German democratic republic

The German Democratic Republic is a Communist nation in Europe which includes the territories of the former German Federal Republic, the Republic of Austria, its own predecessor state , the German Democratic Republic and also northern Tyrol.

Establishment
After the defeat of the Third Reich in World War 2, Germany was divided in four occupation zones by the Allies; the western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, were then merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, while on 7 October 1949, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic. They were informally known as West Germany and East Germany. East Germany selected East Berlin as its capital, while West Germany chose Bonn.

During the Cold War
In 1949 the Soviets formally turned control of East Germany over to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), formed in April 1946 from the merger between the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), but in reality they continued to control the GDR trough all of the Cold War as a puppet state.

On 10 March 1952 the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, issued a proposal to reunify Germany with a policy of neutrality, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for the rights of man and basic freedoms, but it was declined by the western powers. In 1956 the German Democratic Republic was between the founding states of the Warsaw Pact.

While East German propaganda was based on the benefits of the GDR's social programmes and the alleged threat of a West German invasion, many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, prevented East German citizens from escaping to West Germany, becoming a symbol of the Cold War.

In the early 1970s West Germany and East Germany recognized eachother for the first time, thanks to Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik and both countries were admitted into the United Nations on 18 September 1973.

Die Wende (German reunification)
The two German nations reunited in the mid 1980s under the DDR regime. After the unification the German Democratic Republic became a fully independent state. It was also able to reunify with Austria a few years later.

After the Cold War
As of 2010, the German Democratic Republic is the de facto leader of the European Union of Socialist Republics. It has maintained a strong military and economy, as well as a stable political system. The German Democratic Republic is slowly becoming more powerful than the Soviet Union itself, influencing its European Neighbours for its own gains. It even seems possible that Germany will become the successor to the dying Soviet World order.

Secret Police
The most feared police force in the GDR is the Stasi, a secret police force founded on February 8th 1950 by the German socialist government to preserve the communist regime in the country. The first Stasi agents were trained by the soviet KGB.

Flag
The flag of the German Democratic Republic is the official national flag during the Cold War. The flags design and symbolism derive from the flag of the Weimar Republic and communist symbolism.