East Berlin

Overview

With the London Protocol of 1944 and subsequent Potsdam Conference in 1945, the Allied powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into three occupation zones and to establish a special area of Berlin, which was occupied by the three Allied Forces together. In May 1945, the Soviet Union installed a city government for the whole city that was called "Magistrate of Greater Berlin", which existed until 1947. After the war, the Allied Forces initially administered the city together within the Allied Kommandatura, which served as the governing body of the city. However, in 1948 the Soviet representative left the Kommandatura and the common administration broke apart during the following months. In the Soviet sector, a separate city government was established, which continued to call itself the "Magistrate of Greater Berlin".

When the German Democratic Republic was established in 1949, it immediately claimed East Berlin as its capital—a claim that was recognized by all communist countries. Nevertheless, East Berlin representation in the Volkskammer initially only consisted of non-voting delegates, indirectly elected by the Magistrate, until an amendment to the electoral law providing for direct elections was passed on June 28, 1979, taking effect on June 14, 1981.

In June 1948, all railways and roads leading to West Berlin were blocked, and East Berliners were not allowed to emigrate. Nevertheless, more than 1,000 East Germans were escaping to West Berlin each day by 1960, caused by the strains on the East German economy from war reparations owed to the Soviet Union, massive destruction of industry, and lack of assistance from the Marshall Plan. In August 1961, the East German Government tried to stop the population exodus by separating West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. It was very dangerous for fleeing residents to cross because armed soldiers were trained to shoot illegal emigrants.

East Germany was a socialist republic. Eventually, Christian churches were allowed to operate without restraint after years of harassment by authorities. In the 1970s, the wages of East Berliners rose and working hours fell.{{Cite book

The Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc recognized East Berlin as the GDR's capital. However, Western Allies (the United States, United Kingdom, and France) never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin. Official Allied protocol recognized only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with the occupation status of Berlin as a whole. The United States Command Berlin, for example, published detailed instructions for U.S. military and civilian personnel wishing to visit East Berlin. In fact, the three Western commandants regularly protested against the presence of the East German National People's Army in East Berlin, particularly on the occasion of military parades. Nevertheless, the three Western Allies eventually established embassies in East Berlin in the 1970s, although they never recognized it as the capital of East Germany. Treaties instead used terms such as "seat of government".

On 3 October 1990, East and West Germany and East and West Berlin were reunited, thus formally ending the existence of East Berlin. Citywide elections in December 1990 resulted in the first "all-Berlin" mayor being elected to take office in January 1991, with the separate offices of mayors in East and West Berlin expiring at the time, and Eberhard Diepgen (a former mayor of West Berlin) became the first elected mayor of a reunited Berlin.

Historical population

East Berlin reached its highest population in 1988 with 1.28 million. The lowest value was in 1961, the year the Berlin Wall was built, with under 1.06 million registered. The figures in the following table, unless otherwise indicated, are from the official central statistical office of East Germany.

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Post-reunification

Main article: German reunification#Unified Berlin

Since reunification, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin.

After reunification, the East German economy suffered significantly. Under the adopted policy of privatization of state-owned firms under the auspices of the Treuhandanstalt, many East German factories were shut down—which also led to mass unemployment—due to gaps in productivity with and investment compared to West German companies, as well as an inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards in a way that was deemed cost-effective. Because of this, a massive amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it. This stimulus was part-funded through a 7.5% tax on income for individuals and companies (in addition to normal income tax or company tax) known as the Solidaritätszuschlaggesetz (SolZG) or "solidarity surcharge", which though only in effect for 1991–1992 (later reintroduced in 1995 at 7.5 and then dropped down to 5.5% in 1998 and continues to be levied to this day) led to a great deal of resentment toward the East Germans.

Despite the large sums of economic aid poured into East Berlin, there still remain obvious differences between the former East and West Berlins. East Berlin has a distinct visual style; this is partly due to the greater survival of prewar façades and streetscapes, with some still showing signs of wartime damage. The unique look of Socialist Classicism that was used in East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) also contrasts markedly with the urban development styles employed in the former West Berlin. Additionally, the former East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) retains a small number of its GDR-era street and place names commemorating German socialist heroes, such as Karl-Marx-Allee, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße. Many such names, however, were deemed inappropriate (for various reasons) and, through decommunization, changed after a long process of review (so, for instance, Leninallee reverted to Landsberger Allee in 1991, and Dimitroffstraße reverted to Danziger Straße in 1995).

Another symbolic icon of the former East Berlin (and of East Germany as a whole) is the Ampelmännchen (tr. "little traffic light men"), a stylized version of a fedora-wearing man crossing the street, which is found on traffic lights at many pedestrian crosswalks throughout the former East. Following a civic debate about whether the Ampelmännchen should be abolished or disseminated more widely (due to concerns of consistency), several crosswalks in some parts of the former West Berlin began to employ the Ampelmännchen.

Twenty-five years after the two cities were reunified, the people of East and West Berlin still had noticeable differences between them, and these differences became more apparent among the older generations. The two groups also had sometimes-derogatory slang terms to refer to each other. A former East Berliner (or East German) was known as an "Ossi" (from the German word for east, Ost), and a former West Berliner (or West German) was known as a "Wessi" (from the German word for west, West). Both sides also engaged in stereotyping the other. A stereotypical Ossi had little ambition or poor work ethic and was chronically bitter, while a stereotypical Wessi was arrogant, selfish, impatient and pushy.

Boroughs

At the time of German reunification, East Berlin comprised the boroughs of

Government

Assembly of Deputies

The legislature of East Berlin was the City Assembly of Deputies () (SVV), which had 130 members elected every five years alongside the Volkskammer and the legislatures of the other Bezirke of East Germany. The assembly met in the Red City Hall, which also housed the Magistrate of East Berlin. The actual significance of the assembly was little, the assembly being in session only a few times per year too unanimously approve decisions made by the SED and the Magistrate.

The assembly was first "elected" in October 1954 concurrently with the second Volkskammer. After not having had a legislature at all since the split in 1948, there briefly was an "People's Assembly of Greater Berlin" from February 1953, composed of Democratic Bloc-appointed members.

As with all elections before the Peaceful Revolution, elections in East Berlin were neither free nor fair, voters only being able to approve or reject a list of candidates put forward by the National Front. While voters could reject the list, they would have to use the polling booth, the use of which was documented by Stasi informants located at every polling site.

Magistrate

After each election, the East Berlin assembly elected the Magistrate of East Berlin (), the municipal government of East Berlin. The Magistrate also controlled the work of the borough governments, which, among other things, were exclusively responsible for running elections. The Magistrate was originally composed of the Lord Mayor of East Berlin as chairman, eight deputy mayors, the Magistrate secretary (who prepared the meetings of the assembly and Magistrate and controlled the implementation of their decisions), and eight other members known as city councilors ().

With the exception of the Lord Mayor, his first deputy and the Magistrate secretary, all Magistrate members headed one of the 15 governmental departments. These departments were accountable to both the Magistrate and the respective ministry (for example, the East Berlin health department was directly accountable to the East German health ministry) under the legal principal of Doppelte Unterstellung.

Above all, the Magistrate was subservient to the East Berlin SED and its First Secretary.

Until 1981, the Magistrate also formally appointed the 66 East Berlin Volkskammer members.

Images

File:Marx-engels-platz.jpg|Marx-Engels-Platz and the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin in the summer of 1989. The Fernsehturm (TV Tower) is visible in the background File:Fehrnsehturm Palast.jpg|Easter Sunday, 1988, Fernsehturm and Palace of the Republic File:Karl-Marx-Allee Block C Nord Berlin April 2006 060.jpg|Karl-Marx-Allee apartments File:Lenindecoration.JPG|Wall plaque of Lenin, off Wilhelmstrasse File:Veggdekorasjon.JPG|GDR-era mural of Meissen porcelain on former Council of Ministers building, facing Leipziger Straße File:Soviet War Memorial Park.JPG|The Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park File:Cafe Moskau.JPG|Cafe Moskau in Karl-Marx-Allee File:Dismantling of the Palace of the Republic.JPG|The Palace of the Republic, being dismantled File:New Synagogue, East Berlin.JPG|New Synagogue, Oranienburger Straße File:Weberwiese Berlin April 2006 147.jpg|"Hochhaus" in Weberwiese, the first high-rise apartment built after the war File:VolksbühBerlJan08.JPG|Volksbühne, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz File:Berlin Wilhelmstrasse.jpg|Late-1980s GDR apartment blocks on the Wilhelmstrasse File:Strausberger Platz Berlin April 2006 117.jpg|Strausberger Platz with constructivism style building File:Proletarian hero, Alexanderplatz june 2006.JPG|Proletarian hero, Alexanderplatz File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-U1109-022, Berlin, Sandmännchen.jpg|Gerhard Behrendt with Sandmännchen. The show was recorded in East Berlin File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-41736-0005, Berlin, Bodemuseum, Monbijoubrücke.jpg|The Bode Museum at the northern end of the Museum Island, 1956 File:Haus der Schweiz, Unter den Linden at FriedrichStrasse, East Berlin, February 1975.jpg|, Unter der Linden at FriedrichStrasse, East Berlin, February 1975 File:Statues of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.JPG|Statues of Marx and Engels, Marx-Engels-Forum

Notes

References

References

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