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East Berlin

April 11, 2024

For other uses, see East Berlin (disambiguation).

East Berlin (German: Ost-Berlin; pronounced [ˈɔstbɛʁˌliːn] ⓘ) was the partially recognised capital city of East Germany (GDR) from 1948 to 1990, although in 1945, it was recognised by the Three Powers (United States, United Kingdom, and France) as the Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989, East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. The Western Allied powers did not recognize East Berlin as the GDR's capital, nor the GDR's authority to govern East Berlin. On 3 October 1990, the day Germany was officially reunified, East and West Berlin formally reunited as the city of Berlin.

East Berlin
Ost-Berlin
Berlin (Ost)
1948–1990
Flag
Coat of arms
East Berlin (red)
StatusCapital of East Germany[a]
First Secretary 
• 1948–1953
Hans Jendretzky
• 1953–1957
Alfred Neumann
• 1957–1959
Hans Kiefert
• 1959–1971
Paul Verner
• 1971–1985
Konrad Naumann
• 1985–1989
Günter Schabowski
• 1989–1990
Heinz Albrecht
Lord Mayor 
• 1948–1967
Friedrich Ebert Jr. (SED)
• 1967–1974
Herbert Fechner (SED)
• 1974–1990
Erhard Krack (SED)
• 1990
Ingrid Pankraz (PDS)
• 1990
Christian Hartenhauer (PDS)
• 1990–1991
Tino Schwierzina (SDP)
• 1991
Thomas Krüger (SDP)
Historical eraCold War
• Establishment of East Germany
7 October 1948
3 October 1990
Population
• 1946
1,174,582
• 1961
1,055,283
• 1989
1,279,212
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Today part ofGermany

Overview edit

With the London Protocol of 1944 signed on 12 September 1944, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into three occupation zones and to establish a special area of Berlin, which was occupied by the three Allied Forces together.[1] In May 1945, the Soviet Union installed a city government for the whole city that was called "Magistrate of Greater Berlin", which existed until 1947. After the war, the Allied Forces initially administered the city together within the Allied Kommandatura, which served as the governing body of the city. However, in 1948 the Soviet representative left the Kommandatura and the common administration broke apart during the following months. In the Soviet sector, a separate city government was established, which continued to call itself the "Magistrate of Greater Berlin".

When the German Democratic Republic was established in 1949, it immediately claimed East Berlin as its capital—a claim that was recognized by all communist countries. Nevertheless, East Berlin's representatives to the Volkskammer were not directly elected and did not have full voting rights until 1981.[2]

In June 1948, all railways and roads leading to West Berlin were blocked, and East Berliners were not allowed to emigrate. Nevertheless, more than 1,000 East Germans were escaping to West Berlin each day by 1960, caused by the strains on the East German economy from war reparations owed to the Soviet Union, massive destruction of industry, and lack of assistance from the Marshall Plan. In August 1961, the East German Government tried to stop the population exodus by separating West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. It was very dangerous for fleeing residents to cross because armed soldiers were trained to shoot illegal emigrants.[3]

East Germany was a socialist republic. Eventually, Christian churches were allowed to operate without restraint after years of harassment by authorities. In the 1970s, the wages of East Berliners rose and working hours fell.[4]

The Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc recognized East Berlin as the GDR's capital. However, Western Allies (the United States, United Kingdom, and France) never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin. Official Allied protocol recognized only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with the occupation status of Berlin as a whole. The United States Command Berlin, for example, published detailed instructions for U.S. military and civilian personnel wishing to visit East Berlin.[5] In fact, the three Western commandants regularly protested against the presence of the East German National People's Army in East Berlin, particularly on the occasion of military parades. Nevertheless, the three Western Allies eventually established embassies in East Berlin in the 1970s, although they never recognized it as the capital of East Germany. Treaties instead used terms such as "seat of government".[6]

On 3 October 1990, East and West Germany and East and West Berlin were reunited, thus formally ending the existence of East Berlin. Citywide elections in December 1990 resulted in the first "all-Berlin" mayor being elected to take office in January 1991, with the separate offices of mayors in East and West Berlin expiring at the time, and Eberhard Diepgen (a former mayor of West Berlin) became the first elected mayor of a reunited Berlin.[7]

Historical population edit

East Berlin reached its highest population in 1988 with 1.28 million. The lowest value was in 1961, the year the Berlin Wall was built, with under 1.06 million registered. The figures in the following table, unless otherwise indicated, are from the official central statistical office of East Germany.

Date Population
29 October 1946 ¹ 1,174,582
31 August 1950 ¹ 1,189,074
31 December 1955 1,139,864
31 December 1960 1,071,775
31 December 1961 1,055,283
31 December 1964 ¹ 1,070,731
Date Population
01 January 1971 ¹ 1,086,374
31 December 1975 1,098,174
31 December 1981 ¹ 1,162,305
31 December 1985 1,215,586
31 December 1988 1,284,535
31 December 1989 1,279,212

¹ Census

East Berlin today edit

Since reunification, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin.

After reunification, the East German economy suffered significantly. Under the adopted policy of privatization of state-owned firms under the auspices of the Treuhandanstalt, many East German factories were shut down—which also led to mass unemployment—due to gaps in productivity with and investment compared to West German companies, as well as an inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards in a way that was deemed cost-effective. Because of this, a massive amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it. This stimulus was part-funded through a 7.5% tax on income for individuals and companies (in addition to normal income tax or company tax) known as the Solidaritätszuschlaggesetz (SolZG) or "solidarity surcharge", which though only in effect for 1991–1992 (later reintroduced in 1995 at 7.5 and then dropped down to 5.5% in 1998 and continues to be levied to this day) led to a great deal of resentment toward the East Germans.[8][9][4]

Despite the large sums of economic aid poured into East Berlin, there still remain obvious differences between the former East and West Berlins. East Berlin has a distinct visual style; this is partly due to the greater survival of prewar façades and streetscapes, with some still showing signs of wartime damage. The unique look of Socialist Classicism that was used in East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) also contrasts markedly with the urban development styles employed in the former West Berlin. Additionally, the former East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) retains a small number of its GDR-era street and place names commemorating German socialist heroes, such as Karl-Marx-Allee, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße. Many such names, however, were deemed inappropriate (for various reasons) and, through decommunization, changed after a long process of review (so, for instance, Leninallee reverted to Landsberger Allee in 1991, and Dimitroffstraße reverted to Danziger Straße in 1995).

Another symbolic icon of the former East Berlin (and of East Germany as a whole) is the Ampelmännchen (tr. "little traffic light men"), a stylized version of a fedora-wearing man crossing the street, which is found on traffic lights at many pedestrian crosswalks throughout the former East. Following a civic debate about whether the Ampelmännchen should be abolished or disseminated more widely (due to concerns of consistency), several crosswalks in some parts of the former West Berlin began to employ the Ampelmännchen.

Twenty-five years after the two cities were reunified, the people of East and West Berlin still had noticeable differences between them, and these differences became more apparent among the older generations. The two groups also had sometimes-derogatory slang terms to refer to each other. A former East Berliner (or East German) was known as an "Ossi" (from the German word for east, Ost), and a former West Berliner (or West German) was known as a "Wessi" (from the German word for west, West). Both sides also engaged in stereotyping the other. A stereotypical Ossi had little ambition or poor work ethic and was chronically bitter, while a stereotypical Wessi was arrogant, selfish, impatient and pushy.[3]

Boroughs edit

 
Boroughs of East Berlin (as of 1987)

At the time of German reunification, East Berlin comprised the boroughs of

Images edit

See also edit

Further reading edit

  • Durie, William (2012). The British Garrison Berlin 1945 - 1994: nowhere to go ... a pictorial historiography of the British Military occupation / presence in Berlin. Berlin: Vergangenheitsverlag (de). ISBN 978-3-86408-068-5. OCLC 978161722.

Notes edit

  1. ^ Partially recognised; seen by the Western Bloc as the Soviet-occupied portion of Berlin

References edit

  1. ^ Knowles, Chris (29 January 2014). "Germany 1945-1949: a case study in post-conflict reconstruction". History & Policy. History & Policy. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  2. ^ Peitsch, Helmut; Williams, Rhys, eds. (1989). Berlin seit dem Kriegsende [Berlin Since War's End] (in German). Manchester University Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780719026683.
  3. ^ a b Stein, R. Conrad (1997). Berlin. Children's Press. p. 29. ISBN 9780516205823.
  4. ^ a b Grant, R. G. (1999). The Berlin Wall. Raintree Steck-Vaughn. ISBN 9780817250171.
  5. ^ "Helpful Hints for US Visitors to East Berlin" (PDF). Headquarters, U.S. Command Berlin. 9 November 1981. (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2023.
  6. ^ Pugh, Emily (2014). Architecture, Politics, and Identity in Divided Berlin. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 159. ISBN 9780822979579.
  7. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (1 December 1990). "Berlin Mayoral Contest Has Many Uncertainties". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  8. ^ . www.bzst.de. Federal Central Tax Office. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  9. ^ . Your Europe - Business. European Union. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2019.

External links edit

April 11, 2024
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For other uses see East Berlin disambiguation You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German July 2010 Click show for important translation instructions View a machine translated version of the German article Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the English Wikipedia Consider adding a topic to this template there are already 9 092 articles in the main category and specifying topic will aid in categorization Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality If possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at de Ost Berlin see its history for attribution You should also add the template Translated de Ost Berlin to the talk page For more guidance see Wikipedia Translation East Berlin German Ost Berlin pronounced ˈɔstbɛʁˌliːn was the partially recognised capital city of East Germany GDR from 1948 to 1990 although in 1945 it was recognised by the Three Powers United States United Kingdom and France as the Soviet occupation sector of Berlin The American British and French sectors were known as West Berlin From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989 East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall The Western Allied powers did not recognize East Berlin as the GDR s capital nor the GDR s authority to govern East Berlin On 3 October 1990 the day Germany was officially reunified East and West Berlin formally reunited as the city of Berlin East BerlinOst BerlinBerlin Ost 1948 1990Flag Coat of armsEast Berlin red StatusCapital of East Germany a First Secretary 1948 1953Hans Jendretzky 1953 1957Alfred Neumann 1957 1959Hans Kiefert 1959 1971Paul Verner 1971 1985Konrad Naumann 1985 1989Gunter Schabowski 1989 1990Heinz AlbrechtLord Mayor 1948 1967Friedrich Ebert Jr SED 1967 1974Herbert Fechner SED 1974 1990Erhard Krack SED 1990Ingrid Pankraz PDS 1990Christian Hartenhauer PDS 1990 1991Tino Schwierzina SDP 1991Thomas Kruger SDP Historical eraCold War Establishment of East Germany7 October 1948 Reunification3 October 1990Population 19461 174 582 19611 055 283 19891 279 212Preceded by Succeeded byAllied occupied Germany GermanyBerlinToday part ofGermany Contents 1 Overview 2 Historical population 3 East Berlin today 4 Boroughs 5 Images 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 Notes 9 References 10 External linksOverview editWith the London Protocol of 1944 signed on 12 September 1944 the United States the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into three occupation zones and to establish a special area of Berlin which was occupied by the three Allied Forces together 1 In May 1945 the Soviet Union installed a city government for the whole city that was called Magistrate of Greater Berlin which existed until 1947 After the war the Allied Forces initially administered the city together within the Allied Kommandatura which served as the governing body of the city However in 1948 the Soviet representative left the Kommandatura and the common administration broke apart during the following months In the Soviet sector a separate city government was established which continued to call itself the Magistrate of Greater Berlin When the German Democratic Republic was established in 1949 it immediately claimed East Berlin as its capital a claim that was recognized by all communist countries Nevertheless East Berlin s representatives to the Volkskammer were not directly elected and did not have full voting rights until 1981 2 In June 1948 all railways and roads leading to West Berlin were blocked and East Berliners were not allowed to emigrate Nevertheless more than 1 000 East Germans were escaping to West Berlin each day by 1960 caused by the strains on the East German economy from war reparations owed to the Soviet Union massive destruction of industry and lack of assistance from the Marshall Plan In August 1961 the East German Government tried to stop the population exodus by separating West Berlin by the Berlin Wall It was very dangerous for fleeing residents to cross because armed soldiers were trained to shoot illegal emigrants 3 East Germany was a socialist republic Eventually Christian churches were allowed to operate without restraint after years of harassment by authorities In the 1970s the wages of East Berliners rose and working hours fell 4 The Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc recognized East Berlin as the GDR s capital However Western Allies the United States United Kingdom and France never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin Official Allied protocol recognized only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with the occupation status of Berlin as a whole The United States Command Berlin for example published detailed instructions for U S military and civilian personnel wishing to visit East Berlin 5 In fact the three Western commandants regularly protested against the presence of the East German National People s Army in East Berlin particularly on the occasion of military parades Nevertheless the three Western Allies eventually established embassies in East Berlin in the 1970s although they never recognized it as the capital of East Germany Treaties instead used terms such as seat of government 6 On 3 October 1990 East and West Germany and East and West Berlin were reunited thus formally ending the existence of East Berlin Citywide elections in December 1990 resulted in the first all Berlin mayor being elected to take office in January 1991 with the separate offices of mayors in East and West Berlin expiring at the time and Eberhard Diepgen a former mayor of West Berlin became the first elected mayor of a reunited Berlin 7 Historical population editEast Berlin reached its highest population in 1988 with 1 28 million The lowest value was in 1961 the year the Berlin Wall was built with under 1 06 million registered The figures in the following table unless otherwise indicated are from the official central statistical office of East Germany Date Population29 October 1946 1 174 58231 August 1950 1 189 07431 December 1955 1 139 86431 December 1960 1 071 77531 December 1961 1 055 28331 December 1964 1 070 731 Date Population0 1 January 1971 1 086 37431 December 1975 1 098 17431 December 1981 1 162 30531 December 1985 1 215 58631 December 1988 1 284 53531 December 1989 1 279 212 CensusEast Berlin today editSince reunification the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin After reunification the East German economy suffered significantly Under the adopted policy of privatization of state owned firms under the auspices of the Treuhandanstalt many East German factories were shut down which also led to mass unemployment due to gaps in productivity with and investment compared to West German companies as well as an inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards in a way that was deemed cost effective Because of this a massive amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it This stimulus was part funded through a 7 5 tax on income for individuals and companies in addition to normal income tax or company tax known as the Solidaritatszuschlaggesetz SolZG or solidarity surcharge which though only in effect for 1991 1992 later reintroduced in 1995 at 7 5 and then dropped down to 5 5 in 1998 and continues to be levied to this day led to a great deal of resentment toward the East Germans 8 9 4 Despite the large sums of economic aid poured into East Berlin there still remain obvious differences between the former East and West Berlins East Berlin has a distinct visual style this is partly due to the greater survival of prewar facades and streetscapes with some still showing signs of wartime damage The unique look of Socialist Classicism that was used in East Berlin along with the rest of the former GDR also contrasts markedly with the urban development styles employed in the former West Berlin Additionally the former East Berlin along with the rest of the former GDR retains a small number of its GDR era street and place names commemorating German socialist heroes such as Karl Marx Allee Rosa Luxemburg Platz and Karl Liebknecht Strasse Many such names however were deemed inappropriate for various reasons and through decommunization changed after a long process of review so for instance Leninallee reverted to Landsberger Allee in 1991 and Dimitroffstrasse reverted to Danziger Strasse in 1995 Another symbolic icon of the former East Berlin and of East Germany as a whole is the Ampelmannchen tr little traffic light men a stylized version of a fedora wearing man crossing the street which is found on traffic lights at many pedestrian crosswalks throughout the former East Following a civic debate about whether the Ampelmannchen should be abolished or disseminated more widely due to concerns of consistency several crosswalks in some parts of the former West Berlin began to employ the Ampelmannchen Twenty five years after the two cities were reunified the people of East and West Berlin still had noticeable differences between them and these differences became more apparent among the older generations The two groups also had sometimes derogatory slang terms to refer to each other A former East Berliner or East German was known as an Ossi from the German word for east Ost and a former West Berliner or West German was known as a Wessi from the German word for west West Both sides also engaged in stereotyping the other A stereotypical Ossi had little ambition or poor work ethic and was chronically bitter while a stereotypical Wessi was arrogant selfish impatient and pushy 3 Boroughs edit nbsp Boroughs of East Berlin as of 1987 At the time of German reunification East Berlin comprised the boroughs of Friedrichshain Hellersdorf since 1986 Hohenschonhausen since 1985 Kopenick Lichtenberg Marzahn since 1979 Mitte Pankow Prenzlauer Berg Treptow WeissenseeImages edit nbsp Marx Engels Platz and the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin in the summer of 1989 The Fernsehturm TV Tower is visible in the background nbsp Easter Sunday 1988 Fernsehturm and Palace of the Republic nbsp Karl Marx Allee apartments nbsp Wall plaque of Lenin off Wilhelmstrasse nbsp GDR era mural of Meissen porcelain on former Council of Ministers building facing Leipziger Strasse nbsp The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park nbsp Cafe Moskau in Karl Marx Allee nbsp The Palace of the Republic being dismantled nbsp New Synagogue Oranienburger Strasse nbsp Hochhaus in Weberwiese the first high rise apartment built after the war nbsp Volksbuhne Rosa Luxemburg Platz nbsp Late 1980s GDR apartment blocks on the Wilhelmstrasse nbsp Strausberger Platz with constructivism style building nbsp Proletarian hero Alexanderplatz nbsp Gerhard Behrendt with Sandmannchen The show was recorded in East Berlin nbsp The Bode Museum at the northern end of the Museum Island 1956 nbsp Haus der Schweiz de Unter der Linden at FriedrichStrasse East Berlin February 1975 nbsp Statues of Marx and Engels Marx Engels ForumSee also edit nbsp East Germany portalWest Berlin Bonn the West German capital cityFurther reading editDurie William 2012 The British Garrison Berlin 1945 1994 nowhere to go a pictorial historiography of the British Military occupation presence in Berlin Berlin Vergangenheitsverlag de ISBN 978 3 86408 068 5 OCLC 978161722 Notes edit Partially recognised seen by the Western Bloc as the Soviet occupied portion of BerlinReferences edit Knowles Chris 29 January 2014 Germany 1945 1949 a case study in post conflict reconstruction History amp Policy History amp Policy Retrieved 19 July 2016 Peitsch Helmut Williams Rhys eds 1989 Berlin seit dem Kriegsende Berlin Since War s End in German Manchester University Press p 18 ISBN 9780719026683 a b Stein R Conrad 1997 Berlin Children s Press p 29 ISBN 9780516205823 a b Grant R G 1999 The Berlin Wall Raintree Steck Vaughn ISBN 9780817250171 Helpful Hints for US Visitors to East Berlin PDF Headquarters U S Command Berlin 9 November 1981 Archived PDF from the original on 5 March 2023 Pugh Emily 2014 Architecture Politics and Identity in Divided Berlin University of Pittsburgh Press p 159 ISBN 9780822979579 Kinzer Stephen 1 December 1990 Berlin Mayoral Contest Has Many Uncertainties The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 4 January 2023 BZSt Tax withholding amount www bzst de Federal Central Tax Office Archived from the original on 15 October 2019 Retrieved 15 October 2019 Company Tax in the EU Germany Your Europe Business European Union Archived from the original on 3 October 2018 Retrieved 15 October 2019 External links editMy First Time to East Berlin 11 November 2019 James Bovard Mises Institute Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title East Berlin amp oldid 1209317005, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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