The East Germany portal offers an overview of the most important and newest articles on the subject of East Germany, the former Communist state officially known as the German Democratic Republic or GDR The portal contains links to a cross-section of articles from the areas of history and politics, geography and economy, art and culture, and some of the important personalities from the region.
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 GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party, before being democratized and liberalized in 1989 as a result of the pressure against communist governments brought by the Revolutions of 1989. This paved the way for East Germany's reunification with the West. Unlike the government of West Germany, the SED did not see its state as the successor to the German Reich (1871–1945) and abolished the goal of unification in the constitution (1974). The SED-ruled GDR was often described as a Soviet satellite state; historians described it as an authoritarian regime. (Full article...)
The GDR Union of Journalists (German: Verband der Journalisten der DDR, abbreviated VdJ) was a professional association of journalists in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, GDR). VdJ organized news, press, radio and television journalists, as well as press officers, publishing staff, cartoonists, documentarists and teachers of journalism. VJD conducted trainings for journalists, on behalf of the Ministry for Higher and Professional Education. The offices of the VdJ were located at Friedrichstraße 101, Berlin, in the Admiralspalast.
VdJ was founded as the German Press Union (Verband der Deutschen Presse, VDP). A VDP organization was founded in Berlin on October 10, 1945. It officially launched its activities on January 1, 1946. A de facto separate VDP was set up in the Soviet occupation zone. As of April 1946 the Berlin VDP had 327 members. The Berlin VDP was included in the Arts and Letters Trade Union ('Trade Union no. 17') of Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) in July 1946. By December in the same year the membership had reached 958. In March 1947 the Berlin organization had 1,107 members (80% of the working journalists in the city).
In 1949 VDP joined International Organization of Journalists (IOJ). The organization worked in all sectors of Berlin until 1950. In the same year the Trade Union No. 17 was dissolved and VDP became an affiliate of its own to FDGB. By this time the VDP in Berlin and the Soviet occupation zone were merged into a unified organization. On January 27, 1951, VDP opened an Institute for Journalists and Newspaper Patrons. On October 21, 1951 Fritz Apelt [de] stepped down as first chairman of VDP. Karl Bittel became the first chairman of VDJ. (Full article...)
The German Democratic Republic, which consisted geographically of what is now eastern Germany, had an area of 107,771 km2 (41,610 mi2), bordering Czechoslovakia in the south, West Germany in the south and west, the Baltic Sea to the north, and Poland in the east.
Much of the territory of the former East Germany lay on the North German Plain and was largely flat and agricultural apart from low morainic hills left by the ice age. However in the south the land rose to the Ore Mountains and Elbe Sandstone Mountains that formed the border with its Communist neighbour, Czechoslovakia.
Image 12East German leaflet, fired across the inner German border (from Culture of East Germany)
Image 13Map showing the different borders and territories of Poland and Germany during the 20th century, with the current areas of Germany and Poland in dark gray (from History of East Germany)
Image 16Occupation zone borders in Germany, 1947. The territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, under Polish and Soviet administration/annexation, are shown as white, as is the likewise detached Saar protectorate. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone. (from History of East Germany)
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