In 1955, the Soviet Union declared its zone of occupation in eastern Germany fully sovereign. However, Soviet occupation troops remained in East German territory, based on the four-power Potsdam Agreement, while American, British, Canadian, and French forces remained in the Federal Republic of Germany in the West. Berlin, completely surrounded by East German territory, was similarly divided with British, French and U.S. garrisons in West Berlin and Soviet forces in East Berlin. Berlin in particular became the focal point of Cold War tensions. East Germany was a member of the Warsaw Pact and a close ally of the USSR.
Following the initial opening of sections of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, new elections were held on 18 March 1990, and the governing party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, lost its majority in the Volkskammer (the East German parliament) soon after. On 23 August 1990, the Volkskammer recreated the five pre-war states (which had been dissolved in 1952), which would later join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990. As a result of reunification on that date, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist.
Before the end of World War II, the region that later would be known as East Germany was actually situated in the center of the German state and therefore was known as "Mitteldeutschland" (Central or Middle Germany). To the east of the Oder and Neisse rivers were the extensive Prussian provinces of Pomerania, East Prussia, West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia, and the eastern Neumark of Brandenburg. During World War II, allied leaders decided at the Yalta Conference that the post-war Polish border would be moved westward to the Oder-Neisse line to include territories which historically belonged to Poland in the past and to compensate Poland for the loss of its eastern territories to the Soviet Union. As a result, Germany lost most of its eastern provinces, and the former "Middle Germany" was now the de facto eastern limit of the German nation.
Post-War Zoning Drafts
Discussions at Yalta and Potsdam also outlined the planned occupation and administration of post-war Germany under a four-power Allied Control Council, or ACC, composed of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. At the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945, following the end of fighting in Europe, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into four occupation zones. Each country would control a part of Germany until German sovereignty was restored.
The Länder (states) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, fell in the Soviet Zone of Germany (in German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone, or SBZ). Soviet objections to economic and political changes in the western (US, UK, and French) occupation zones led to Soviet withdrawal from the ACC in 1948 and subsequent evolution of the SBZ into East Germany, including the Soviet sector of Berlin. Concurrently, the Western occupation zones consolidated to form West Germany (or the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG).
Three German states and divided Berlin in late 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) consists of the American, British and French Zones (without the Saarland). The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed from the Soviet Zone.
Officially, both the western Allies and the communists committed to maintaining a unified Germany after the war in the 1945 Potsdam Agreement, at least on paper. The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe, but the United States and its allies rejected the offer. Stalin died in early 1953. Though powerful Soviet politician Lavrenty Beria briefly pursued the idea of German unification once more following Stalin's death, he was arrested and removed from office in a coup d'état in mid-1953. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, firmly rejected the idea of handing eastern Germany over to be annexed, marking the end of any serious consideration of the unification idea until the collapse of the East German Communist regime in late 1989.
Just as Germany was divided after the war, Berlin, the former capital of Germany, was divided into four sectors. East Germany and the rest of the Eastern bloc considered East Berlin to be the capital of East Germany, although the legality of this was disputed by the western Allies as the entire city was formally considered an occupied territory governed by martial law through the Allied Control Council. In practice, the Allied Control Council quickly became moot as the Cold War intensified, and the East German government ignored the technical legal restrictions on how East Berlin could be linked to the GDR.
Conflict over the status of West Berlin led to the Berlin Blockade, when the Soviet government prohibited overland transit between the western zones of Germany and West Berlin, prompting the massive Berlin Airlift.
At the end of the war, Soviet authorities forcibly unified members of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party in the Socialist Unity Party (SED), which swept to victory in 1946 elections with the help of Soviet pressure and propaganda about the Nazi atrocities. All property and industry was nationalized under their government, and the German Democratic Republic was declared on October 7, 1949, with a new constitution which enshrined socialism and gave the SED power over a National Front among the different political parties, with "unity lists" put forth by the SED which ensured their control. The first leader of East Germany was Wilhelm Pieck, the first (and as it turned out, only) President of the GDR. However, after 1950 the real power rested with Walter Ulbricht, first secretary of the ruling SED.
On 16 June 1953, following a production quota increase of 10 percent for workers building East Berlin's new boulevard, the Stalinallee (today known as Karl-Marx-Allee), demonstrations by disgruntled workers broke out in East Berlin. The next day the protests spread across East Germany with more than a million on strike and demonstrations in 700 communities. Fearing revolution the government requested the aid of Soviet occupation troops and on the morning of the 18th tanks and soldiers were dispatched who dealt harshly with protesters. The result was some fifty deaths and a wave of arrests and jail sentences numbering over 10,000.[2] Transit between West and East Berlin was relatively free at the time, meaning that the protests and the harsh Soviet reaction unfolded in full view of many western observers. See Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.
Soviet war reparations, extracted entirely from the eastern occupation zone, had a substantial impact on the East German economy. During the early stages of the occupation (in particular 1945 and 1946), the Red Army seized around a third of the industrial equipment from eastern Germany to be shipped back to the Soviet Union, with a further $10bn in reparations extracted by the early 1950s in the form of agricultural and industrial products.[3] The increasing economic prosperity of West Germany led large numbers of East Germans to flee to the West. Since the 1940s, East Germans had been leaving the Soviet zone of Germany to emigrate to the west. The ongoing emigration of East Germans further strained the East German economy. The border between the two German states was largely closed by the mid-1950s (see Inner German border). Due to the lure of higher salaries in the West and the political oppression in the East, many skilled workers (such as doctors) crossed into the West, causing a 'brain drain' in the East. However, on the night between the 12th and 13th of August 1961, East German troops sealed the border between West and East Berlin and started to build the Berlin Wall, literally and physically enclosing West Berlin. Travel was greatly restricted into, and out of, East Germany. The Ministry of State Security (or Stasi), a highly effective security force, monitored the lives of East German citizens to suppress dissenters through its pervasive network of informants and agents.
In 1971, Ulbricht was forced out as head of state under Soviet pressure and replaced by Erich Honecker. Ulbricht had experimented with a few reforms, but Honecker tightened the reins and imposed a new constitution that used the word "German" sparingly and defined the country as a "republic of workers and peasants." Under Honecker, East Germany came to be generally regarded as the most economically advanced member of the Warsaw Pact[citation needed].
Until the 1970s, West Germany regarded East Germany as an illegally constituted state, and under the Hallstein Doctrine refused to have diplomatic relations with any country (except the Soviet Union) that recognized East Germany as a separate country. In the early 1970s, Ostpolitik led by Willy Brandt led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. The Treaty of Moscow (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (December 1972) helped to normalize relations between East and West Germany and led to both German states joining the United Nations.
Track-suit diplomacy
Competition with the West was also conducted on a sporting level. East German athletes dominated several Olympic sports. Of special interest was the only football match ever to occur between West and East Germany, a first round match during the 1974 World Cup. Though West Germany was the host and the eventual champion, East beat West 1-0.
In 1989, following widespread public anger over the results of local government elections that Spring, many citizens applied for exit visas, or left the country illegally. In August 1989 Hungary removed its border restrictions and unsealed its border and more than 13,000 people left East Germany by crossing the "green" border via Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to Austria and West Germany.[4] Many others demonstrated against the ruling party, especially in the city of Leipzig. Kurt Masur, the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra led local negotiations with the government, and held town meetings in the concert hall.[5] The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October, and he was replaced by a slightly more moderate Communist, Egon Krenz.
On 9 November 1989, a few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time. Soon, the governing party of East Germany resigned. Although there were some limited attempts to create a permanent, democratic East Germany, these were soon overwhelmed by calls for unification with West Germany. After some negotiations (2+4 Talks were held involving the two German states and the former Allied Powers (United States, France, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union) which led to agreement on the conditions for German unification. The five original East German states that had been abolished in 1952 were recreated. On 3 October 1990, the five states officially joined the Federal Republic of Germany, while East and West Berlin united as a third city-state (in the same manner as Bremen and Hamburg).
To this day, there remain vast differences between the former East and West Germanies (for example, in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs and other matters) and thus it is still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. The eastern German economy has struggled since unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east.
Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, DBD). This party was of special importance because of farmers' role in the economy. The party merged with the West German CDU after reunification.
Elections took place to the Volkskammer, but were effectively controlled by the SED/state hierarchy, as Hans Modrow has noted. Elections were held in less-than-secret conditions, with voters given the choice of approving or rejecting "unity lists" put forward by the National Front. As was the case in most Communist countries, approval rates of 90 percent or more were routine.
Important non-parliamentary mass organisations in East German society included the (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund or DTSB), and People's Solidarity (Volkssolidarität, an organisation for the elderly). Another society of note was the Society for German-Soviet Friendship.
The Stasi infiltrated and reported on most private activity in East Germany, limiting opportunity for non-sanctioned political organisation. All formal organisations except for churches were directly controlled by the East German government. Churches were permitted to operate more or less free from government control, as long as they abstained from political activity.
Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the "Party of Democratic Socialism" (PDS) which subsequently merged with the West German WASG to form the Left Party (Die Linke). The Left Party continues to be a political force in many parts of Germany, albeit drastically less powerful than the SED.
, editor-in-chief of the SED paper "Neues Deutschland" 1956–78, SED secretary for international relations 1966-1989
Johannes R. Becher, first minister for culture 1954–1958, wrote the lyrics of the national anthem
Hilde Benjamin, Vice President of the GDR Supreme Court 1949–1953, Minister of Justice 1953–67, dubbed "red guillotine" for her relentless persecution of political opponents
Otto Grotewohl, Chairman of the East German SPD 1945–46; joint chairman of the SED 1946–54; Chairman of the Council of Ministers 1949–64
Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the SED Central Committee 1971–89; 1976–89
Heinz Kessler, Minister of Defence 1985–89 (deputy minister since 1957)
Egon Krenz, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and chairman of Council of State from October to December 1989; he had been Honecker's deputy and "crown prince" since 1983
Rainer Eppelmann, Protestant pastor and opposition figure, minister for defence and disarmament from March to October 1990
Gregor Gysi, lawyer to artists, chairman of the SED/PDS November 1989–98
Wolfgang Harich, intellectual and East German dissident (sentenced to prison for counterrevolutionary activities)
Robert Havemann, communistic resistance fighter in World War 2 and East German dissident (was put under house arrest from 1976 until his death in 1982)
, communist resistance fighter in WW2 and East German dissident (sentenced in 1957 for "counterrevolutionary activities")
Lothar de Maizière, first (and only) freely elected prime minister, from April to 3 October 1990 and Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany from 3 October 1990 (but resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer)
Markus Meckel, Protestant pastor, deputy chairman of the East German Social Democrats 1989–90, GDR foreign minister from April to August 1990
, lawyer to dissidents, opposition politician (Democratic Awakening in 1990, but resigned after being detected as a former Stasi informer)
Soldiers of the Nationale Volksarmee marching at a changing-of-the-guard ceremony in Berlin.
Like all Soviet bloc countries, East Germany had its own armed forces, known as the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army - NVA) with four branches of service. Since East Germany was at the frontline of the Cold War, the GDR's military was considered to be the most advanced in the whole Warsaw Pact, excluding the Soviet Union. It was battle ready at all times, ready to be mobilized in a future war with NATO. The NVA was divided into the following four branches:
In addition, the GDR possessed various paramilitary forces in reserve in case war broke out, such as the "Combat Groups of the Working Class" (Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse) and in some cases, the Stasi.
All young East German men had to join the NVA. Attendance was compulsory for 18 months, except for serious medical reasons. As an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors, the so-called Baueinheiten (construction units) were created in 1964 under pressure from the national Protestant church. However, service in the Baueinheiten was strongly discouraged; these soldiers were subjected to various forms of harassment during their service, and there were also consequences after their term of service was complete - e.g., denial or difficulty in obtaining admission to higher education, etc.[citation needed] East Germany alone offered alternative service for COs among Eastern Bloc countries.[citation needed]
Subdivisions of the German Democratic Republic from 1952
In 1952, as part of the reforms designed to centralize power in the hands of the SED's Politbüro, the five Länder of East Germany were abolished, and East Germany was divided into fifteen Bezirke (districts), each named after the largest city: the northern LandMecklenburg-Vorpommern was divided between the BezirkeRostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg; Brandenburg (surrounding Berlin) was reorganized into the Bezirke of Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus; Saxony-Anhalt split into the Bezirke of Halle and Magdeburg; the south-western LandThuringia became the Bezirke of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl; finally, the south-eastern LandSaxony was divided between Leipzig, Dresden and Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and following the GDR's collapse again known as Chemnitz). The GDR capital, East Berlin formed the 15th Bezirk, though it retained a special legal status in the GDR until 1968, when East Berliners voted with the rest of the GDR to approve the draft of the new constitution. From this point onwards, irrespective of the Four Power Status and the western allies' objections that East Berlin was merely the Soviet occupied sector of the German capital, East Berlin was treated as a Bezirk like any other.
Demographics
The East German population declined steadily throughout its existence, from 19 million in 1948 to 16 million in 1990. Around 4 million of the 1948 population were German expellees from areas east of the Oder-Neisse line.[6] This was primarily a result of emigration – about one quarter of East Germans left the country before the Berlin Wall was completed in 1961, and after that time, East Germany had very low birth rates.[7] But in the years before reunification the birth rate in East Germany was much higher than in West Germany.[8] and in general the birth rate per woman was never much lower than in West Germany. This compares starkly with Poland, which increased during that time from 24 million in 1950 (a little more than East Germany) to 38 million (more than twice East Germany's population).
Economy
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East Germany's economy had a poor start in the aftermath of World War II. During 1945 and 1946 the Soviet Army dismantled train lines and factories. By the early 1950s the Soviet Union had seized reparations in form of agricultural and industrial products and demanded further heavy reparation payments.[3]Lower Silesia, which contained coal mines, and Stettin, a prominent natural port, were given to Poland.
Like other East European socialist states, East Germany had a centrally planned economy, similar to that of the Soviet Union, in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies of most Western states. The GDR joined the COMECON trading block in 1950. The state established production targets and prices and allocated resources, codifying these decisions in a comprehensive plan or set of plans. The means of production were almost entirely state owned. In 1985, for example, state-owned enterprises or collectives earned 96.7 percent of total net national income.
To secure constant prices for inhabitants, the state bore 80% of costs of basic supplies, from bread to housing. The per capita income in 1984 has been estimated at $9,800 (approximately $21,000 in 2008 dollars), though the currency conversion rate used to establish this figure may be questionable. In 1976 average annual GDP growth was roughly 5.9%.[9]
To the East German consumer, there were always shortages. Until the 1960s there were shortages of basic products like sugar and coffee, although there were some disparities; whilst coffee stayed expensive (approx. 1US$ for 200g), rolls were less than a cent. The time one had to wait for a new Wartburg was around 13 years in 1989.[citation needed] East Germans with friends or relatives in the West (or other access to hard currency), and the necessary Staatsbankforeign currency account, could buy both Western products and East German products only intended for export at the Intershop. Other ways of accessing rare consumer goods was through the Danish company Jauerfood, or via the mail-order gift company .
The Trabant was the most important car manufactured in the DDR.
The ultimate directing force in the economy, was the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), particularly its top leadership. The party exercised its leadership role formally during the party congress, when it accepted the report of the general secretary, and when it adopted the draft plan for the upcoming five-year period.
The private sector was small but not nonexistent. In 1985 about 2.8 percent of the net national product came from private enterprises. The private sector included farmers and gardeners; independent craftsmen, wholesalers, and retailers; and people employed in so-called free-lance activities (artists, writers, and others). Although self-employed, such people were strictly regulated; in some cases the tax rate exceeded 90%. In 1985, for the first time in many years, the number of people working in the private sector increased slightly. According to East German statistics, in 1985 there were about 176,800 private entrepreneurs, an increase of about 500 over 1984. Certain private sector activities were quite important to the system because those craftsmen provided scarce spare parts, the production of which was a common shortcoming of the GDR's planned economy.
Artists were expected to sing songs only in German at first[citation needed], which changed with the end of the sixties. This seemed a logical constraint by the Party leaders but it was unpopular among some young people. Artistic activity was subject to laws censoring anti-socialist tendencies[citation needed]. The band Renft, for example, was prone to political misbehaviour, which eventually led to its split.
The Puhdys and Karat were some of the most popular mainstream bands, managing to hint at critical thoughts in their lyrics without being explicit. Like most mainstream acts, they appeared in popular youth magazines such as Neues Leben and Magazin. Other popular rock bands were , Dean Reed, City, Silly and Pankow. Most of these artists recorded on the state-owned AMIGA label.
Influences from the West were heard, because West German TV and radio could be received in many parts of the East, an exception being Dresden, with its geographical position in the Elbe valley, although limited reception of Western radio was still possible there. The Western influence led to the formation of more "underground" groups with a decisively western-oriented sound. A few of these bands were Die Skeptiker, and Feeling B. Additionally, hip hop culture reached the ears of the East German youth. With videos such as Beat Street and Wild Style, young East Germans were able to develop a hip hop culture of their own.[10] East Germans accepted hip hop as more than just a music form. The entire street culture surrounding rap entered the region and became an outlet for oppressed youth.[11]
Classical music was highly supported, so that there existed over 50 classical symphony orchestras in a country with a population of about 16 million. See also:
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in East German territory and his birthplace in Eisenach was turned into a museum of his life, which, among other things, included more than 300 instruments from Bach's life; in 1980 this museum received more than 70,000 visitors annually. In Leipzig, an enormous archive with recordings of all of Bach's music was compiled, along with many historical documents and letters both to and from him. Every other year, school children from across East Germany gathered for a Bach competition held in East Berlin, and every four years an international Bach competition for keyboard and strings was held.
East German theatre was originally dominated by Bertolt Brecht, who brought back many artists out of exile and reopened the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm with his Berliner Ensemble. Alternatively, other influences tried to establish a "Working Class Theatre", played for the working class by the working class.
After 1975 many artists left the GDR due to increasing censorship. A parallel theatre scene sprung up, creating theatre "outside of Berlin" in which artists played at provincial theatres. For example Peter Sodann founded the in Halle/Saale and Frank Castorf at the theater Anklam.
Theatre and Cabaret had high status in the GDR, which allowed it to be very pro-active. This often brought it into confrontation with the State. Benno Besson once said: "In contrast to artists in the west, they took us seriously, we had a bearing."
In the GDR, the movie industry was very active. The head-group for film-productions was the DEFA[16], Deutsche Film AG, which was subdivided in different local groups, for example Gruppe Berlin, Gruppe Babelsberg or Gruppe Johannisthal, where the local teams shot and produced films. Besides folksy movies, the movie-industry became known worldwide for its productions, especially children's movies ("", film versions of the Brothers Grimm fairy-tales and modern productions such as "").
Frank Beyer's "Jakob der Lügner" (Jacob the Liar; about persecution of Jews in Third Reich) and, "Fünf Patronenhülsen"(Five Bullet Shells) about resistance against fascism, became internationally famous.
The film industry was remarkable for its production of Ostern, or Western-like movies. Indians in these films often took the role of displaced people who fight for their rights, in contrast to the American westerns of the time, where Indians were often either not mentioned at all or are portrayed as the villains. Yugoslavians were often cast as the Indians, due to the small number of American Indians in eastern Europe. Gojko Mitić was well-known in these roles, often playing the righteous, kindhearted and charming chief ("Die Söhne der großen Bärin" directed by Josef Mach). He became an honorary Sioux chief when he visited the United States of America in the 90s and the television crew accompanying him showed the tribe one of his movies. American actor and singer Dean Reed, an expatriate who lived in East Germany, also starred in several films. These films were part of the phenomenon of Europe producing alternative films about the colonization of America. See also Spaghetti Western and the West German Winnetou films (adaptations of novels of Karl May).
Because of censorship a certain number of very remarkable movies were forbidden at this time and reissued after the Wende in 1990. Examples are "Spur der Steine" (directed by Frank Beyer) and "" (directed by Konrad Wolf).
Cinemas in the GDR also showed foreign films. Czechoslovak and Polish productions were more common, but also certain western movies were shown, but the numbers were limited because it cost foreign exchange to buy the licences. Further, movies representing or glorifying capitalistic ideology were not bought. Comedies enjoyed great popularity, such as the Danish "Olsen Gang" or movies with the French comedian Louis de Funès.
Since the fall of the Wall, several movies depicting life in the GDR have been critically acclaimed including an Academy Award.[17]. Some of the most notable would be "Good Bye Lenin!" by Wolfgang Becker, "Das Leben der Anderen" (The Lives of Others) by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and "Alles auf Zucker!" (Go For Zucker) by Dani Levi. Each film are heavily infused with cultural nuances unique to life in the GDR.
Sports
For a small country, the people of East Germany achieved some remarkable results in many sports including cycling, weightlifting, swimming, track and field, boxing, skating and other winter sports. One reason for the success was the leadership of Dr. Manfred Hoeppner which started in the late 1960s.
Another supporting reason was Anabolic steroid doping, which has been the most detected doping substances in IOC-accredited laboratories for many years [18][19] and is now banned by all major sporting bodies. It allowed East Germany, with its small population, to become a world leader in the following two decades, winning a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records.[20]
Another factor for success was the furtherance-system for young people in GDR. When some children were aged around 6 until 10 years old (or older) sport-teachers at school were encouraged to look for certain talents in every pupil. For older pupils it was possible to attend grammar-schools with a focus on sports (for example sailing, football and swimming). This policy was also used for talented pupils with regard to music or mathematics.
Sports clubs were highly subsidized, especially sports in which it was possible to get international fame. For example, the major leagues for ice hockey and basketball just included each 2 teams (excluding the school and university sport), though a lack of popular interest in both ice hockey and basketball was and is common across the whole of Europe, whether communist or not. Football (soccer) was the most popular sport. Club football sides like Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Magdeburg, FC Carl Zeiss Jena, 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo had successes in European competition. Many East German players such as Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten became integral parts of the reunified national football team. Other sports enjoyed great popularity like figure skating, especially because of sportswomen like Katharina Witt.
East Germans patriotically supported their athletes to success in international competitions for similar reasons as those in other countries, and this no doubt played its part in the success that state enjoyed. A widely held perception existed, common to both sides in the Cold War, that international sporting success advertised their political and economic system to a worldwide audience. In the special case of East Germany, being the minority section of the divided Cold War era Germany, the particular success of that state was considered to foster international acceptance of the GDR as a state in its own right, as the US and many of its satellite states[citation needed] refused to officially recognise East Germany.
Television and radio in East Germany was state controlled. Rundfunk der DDR was the official radio broadcasting organisation from 1952 until German reunification. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin. Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), from 1972–1990 known as Fernsehen der DDR or DDR-FS, was the state television broadcaster from 1952. Reception of Western radio (and even television) broadcasts was widespread.[citation needed]
By the mid-1980s, East Germany possessed a well-developed communications system. There were approximately 3.6 million telephones in usage (21.8 for every 100 inhabitants), and 16,476 telex stations. Both of these networks were run by the Deutsche Post der DDR (East German Post Office). East Germany was assigned telephone country code 37; in 1991, several months after reunification, East German telephone exchanges were incorporated into country code 49.
An unusual feature of the telephone network was that in most cases, direct dialing for long distance calls was not possible. Although area codes were assigned to all major towns and cities, they were only used for switching international calls. Instead, each location had its own list of dialing codes - with shorter codes for local calls, and longer codes for long distance calls. This was due to the way the calls were routed over the trunk network. After reunification, the existing network was largely replaced, and area codes and dialing became standardised.
In 1976 East Germany inaugurated the operation of a ground-based radio station at Fürstenwalde for the purpose of relaying and receiving communications from Soviet satellites, and serve as a participant in the international telecommunications organization established by the Soviet government, Intersputnik.
^ ab Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7 pp. 167-9
^ Brown, Timothy S. “‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany.” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, pp.137-150. London; A
^ Elfein, Dietmar. From Krauts with Atittudes to Turks with Attitudes: Some a Aspects of Hip-Hop History in Germany. pp.225-265 Popular Music vol. 17:3. October 1998.
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