East Germany: Difference between revisions
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In the 1950s alone, more than 2 million people moved west, a migration that triggered the regime's radical solution in August 1961--the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]]. During most of its existence, the only segment of East Germany's population permitted to leave for West Germany were retirees, whose resettlement there was unofficially encouraged to reduce the GDR's pension payments. As a result, the number of persons sixty years of age and older in the GDR fell from 22.1 percent in 1970 to 18.3 percent in 1985 and made the East German population younger than that of West Germany.<ref name="Studies_Population">[http://www.country-studies.com/germany/population---historical-background.html "Population - Historical Background"], ''Country Studies''. Referenced 2012-03-04.</ref> | In the 1950s alone, more than 2 million people moved west, a migration that triggered the regime's radical solution in August 1961--the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]]. During most of its existence, the only segment of East Germany's population permitted to leave for West Germany were retirees, whose resettlement there was unofficially encouraged to reduce the GDR's pension payments. As a result, the number of persons sixty years of age and older in the GDR fell from 22.1 percent in 1970 to 18.3 percent in 1985 and made the East German population younger than that of West Germany.<ref name="Studies_Population">[http://www.country-studies.com/germany/population---historical-background.html "Population - Historical Background"], ''Country Studies''. Referenced 2012-03-04.</ref> | ||
The record year for population loss was 1953, year of [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany|revolt]] and repression. During those traumatic twelve months, almost 400,000 left for the West. The figure dropped in 1954 to less than 200,000 before starting to climb again, staying at around a quarter of a million annually for the next three years. In the first twelve years of its existence, East Germany lost around a sixth of its population. Shortly before the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]], the number of emigrants arriving in West Berlin had exceeded 2,500. (If this had continued, the population could be expected to diminish at the rate of about a million a year.) | |||
It was the skilled workers, doctors (of whom 20 percent fled westwards between 1954 and 1961) and nurses and teachers and engineers, who were choosing to go west. Because of these population losses, the GDR was also suffering a labor shortage.<ref name="Taylor_Wall">Frederick Taylor. ''The Berlin Wall''. ISBN 9781408802564. 2006. Pages: 100, 119, 173, 388-389. Referenced 2012-03-04.</ref> | |||
==Economy== | |||
By early 1960, the GDR was suffering from serious shortages of raw materials and quality industrial products as well as food. It was heavily in debt both to the [[USSR]] and the West. Far from overtaking West Germany, the GDR was falling further behind. If such a word were permitted in the Communist lexicon - which it was not - then the situation in East Germany could be only described as a [[recession]]. | |||
In the 1980s, East Germany was frighteningly uncompetitive outside the Soviet bloc. Thuringia and Saxony especially had always been in the forefront of the industrial and technological revolution, from the early 19th century until the time of the Third Reich. Bomb damage, sequestering of plant and machinery by the Soviets for reparations, heavy-handed socialisation of industry, and the subsequent loss of expert management, capital, patents and skilled workers to the West, had weakened the country's economic fundamentals. | |||
Before the [[First World War]], Saxony, along with neighboring Bohemia (later the [[Czech Republic]]) enjoyed the higfest real net output in Europe. Chemnitz, with a population of 400,000, was known as the 'Manchester of Germany'. Until the collapse of the Third Reich, Dresden, with its camera and typewriter factories and electronics workshops, was the second fastest growing city after Berlin. Leipzig, Magdeburg, Halle and Jena were booming manufacturing centers. In 1939, industrial production per head in the region that would a decade later become the GDR amounted to 725 Reichsmark per year. In the territories that would become West Germany, production per head was only 609 Reichsmarks. | |||
The East, which should have been more advantaged, never recovered under the bureaucratic, centrally directed command structure that remained the basis of the GDR's economy. Despite this, with West Germany tapped successfully for credits, with relatively favorable terms of trade with the Eastern Bloc and parts of the Third World, and despite raw-minerals and energy problems and mounting deficits, the GDR maintained a facade of success. As the East German state approach its fortieth anniversary, it appeared to many unsuspecting outsiders to represent a confident, progressive and egalitarian alternative to grasping, high-stress Western capitalism.<ref name="Taylor_Wall" /> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 21:42, 4 March 2012
German Democratic Republic, byname East Germany, German Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or Ostdeutschland is a former country (1949–90) that constitutes the northeastern section of present-day Germany.[1]
Population
From its founding, the GDR struggled to stabilize its population and thwart emigration. In the course of its forty-year history, almost one-quarter of East Germany's population fled the state to settle in West Germany (a decline of three million people, from 19 million in 1948 to 16 million in 1990[2]).
In the 1950s alone, more than 2 million people moved west, a migration that triggered the regime's radical solution in August 1961--the construction of the Berlin Wall. During most of its existence, the only segment of East Germany's population permitted to leave for West Germany were retirees, whose resettlement there was unofficially encouraged to reduce the GDR's pension payments. As a result, the number of persons sixty years of age and older in the GDR fell from 22.1 percent in 1970 to 18.3 percent in 1985 and made the East German population younger than that of West Germany.[3]
The record year for population loss was 1953, year of revolt and repression. During those traumatic twelve months, almost 400,000 left for the West. The figure dropped in 1954 to less than 200,000 before starting to climb again, staying at around a quarter of a million annually for the next three years. In the first twelve years of its existence, East Germany lost around a sixth of its population. Shortly before the construction of the Berlin Wall, the number of emigrants arriving in West Berlin had exceeded 2,500. (If this had continued, the population could be expected to diminish at the rate of about a million a year.)
It was the skilled workers, doctors (of whom 20 percent fled westwards between 1954 and 1961) and nurses and teachers and engineers, who were choosing to go west. Because of these population losses, the GDR was also suffering a labor shortage.[4]
Economy
By early 1960, the GDR was suffering from serious shortages of raw materials and quality industrial products as well as food. It was heavily in debt both to the USSR and the West. Far from overtaking West Germany, the GDR was falling further behind. If such a word were permitted in the Communist lexicon - which it was not - then the situation in East Germany could be only described as a recession.
In the 1980s, East Germany was frighteningly uncompetitive outside the Soviet bloc. Thuringia and Saxony especially had always been in the forefront of the industrial and technological revolution, from the early 19th century until the time of the Third Reich. Bomb damage, sequestering of plant and machinery by the Soviets for reparations, heavy-handed socialisation of industry, and the subsequent loss of expert management, capital, patents and skilled workers to the West, had weakened the country's economic fundamentals.
Before the First World War, Saxony, along with neighboring Bohemia (later the Czech Republic) enjoyed the higfest real net output in Europe. Chemnitz, with a population of 400,000, was known as the 'Manchester of Germany'. Until the collapse of the Third Reich, Dresden, with its camera and typewriter factories and electronics workshops, was the second fastest growing city after Berlin. Leipzig, Magdeburg, Halle and Jena were booming manufacturing centers. In 1939, industrial production per head in the region that would a decade later become the GDR amounted to 725 Reichsmark per year. In the territories that would become West Germany, production per head was only 609 Reichsmarks.
The East, which should have been more advantaged, never recovered under the bureaucratic, centrally directed command structure that remained the basis of the GDR's economy. Despite this, with West Germany tapped successfully for credits, with relatively favorable terms of trade with the Eastern Bloc and parts of the Third World, and despite raw-minerals and energy problems and mounting deficits, the GDR maintained a facade of success. As the East German state approach its fortieth anniversary, it appeared to many unsuspecting outsiders to represent a confident, progressive and egalitarian alternative to grasping, high-stress Western capitalism.[4]
References
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica. "German Democratic Republic. (2012)." Referenced 2012-03-04.
- ↑ Populstat.info. "East Germany: country population". Referenced 2012-03-04.
- ↑ "Population - Historical Background", Country Studies. Referenced 2012-03-04.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Frederick Taylor. The Berlin Wall. ISBN 9781408802564. 2006. Pages: 100, 119, 173, 388-389. Referenced 2012-03-04.
Links
- Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
- East Germany at Wikipedia