Line #2 UsefulNotes/EastGermany


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/East_German_flag.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:[[BilingualBonus Halt!]] [[Music/MCHammer Hammerstaat!]]]]
3
4	->''"After the uprising of the 17th of June\
5	The Secretary of the Writers' Union\
6	Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee\
7	Stating that the people\
8	Had forfeited the confidence of the government\
9	And could win it back only\
10	By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier\
11	In that case for the government\
12	To dissolve the people\
13	And elect another?"''
14	-->-- '''Creator/BertoltBrecht''', "Die Lösung", written after the East German government and [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet forces]] massacred 48 workers demonstrating for better conditions.
15
16	The ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'' (German Democratic Republic) was a UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an state that was created in 1949 when the UsefulNotes/{{Soviet\|Russia Ukraine And So On}} zone of occupied UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} became its own country after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Accordingly, it was CommieLand.
17
18	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 [[Creator/DougWalker 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 Solution'': "Would it not be simpler then for the government/To dissolve the people and elect another?"
19
20	Under considerable Soviet influence (and with a huge Soviet military presence, the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany), East Germany is best known for the massive amount of surveillance carried out on its citizens by its SecretPolice, the ''[[UsefulNotes/TheStasi Ministerium für Staatssicherheit]]'' (Ministry for State Security), known as "Stasi". Its police force, the ''Volkspolizei'' (People's Police, known as "Vopos" for short) were also fairly notorious. It built the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall and heavily fortified the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain to stop its people from fleeing to the West (officially, it was to prevent Western spies going East -- it probably did that, too [[note]]well, except for the Military Liaison Missions, see below[[/note]]).
21
22	Like any proper PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, the German Democratic Republic ''did'' have elections, and other parties than the Marxist SED, but they were far from democratic. East Germans called this voting "Falten gehen" (going to fold), because anybody who did anything but fold their ballot (like crossing out candidates, or even staying at home) and put it in the urn immediately became suspicious. As the East Germans said, the only way to vote was "by foot", i.e. leaving the GDR for UsefulNotes/WestGermany. Well, until 1961 that is, [[UsefulNotes/BerlinWall afterwards this was less of an option]].
23
24	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. [[/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.
25
26	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/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]]. 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]]
27
28	The Eastern side did have [[UsefulNotes/OssisWithOsas a pretty good military]], getting the full Soviet versions of military tech rather than the weaker export versions. Planned the one or other raid on West Germany too, but the unification stopped the plan before it could be executed. [[PuttingOnTheReich Their uniforms, though...]] Due to Germany still being, in many regards, an occupied [[InsistentTerminology country with two separate and independent governments]], the Western powers (US, UK, France) had [[OvertOperative Military Liaison Missions]] in the GDR, allowing them to observe Soviet forces in action.
29
30	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.
31
32	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.
33
34	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.
35
36	Most of East Germany could pick up West German TV networks, which helped undermine the regime. The channels couldn't be jammed since it would also jam West Germany and that would be bad diplomatically. The Dresden and Rügen areas couldn't, so were dubbed "The Valley of the Clueless". This was done a) because GDR television was full of propaganda and b) it appears not to have been that good. The only programmes that Website/{{Wikipedia}} discusses in its English version are:
37	* ''Der schwarze Kanal'' ("The Black Channel"- derived from a German plumbing term for sewer): Think of a Communist {{MST}}ing of West German television news, only without the humour. Or the popularity.[[note]]One urban myth even going so far as to claim power station enginers struggled to prevent blackouts ensuing from viewers turning their sets off when it was broadcast![[/note]] (May fall under SoBadItsGood, though.) Or, basically, you'd have clips of West German news programmes and presenter Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler[[note]]nicknamed "Sudel-Ede", or "Botch Eddie" for his vitriolic style, according to Website/{{Wikipedia}}[[/note]] providing pro-regime, anti-Western commentary on those clips in an attempt to undermine beliefs that Western news was more accurate than the Eastern offering...
38	* ''Aktuelle Kamera''- 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.)
39	** In ''Film/GoodByeLenin!'', several real-life clips from the show are shown alongside edited-in fake reports made by the main character and his budding filmmaker friend in order to fool the former's mother into thinking communism never fell.
40	* ''Ein Kessel Buntes'' ("A Kettle of Colour")- A VarietyShow, shown six times a year. Hollywood production standards and (usually past their prime) Western celebrities. Continued into the Berlin Republic and still turns up in re-runs.
41	* ''Das Spielhaus'' ("The Playhouse"): a popular puppet thing.
42	* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Sandmannchen}} Sandmännchen]]'' A children's show which holds the world record for most episodes (over 22,000 and counting). This time it was West Germany which created a copy which never reached the popularity of the original.
43	* ''Polizeiruf 110'' ("Police call 110"): A PoliceProcedural, originally the [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent Alternate Germany Equivalent]] of ARD's ''Series/{{Tatort}}'' (albeit one that averted AlwaysMurder in an attempt to "educate" the people), this series moved to Das Erste after reunification and basically became indistinguishable from its new inspiration (and stablemate).
44
45	East Germany's most famous consumer products were the Exacta and Praktica cameras (the Praktica brand still exists; it was part of the Kombinat Volkseigener Betrieb Zeiss Jena (how's that for a company name, eh?) that ''invented'' the prism SLR design which is still the standard for cameras today - one of the few communist inventions to have an impact in the west), MZ motorcycles (whose engine technology gave Suzuki quite a boost in the early '60's after one of MZ's factory riders defected to join Suzuki) and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant Trabant]] [[TheAllegedCar car, which was, by Western standards, obsolete before the '60s were over]] but gave many a Worker and his family the opportunity to move themselves about a bit, trailing a blue two-stroke smoke cloud. It pretty much disappeared from the East German streets as soon as the Wall opening brought other choices, but it's now considered a [[TheAllegedCar classic car]]. Some drivers have succeeded in making their Trabants capable of passing the [=MoT=], Britain's strict government-mandated roadworthiness test; divine intervention is suspected. However the Trabant, suitably renovated, is making a bit of a comeback today among enthusiasts, who rebuild them into customized hotrods or simply restore them to better-than-new conditions. Probably the most visible East German product on modern store shelves is Vita Cola, the ''de facto'' official soft drink of the DDR. While it went insolvent like most East German companies following reunification, the lingering memory of it proved viable enough that it was revived in 1994, and today it is sold on store shelves across Germany, particularly in the former East. It rivals the Hamburg-based Fritz Cola as being Germany's most popular indiginous soft drink. It is known for its strong lemon and citrus flavor.
46
47	The GDR was also famous for its bureaucratic nomenclature. Coffins for example were named ''Erdmöbel'' (literally: ground furniture), or the term ''Sättigungsbeilage'' (literally: ''[[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped Well, it is difficult to translate, really.]]'' It would be something like "a filling side dish", and means stuff like potatoes, dumplings or rice as a supplement to a proper meal[[note]]Though German cuisine usually includes one source of carbohydrates as a necessary component of a proper meal, besides meat and vegetables. So it's doubly strange that it was called a "supplement".[[/note]]). Even more hilarious were the words they invented for religious stuff, like ''Frühjahrsschokoladenhohlkörper'' (hollow chocolate article of spring - a chocolate Easter Bunny) and ''Jahresendflügelpuppe'' (winged doll of the year's end - a Christmas angel for the Christmas tree and the like). The reason: Religion wasn't verboten in the GDR, but the ruling people didn't like it too much either. To what extent any of those words were ever actually and seriously used by anybody is still debated, much like alleged Berlin slang terms for several landmarks in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}} that nobody but tourist and guidebooks seem to actually use.
48
49	The East Germans had their own state airline. They originally called it Deutsche Lufthansa, but the West Germans complained and got awarded that trademark, so it adopted the name of a separate charter airline- {{In\|herentlyFunnyWords}}terflug.
50
51	On the other hand, the East German rail network retained the pre-1945 name of Deutsche Reichsbahn ("German Imperial Railways"), while the West Germans renamed theirs [[UsefulNotes/DeutscheBahn Deutsche Bundesbahn]] ("German Federal Railways"). This may have been done since several treaties dating to the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII mentioned special privileges--particularly relating to trackage rights in West Berlin, including the right to run the [[UsefulNotes/BerlinUAndSBahn S-Bahn]] there--given by name to ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' that might not have transferred automatically to ''VEB Bahn der DDR'' or some such, so it was best not to risk it. In 1994 the two were unified to form the new "Deutsche Bahn AG", though the name "Bundesbahn" somehow still sticks around in the minds of many West-Germans. The GDR-Reichsbahn is famous among many a RailEnthusiast because [[SteamNeverDies steam died very late]] in the GDR. Until well into the 1980s, steam was employed on main lines which was mostly due to the lack of electrification (all pre-war electrification was taken to the Soviet Union as war reparation) and the fact that the GDR had lignite in abundance but hardly any oil deposits (up until the 1980s, however, the GDR was able to get plentiful cheap oil from the Soviet Union; as a result, diesel locomotives and oil-fired steam locomotives were in common use until the 1980s, when the Soviet Union began demanding that other Comecon countries pay for oil with hard currency; as a result, in that decade, an ambitious electrification program was undertaken, with hundreds of new electric locomotives being built). Steam's main downsides (inefficiency and need for a lot of human labor) were of no major concern to the GDR authorities, as they ''wanted'' everybody to have a job (and only got it done by having a lot of people work less than full jobs, but paying them as if they were) and lignite was cheap and plentiful. As to speed, the horrible condition of most tracks allowed no more than 120 km/h on most lines, which was well within reach of pre-war era steam locomotives anyway.
52
53	The GDR was allocated an ISO 3166-1 code, but it never got a full domain code. Had it survived to get one, it would have been .dd. It had the international calling code +37, now divided up among some former Soviet states.
54
55	There is a degree of [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell "Ostalgie" ("Eastalgia")]] in UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic, including GDR-themed parties. Indeed, some GDR era architecture and murals still remain iconic parts of the ex-Eastern Germany, and memorabilia is still openly sold in "Ost-Shops". Some of these GDR symbols like the Berlin tower and Amplemann traffic light have even graduated to being icons of reunified Germany as a whole. Basically, if you want a good example of Ostalgie, visit a DDR museum in the East where you will learn about various atrocities of the regime. Once that tour ends, you'll be subject to a big MoodWhiplash where a tourist shop sells a whole bunch of DDR themed souvenirs and snacks which (most) East Germans find amusing rather than insulting. While obviously ex-East Germans hate the wall and oppression, many are more partial to cultural DDR symbols and memorabilia compared to their Western counterparts who have an aversion to it like it was the third Reich all over again.
56
57	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''.[[note]]Or with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory]].[[/note]]
58
59	In a curious note, the DDR also does not own [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Thälmann_Island 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.
60
61	Since approximately 1990 "Ossi" is the German slang term for a former East German, "Wessi" being the UsefulNotes/WestGermany counterpart. Until then, "Zoni"[[note]]from "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (Soviet Occupation Zone)[[/note]] was used for people from the GDR, "Wessi" was used by the people in West Berlin for those from West Germany and "Ossi" was used in jokes about people from East Frisia.
62
63	----
64	!!Media set in East Germany:
65
66	* A couple of ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episodes.
67	* The 1984 comedy ''Film/TopSecret'' depicts it as UsefulNotes/NaziGermany in order to spoof UsefulNotes/WorldWarII espionage thrillers. Then again, the Volksarmee did spend a while PuttingOnTheReich...
68	* ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers'', 2006 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film. The actor playing the agent of UsefulNotes/TheStasi who spies on a playwright, Creator/UlrichMuhe, was himself an activist denouncing the regime's lack of rights and freedom for individuals and was himself spied on.
69	* The aforementioned ''Film/GoodByeLenin!'', perhaps the most effective movie ever made about "Ostalgie" (nostalgia for East Germany).
70	* ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' has an episode, "Fallen Angel", set in the GDR.
71	* Creator/JohnLeCarre used East Germany as a subject in his early novels, including ''Call for the Dead'', ''The Looking-Glass War'', and, most strikingly, ''The Spy Who Came in from the Cold''.
72	* The manga ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' is set in post-unification Germany and revolves heavily around covered up events in the former GDR.
73	* ''Series/TheSaint'': Season 5 Episode 11 of the series is set in East Germany.
74	* ''Film/NightCrossing'', a film about two families who escape from the DDR via a home-made hot air balloon.
75	* The hilarious comedy ''Film/OneTwoThree'' is set in both halves of Berlin, before the wall was built (which lead to "too soon!" when this happened shortly before the movie hit the theaters, even if it wasn't director Creator/BillyWilder's fault).
76	* The rogue fictional Eastern Bloc 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.)
77	** 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]]. (Also, the name "Pottsylvania" brings to mind the Eastern UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} region around Reading, which has a Pottsville and a Pottstown.)
78	* The appallingly dreadful film ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' involves a superpowered baby secret agent codenamed Kahuna (just go with it) whose jealous older brother seeks to spite him by defecting to East Germany and growing up to be a Stasi captain (later turned television producer) performing medical experiments on children, imprisoning his victims beneath the Berlin Wall, and played by a painfully scenery-chewing John Voigt.
79	* ''VideoGame/WargameEuropeanEscalation'' has East Germany as a playable Warsaw Pact faction.
80	* ''Series/TheBionicWoman'''s episode "Motorcycle Boogie" has Jaime cross over into East Germany to retrieve a stolen data tape, with the help of, of all people, UsefulNotes/EvelKnievel AsHimself.
81	* The Anime/LupinIIIPartII episode "To Be Or Nazi Be" depicted an airborne escape over the BerlinWall.
82	* ''Series/{{Deutschland 83}}'' is a heavily acclaimed German series involving both this and UsefulNotes/TheBonnRepublic.
83	* ''Der gleiche Himmel'' ("The Same Sky") is a 2016 ZDF series set in 1974 involving a Stasi Romeo agent sent to seduce a woman working at the NSA listening site in West Berlin, a family looking to get their daughter into the GDR Olympic team and a gay teacher.
84	* The ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' has BigBadDuumvirate General Orlov and Prince Kamal Khan attempting to detonate a nuclear bomb on a US Air Base in West Germany to trigger WorldWarIII. They transport the bomb using Octopussy's Circus, hiding it in a train wagon when it is on a stop in the East German city of Karl-Marx-Stadt (renamed Chemnitz in 1990). Bond himself has to cross the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie.
85	* The 1966 Creator/AlfredHitchcock film ''Film/TornCurtain'' is about an American scientist who defects to East Germany and is welcomed with open arms by the government. In fact, he's a FakeDefector who's only in the country to get information about an anti-missile system being worked on by one of his East German colleagues. In the meantime, he dodges the Stasi with the help of an underground anti-Communist network.
86
87	!!East German characters:
88
89	East German agents were also common in UsefulNotes/ColdWar fiction, partly because of their major role in the UsefulNotes/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.
90
91	''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''. In a somewhat humorous irony, Katarina Witt (the aforementioned former figure skater) judged for a season on Series/DancingOnIce, but does not appear to have been a harsh marker.
92
93	Fiction published on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain was usually careful to present East Germans as "the good ones" and "our Germans" and contrast them with West Germans. Thus, villainous German characters tended to come from West Germany, whether they were mere unscrupulous jerks, criminals, or outright crypto-Nazis. The degree to which it was employed varied by country, with those neighboring either Germany understandably being the most concerned.
94
95	!!Other
96	* A Trabant was featured in ''Creator/MichaelPalin's New Europe'' giving Palin a tour of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowa_Huta Nowa Huta]] in Poland. One particularly distressing feature is the tendency for ''a wheel to fall off''. There's Trabant drivers who'll wait until doing 40 mph on the tour before revealing happens to them about once a month.
97	* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', it's strongly implied that Prussia takes up the East Germany role after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. There is still much internet drama 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:
98	** Prussia nicknames his younger brother, Germany, [[FauxSymbolism "West"]].
99	** A later profile has Prussia being described as [[BeleagueredAssistant brought under Russia's beck and call after the War]], further strengthening the East German connection. Not only that, but it has also been stated that Prussia sometimes gets struck by the aforementioned [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostalgie "Ostalgie"]] -- and when this happens, Russia shows up uninvited to his doorstep and tries to drag him away. [[http://hetalia.kitawiki.net/index.php?title=Prussia#Trivia See here]]
100	** After the reunification, Prussia arrived at Germany's house [[http://himaruya.blog61.fc2.com/blog-entry-1406.html in a "cardboard car"]] (an allusion to the Trabant).
101	* [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/features/polyplay.shtml The video game ''Poly Play'']] was the only video game officially created in East Germany. Strictly speaking, it's a collection of eight different arcade games, including a ''VideoGame/PacMan'' clone. It is low resolution, uses a complete TV set as a screen, and is emulated in MAME, the ROM allegedly being freely available (which is probably not true, since ''someone'' must have inherited the East German copyrights - but apparently, no one can tell). It has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly_Play an article]] on Website/{{Wikipedia}}.
102	* Anna Funder's ''Literature/{{Stasiland}}'' gives an outsiders perspective to the end of East Germany and what came after.
103	* Light Novel, Visual Novel and Anime ''Literature/{{Schwarzesmarken}}'', focuses on a group of East German mecha pilots fighting against an alien BETA invasion that has overrun much of Eurasia and the rest of Warsaw Pact states. In the works are antagonistic Stasi and [[spoiler: a plot to overthrow]] East Germany's government to reunify it with the West. [[spoiler: In all adaptations and endings, the plot fails in the long run and the East German government is still around in the 21st century as a government in exile.]]
104	* In ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', Albert Heinrich aka 004's backstory in almost all continuities (save for the Archaia graphic novel) reveals that he was an East German truck driver who tried to defect with his girlfriend Hilda via using the truck to go past the Berlin Wall. It soon went FromBadToWorse, with her dying and him being wounded and then re-made into a cyborg by Black Ghost. (Plus 40 years of cryogenic sleep in the 2001 series, thanks to its SettingUpdate.)
105	* ''Series/TheSingingRingingTree'', a fairy tale filmed by the East German DEFA studio in 1957 and adapted by the BBC as part of the "Tales From Europe" strand, being oft-repeated on British TV during the 1960s and 70s. Well enough known to have been spoofed by ''Series/TheFastShow''.
106	* One Single Player mission in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar'' has the CIA infiltrating East Berlin in order to kill/capture a Russian arms dealer with connections to Soviet spy Perseus, with GDR People's Police and and Stasi agents serves as minor opposition forces. In Multiplayer mode, one of the characters from the Warsaw Pact faction is also a member of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diensteinheit_IX Diensteinheit IX]], an East German counter-terrorism unit established as a direct counterpart to West German's GSG 9.
107	* Several details of the lore of ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'' suggest Germany either didn't reunify in 1990 or broke up again at an unknown point. Two of the characters are Stasi agents and the T-Doll roster has an East German representative in form of StG-940.
108	* The Eusan nation in ''VideoGame/{{Signalis}}'' takes huge inspirations from Cold War era East Germany, essentially turning it into a sci-fi version of the nation with some Asian influences here and there.
109	----
110	->Auferstanden aus Ruinen
111	->Und der Zukunft zugewandt,
112	->Lass uns dir zum Guten dienen,
113	->Deutschland, einig Vaterland.
114	->Alte Not gilt es zu zwingen,
115	->Und wir zwingen sie vereint,
116	->Denn es muss uns doch gelingen,
117	->Daß die Sonne schön wie nie
118	->Über Deutschland scheint.
119	->Über Deutschland scheint.
120
121	->Glück und Friede sei beschieden
122	->Deutschland, unserm Vaterland.
123	->Alle Welt sehnt sich nach Frieden,
124	->Reicht den Völkern eure Hand.
125	->Wenn wir brüderlich uns einen,
126	->Schlagen wir des Volkes Feind.
127	->Lasst das Licht des Friedens scheinen,
128	->Dass nie eine Mutter mehr
129	->Ihren Sohn beweint.
130	->Ihren Sohn beweint.
131
132	->Lasst uns pflügen, lasst uns bauen,
133	->Lernt und schafft wie nie zuvor,
134	->Und der eignen Kraft vertrauend,
135	->Steigt ein frei Geschlecht empor.
136	->Deutsche Jugend, bestes Streben
137	->Unsres Volks in dir vereint,
138	->Wirst du Deutschlands neues Leben,
139	->Und die Sonne schön wie nie
140	->Über Deutschland scheint.

Context UsefulNotes / EastGermany