East Germany Adopts New Constitution (1949)
On March 19, 1949, East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), took significant steps toward establishing itself as a separate state, emerging from the aftermath of World War II. Following Germany’s defeat, the country was divided into four zones of occupation, each controlled by one of the Allied powers. The eastern portion, overseen by the Soviet Union, became the foundation for the GDR amidst rising tensions between the Soviet and Western powers. The adoption of the GDR's constitution marked a formal declaration of independence from the Western zones, which would later coalesce into West Germany.
Despite its name, the GDR was characterized by a totalitarian communist regime heavily influenced by Moscow. The early years were marked by economic challenges, including reparations to the Soviet Union, but by the 1960s, the GDR experienced some degree of economic development and improved living standards. However, the perception of East Germany remained starkly negative in the West, often viewed as a grim, oppressive state. A new constitution was introduced in 1968, but it did not alter the fundamental nature of the GDR as a Soviet satellite. Ultimately, East Germany ceased to exist on October 3, 1990, when it reunified with West Germany, leading to the formation of the modern German state.
East Germany Adopts New Constitution (1949)
East Germany Adopts New Constitution (1949)
On March 19, 1949, the first official steps were taken to create the nation of East Germany, a satellite state of the Soviet Union and one of two Germanys to emerge from the wreckage of Hitler's Third Reich.
The defeat of the Reich at the end of World War II left Germany dismembered, divided into four zones, each occupied by one of the victorious Allied powers. Great Britain, France, and the United States held zones in western and southern Germany while the Soviet Union controlled the eastern part (the zones roughly corresponded to the areas overrun by different Allied armies when they invaded Germany itself, in 1945). As relations between the two Allied superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, grew cold, the question of what to do with Germany became increasingly complicated. German power had been at the center of two world wars, and Germany's neighbors, especially France and the Soviet Union, were deeply afraid of its resurgence. In addition, the United States and the Soviet Union now regarded each other with such suspicion that a sovereign but neutral Germany no longer seemed practical; such a state would simply become an arena for conflict.
As postwar tensions mounted, the Soviets moved to make their portion of Germany a separate state; the Americans, British, and French would then combine to do likewise with their portions. On March 19, 1949, in a significant first step toward a divided Germany, the puppet government running the Soviet zone adopted a constitution declaring their region the German Democratic Republic (GDR); the new nation, commonly called East Germany, would officially come into being on October 7.
Neither democratic nor a republic, the GDR was in fact a totalitarian communist regime, firmly under Moscow's thumb. It would bear the burden of Soviet reparation demands (for damages inflicted by the Nazis during World War II) up through the mid-1950s, but in the early 1960s greater economic freedom and development were permitted. The standard of living then rose, and East Germany became one of the more prosperous nations of the Soviet bloc, although poor and grim to Western eyes. A new constitution was passed in 1968, which had no substantive effect on East Germany's status as a Soviet satellite but which lasted until the collapse of the entire communist system in 1989. East Germany ceased to exist as a nation on October 3, 1990, when it merged with West Germany to form the reunited Germany of today.