The GDR - what life was like for people in East Germany from 1949 to 1990

The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, was a socialist state that existed from 1949 until 1990 in the part of Germany that became a Soviet occupied zone after the Second World War. The USA, France and Great Britain combined their zones to form one state: the Federal Republic of Germany, or FRG. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union established a separate state in its zone in the east: the GDR - the German Democratic Republic. 

With the city of Berlin divided into east and west by the Berlin Wall, the GDR and the FRG played a central role in the history of the Cold War. Berlin (West), which was how the city was officially known in West Germany, was situated in the middle of the GDR and, from 1961, was sealed off by East Germany and surrounded by a wall. West Berlin could only be reached by air, via a handful of railway connections or by car on one of four “transit routes”. Besides its capital East Berlin, East Germany encompassed the territories of today’s federal states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Until German reunification on 3 October 1990, Bonn was the West German capital and seat of government. Since then, Berlin has been the capital of the reunified Germany.

Why was Germany divided into East and West Germany?

Germany was divided following the Second World War as a result of political tensions between the Western Allies (USA, Great Britain, France) and the Soviet Union.

• Occupation zones: After the war ended, Germany was divided into four occupation zones, each controlled by one of the Allied powers.  
• Ideological differences: The Cold War was a manifestation of the tensions between the democratic Western powers and the communist Soviet Union.  
• Founding of the GDR and FRG: In 1949, West Germany was formed from the Western occupation zones and East Germany from the Soviet zone, marking the formal division of Germany and separating the population into West Germans and East Germans. In the early years, many people left the GDR and moved to the FRG - prompting the GDR leadership to build the Berlin Wall in 1961 and to reinforce and seal the entire inner-German border. 

What was the difference between the GDR and the FRG?

The GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) were the two German states that emerged after the Second World War and existed until reunification in 1990.

The GDR in the east

The GDR regarded itself as a socialist state governed by the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany). Although it called itself a democracy, the country was governed as a dictatorship. 

People in East Germany had

• no free elections
• no freedom of speech or of the press
• no unrestricted freedom of travel 

Though an independent state, the GDR was very closely bound to the Soviet Union and, like the latter, saw communism as its goal. East Germany had a planned economy controlled by the state, and there were no privately owned companies. 

The GDR called itself a “workers’ and farmers’ state” and its ideology was based on workers and farmers building a socialist society together. This ideology shaped GDR society to a large extent, with core values officially being equality, solidarity and collectivism - in reality, these were enforced by state control, extensive surveillance and repression.

The Federal Republic of Germany

Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has been a parliamentary democracy with a free multi-party system and a free market economy. This social market economy approach, whereby the state seeks maximum prosperity coupled with the best possible social welfare protection, led to strong economic growth and a high standard of living for the population after the Second World War.

Repression: The SED used the secret service Stasi (Ministry for State Security, MfS) to monitor and suppress political opponents, leading to an atmosphere of fear and mistrust and prompting many East Germans to emigrate or – once the border had been closed – to escape. In attempting to escape, at least 327 men, women and children were killed, many of them shot by GDR border guards.

Was life better in West Germany or East Germany?

This is an easy question to answer: in its Basic Law, the Federal Republic of Germany guarantees its citizens personal and political freedoms, basic rights that cannot be violated by government bodies, the democratic separation of powers and a constitutional state in which all citizens are equal. The social market economy system has led to one of the highest standards of living worldwide. Citizens in the GDR who complied with the state’s directives lived in a society without any marked social differences. On the other hand, the state employed every possible means to punish those with dissenting opinions: by intimidating them, restricting their educational opportunities, assigning them worse jobs and disadvantaging them in other ways, and even by imprisoning them. Citizens had no legal recourse and were at the mercy of the state.

The peaceful revolution in East Germany and the end of the GDR

The peaceful revolution in 1989 played a key role in bringing down the GDR and enabling Germany to reunify.

• Protests and demonstrations: Many East Germans took part in mass protests in cities such as Leipzig and demanded political reforms and freedom.   
• The fall of the Berlin Wall: The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989 when the GDR government opened the borders, paving the way for reunification.   

• Reunification: On 3 October 1990, Germany was officially reunited by the Unification Treaty and the accession of the former GDR to the Federal Republic. The country was named the Federal Republic of Germany, as West Germany had been since 1949. The Day of German Unity has been a national holiday in Germany ever since.