The national emblem of East Germany featured a

hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...

and a compass, surrounded by a ring of

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...

. It was an example of what has been called "

socialist heraldry Socialist-style emblems usually follow a unique style consisting of communist symbolism. Although commonly referred to as coats of arms, most are not actually traditional heraldic achievements. Many communist governments purposely diverged fro ...

". It was the only heraldic device of a European socialist state with a ring of grain which does not contain a

red star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

Description

The hammer represented the workers in the factories. The compass represented the

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

, and the ring of rye the farmers. The first designs included only the hammer and ring of rye, as an expression of the GDR as a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

"Workers' and Farmers' state" (''Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat''). Surrounded by a wreath, the national emblem also acted as the emblem for the National People's Army, and when surrounded by a twelve pointed white

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

, for the People's Police. When the federated states in East Germany were abolished and replaced by '' Bezirke'', making the GDR into a unitary state, the national emblem came to be used by the ''Bezirke'' too. The

East German government The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'' (''DDR''), commonly known in English as East Germany) was created as a socialist republic on 7 October 1949 and began to institute a government based on the govern ...

did not want regional symbols to be used, since they could stir up regional patriotism and movements for independence. The emblem was adopted as the GDR's national emblem by a law of 26 September 1955, and added to the

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours ...

by a law of 1 October 1959.

The emblem in West Germany

The display of the national emblem was for some years regarded as unconstitutional in West Germany and West Berlin and was prevented by the police. Only in 1969 did the West German government of Willy Brandt reverse this policy in what was known as Ostpolitik.

1990

After the ruling Socialist Unity Party fell from power, the political progress of '' die Wende'' saw suggestions for a new national emblem. One prominent suggestion was an image of a smith remaking a sword to a plough along with the text "" (German for "swords to ploughshares", from Isaiah 2:3–4), a well known symbol of peace. On 31 May the newly elected parliament (the ) decided, at a suggestion from the conservative German Social Union party, that all images of the national emblem on public buildings would be removed or covered. There was never a decision made for a new national coat of arms or emblem. The emblem was never formally abolished but became obsolete on the same moment the German Democratic Republic was dissolved, on 3 October 1990.

Gallery

File:Coat of Arms of East Germany (1950–1953).svg, National Emblem of the GDR (12 January 1950 – 28 May 1953) File:State arms of German Democratic Republic (1953-1955).svg, National Emblem of the GDR (28 May 1953 – 26 September 1955) File:Coat of arms of East Germany.svg, National Emblem of the GDR File:Staatswappen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik.jpg, Official gazetted version published in the ''Gesetzblatt der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik'', 27 October 1955 File:Emblem of East Germany (stylized).svg, Stylised version: Commonly used on printed materials.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Commons category, Coats of arms of the German Democratic Republic
Gesetz über das Staatswappen und die Staatsflagge der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik

1950 establishments in East Germany Symbols introduced in 1950 East Germany East Germany East Germany Germany, East National symbols of East Germany East Germany East Germany