History UsefulNotes / EastGermany

* The hilarious comedy ''Film/OneTwoThree'' is set in both halves of Berlin, before the wall was built (which lead to TooSoon when this happened shortly before the movie hit the theaters, even if it wasn't director Creator/BillyWilder's fault).

The leaders of the freshly founded GDR were Walter Ulbricht ("the guy with the Lenin beard"), Wilhelm Pieck ("the guy with the potbelly") and Otto Grotewohl ("the guy with the glasses" - not [[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses this one]], obviously). As early as 1953, shortly after UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's death, the state had its first big crisis when workers rose against the government on June 17th. It didn't end too well. Even Communist author Creator/BertoltBrecht criticized the government in his poem ''The Situation'': "Would it not be be simpler then for the government, To dissolve the people and elect another?"

* In ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', it's strongly implied that Prussia takes up the East Germany role after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. There is still much InternetBackdraft about this, as other parts of the fandom believe Prussia is actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad Kaliningrad.]] Some clues that support the "Prussia = East Germany" connections are:

* ''Series/AktuelleKamera''- the East German TV news broadcast, which was pretty much Propaganda. (After 1953 at least, prior to which it was even quite critical of the regime until coverage of the Uprising in that year put paid to that.)

There is a degree of [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell "Ostalgie" ("Eastalgia")]] in UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic, including GDR-themed parties.

* In the Light Novel, Visual Novel and Anime ''LightNovel/{{Schwarzesmarken}}'', focuses on a group of mecha pilots fighting against an alien BETA invasion that has overrun much of Eurasia. In the works are antagonistic Stasi and [[spoiler: a plot to overthrow]] East Germany's government to reunify it with the west.

It allowed churches to operate freely, provided they didn't get political. It was also the most progressive of the East Bloc nations in matters of LGBT Rights. This dates back to the German Communist Party's support of Magnus Hirschfield's policies in UsefulNotes/TheWeimarRepublic (which preceded Stalin's homophobic reversal). The Paragraph 175 homophobic legislation from UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany remained on the books in both West and East Germany, but East Germany stopped enforcing it in TheFifties and took a far more moderate approach albeit it absolutely forbade the creation of any public {{Gayborhood}} and kept the closet in force. In sharp contrast to West Germany, where pro-LGBT rights were opposed by the Churches, in East Germany, Protestant Churches actually helped nurture the underground gay community. In TheEighties, East Germany reversed homophobia, and opened the first state-owned gay disco while a Supreme Court in East Germany affirmed, that "homosexuality, just like heterosexuality, represents a variant of sexual behavior. Homosexual people do therefore not stand outside socialist society, and the civil rights are warranted to them exactly as to all other citizens." In some respects, East Germany was a lot more progressive than West Germany on this issue, albeit the latter's development of free society and free speech allowed for openly gay artists and gay communities to develop, which did not quite happen behind the Wall.

The leaders of the freshly founded GDR were Walter Ulbricht ("the guy with the Lenin beard"), Wilhelm Pieck ("the guy with the potbelly") and Otto Grotewohl ("the guy with the glasses" - not [[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses this one]], obviously). As early as 1953, shortly after UsefulNotes/JosefStalin's death, the state had its first big crisis when workers rose against the government on June 17th. It didn't end too well. Even Communist author Creator/BertoltBrecht criticized the government in his poem ''The Situation'': "Would it not be be simpler then for the government, To dissolve the people and elect another?"

During its early years, the conservative government of UsefulNotes/WestGermany did everything they could to not acknowledge East Germany's existence; breaking off diplomatic relations with every state (other than the USSR, which was too big to ignore) that acknowledged the GDR, calling it derogatory names like "[[Series/EinHerzUndEineSeele Ostzone]]" (east zone), "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet-occupied Zone), "so-called GDR" and "Undeutsche Undemokratische Diktatur" ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Un-German Undemocratic Dictatorship]]), and generally claiming that western Germany was the only legitimate German state. The GDR rulers did the same, just the other way round. Later, in 1971, under Social Democrat Willy Brandt, relations[[note]] Both sides, but particularly West Germany [[InsistentTerminology insisted they were not]] "diplomatic relations" as that would have implied them to be two different states, which West Germany fervently denied right up to reunification. Hence the "embassy" was not called "Botschaft" but "ständige Vertretung" (permanent Representation) [[/note]] between the Germanies improved (the so-called ''Neue Ostpolitik'', "New Eastern Policy") and relations with the Eastern Bloc were established. However, all the way until 1990 there was a lot of InsistentTerminology on the part of West Germany when it came to the East. For instance, the "embassy" in East Berlin was not called a ''Botschaft'' ("Embassy") but a "''ständige Vertretung''" (idiomatically, "Permanent Mission") and maps went to absurd lengths when describing the ''de facto'' borders of Europe with terms like "administered by Poland" for the former German territories east of Oder and Neiße.

East Germany also did quite well in sporting events... largely because many of its athletes were doped up to the eyeballs with the latest performance-enhancing drugs, in an effort to make the Communist regime look like it was working on the international stage. Most would suffer serious health problems as a result. In American TV of the [[TheSeventies seventies]] and [[TheEighties eighties]] look for many jokes about East German sportswomen [[CreepyCrossdresser not really being women]] due to the BrawnHilda-esque features that the drugs produced in female athletes. On the flip side to this, no-one could accuse figure skater Katarina Witt, who won two Olympic golds in 1984 and 1988 along with a string of other titles, of being male; her elaborate and revealing costumes (which the the International Skating Union would change their rules to ban) led to her being dubbed "the most beautiful face of socialism" by ''Time'' magazine and who posed nude for a sell-out ''Playboy'' after the Wall came down.

* The hilarious comedy ''Film/OneTwoThree'' is set in both halves of Berlin, before the wall was built (which lead to DudeNotFunny and TooSoon when this happened shortly before the movie hit the theaters, even if it wasn't director Creator/BillyWilder's fault).

East Germany also did quite well in sporting events... largely because many of its athletes were doped up to the eyeballs with the latest performance-enhancing drugs, in an effort to make the Communist regime look like it was working on the international stage. Most would suffer serious health problems as a result. In American TV of the [[TheSeventies seventies]] and [[TheEighties eighties]] look for many jokes about East German sportswomen [[CreepyCrossdresser not really being women]] due to the BrawnHilda-esque features that the drugs produced in female athletes. On the flip side to this, no-one could accuse figure skater Katarina Witt, who won two Olympic golds in 1984 and 1988 along with a string of other titles, of being male; her elaborate and revealing costumes (which the the International Skating Union would change their rules to ban) led to her being dubbed "the most beautiful face of socialism" by ''Time'' magazine and who posed nude for a sell-out *Playboy* after the Wall came down.

East Germany also did quite well in sporting events... largely because many of its athletes were doped up to the eyeballs with the latest performance-enhancing drugs, in an effort to make the Communist regime look like it was working on the international stage. Most would suffer serious health problems as a result. In American TV of the [[TheSeventies seventies]] and [[TheEighties eighties]] look for many jokes about East German sportswomen [[CreepyCrossdresser not really being women]]. On the flip side to this, no-one could accuse figure skater Katarina Witt, who won two Olympic golds in 1984 and 1988 along with a string of other titles, of being male; her elaborate and revealing costumes (which the the International Skating Union would change their rules to ban) led to her being dubbed "the most beautiful face of socialism" by ''Time'' magazine and who posed nude for a sell-out *Playboy* after the Wall came down.

There is a degree of "Ostalgie" ("Eastalgia") in UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic, including GDR-themed parties.

East German agents were also common in UsefulNotes/ColdWar fiction, partly because of their major role in the WarsawPact and partly (possibly) to what might be called the "[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons German Commie Nazi]]" factor, which allowed writers to combine the worst stereotypes of Germans, Nazis and Communists.

The German abbreviation for "German Democratic Republic" is "DDR" ("Day-Day-Air" in the German pronounciation), but has [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas nothing to do with]] ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''.

In a curious note, the DDR also does not own an island off the coast of Cuba as a gift from Castro, although some [[SarcasmMode incredibly funny people]] like to twist facts to make it look that way.

The German abbreviation for "German Democratic Republic" is "DDR" ("Day-Day-Air" in the German pronounciation), but has [[IThoughtThatWas nothing to do with]] ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''.

East Germany also did quite well in sporting events... largely because many of its athletes were doped up to the eyeballs with the latest performance-enhancing drugs, in an effort to make the Communist regime look like it was working on the international stage. Most would suffer serious health problems as a result. In American TV of the [[TheSeventies seventies]] and [[TheEighties eighties]] look for many jokes about East German sportswomen [[CreepyCrossdresser not really being women]]. Less amusingly, some female athletes were so badly messed up by the doping regimen (which in some cases started at the age of ''ten'') that they had to undergo a full sex change operation, while others found themselves unable to properly bear children.

The German abbreviation for "German Democratic Republic" is "DDR", but has [[IThoughtThatWas nothing to do with]] ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''.

''Film/CoolRunnings'' features a nasty East German. The East German Judge was a common element at international sporting events such as TheOlympics, where they would invariably give ridiculously low scores to anyone not from CommieLand; the term has come to mean anyone who seems to grade harshly and give low scores, such as Kishi Asako on ''Series/IronChef''.

-->-- '''Creator/BertoltBrecht''', "Die Lösung", written after the East German government and [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet forces]] massacred 513 workers demonstrating for better conditions.

During its early years, the conservative government of UsefulNotes/WestGermany did everything they could to not acknowledge East Germany's existence; breaking off diplomatic relations with every state (other than the USSR, which was too big to ignore) that acknowledged the GDR, calling it derogatory names like "[[Series/EinHerzUndEineSeele Ostzone]]" (east zone), "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet-occupied Zone), "so-called GDR" and "Undeutsche Undemokratische Diktatur" ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Un-German Undemocratic Dictatorship]]), and generally claiming that western Germany was the only legitimate German state. The GDR rulers did the same, just the other way round. Later, under Social Democrat Willy Brandt, relations[[note]] Both sides, but particularly West Germany [[InsistentTerminology insisted they were not]] "diplomatic relations" as that would have implied them to be two different states, which West Germany fervently denied right up to reunification. Hence the "embassy" was not called "Botschaft" but "ständige Vertretung" (permanent Representation) [[/note]] between the Germanies improved (the so-called ''Neue Ostpolitik'', "New Eastern Policy") and relations with the Eastern Bloc were established. However, all the way until 1990 there was a lot of InsistentTerminology on the part of West Germany when it came to the East. For instance, the "embassy" in East Berlin was not called a ''Botschaft'' ("Embassy") but a "''ständige Vertretung''" (idiomatically, "Permanent Mission") and maps went to absurd lengths when describing the ''de facto'' borders of Europe with terms like "administered by Poland" for the former German territories east of Oder and Neiße.

During its early years, the conservative government of UsefulNotes/WestGermany did everything they could to not acknowledge East Germany's existence; breaking off diplomatic relations with every state (other than the USSR, which was too big to ignore) that acknowledged the GDR, calling it derogatory names like "[[Series/EinHerzUndEineSeele Ostzone]]" (east zone), "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet-occupied Zone), "so-called GDR" and "Undeutsche Undemokratische Diktatur" ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Un-German Undemocratic Dictatorship]]), and generally claiming that western Germany was the only legitimate German state. The GDR rulers did the same, just the other way round. Later, under Social Democrat Willy Brandt, relations[[note]] Both sides, but particularly West Germany [[InsitentTerminology insisted they were not]] "diplomatic relations" as that would have implied them to be two different states, which West Germany fervently denied right up to reunification. Hence the "embassy" was not called "Botschaft" but "ständige Vertretung" (permanent Representation) [[/note]] between the Germanies improved (the so-called ''Neue Ostpolitik'', "New Eastern Policy") and relations with the Eastern Bloc were established. However, all the way until 1990 there was a lot of InsistentTerminology on the part of West Germany when it came to the East. For instance, the "embassy" in East Berlin was not called a ''Botschaft'' ("Embassy") but a "''ständige Vertretung''" (idiomatically, "Permanent Mission") and maps went to absurd lengths when describing the ''de facto'' borders of Europe with terms like "administered by Poland" for the former German territories east of Oder and Neiße.

During its early years, the conservative government of UsefulNotes/WestGermany did everything they could to not acknowledge East Germany's existence; breaking off diplomatic relations with every state (other than the USSR, which was too big to ignore) that acknowledged the GDR, calling it derogatory names like "[[Series/EinHerzUndEineSeele Ostzone]]" (east zone), "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet-occupied Zone), "so-called GDR" and "Undeutsche Undemokratische Diktatur" ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Un-German Undemocratic Dictatorship]]), and generally claiming that western Germany was the only legitimate German state. The GDR rulers did the same, just the other way round. Later, under Social Democrat Willy Brandt, diplomatic relations between the Germanies improved (the so-called ''Neue Ostpolitik'', "New Eastern Policy") and relations with the Eastern Bloc were established. However, all the way until 1990 there was a lot of InsistentTerminology on the part of West Germany when it came to the East. For instance, the "embassy" in East Berlin was not called a ''Botschaft'' ("Embassy") but a "''ständige Vertretung''" (idiomatically, "Permanent Mission") and maps went to absurd lengths when describing the ''de facto'' borders of Europe with terms like "administered by Poland" for the former German territories east of Oder and Neiße.

East Germany was one of the economic success stories of CommieLand, with a decent agricultural system and enough manufacturing to put consumer goods within reach of many; their flag reflects this with its hammer and pair of compasses surrounded by wheat instead of the ubiquitous sickle. They achieved this despite the fact that, like the rest of CommieLand, the government invested far more than was necessary into the military and heavy industry. In fact, while the 1989 protesters had popular support for doing away with the oppressive regime, many East Germans were proud of their state and were not happy with the way that East Germany "[[InsistentTerminology became part of the effective area of the Basic Law of Germany]]" quite so summarily. [[note]]The term ''annexation'' is frequently used. This is incorrect. There was (in theory) only one German state, divided into UsefulNotes/WestGermany, East Germany and the lands occupied by UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} and the UsefulNotes/SovietUnion. East Germany adopted the laws of UsefulNotes/WestGermany and the lands east of the Oder-Neiße border were indeed annexed (or ceded to) the respective countries. Berlin was a special case.[[/note]] At least not after realising that reunification did not bring them an instant paradise, and that the now-ruling Western leaders weren't shy about handing out pink slips.[[note]] Neither were they particularly interested in keeping potential economic rivals of Western companies alive until they found their footing. A lot of previously state-owned factories were sold for next-to-nothing by the new government and then closed down by the "investors".[[/note]]

->''After the uprising of the 17th of June\\

And elect another?''
-->--'''Creator/BertoltBrecht''', ''Die Lösung'', written after the East German government and [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet forces]] massacred 513 workers demonstrating for better conditions.

It allowed churches to operate freely, provided they didn't get political.

* The rogue fictional Eastern Block state of Pottsylvania in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', despite the thick Slavic accents of many of its citizens, had many elements making out to be a parody of East Germany, most notably the fact that there were Teutonic Iron Crosses everywhere (despite the East Germans not using the symbol) and the fact that Boris and Natasha's boss Fearless Leader closely resembled a stereotypical SS officer (a nod to East Germany's Putting On The Reich uniforms.)
** That said [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Map_of_Pottsylvania.jpg/440px-Map_of_Pottsylvania.jpg Pottsylvania's geography seems to be based off of East Prussia]] (at least from the map), which had been split between the USSR and Poland at that point. That does make the Iron Cross thing a little more appropriate if they are [[NinjaPirateRobotZombie East German, Soviet, Imperial Prussians]]

During its early years, the conservative government of UsefulNotes/WestGermany did everything they could to not acknowledge East Germany's existence; breaking off diplomatic relations with every state (other than the USSR, which was too big to ignore) that acknowledged the GDR, calling it derogatory names like "[[Series/EinHerzUndEineSeele Ostzone]]" (east zone), "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet-occupied Zone), "so-called GDR" and "Undeutsche Undemokratische Diktatur" ([[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Un-German Undemocratic Dictatorship]]), and generally claiming that western Germany was the only legitimate German state. The GDR rulers did the same, just the other way round. Later, under Social Democrat Willy Brandt, diplomatic relations between the Germanies improved (the so-called ''Neue Ostpolitik'', "New Eastern Policy") and relations with the Eastern Bloc were established. However, all the way until 1990 there was a lot of InsistentTerminology on the part of West Germany when it came to the East. For instance, the "embassy" in East Berlin was not called a ''Botschaft'' but a "''ständige Vertretung''" and maps went to absurd lengths when describing the ''de facto'' borders of Europe with terms like "administered by Poland" for the former German territories east of Oder and Neiße.