East Germany
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]
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.
Links
- Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
- East Germany at Wikipedia