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East Berlin

March 16, 2023

For other uses, see East Berlin (disambiguation).

East Berlin was the de facto capital city of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. 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
Восточный Берлин
Berlin (Ost)
1949–1990
Flag
Coat of arms
East Berlin (red)
StatusCapital of East Germany (unrecognised as such by the Western Bloc); Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin (recognised as such by the Western Bloc).
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 1949
3 October 1990
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Today part ofGermany

Overview

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, its 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 enclosing West Berlin within the Berlin Wall. It was very dangerous for fleeing residents to cross because armed soldiers were trained to shoot illegal migrants.[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]

East Berlin today

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][10]

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 Stalinist architecture 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 also 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, which 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.[11]

Boroughs

 
Boroughs of East Berlin (as of 1987)

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

Images

See also


Further reading

  • 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.

References

  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. ^ Berlin seit dem Kriegsende, Helmut Peitsch, Manchester University Press, 1989 page 18
  3. ^ Conrad Stein, R. (1997). Berlin. Children's Press. p. 29.
  4. ^ Grant, R.G (1999). The Berlin Wall. Steck-Vaughn Company.
  5. ^ "Helpful Hints for US Visitors to East Berlin" (PDF). Headquarters, U.S. Command Berlin. 9 November 1981. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Architecture, Politics, and Identity in Divided Berlin, Emily Pugh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014, pages 159
  7. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (1 December 1990). "Berlin Mayoral Contest Has Many Uncertainties". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  8. ^ "BZSt - Tax withholding amount". www.bzst.de. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  9. ^ "Company Tax in the EU- Germany". Your Europe - Business. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  10. ^ Grant, R.G. (1999). The Berlin Wall. Steck-Vaughn Company.
  11. ^ Conrad Stein, R. (1997). Berlin. Children's Press. p. 14.

External links

March 16, 2023
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For other uses see East Berlin disambiguation This article may be expanded 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 9 759 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 was the de facto capital city of East Germany GDR from 1949 to 1990 Formally it was the Soviet sector of Berlin established in 1945 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 BerlinVostochnyj BerlinBerlin Ost 1949 1990Flag Coat of armsEast Berlin red StatusCapital of East Germany unrecognised as such by the Western Bloc Soviet occupied sector of Berlin recognised as such by the Western Bloc Lord 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 1949 Reunification3 October 1990Preceded by Succeeded byAllied occupied Germany GermanyBerlinToday part ofGermany Contents 1 Overview 2 East Berlin today 3 Boroughs 4 Images 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 References 8 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 its representatives to the Volkskammer code deu promoted to code de 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 enclosing West Berlin within the Berlin Wall It was very dangerous for fleeing residents to cross because armed soldiers were trained to shoot illegal migrants 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 East 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 code deu promoted to code de 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 code deu promoted to code de 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 10 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 Stalinist architecture 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 code deu promoted to code de 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 code deu promoted to code de should be abolished or disseminated more widely due to concerns of consistency several crosswalks in some parts of the former West Berlin also employ the Ampelmannchen code deu promoted to code de Twenty five years after the two cities were reunified the people of East and West Berlin still had noticeable differences between them which 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 code deu promoted to code de from the German word for east Ost code deu promoted to code de and a former West Berliner or West German was known as a Wessi code deu promoted to code de from the German word for west West code deu promoted to code de Both sides also engaged in stereotyping the other A stereotypical Ossi code deu promoted to code de had little ambition or poor work ethic and was chronically bitter while a stereotypical Wessi code deu promoted to code de was arrogant selfish impatient and pushy 11 Boroughs Edit 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 Marx Engels Platz and the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin in the summer of 1989 The Fernsehturm code deu promoted to code de TV Tower is visible in the background Easter Sunday 1988 Fernsehturm code deu promoted to code de and Palace of the Republic Karl Marx Allee apartments Wall plaque of Lenin off Wilhelmstrasse GDR era mural of Meissen porcelain on former Council of Ministers building facing Leipziger Strasse The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park Cafe Moskau in Karl Marx Allee The Palace of the Republic being dismantled New Synagogue Oranienburger Strasse Hochhaus in Weberwiese the first high rise apartment built after the war Volksbuhne code deu promoted to code de Rosa Luxemburg Platz Late 1980s GDR apartment blocks on the Wilhelmstrasse Strausberger Platz with constructivism style building Proletarian hero Alexanderplatz code deu promoted to code de Gerhard Behrendt with Sandmannchen code deu promoted to code de The show was recorded in East Berlin The Bode Museum at the northern end of the Museum Island 1956 East German guards checking cars as they exit East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie February 1975 Haus der Schweiz Unter der Linden at FriedrichStrasse East Berlin February 1975 Statues of Marx and Engels Marx Engels ForumSee also Edit 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 References 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 Berlin seit dem Kriegsende Helmut Peitsch Manchester University Press 1989 page 18 Conrad Stein R 1997 Berlin Children s Press p 29 Grant R G 1999 The Berlin Wall Steck Vaughn Company Helpful Hints for US Visitors to East Berlin PDF Headquarters U S Command Berlin 9 November 1981 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Architecture Politics and Identity in Divided Berlin Emily Pugh University of Pittsburgh Press 2014 pages 159 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 Retrieved 15 October 2019 Company Tax in the EU Germany Your Europe Business Retrieved 15 October 2019 Grant R G 1999 The Berlin Wall Steck Vaughn Company Conrad Stein R 1997 Berlin Children s Press p 14 External links EditWorks about East Berlin at WorldCat Identities My 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 1144432702, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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