to the remilitarization of West Germany, the Adenauer government approved American plans to turn West Germany into its military partner and political protégé. Impressed by the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, American military leaders argued that only in an alliance with the West German army could Europe be protected from possible Soviet aggression. After the French parliament rejected the plan to create a united European army (European Defense Community) in 1954, West Germany created its own armed forces, the Bundeswehr. In 1954, West Germany became the 15th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As West Germany became a full member of the community of Western powers under Adenauer, the government failed to achieve its stated goal of unification with East Germany. Adenauer, supported by US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, was confident that only tough policies could convince the Soviet Union to release the GDR from its iron grip. West Germany made attempts to isolate the GDR in international affairs and did not recognize East Germany as an independent state. (It became customary to call the eastern neighbor the “so-called GDR” and the “Soviet zone”). In accordance with the “Halstein Doctrine” (named after Walter Hallstein, Adenauer’s foreign policy adviser), West Germany agreed to sever diplomatic relations with any country that recognized the GDR. The period from 1949 to the mid-1960s can be called the Adenauer era. The growing prestige of Germany in the West and prosperity within the country, as well as fear of the communist threat - all this contributed to the triumph of the CDU in the elections. The CDU/CSU bloc became the leading political force in all elections to the Bundestag from 1949 to 1969. The CDU/CSU benefited from the suppression of workers' protests in Berlin by Soviet troops in 1953 and the Soviet invasion of Hungary to pacify the uprising in 1956. At the same time, progressive social The reforms did not allow the Social Democrats to increase the number of their supporters. The new pension program has brought Germany to a leading position in this issue. In the production sector, trade unions achieved the adoption in 1951-1952 of laws on the participation of workers in the management of enterprises (in the steel and coal industries). Subsequently, the legislation was extended to enterprises that employed more than 2,000 workers. Theodor Hayes (1884-1963), the first president of West Germany (1949-1959), assisted Adenauer in creating a stable state that was respected in the world community. Hayes, leader of the FDP, was a prominent Liberal politician and writer in the 1920s. In 1959-1969, his successor as president was Heinrich Lübcke (1894-1972), a representative of the CDU.
Cultural life in West Germany. A landmark work in the reassessment of recent German history was Hamburg University professor Fritz Fischer's richly documented study, The Rush to World Power (1961), about the goals of the Kaiser's Germany in the First World War. Fischer argued that the main culprit of World War I was Germany, and thus supported the Treaty of Versailles clause regarding German guilt for starting the war. Fischer's thought was rejected by many hard-headed West Germans, but it foreshadowed the stream of critical studies of German history and West German society that emerged in the late 1960s. Among the main protagonists of the West German cultural revival of the late 1960s were the writers Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Uwe Jonsson, Peter Weiss, Siegfried Lenz, the film directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders, and the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Hans Werner Henze.
The rise of social democracy. The lack of popular alternatives to the policies of the Christian Democrats worked to the advantage of the SPD. The party, led by Kurt Schumacher, continued to push for the nationalization of major industries, opposed a one-sided orientation towards the West, and played to German national chords. Some influential regional party leaders (such as Willy Brandt in Berlin, Wilhelm Kaisen in Bremen, Carlo Schmid in Baden-Württemberg and Max Brauer in Hamburg) criticized the lack of flexibility in the SPD program. Until his death (1952), Schumacher managed to outplay his rivals who were claiming leadership in the party. Schumacher's successor was Erich Ollenhauer, a party functionary who, however, decided to change party policy. With Ollenhauer's tacit approval, reformers led by Carlo Schmid and Herbert Wehner, a hardline former communist politician who was the party's most active representative in the Bundestag, encouraged the party to abandon Marxist dogma. They succeeded in 1959, when the SPD, at a congress in Bad Godesberg, adopted a program that marked the rejection of Marxism. The SPD declared support for private initiative and an orientation towards the Scandinavian model of the welfare state. The party also advocated the development by the three main parties of a common approach to national defense policy. By a fortunate coincidence, the SPD changed its program just at the moment when the CDU began to lose public support. The SPD went to the 1961 elections under the leadership of Willy Brandt, an energetic and popular politician in society, the ruling burgomaster of West Berlin. Some voters were disappointed in the slowness of the CDU and wanted Adenauer to resign. The CDU/CSU bloc was losing votes, the SPD was gaining them, but it failed to remove Adenauer. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), which also criticized Adenauer, benefited the most. Despite its critical position, the FDP entered the coalition government together with the CDU/CSU. Adenauer promised to resign in two years. But before that, the real storm was caused by the so-called. Der Spiegel magazine case. The influential weekly Der Spiegel has long criticized the head of the CSU, Franz Josef Strauss, who professed extreme right-wing views and served as Minister of Defense since 1956. In 1962, the magazine published an article highlighting the dysfunctional situation in the West German armed forces. Accusing the magazine of disclosing information that was the subject of military secrets, Strauss ordered searches of the editorial premises and the arrest of employees on charges of treason. Five FDP ministers resigned in protest, and Strauss was removed from his post. In 1963, Adenauer resigned as Federal Chancellor, retaining his chairmanship of the party. The chancellor of the CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was Ludwig Erhard, who became known as the “father of the German economic miracle” for his role as a strategist in economic policy after 1949. His tenure in this post, which he sought for many years, cannot be called successful: Erhard was distinguished by indecisiveness, for which he received the nickname “rubber lion”. For the first time since the early 1950s, alarming symptoms appeared in the German economy. Production declined, growth rates slowed, and a balance of payments deficit appeared. Peasants were dissatisfied with government policies, and jobs were being cut in the mining, shipbuilding and textile industries. In 1965-1966, a general economic decline began in West Germany. In 1966-1969, the country was rocked by strikes, especially in the metallurgical industry; The peaceful period of development was coming to an end. Adenauer sharply criticized his successor, claiming that he was unable to cope with the duties of chancellor. Despite the economic recession, Erhard avoided defeat in the Bundestag elections in 1965. The CDU/CSU bloc even increased its representation in parliament, but victory did not solve the problems facing Erhard. He barely managed to resume the coalition with the Free Democrats. Representatives of the right wing of their own bloc, led by Strauss, and the land leaders of the CDU demonstrated hostility towards him. The influence of the latter increased as a result of the division of responsibilities between Erhard (Federal Chancellor) and Adenauer (Chairman of the CDU). Regional leaders criticized Erhard, linking the CDU's failures in a series of state elections to the chancellor's sluggish policies. In December 1966, the FDP, an awkward coalition partner, refused to support a tax increase bill and Erhard was forced to resign.
Grand coalition in Germany. To overcome dependence on the Free Democrats, the CDU/CSU bloc has now decided to enter into a “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats. The SPD leaders did not hesitate to join their rivals, claiming 9 ministerial portfolios against 11 for the CDU/CSU; Willy Brandt became Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor. Many Social Democrats did not like the prospect of working in a government that included Franz Joseph Strauss (which the CSU insisted on), and the candidacy of Kurt Georg Kiesinger, nominated by the CDU for the post of Bundeschancellor, was also questionable. Kiesinger headed the CDU branch in Baden-Württemberg, was considered a respected member of the Bundestag, but at one time was a member of the Nazi party. The grand coalition, although it did not bring radical changes in policy, changed West German politics in a number of important respects. The SPD had the opportunity to demonstrate to the West Germans its capabilities as a ruling party. But some voters perceived the unification of the largest parties and the failure of the FDP to play the role of an effective opposition party as an indication that the dominant political elite had united against the common people. As a result, voters supported new political groupings that previously did not have deputies in the Bundestag. The right-wing radical wing included the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD), which was formed in 1964. Its program had some similarities with the program of the Nazi party; many of its leaders were Nazis in the past. The NPD united the protest electorate by skillfully exploiting feelings of national disadvantage and resentment towards both superpowers, dissatisfaction with the continued persecution of Nazi criminals, hostility to perceived moral permissiveness and racially prejudiced fears about the influx of foreign workers. The party enjoyed support among residents of small towns and representatives of economically weak small entrepreneurs. She managed to get her deputies into some land parliaments (Landtags). But fears of a resurgence of Nazism turned out to be unfounded. The lack of a strong leader, as well as the improving economic situation in the country, played against the party. As a result, she lost the elections to the Bundestag in 1969, gaining only 4.3% of the vote. The left-wing opposition relied mainly on the student movement led by the Socialist Union of German Students (SDS), which was expelled from the SPD for refusing to accept the Bad Godesberg Program. The Students' Union program combined demands for educational reform and protest against US international policy. In the late 1960s, the country was rocked by massive student protests and the “extra-parliamentary opposition” movement.
Chancellor Willy Brandt. In 1969, the radicals experienced a decline in popularity. Many students welcomed the start of university education reforms, while others advocated giving the Social Democrats a chance to shine in governing the country. By 1969 the team of Social Democratic politicians was well known. The SPD stood for “modern Germany,” personified by Willy Brandt, accusing the CDU of backwardness. In addition, the Social Democrats benefited from the alliance with the FDP. Free Democrats helped elect Gustav Heinemann, the SPD candidate, to the presidency of Germany. In 1949-1950, Heinemann was Minister of the Interior in the Adenauer government, but resigned after disagreeing with Adenauer's plans to remilitarize the country. In 1952 he left the CDU, and in 1957 he joined the SPD. In the 1969 Bundestag elections, the CDU/CSU bloc, as before, formed the largest faction in the Bundestag (242 deputies), but the coalition government was formed by the SPD (224 deputies) and the FDP (30 deputies). Willy Brandt became chancellor. Although the SPD-FDP coalition embarked on a program of far-reaching reforms at home, especially in education, it is remembered primarily for its foreign policy initiatives. The main task that Willy Brandt set for himself can be formulated in two words - “Eastern policy”. Having abandoned the Hallstein Doctrine, following which West Germany tried to isolate the GDR and refused to recognize the border with Poland along the Oder-Neisse, as well as the invalidity of the Munich Agreement (1938) in relation to Czechoslovakia, the Brandt government sought to normalize relations between West Germany and its Eastern European neighbors, including from the GDR. Relations with the countries of Eastern Europe moved from a dead point during the Grand Coalition, but after 1969 the process of normalization accelerated significantly. There were several reasons for this: refugees from East Germany gradually integrated into West German society; The United States during this period was more interested in détente than in confrontation with the Soviet Union; large West German businesses sought to eliminate obstacles to trade with the East; In addition, the consequences of the construction of the Berlin Wall demonstrated that the GDR was far from collapse. Brandt, working closely with Foreign Minister Walter Scheel (FDP) and his closest adviser Egon Bahr (SPD), concluded treaties under which Germany recognized the existing borders: - with the Soviet Union and Poland in 1971, with Czechoslovakia in 1973 . In 1971, a quadripartite agreement on Berlin was signed: the Soviet Union recognized West Berlin as belonging to the West, guaranteed free access from West Germany to West Berlin, and recognized the right of residents of West Berlin to visit East Berlin. On November 8, 1972, East and West Germany officially recognized each other's sovereignty and agreed to exchange diplomatic missions. Just as Adenauer's efforts improved relations between West Germany and the Western Allies, the Eastern Treaties helped improve relations with the Soviet bloc countries. However, on one key issue, West Germany and the Soviet Union were unable to reach agreement. If the USSR insisted that the new treaties consolidated the division of Germany and Europe into East and West, the Brandt government argued that the “Eastern Treaties” did not cancel the possibility of the peaceful unification of Germany. Brandt's initiatives were approved by the majority of West Germans, which strengthened the position of the SPD. The Christian Democrats had difficulty settling into the role of an opposition party. The shock caused by the removal from power gave way to discontent, and hidden conflicts began to emerge, especially between the right wing of the CSU (Strauss) and the centrist faction of the CDU (Rainer Barzel). When the “Eastern Treaties” came to the Bundestag for ratification, many members of the CDU/CSU bloc abstained from voting on the treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union. In April 1972, the opposition attempted to remove the government. The SPD-FDP coalition had a slight majority in the Bundestag, and the opposition hoped that some members of the more right-wing FDP faction would support a vote of no confidence in the cabinet. The vote on the issue of no confidence in the government and the appointment of Rainer Barzel to the post of chancellor ended in defeat for the opposition, which fell short of two votes. Brandt, confident of the support of voters, took advantage of the opportunity provided by the constitution, dissolved the Bundestag and called new elections. In the elections of November 19, 1972, the SPD for the first time became the largest political force in the Bundestag (230 seats). For the first time, the SPD managed to defeat the CDU in the Catholic Saarland. The CDU/CSU bloc received approximately the same number of seats in parliament (225), but its representation decreased by 17 seats compared to 1969. The FDP was rewarded for its participation in the coalition with an increase in its faction in the Bundestag (41 seats). The decisive factor in this election was Willy Brandt's international prestige. However, the left wing of the SPD demanded more energetic reforms within the country (some deputies were former student leaders). In the winter of 1974, Germany felt the consequences of the global oil crisis. Inflation increased in the country, and the number of unemployed grew. The Social Democrats lost municipal and land elections. In this difficult situation, Brandt’s position became critical after the exposure of Gunther Guillaume, the Chancellor’s personal assistant, who turned out to be an East German spy. In May 1974, Brandt resigned.
Helmut Schmidt is Brandt's successor. Helmut Schmidt, Minister of Economics in Brandt's government, became the new Federal Chancellor. A Social Democrat from Hamburg, Schmidt successfully overcame the economic difficulties that arose in the country. By cutting government spending and increasing interest rates, he curbed the rate of inflation. By 1975, West Germany had overcome the crisis, achieving a solid balance of payments surplus and relatively low inflation rates. However, after the 1976 elections, the CDU/CSU bloc again managed to form the largest faction in parliament, since the government could not effectively cope with two other problems: the outbreak of terrorism and relations between the West and the East. In the mid-1970s, the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof group, carried out a number of terrorist attacks. In October 1977, the RAF kidnapped and then killed Hans Martin Schleyer, president of the West German Employers' Union. The right, led by F.J. Strauss, tried to benefit from this event, accusing the government of failing to stop terrorism, and the left and social democratic intelligentsia of encouraging terrorists with their criticism of capitalism and West German society. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, defense policy issues came to the fore. Under US pressure, NATO in 1979 set a course for simultaneous modernization of weapons (including American-controlled nuclear-tipped missiles stationed in Germany) and discussion of disarmament initiatives with the Soviet Union. There has been a strong movement for peace and environmental protection in West Germany.
Christian Democrats return to power. Shortly after the 1980 Bundestag elections, when the SPD-FDP coalition managed to slightly increase its majority in parliament, its ability to govern the country was undermined by serious internal strife. Brandt, who retained the post of chairman of the SPD, under the influence of his wife, began to profess more leftist views and, together with a number of deputies, formed an anti-Schmidt group within the party. The SPD was torn by disagreements on issues of defense and social policy; the FDP was dominated by supporters of increasing defense spending and reducing spending on social needs. In the 1981-1982 state elections, the CDU/CSU and the Greens, a new party that advocated greater environmental protection, an end to industrial growth and the abandonment of the use of atomic energy and nuclear weapons, increased their representation in the state parliament, while the SPD and FDP lost part of the voters. The Free Democrats even feared that they would not be able to overcome the 5 percent barrier in the next Bundestag elections. Partly for this reason, partly because of disagreements with the Social Democrats on the issue of government spending, the FDP left the coalition with the SPD and joined the CDU/CSU bloc. The Christian Democrats and Free Democrats agreed to remove Chancellor Schmidt by putting a “constructive vote of no confidence” to a vote in the Bundestag (during such a vote, a new chancellor is simultaneously elected). CDU leader Helmut Kohl was nominated as a candidate for the post of chancellor. On October 1, 1982, Helmut Kohl became the new Federal Chancellor. A politician from Rhineland-Palatinate, Kohl in May 1973 replaced the retired R. Barzel as chairman of the CDU. Shortly after his election, Kohl called elections to the Bundestag for March 6, 1983. In these elections, the CDU/CSU bloc, which advocated reducing social spending and reducing state intervention in the economy, for a return to traditional German values ​​(diligence and self-sacrifice), for the placement in case of need for new American medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons to counter similar Soviet missiles SS-20 (name according to NATO classification), significantly improved its position in the Bundestag. Together with its coalition partners (the FDP received 6.9% of the votes), the CDU/CSU bloc won a solid majority in parliament. The Greens, with 5.6% of the vote, entered the Bundestag for the first time. The Social Democrats, led by their candidate for the post of Federal Chancellor Hans Jochen Vogel, suffered heavy losses. At first, it seemed that political luck had turned against the new chancellor. In 1985, a joint visit by Chancellor Kohl and US President Ronald Reagan to the military cemetery in Bitburg resulted in a public scandal, as it turned out that soldiers and officers of the SS military units of the Waffen-SS were also buried in this cemetery. Predictions of Kohl's imminent political death turned out to be premature. In 1989, when the East German leadership fell, Kohl quickly seized the initiative and led the movement for German reunification, securing his immediate political future.
Berlin problem, 1949-1991. For more than 40 years after World War II, Berlin served as a barometer, sensitive to changes in relations between the United States and the USSR. The occupation of the city in 1945 by the Big Four troops symbolized the unity of the military alliance directed against Nazi Germany. But Berlin soon became the center of all the contradictions of the Cold War. Relations between East and West became extremely strained after the Soviet Union organized a blockade of the western sectors of the city in 1948-1949. In Berlin itself, the blockade accelerated the process of dividing the city, which was an independent territorial unit not included in any of the four occupation zones of Germany. The city was divided into western and eastern parts. Western sectors became an integral part of the West German economy. Thanks to the Deutsche Mark and West German subsidies, West Berlin achieved a level of prosperity that contrasted sharply with the situation in the GDR. Politically, Berlin was not officially considered part of the Federal Republic of Germany, since the city remained occupied by the troops of the four victorious powers. West Berlin attracted East German citizens like a magnet. In the period 1948-1961, hundreds of thousands of refugees entered the Federal Republic of Germany through West Berlin. In the late 1950s, the Soviet government and East German leadership showed growing concern about the outflow of population from the GDR. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, which divided the city and isolated its western part, entry into and exit from West Berlin became impossible without permission from the East German authorities. East Germany insisted that the Soviet sector was an integral part of the GDR. The Western Allies sought to maintain their rights in West Berlin and maintain its economic and cultural ties with West Germany. The situation in Berlin over the next decade can be described as a painful impasse. Contacts between East and West Berlin were kept to a minimum. In 1963, Willy Brandt convinced the GDR government to allow West Berlin citizens to visit relatives in East Berlin on holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.). But residents of East Berlin were not allowed to travel to West Berlin. Important changes occurred after Soviet-American détente and the implementation of West German Ostpolitik paved the way for a new agreement on Berlin (September 1971). The Soviet side did not allow a significant increase in traffic through border points in the Berlin Wall, but agreed to respect the rights of Western powers in West Berlin, as well as West Berlin ties with West Germany. The Western allies agreed to officially recognize the GDR. The situation continued at this level until the dramatic events of 1989, when the collapse of the East German regime led to the rapid and unexpected unification of the city. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and for the first time since 1961, residents of both parts of the city were able to move freely throughout Berlin. The wall was torn down and in December 1990, shortly after the official reunification of Germany, no trace remained of this hated symbol of a divided city. Residents of both parts of Berlin elected the ruling mayor of the entire city, Eberhard Diepgen (CDU), the former ruling mayor of West Berlin. In mid-1991, the Bundestag decided to move the capital of Germany from Bonn to Berlin.
Unification of Germany. After the GDR's borders opened to trade and travel, East German goods were replaced by Western products. The population demanded the introduction of a common currency, and although the West German central bank, the Bundesbank, urged caution, the governments of East and West Germany agreed to recognize the German mark as a common currency on July 1, 1990. The introduction of the West German mark in East Germany was of great importance for relations between the two Germanys. In December 1989, Chancellor Kohl proposed a ten-stage unification program over five years, but East Germans refused to wait. Their desire for political freedom and Western economic standards could only be satisfied by immediate unification. It is not surprising that the hated East German regime that ruled them for so long was subjected to all sorts of vilification. It became clear that if East Germany was not integrated into the Federal Republic of Germany as soon as possible, it would literally lose its population. If the Western system had not come to the East, then all the inhabitants of East Germany would have moved to the West. The unification was completed on October 3, 1990, after Kohl, Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher and USSR President M.S. Gorbachev agreed that the number of new German armed forces would not exceed 346 thousand people. The united country was able to continue its membership in NATO. The costs of returning Soviet soldiers stationed in the former GDR to their homeland were borne by the Federal Republic of Germany. Agreement to the unification of Germany was a concession on the part of the USSR, and on surprisingly modest terms. Initially, especially in the fall of 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, Germany was gripped by general euphoria. However, the practical aspects of the integration of two different states turned out to be very difficult. Not only the economy, but simply the material condition of the GDR was in much worse shape than expected in the West. Almost no industrial enterprise could be preserved for further use. Transport, communications, and energy and gas supply systems required almost complete replacement. Housing stock and commercial real estate were badly worn out and did not meet standards. To carry out the task of privatizing the colossal state property of the GDR - industrial enterprises, state and cooperative farms, forests and distribution networks - the government established a Board of Trustees. By the end of 1994, he had almost completed his work, having privatized about 15,000 firms or their subsidiaries; about 3.6 thousand businesses had to close. The unrealistic expectations of the "Ossies" (as the inhabitants of the eastern lands of Germany came to be called) combined with the complacency of the "Wessies" forced the Kohl government to abandon the necessary changes and reduce all issues of unification to a simple transfer of West German methods to the East. This created two serious problems. The first was associated with the costs of the western part of Germany to provide goods and services to the eastern lands, which led to a significant flight of capital. Many hundreds of billions of marks from public funds were transferred to the new lands. Another problem was the dissatisfaction of relatively poor East Germans, who did not expect the transformation to be so painful. Unemployment remained the most serious problem. Most East German businesses of varying sizes closed after 1990 due to their economic unviability in a free market economy. The few enterprises that survived in the new conditions remained afloat only thanks to the ruthless reduction of personnel. As a rule, they all faced an oversupply of workers, because the GDR management system did not strive to minimize costs and increase production efficiency. As a result, the number of jobs in East Germany fell by almost 40% over three years. The industrial sector lost three-quarters of its jobs. Unemployment in the east of Germany was several times higher than in its western part, reaching, according to unofficial estimates, 40% (in the west - 11%). At the end of the 1990s, the proportion of unemployed in the eastern states remained twice as high as in the western states. In the port city of Rostock it reached 57%. After the unification, Rostock was unable to compete with Hamburg and Kiel, and most of the workers were redundant. In 1991, every citizen received access to information from the former secret police of the GDR. It was revealed that the East German secret police were recruiting West Germans to hunt down and kill defectors and critics of the East German regime. Even writers such as Christa Wolf and Stefan Heim, who carefully guarded their reputations as writers independent of the GDR authorities, were accused of collaborating with the Stasi. It was also not easy to decide whether to punish the former leaders of the GDR for crimes committed during their rule, especially for the killings of East German citizens trying to flee to the West by the GDR secret services. Erich Honecker, who had sought refuge in Moscow, was returned to Berlin, where he stood trial in July 1992, but was released because he was dying of an incurable disease and sent into exile in Chile (d. in 1994). Other leaders of the GDR (E. Krenz, Markus Wolf and others), responsible for atrocities against defectors, were put on trial; some were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. The issue of asylum became essential. The legacy of the Second World War led to the fact that the Federal Republic of Germany had a very liberal policy regarding the reception of foreigners who were persecuted in their homeland. All persons who applied for asylum could remain in Germany until their applications were examined and a decision was made on granting them a permanent residence permit. During this period they received an allowance of 400-500 marks per month. And although most applications were not granted (for example, in 1997 only 4.9% of refugees were granted asylum), the process itself took several years. Such generous policies were a magnet for disadvantaged people in the post-Soviet world. If in 1984 only 35 thousand applications for asylum were accepted, then in 1990, when the Soviet bloc began to collapse, their number increased to 193 thousand, and in 1992 - to 438 thousand. In addition, about 600 thousand ethnic Germans from different countries zhedadi to return to the homeland of their ancestors. In the summer of 1992, exasperation among refugees over the privileges they were receiving and their inability to assimilate German norms of life and behavior erupted in riots in Rostock, a city of about a quarter of a million people. Groups of teenagers with links to neo-Nazis set fire to houses housing about 200 Roma refugees and 115 Vietnamese guest workers. The attacks on refugees quickly spread to other East German cities and involved many West German neo-Nazis. Some Rostock residents supported the demonstrators. Mass anti-Nazi rallies were held in large West German cities (Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, etc.), at which almost 3 million people expressed their protest. The riots in Rostock continued for almost a week, followed by smaller demonstrations throughout East Germany for several weeks afterwards. The memorial to the Jews who died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was set on fire. The second anniversary of German reunification, October 3, 1992, was marked by mass protests by neo-Nazis in Dresden and Arnstadt. Given the explosiveness of the situation, Kohl's government persuaded Romania to repatriate several thousand Roma refugees. Then, with the consent of the opposition parties, the government passed legislation restricting the entry of refugees into Germany. As a result, the number of asylum applicants decreased in 1993 to 323 thousand, and in 1994 to 127 thousand. Another law limiting the provision of asylum was adopted in 1994. Since 1994, the number of persons applying for asylum has increased or less constant level (about 100,000 applications per year). In 1994, the government passed laws against right-wing extremists and violence against foreigners and launched an intensive education campaign. After this, the number of xenophobic incidents began to decline. In the 1994 Bundestag elections, the CDU/CSU-FDP coalition, although it retained a majority, lost some of its previous seats; Kohl formed a new government. The PDS party retained support in the new states and won 30 seats, while the Greens received more votes than the Free Democrats for the first time. Before the disastrous results of the economic policies pursued in the GDR became apparent, Kohl believed that additional taxes would not be necessary to finance reconstruction work. When these hopes were dashed, the income tax had to be increased by 7.5% for one year. By 1994, the full extent of the necessary reconstruction work became clear, and the federal states adopted a package of legislation that increased taxes and reduced budget expenditures. By 1996, fiscal problems had worsened due to the need to reduce the budget deficit to 3%, which was required for entry into the European Monetary Union. The government proposed reducing the burden on the budget by cutting social programs. When the SPD and the Greens did not support the government, Kohl found himself in a desperate situation due to a lack of agreement in the Social Democratic-controlled Bundesrat. The solution to the problem was postponed until the elections of 1998. Nevertheless, Germany became a member of the European Monetary Union when it began its activities on January 1, 1999. The defeat of the CDU/CSU bloc in the elections to the Bundestag in the fall of 1998 ended the Kohl era. He resigned after serving as Federal Chancellor for 16 years. The SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder, who formed a coalition with the Green Party, became chancellor. Schröder is a former prime minister of the state of Lower Saxony, a moderate pragmatic politician with a center-left orientation. The presence of left-wing ideologue Oscar Lafontaine at the head of the powerful Finance Ministry has led some analysts to question the government's commitment to centrist policies. (In March 1999, Lafontaine was replaced as finance minister by Social Democratic representative Gudrun Roos. ) The emergence of the Greens in the federal government also indicated a turn to the left. Joschka Fischer, who headed the “realpolitik” faction in the party, and two of his party colleagues received ministerial portfolios (Fischer became Minister of Foreign Affairs). Before formally joining the coalition, both parties developed an extensive, detailed government program for the next four years. It included efforts to reduce unemployment, overhaul the tax system, close 19 remaining nuclear power plants and liberalize the citizenship and asylum process. The program emphasizes the continuity of international and defense policy, but recognizes the need to modernize the Bundeswehr.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

The date of formation of Germany (as it is now) is October 3, 1990. Before this, the territory of the country was divided into two states: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Today we will take a closer look at what the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic are, and get acquainted with the history of these states.

a brief description of

On May 23, 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was proclaimed. It included sections of Nazi Germany located in the British, American and French zones of occupation. A special article of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany assumed that in the future the rest of the German territories would also be part of the newly formed state.

Due to the occupation of Berlin and the granting of a special status to it, the capital of the country was moved to the provincial town of Bonn. On October 7 of the same year, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed in the Soviet occupation zone. Berlin was appointed its capital (in fact, only the eastern part of the city, which was under the control of the GDR). For the next 40-odd years, the two German states existed separately. Until the 1970s, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany categorically did not want to recognize the GDR. Later she began to recognize the “neighbors,” but only partially.

The peaceful revolution in the GDR, which took place in the fall of 1990, led to the fact that on October 3 its territories were integrated into the Federal Republic of Germany. At the same time, the capital of Germany was returned to Berlin.

Now let's get acquainted with these events in more detail.

Division of Germany after surrender

When the Allied forces (America, USSR, Great Britain and France) captured Nazi Germany, its territory was divided between them into four occupation zones. Berlin was also divided, but it received a special status. In 1949, the Western Allies united their territories and named the region Trizonia. The eastern part of the country remained under Soviet occupation.

Education Germany

On May 24, 1949, the Parliamentary Council meeting in Bonn (a city that belonged to the British occupation zone), under the strict control of military governors, proclaimed the Federal Republic of Germany. It included newly created areas at that time belonging to the British, American and French occupation zones.

On the same day, the constitution was adopted. Article 23 of the document declared its extension to Berlin, which formally could only be partly part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The main provisions of this article also provided for the prospect of extending the constitution to other German lands. Thus, the basis was laid for the entry into Germany of all territories of the pre-existing German Empire.

The preamble to the constitution clearly outlined the need to unite the German people on the basis of a recreated state. The document itself was positioned as temporary, so it was officially called not the constitution, but the “Basic Law”.

Since Berlin was endowed with a special political status, it was not possible to maintain the capital of the Federal Republic there. In this regard, it was decided to appoint the provincial city of Bonn, in which the country of Germany was proclaimed, as its temporary capital.

Creation of the GDR

The German lands of the Soviet occupation zone did not intend to recognize the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany adopted on May 23, 1949. On May 30, delegates of the German People's Congress, elected two weeks earlier, adopted the constitution of the GDR, recognized by the 5 states of Soviet occupation. On the basis of the adopted constitution in the republic, which also called itself East Germany, state authorities were created.

On October 19, elections to the Chamber of Lands and the People's Chamber of the first convocation took place. The chairman of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), Wilhelm Pieck, became the president of the GDR.

Political status and prospects for expansion of Germany

From the very beginning, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany has clearly defined what the Federal Republic is. It positioned itself as the sole representative of the interests of the German people, and Germany itself as the only follower of the German Empire. Therefore, it is not surprising that it had claims to all lands belonging to the empire before the expansion of the Third Reich. These lands included, among other things, the territories of the GDR, the Western part of Berlin, as well as the “former eastern regions” that were transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union. In the first years after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, its government tried in every possible way to avoid direct contact with the government of the GDR. The reason is that it could indicate recognition of the GDR as an independent state.

America and Great Britain also remained of the opinion that the legitimate successor of the empire was the Federal Republic of Germany. France believed that the German Empire had disappeared as such back in 1945. Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, refused to sign a peace treaty with Germany because he did not want to recognize the existence of two German states. In 1950, at the New York conference, the foreign ministers of the three countries finally came to a common denominator on the question “what is the Federal Republic of Germany?” The claims of the government of the republic regarding the sole representation of the German people were recognized. However, they refused to recognize the government as the governing body of all Germany.

Due to the refusal to identify the GDR, German legislation recognized the existence of a single German citizenship, therefore it called its citizens simply Germans, and did not consider the territories of the GDR as foreign countries. That is why the country had a citizenship law adopted back in 1913. The same law was also in force in the GDR until 1967, which was also a supporter of unified citizenship. In practice, the current situation meant that any German living in the GDR could come to Germany and get a passport there. To prevent this, the leaders of the Democratic Republic prohibited its residents from obtaining passports in the Republic of Germany. In 1967, they introduced GDR citizenship, which received official recognition in Germany only 20 years later.

The reluctance to recognize the borders of the Democratic Republic was reflected in maps and atlases. So, in 1951, maps were published in Germany in which Germany had the same borders as in 1937. At the same time, the division of the republic, as well as the division of lands with Poland and the Soviet Union, was indicated by a barely noticeable dotted line. On these maps, the toponyms that had fallen to the enemy remained under their old names, and any signs of the GDR were simply absent. It is noteworthy that even in the maps of 1971, when the whole world clearly understood what the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR were, the situation did not change much. The hatched lines became more visible, but still differed from those that would mark the boundaries between states.

Development of Germany

The first Chancellor of the Federal Republic was Konrad Adenauer, an experienced lawyer, administrator and activist of the Center Party. His concept of leadership was based on a social market economy. He remained as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany for 14 years (1949-1963). In 1946, Adenauer founded a party called the Christian Democratic Union, and in 1950 he headed it. The head of the opposition Social Democratic Party was Kurt Schumacher, a former Reichsbanner fighter who was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

Thanks to the assistance of the United States in the implementation of the Marshall Plan and Ludwig Erhard's plans for the economic development of the country in the 1960s, the German economy rushed upward. In history, this process was called the “German Economic Miracle.” To meet the need for inexpensive labor, the Federal Republic supported an influx of guest workers, mainly from Turkey.

In 1952, the states of Baden, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were united into the single state of Baden-Württemberg. The Federal Republic of Germany became a federation consisting of nine states (member states). In 1956, after a referendum and the signing of the Luxembourg Treaty with France, the Saar region, which was previously under the protectorate of France, became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its official annexation into the Republic of Germany (FRG) occurred on January 1, 1957.

On May 5, 1955, with the abolition of the occupation regime, the Federal Republic of Germany was officially recognized as a sovereign state. Sovereignty extended only to the area of ​​validity of the temporary constitution, that is, it did not cover Berlin and the former territories of the empire, which at that time belonged to the GDR.

In the 1960s, a series of emergency laws were developed and implemented that banned the activities of a number of organizations (including the Communist Party), as well as certain professions. The country waged active denazification, that is, the fight against the consequences of the Nazis being in power, and tried with all its might to ensure the impossibility of a revival of Nazi ideology. In 1955, Germany joined NATO.

Relations with the GDR and foreign policy

The government of the Republic of Germany did not recognize the GDR and, until 1969, refused to enter into diplomatic relations with states whose positions on this issue differed. The only exception was the Soviet Union, which recognized the GDR, but was part of four occupying powers. In practice, this reason only led to the severance of diplomatic relations twice: with Yugoslavia in 1967 and with Cuba in 1963.

Back in 1952, Stalin spoke about the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. On March 10 of the same year, the USSR invited all occupying powers to develop a peace treaty with Germany as quickly as possible, in cooperation with all-German governments, and even drafted this document. The Soviet Union agreed with the unification of Germany and, provided that it did not participate in military blocs, even allowed the existence of an army and military industry in it. The Western powers effectively rejected the Soviet proposal, insisting that the newly unified country should have the right to join NATO.

Berlin Wall

On August 11, 1961, the People's Chamber of the GDR decided to build the Berlin Wall, a 155 km long engineering and defensive structure strengthening the border between the two German republics. As a result, construction began on the night of August 13. By 1 a.m., the border between West and East Berlin was completely blocked by GDR troops. On the morning of August 13, people who were usually heading to the western part of the city to work encountered resistance from law enforcement agencies and paramilitary patrols. By August 15, the approach to the border was completely blocked by barbed wire, and construction of the fence began. On the same day, the metro lines that connected the two parts of the city were closed. Potsdamer Platz, which was located in the border zone, was also closed. Many buildings and residential buildings adjacent to the dividing line between East and West Berlin were evicted. The windows that faced the German territory were blocked with bricks. Later, during the reconstruction of the barrier, the buildings adjacent to it were completely demolished.

Construction and refurbishment of the structure continued until 1975. Initially, it was a fence made of concrete slabs or brickwork, equipped with barbed wire. In some sections, these were simple Bruno spirals that could be overcome with a deft jump. At first, this was used by defectors who managed to bypass police posts.

By 1975, the wall was already an impregnable and rather complex structure. It consisted of concrete blocks 3.6 meters high, on top of which cylindrical barriers were installed. A restricted area with a large number of obstacles, guard posts and a lighting device was equipped along the wall. The exclusion zone consisted of a simple wall, several strips of anti-tank hedgehogs or metal spikes, a metal mesh fence with barbed wire and a flare system, a road for patrols, a wide strip of regularly leveled sand, and finally the impenetrable wall described above.

Change of Chancellor

When Willy Brandt assumed the post of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969, a new round began in relations between Germany and the GDR. The Social Democrats who came to power weakened legislation and recognized the inviolability of post-war state borders. Willy Brandt and his follower Helmut Schmidt improved relations with the Soviet Union.

In 1970, the Moscow Treaty was signed, in which Germany renounced its claims to the eastern regions of the former German Empire, which were transferred to the USSR and Poland after the war. The document also declared the possibility of uniting the republics. This decision marked the beginning of the “new Eastern policy”. In 1971, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic signed a Fundamental Treaty regulating their relationship.

In 1973, both republics joined the UN, despite the fact that Germany still did not want to recognize the international legal independence of the GDR. Nevertheless, the status quo of the Democratic Republic, enshrined in the Founding Treaty, contributed to a warming in relations between the “neighbors.”

"Peaceful Revolution"

In September 1989, the opposition movement “New Forum” arose in the GDR, partly consisting of members of political parties. The following month, a wave of protests swept across the republic, whose participants demanded the democratization of politics. As a result, the leadership of the SED resigned, and its place was taken by representatives of the disgruntled population. On November 4, a massive rally coordinated with the authorities took place in Berlin, the participants of which demanded respect for freedom of speech.

On November 9, citizens of the GDR received the right to freely (without good reason) travel abroad, which led to the spontaneous fall of the Berlin Wall. After the elections held in March 1990, the new government of the GDR began active negotiations with representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany about the prospect of unification.

German reunification

In August 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic signed an agreement on the unification of the country. It provided for the liquidation of the Democratic Republic and its entry into the Republic of Germany in the form of five new states. In parallel, the two parts of Berlin were reunited, and it again received the status of capital.

On September 12, 1990, representatives of the GDR, West Germany, USA, USSR, Great Britain and France signed an agreement that finally resolved the German issue. According to this document, an amendment was to be included in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany stating that after the re-establishment of the state, it would renounce claims to the remaining territories that once belonged to the German Empire.

In fact, in the process of unification (the Germans prefer to say “reunification” or “restoration of unity”), no new state was created. The lands of the former territory of the GDR were simply accepted into the Federal Republic of Germany. At the same moment, they began to obey the “temporary” constitution of the Republic of Germany, adopted back in 1949. The recreated state has since become known simply as Germany, but from a legal point of view it is not a new country, but an expanded Federal Republic.

The German Democratic Republic, or GDR for short, is a country located in the Center of Europe and has been marked on maps for exactly 41 years. This is the westernmost country of the socialist camp that existed at that time, formed in 1949 and became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.

German Democratic Republic

In the north, the border of the GDR ran along the Baltic Sea; on land it bordered on the Federal Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Its area was 108 thousand square kilometers. The population was 17 million people. The capital of the country was East Berlin. The entire territory of the GDR was divided into 15 districts. In the center of the country was the territory of West Berlin.

Location of the GDR

The small territory of the GDR had sea, mountains and plains. The north was washed by the Baltic Sea, which forms several bays and shallow lagoons. They are connected to the sea through straits. She owned the islands, the largest of which were Rügen, Usedom and Pel. There are many rivers in the country. The largest are the Oder, Elbe, their tributaries Havel, Spree, Saale, as well as the Main, a tributary of the Rhine. Of the many lakes, the largest are Müritz, Schweriner See, and Plauer See.

In the south, the country was framed by low mountains, significantly indented by rivers: from the west the Harz, from the south-west the Thuringian Forest, from the south the Ore Mountains with the highest peak Fichtelberg (1212 meters). The north of the territory of the GDR was located on the Central European Plain, to the south lay the plain of the Macklenburg Lake District. To the south of Berlin lies a strip of sandy plains.

East Berlin

It was practically restored from scratch. The city was divided into occupation zones. After the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, its eastern part became part of the GDR, and the western part was an enclave, surrounded on all sides by the territory of East Germany. According to the constitution of Berlin (West), the land on which it was located belonged to the Federal Republic of Germany. The capital of the GDR was a major center of science and culture in the country.

The Academies of Sciences and Arts and many higher educational institutions were located here. Concert halls and theaters have hosted outstanding musicians and artists from all over the world. Many parks and alleys served as decoration for the capital of the GDR. Sports facilities were built in the city: stadiums, swimming pools, courts, competition grounds. The most famous park for residents of the USSR was Treptow Park, in which a monument to the liberating soldier was erected.

Big cities

The majority of the country's population were urban residents. In a small country, there were several cities whose population exceeded half a million people. Large cities of the former German Democratic Republic, as a rule, had a fairly ancient history. These are the cultural and economic centers of the country. The largest cities include Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig. East German cities were heavily damaged. But Berlin suffered the most, where fighting took place literally for every house.

The largest cities were located in the south of the country: Karl-Marx-Stadt (Meissen), Dresden and Leipzig. Every city in the GDR was famous for something. Rostock, located in northern Germany, is a modern port city. World-famous porcelain was produced in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Meissen). In Jena there was the famous Carl Zeiss plant, which produced lenses, including for telescopes, and famous binoculars and microscopes were produced here. This city was also famous for its universities and scientific institutions. This is a city of students. Schiller and Goette once lived in Weimar.

Karl-Marx-Stadt (1953-1990)

This city, founded in the 12th century in the state of Saxony, now bears its original name - Chemnitz. It is the center of textile engineering and textile industry, machine tool manufacturing and mechanical engineering. The city was completely destroyed by British and American bombers and rebuilt after the war. Small islands of ancient buildings remain.

Leipzig

The city of Leipzig, located in the state of Saxony, was one of the largest cities in the German Democratic Republic before the unification of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. Another large city in Germany is located 32 kilometers from it - Halle, which is located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Together, the two cities form an urban agglomeration with a population of 1,100 thousand people.

The city has long been the cultural and scientific center of Central Germany. It is famous for its universities as well as fairs. Leipzig is one of the most developed industrial areas in East Germany. Since the late Middle Ages, Leipzig has been a recognized center of printing and bookselling in Germany.

The greatest composer Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as the famous Felix Mendelssohn, lived and worked in this city. The city is still famous today for its musical traditions. Since ancient times, Leipzig has been a major trading center; until the last war, famous fur trades took place here.

Dresden

A pearl among German cities is Dresden. The Germans themselves call it Florence on the Elbe, as there are many Baroque architectural monuments here. The first mention of it was recorded in 1206. Dresden has always been the capital: since 1485 - of the Margraviate of Meissen, since 1547 - of the Electorate of Saxony.

It is located on the Elbe River. The border with the Czech Republic runs 40 kilometers from it. It is the administrative center of Saxony. Its population numbers about 600,000 inhabitants.

The city suffered greatly from US and British air raids. Up to 30 thousand residents and refugees, most of them old people, women and children, died. During the bombing, the residence castle, the Zwinger complex, and the Semper Opera were severely destroyed. Almost the entire historical center lay in ruins.

To restore architectural monuments, after the war, all surviving parts of the buildings were dismantled, rewritten, numbered and taken out of the city. Everything that could not be restored was cleared away.

The old city was a flat area on which most of the monuments were gradually restored. The GDR government came up with a proposal to revive the old city, which lasted almost forty years. New neighborhoods and avenues were built for residents around the old city.

Coat of arms of the GDR

Like any country, the GDR had its own coat of arms, described in Chapter 1 of the constitution. The coat of arms of the German Democratic Republic was a superimposed golden hammer, representing the working class, and a compass, representing the intelligentsia. They were surrounded by a golden wreath of wheat, representing the peasantry, intertwined with the ribbons of the national flag.

Flag of the GDR

The flag of the German Democratic Republic was an elongated panel consisting of four stripes of equal width, painted in the national colors of Germany: black, red and gold. In the middle of the flag was the coat of arms of the GDR, which distinguished it from the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Prerequisites for the formation of the GDR

The history of the GDR covers a very short period of time, but it is still studied with great attention by scientists in Germany. The country was severely isolated by Germany and the entire Western world. After the surrender of Germany in May 1945, there were occupation zones, there were four of them, since the former state ceased to exist. All power in the country, with all management functions, was formally transferred to the military administrations.

The transition period was complicated by the fact that Germany, especially its eastern part, where German resistance was desperate, lay in ruins. The barbaric bombings of British and US aircraft were aimed at intimidating the civilian population of cities that were liberated by the Soviet army and turning them into a pile of ruins.

In addition, there was no agreement between the former allies regarding the vision of the future of the country, which is what subsequently led to the creation of two countries - the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

Basic principles of German reconstruction

Even at the Yalta Conference, the basic principles of the restoration of Germany were considered, which were later fully agreed upon and approved at the conference in Potsdam by the victorious countries: the USSR, Great Britain and the USA. They were also approved by the countries participating in the war against Germany, in particular France, and contained the following provisions:

• Complete destruction of the totalitarian state.
• Complete ban on the NSDAP and all organizations associated with it.
• Complete liquidation of the punitive organizations of the Reich, such as the SA, SS, and SD services, since they were recognized as criminal.
• The army was completely liquidated.
• Racial and political legislation was repealed.
• Gradual and consistent implementation of denazification, demilitarization and democratization.

The solution to the German question, which included the peace treaty, was entrusted to the Council of Ministers of the victorious countries. On June 5, 1945, the victorious states promulgated the Declaration of the Defeat of Germany, according to which the country was divided into four occupation zones governed by the administrations of Great Britain (the largest zone), the USSR, the USA and France. The capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into zones. The resolution of all issues was entrusted to the Control Council, which included representatives of the victorious countries.

Parties of Germany

In Germany, to restore statehood, the formation of new political parties that would be democratic in nature was allowed. In the eastern sector, the emphasis was on the revival of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties of Germany, which soon merged into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1946). Its goal was to build a socialist state. It was the ruling party in the German Democratic Republic.

In the western sectors, the main political force was the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party formed in June 1945. In 1946, the CSU (Christian Social Union) was formed in Bavaria on this principle. Their main principle is a democratic republic based on market economics with private property rights.

Political confrontations on the issue of the post-war structure of Germany between the USSR and the rest of the coalition countries were so serious that their further aggravation would have led either to a split in the state or to a new war.

Formation of the German Democratic Republic

In December 1946, Great Britain and the USA, ignoring numerous proposals from the USSR, announced the unification of their two zones. They began to call it “Bisonia” for short. This was preceded by the refusal of the Soviet administration to supply agricultural products to the western zones. In response to this, transit transportation of equipment exported from factories and factories in East Germany and located in the Ruhr region to the USSR zone was stopped.

At the beginning of April 1949, France also joined “Bizonia”, resulting in the formation of “Trisonia”, from which the Federal Republic of Germany was subsequently formed. So the Western powers, conspiring with the big German bourgeoisie, created a new state. In response to this, the German Democratic Republic was created at the end of 1949. Berlin, or rather its Soviet zone, became its center and capital.

The People's Council was temporarily reorganized into the People's Chamber, which adopted the Constitution of the GDR, which was subject to popular discussion. On September 11, 1949, the first president of the GDR was elected. It was the legendary Wilhelm Pieck. At the same time, the government of the GDR was temporarily created, headed by O. Grotewohl. The military administration of the USSR transferred all functions for governing the country to the government of the GDR.

The Soviet Union did not want the division of Germany. They were repeatedly made proposals for the unification and development of the country in accordance with the Potsdam decisions, but they were regularly rejected by Great Britain and the United States. Even after the division of Germany into two countries, Stalin made proposals for the unification of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, provided that the decisions of the Potsdam Conference were respected and Germany was not drawn into any political or military blocs. But Western states refused this, ignoring the decisions of Potsdam.

Political system of the GDR

The form of government of the country was based on the principle of people's democracy, in which a bicameral parliament operated. The country's political system was considered to be bourgeois-democratic, in which socialist transformations took place. The German Democratic Republic included the former German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The lower (people's) house was elected by universal secret ballot. The upper house was called the Land Chamber, the executive body was the government, which was made up of the prime minister and ministers. It was formed through an appointment made by the largest faction of the People's Chamber.

The administrative-territorial division consisted of lands consisting of districts divided into communities. The functions of the legislative bodies were performed by the Landtags, the executive bodies were the state governments.

The People's Chamber - the highest body of the state - consisted of 500 deputies, who were elected by secret ballot by the people for a period of 4 years. It was represented by all parties and public organizations. The People's Chamber, acting on the basis of laws, made the most important decisions on the development of the country, dealt with relations between organizations, compliance with the rules of cooperation between citizens, government organizations and associations; adopted the main law - the Constitution and other laws of the country.

Economy of the GDR

After the division of Germany, the economic situation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was very difficult. This part of Germany was very much destroyed. The equipment of plants and factories was exported to the western sectors of Germany. The GDR was simply cut off from its historical raw material bases, most of which were located in the Federal Republic of Germany. There was a shortage of natural resources such as ore and coal. There were few specialists: engineers, executives who left for Germany, frightened by propaganda about the brutal reprisals of the Russians.

With the help of the Union and other commonwealth countries, the economy of the GDR gradually began to gain momentum. Enterprises were restored. It was believed that centralized leadership and a planned economy served as a restraining factor for economic development. It should be taken into account that the restoration of the country took place in isolation from the western part of Germany, in an atmosphere of fierce confrontation between the two countries and open provocations.

Historically, the eastern regions of Germany were mostly agricultural, and in the western part, rich in coal and metal ore deposits, heavy industry, metallurgy and mechanical engineering were concentrated.

Without financial and material assistance from the Soviet Union, it would have been impossible to achieve a rapid restoration of industry. For the losses that the USSR suffered during the war, the GDR paid it reparation payments. Since 1950, their volume has been halved, and in 1954 the USSR refused to receive them.

Foreign policy situation

The construction of the Berlin Wall by the German Democratic Republic became a symbol of the intransigence of the two blocs. The Eastern and Western blocs of Germany increased their military forces, and provocations from the Western bloc became more frequent. It came down to open sabotage and arson. The propaganda machine was working at full capacity, taking advantage of economic and political difficulties. The Federal Republic of Germany, like many Western European countries, did not recognize the GDR. The aggravation of relations peaked in the early 1960s.

The so-called “German crisis” also arose thanks to West Berlin, which, legally being the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, was located in the very center of the GDR. The border between the two zones was conditional. As a result of the confrontation between the NATO blocs and the countries belonging to the Warsaw bloc, the SED Politburo decided to build a border around West Berlin, which consisted of a reinforced concrete wall 106 km long and 3.6 m high and a metal mesh fence 66 km long. It stood from August 1961 until November 1989.

After the merger of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, the wall was demolished, leaving only a small section that became the Berlin Wall memorial. In October 1990, the GDR became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The history of the German Democratic Republic, which existed for 41 years, is intensively studied and researched by scientists of modern Germany.

Despite the propaganda discrediting of this country, scientists are well aware that it gave Western Germany a lot. In a number of parameters, it has surpassed its Western brother. Yes, the joy of reunification was genuine for the Germans, but there is no point in belittling the importance of the GDR, one of the most developed countries in Europe, and many in modern Germany understand this very well.

Former Nazi Germany was divided into several. Austria left the empire. Alsace and Lorraine returned to French protection. Czechoslovakia received back the Sudetenland. Statehood was restored in Luxembourg.

Part of Poland's territory, annexed by the Germans in 1939, returned to Poland. The eastern part of Prussia was divided between the USSR and Poland.

The remainder of Germany was divided by the Allies into four zones of occupation, administered by Soviet, British, American and military authorities. The countries that took part in the occupation of German lands agreed to pursue a coordinated policy, the main principles of which were denazification and demilitarization of the former German Empire.

Education Germany

A few years later, in 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed on the territory of the American, British and French occupation zones, which became Bonn. Western politicians thus planned to create in this part of Germany a state built on a capitalist model, which could become a springboard for a possible war with the communist regime.

The Americans provided considerable support to the new bourgeois German state. Thanks to this support, Germany quickly began to transform into an economically developed power. In the 50s they even talked about the “German economic miracle.”

The country needed cheap labor, the main source of which was Türkiye.

How did the German Democratic Republic come into being?

The response to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany was the proclamation of the constitution of another German republic - the GDR. This happened in October 1949, five months after the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany. In this way, the Soviet state decided to resist the aggressive intentions of its former allies and create a kind of stronghold of socialism in Western Europe.

The Constitution of the German Democratic Republic proclaimed democratic freedoms to its citizens. This document also secured the leading role of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. For a long time, the Soviet Union provided the government of the GDR with political and economic assistance.

However, in terms of the rate of industrial growth, the GDR, which had taken the socialist path of development, lagged significantly behind its western neighbor. But this did not prevent East Germany from becoming a developed industrial country, where agriculture also developed intensively. After a series of rapid democratic transformations in the GDR, the unity of the German nation was restored; on October 3, 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR became a single state.

I don’t remember the GDR at all, although as my mother told me, I was born in a military town north of Berlin, where my father, a Soviet officer, served at that time.
I became an independent person quite early and, having left my parents, I never took long heart-to-heart conversations seriously, considering them dense conservatives.
Now, of course, I understand that I was wrong and now, of course, I have a lot of questions for them, but alas... I can’t get an answer.

What do I remember about the GDR?

I don’t remember the GDR at all, although I spent some time there. But not being an independent traveler, but a baby doll with a pussy in the foreground - judging by b/w old photos
Already at a thinking age, “from how old to school,” I remember a beautiful accordion - dark red and with mother-of-pearl.
I remember German songs from a reel-to-reel tape recorder (Chord?), which my father loved to listen to and therefore I suspected him of sympathizing with the Nazis and shared my suspicions with my mother.

There was also a Madonna set, which my parents were very proud of.
Seeing no reason for pride, I simply looked with curiosity at the fleshy half-naked women depicted on the cups and saucers
By the way, I now remembered that my baby tooth was kept in a milk jug (it was not used in the family). Some of...

There was also a Leipzig store on Leninsky, where the most beautiful toys were sold and there was a toy railway - the ultimate dream of that time
And there was a TV program on the box “Mom, Dad and I are a sports family”
In general, it is clear that I did not know about the GDR and was not there

Therefore, it was interesting for me to visit those places where it was possible that I was carried in a stroller
Where do the accordion songs I heard as a child come from?
And it turned out very well and almost according to tradition: on my birthday I went to travel along lakes and canals in Europe. This time to the land of a thousand lakes - Mecklenburg, Vorpommern
It is north of Berlin, no more than 100 km

Why did you write this?

I wrote a review, and in fact an online report, during our journey:
And in this note I want to write about my impressions of the people in this part of Germany. We are traveling more and more in Bavaria, since from there it is closer to the Alps, to the skiing area
Well, now, while checking key phrases for search engines, I came across some nonsense written in the Russian media about how poorly former GDR members live and how they want to live again behind the Iron Curtain with their brotherly people in an embrace.

What surprised and touched

The first thing that surprised me about people was their complete, almost complete lack of knowledge of the English language.
As well as he is known in the villages and towns of Bavaria, they do not know him and do not want to know him in Vorpommern
How to communicate with the Germans here?
And here is the second surprise: many people remember Russian. Many - almost all
Remember does not mean they speak fluently. No. But they are trying - it’s clear that they are delving into the closets of their memory and proudly saying: Hello! Please!
And they understand even better

I don’t know what it was like in the GDR before reunification, but now I don’t see the difference between a village in eastern Germany and western Germany
The same houses, beautiful flowers in pots and small fences
Soviet “Khrushchev” buildings look somewhat dissonant against the backdrop of a pastoral picture of calm and serenity, but even they are in complete order: neatly painted, windows replaced with double-glazed windows, flowers, flower beds, flowers in front of the entrances

East Germans dress the same as West Germans or Poles or Lithuanians
Cars... ordinary German, Korean, French cars - globalization... But wait a minute:
It’s a pity - I didn’t have a camera with me - in one of the towns where we stopped I saw a cherry-colored Zhiguli 2103 in the parking lot near a house.
Treshka, as it was called. With chrome radiator grille.
Clean, well-groomed, without any flashing lights or red mudguards... Well, these are the Germans! - I said

How do they treat Russians?

How do they treat Russians?
Friendly and a little naive: in one place I ordered beer. The owner learned from a mixture of English, Polish, Russian and Hyundai that I was from Russia and immediately took a bottle of Putinoff vodka from the refrigerator and poured a stopar of vodka for my beer.
Those who barely remember the Russian language enjoy practicing its reproduction
And in one small town, in the very center of it, I discovered a cemetery - it was a long-standing (from World War 1) burial place of German soldiers, local residents, and right there the graves of Soviet soldiers and a monument with Russian inscriptions.
Clean and well-kept graves, although the tombstones themselves have already faded and it is difficult to make out what is written on them

Do the Germans from the former GDR want the past to return?
I didn't ask.
It never occurred to me to ask such a question: firstly, it’s not tactful, and secondly, I don’t want to be considered crazy.
Of course, there are warm feelings about the past - like any feeling of nostalgia for the times of childhood and youth.
Memories in which only good things are remembered.
But I am sure that the East Germans will never erect a monument to Honecker (although he seemed to be a harmless guy)