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Westpaket
(German for "Western package", plural: ) is the common term for care packages sent by West Germans to their friends and families in East Germany during the division of Germany from 1961-1989. History During the division of Germany from 1945-1990, and particularly after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, East Germans were largely unable to visit West German friends and family members. At the urging of the Office for Pan-German Aid (german: Büro für gesamtdeutsche Hilfe), many West Germans regularly sent packages to East German relatives, such as for birthdays or Christmas. In return, many East Germans would send an ''Ostpaket'', often containing food, spirits, handicrafts, or confections, such as Stollen for Christmas. With limited opportunities for phone calls, letters and were often the sole form of contact for families, and served as a pleasant improvement for daily life. Beginning in the 1960s, East Germany was able to reliably provide basic necessities, but l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economy Of East Germany
East Germany had a command economy, similar to the economic system in the Soviet Union and other Comecon member states — in contrast to the market economies or mixed economies or other capitalist states. The state established production targets, set prices, and also allocated resources, codifying these decisions in comprehensive plans. The means of production were almost entirely state-owned. East Germany had an above-average standard of living compared to other Eastern Bloc countries or the Soviet Union, and enjoyed favorable duty and tariff terms with the West German market; in 1989, it was estimated that 50 to 60% of its trade was with Western countries. However by the mid-1980s its economy had reached a state of stagnation. History Soviet occupation period Each occupation power assumed authority in their respective zones by June 1945. The Allied powers originally pursued a common German policy, focused on denazification and demilitarization in preparation for the restora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stollen
Stollen ( or ) is a fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar and often containing marzipan. It is a traditional German Christmas bread. During the Christmas season the cake-like loaves are called Weihnachtsstollen (after "Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) or Christstollen (after Christ). Ingredients Stollen is a cake-like fruit bread made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Orangeat (candied orange peel) and candied citrus peel (Zitronat), raisins and almonds, and various spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs, vanilla, other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan, may also be added to the dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar. The finished bread is sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional weight of Stollen is around , but smaller sizes are common. The bread is slathered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East German Coffee Crisis
The East German coffee crisis was a shortage of coffee in the late 1970s in East Germany caused by a poor harvest and unstable commodity prices, severely limiting the government's ability to buy coffee on the world markets. As a consequence, the East German government increased its engagement in Africa and Asia, exporting weapons and equipment to coffee-producing nations. Situation In 1977, East Germany experienced difficulties meeting domestic demand for coffee, a commodity that had to be purchased using ', i.e. freely convertible Western currencies that were in short supply in Warsaw Pact, Eastern Bloc countries. The coffee crisis indirectly led to changes in the world market for coffee. The coffee crisis led to a reorientation of East German foreign policy as well as considerable belt-tightening. In particular, the East German government engaged in barter with Third World countries, exporting weapons and trucks in exchange for coffee and energy. Background In the Soviet o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Miniaturism
Military miniaturism is a niche within the broader hobby of modeling focusing on military subjects. It is itself a rather broad subject, dealing with any scale model of military theme. It has an ever growing range of sub-hobbies, including scale figure modeling, armour modeling, model ship building, military aviation modeling, and historical wargaming. Modeling Building Given the nature of military models, hobby practitioners for the most part lean toward realism in their creations. The way in which these creations are produced are nearly as wide as the hobby itself, ranging from building a model kit "from the box" to kitbashing to complete scratch building of a model. A wide range of kits are available on the market, with built results ranging from hyper-detailed representations of a subject to crude playthings. Aircraft kits tend to contain a cockpit interior, with some kits opting to include a full engine as well. Armor kit often feature workable hatches for crew figures, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humanitarian Aid
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Humanitarian relief efforts are provided for humanitarian purposes and include natural disasters and man-made disasters. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may, therefore, be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying socioeconomic factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency. There is a debate on linking humanitarian aid and development efforts, which was reinforced by the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. However, the conflation is viewed critically by practitioners. Humanitarian aid is seen as "a fundamental expression of the universal value of solidarity between people and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economy Of West Germany
Until the early 19th century, Germany, a federation of numerous states of varying size and development, retained its pre-industrial character, where trade centered around a number of free cities. After the extensive development of the railway network during the 1840s, rapid economic growth and modernisation sparked the process of industrialization. The largest economy in Europe by 1900, Germany had established a primary position in several key sectors, like the chemical industry and steel production. High production capacity, permanent competitiveness and subsequent protectionist policies fought out with the US and Britain were essential characteristics. By the end of World War II, the country's economic infrastructure was completely destroyed. West Germany embarked in its program of reconstruction with financial support provided by the Marshall Plan and, guided by the economic principles of the Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard excelled in the economic miracle during the 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War History Of Germany
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. This corresponds to on the Celsius scale, on the Fahrenheit scale, and on the Rankine scale. Since temperature relates to the thermal energy held by an object or a sample of matter, which is the kinetic energy of the random motion of the particle constituents of matter, an object will have less thermal energy when it is colder and more when it is hotter. If it were possible to cool a system to absolute zero, all motion of the particles in a sample of matter would cease and they would be at complete rest in the classical sense. The object could be described as having zero thermal energy. Microscopically in the description of quantum mechanics, however, matter still has zero-point energy even at absolute zero, because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GARIOA
Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) was a program under which the United States after the 1945 end of World War II from 1946 onwards provided emergency aid to the occupied nations of Japan, Germany, and Austria. The aid was predominantly in the form of food to alleviate starvation in the occupied areas. Germany Germany received GARIOA help between July 1946 and March 1950. In 1946, the US Congress had voted GARIOA funds to prevent "such disease and unrest as would endanger the forces of occupation" in occupied Germany. Congress stipulated that the funds were only to be used to import food, petroleum and fertilizers. Use of GARIOA funds to import raw materials of vital importance to the German industry was explicitly forbidden. At the time the US still operated under the occupation directive JCS 1067 which directed US forces to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany rdesigned to maintain or strengthen the German economy". (see Indust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Socialist Unity Party Of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany) from the country's foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxist–Leninist communist party, established in April 1946 as a merger between the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany. Although the GDR was a one-party state, some other institutional popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED; these parties included the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers' Party, and the National Democratic Party. In the 1980s, the SED rejected the liberalisation policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, such as '' perestroika'' and '' glasnost'', which would le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Politbüro
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction of ''Politicheskoye byuro'' (, "Political Bureau"). The Spanish term ''Politburó'' is directly loaned from Russian, as is the German ''Politbüro''. Chinese uses a calque (), from which the Vietnamese (), and Korean ( ''Jeongchiguk'') terms derive. History The first politburo was created in Russia by the Bolshevik Party in 1917 during the Russian Revolution that occurred during that year. The first Politburo had seven members: Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. During the 20th century, politburos were established in most Communist states. They included the politburos of the USSR, East Germany, Afghanistan, and Czechoslovakia. Several countries still have a politburo system in operation: China, North K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tax Deduction
Tax deduction is a reduction of income that is able to be taxed and is commonly a result of expenses, particularly those incurred to produce additional income. Tax deductions are a form of tax incentives, along with exemptions and tax credits. The difference between deductions, exemptions, and credits is that deductions and exemptions both reduce taxable income, while credits reduce tax. Above and below the line Above and below the line refers to items above or below adjusted gross income, which is item 37 on the tax year 2017 1040 tax form. Tax deductions above the line lessen adjusted gross income, while deductions below the line can only lessen taxable income if the aggregate of those deductions exceeds the standard deduction, which in tax year 2018 in the U.S., for example, was $12,000 for a single taxpayer and $24,000 for married couple. Limitations Often, deductions are subject to conditions, such as being allowed only for expenses incurred that produce current benefits. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
