A Brief History of Berlin and the DDR
May 8th and 9th, 1945, saw the unconditional surrender of German forces to the Soviets and Western Allies. At this time Walter Ulbricht and other communists returned to Germany from Russia. On June 5, 1945, the Berlin Declaration divided the country into four zones of occupation. What later became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD), or West Germany, was divided among the United States of America, France and Great Britain. The Soviet Union took charge of what would later become the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), or East Germany. Berlin was similarly divided into four zones, with the Western Allies occupying the western part of Berlin and the Soviets occupying the eastern portion. Between June 18, 1948 and May 12, 1949, the Soviets blockaded the West Sectors of Berlin. During this time the Allies provided West Berlin with over 2.3 million tons of cargo, primarily food and other supplies. The Berlin Airlift actually continued until September 1949 so that provisions could be stockpiled in West Berlin in case the Soviets decided to reestablish the blockade. The Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) was established on April 21, 1946 from the Soviet-forced merger of the Sozialdemokratishe Partei Deutschlands (SPD) with the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD). The Deutsche Demokratische Republik was established on October 7, 1949. On July 17, 1953 the Soviets crushed a revolt against the SED government in East Berlin in which workers demanded better living and working conditions and free elections. Between 1950 and 1953, the Soviets handed down death sentences for various political reasons. For reasons of secrecy, the accused were sent to Moscow and shot, their corpses were burned, and the remains were buried in mass graves.1
In order to stem the tide of mass emigration from East Germany the Soviets erected the first Berlin Wall during the night on August 13, 1961. The wall became increasingly formidable and 138 people died trying to escape East Berlin. Between 1961 and 1989, over 600 East Germans were shot along the border between East Germany and West Germany.2 On May 3, 1971 Erich Honecker replaced Walter Ulbricht as First Secretary of the SED. Shortly thereafter, on September 10-11, 1989, Hungary opened its border to Austria and allowed citizens of the DDR to pass through. In this way, thousands of East Germans were able to escape to the West.
East Germany had been on the verge of bankruptcy since 1983. Many food items became scarce and long lines began to form in front of grocery stores. The government became desperate for funds and went so far as to secretly allow pharmaceutical companies in the United States, West Germany, and Switzerland to perform drug studies on patients in East Germany. There were up to 165 of these long-term drug studies performed and many doctors kept them secret from their patients. Pharmaceutical companies paid up to 860,000 DM per study. A system was also set up so that West German citizens could buy goods for East German citizens. If a West German could pay in DM for a Trabant, the wait time was eliminated.3 In 1989 protests against the DDR by its own citizens became more and more frequent. On January 15, 1989 more than 500 citizens protested in Leipzig. It was the largest protest in East Germany since June 17, 1953. The subsequent outcry over death of Chris Geuffroy, the last refugee shot trying to flee East Berlin, on February 5, 1989 prompted an end to the shoot-to-kill policy of handling fleeing refugees. Throughout the rest of the year protests of one form or another continued to grow and on October 9th, 70,000 demonstrators took to the streets in Leipzig. The protests didn’t let up and finally, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall Berlin Wall fell. Many points along the East-West German border were also opened on November 9, 1989. On March 18, 1990, the first free elections were held in the DDR and on October 3, 1990 the DDR joined the Federal Republic of Germany.
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