East Germany

East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist workers' and peasants' state.

Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II. The Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neiße line. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was established in 1946 through a forced merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The SED dominated political life in the GDR following the country's establishment, before being democratized and liberalized amid the revolutions of 1989; this paved the way for East Germany's reunification with West Germany. Unlike the government of West Germany, the SED did not see its state as the successor to the German Reich (1871–1945). In 1974, it abolished the goal of unification in the constitution. The SED-ruled GDR was often described as a Soviet satellite state; historians describe it as an authoritarian regime.

Geographically, the GDR bordered the Baltic Sea to the north, Poland to the east, Czechoslovakia to the southeast, and West Germany to the west. Internally, the GDR bordered East Berlin, the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin, which was also administered as the country's de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom, and France, known collectively as West Berlin (de facto part of the FRG). The economy of the country was centrally planned and state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviet Union, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc. Emigration to the West was a significant problem; as many emigrants were well-educated young people, this trend economically weakened the state. In response, the GDR government fortified its inner German border and built the Berlin Wall in 1961. Many people attempting to flee were killed by border guards or booby traps such as landmines.

In 1989, numerous social, economic, and political forces in the GDR and abroad—one of the most notable being peaceful protests starting in the city of Leipzig—led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the establishment of a government committed to liberalization. The following year, a free and fair election was held in the country, and international negotiations between the four former Allied countries and the two German states commenced. The negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty, which replaced the Potsdam Agreement on the status and borders of a future, reunited Germany. The GDR ceased to exist when its five states ("Länder") joined the Federal Republic of Germany under Article 23 of the Basic Law, and its capital East Berlin united with West Berlin on 3 October 1990. Several of the GDR's leaders, notably its last communist leader Egon Krenz, were later prosecuted for offenses committed during the GDR era.