East Germany

American  

noun

1. a former country in central Europe: created in 1949 from the Soviet zone of occupied Germany established in 1945: reunited with West Germany in 1990. 41,827 sq. mi. (108,333 sq. km). East Berlin.

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East Germany British  

noun

1. Official name: German Democratic Republic.   DDR.   GDR.  a former republic in N central Europe: established in 1949 and declared a sovereign state by the Soviet Union in 1954; Communist regime replaced by a multiparty democracy in 1989; reunited with West Germany in 1990 See also Germany

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East Germany Cultural  

1. Former nation in north-central Europe, officially known as the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990, when East and West Germany were reunited. Its capital and largest city was East Berlin.

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The Berlin Wall (see also Berlin Wall) was erected in 1961 to keep East Germans from defecting to the West.

Former Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact nation, established as a republic in 1949; formed out of land in the zone of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union after World War II.

Although high for a communist nation, the East German living standard lagged far behind that of western Europe. Popular protests for democracy forced the communist government to open the Berlin Wall in 1989 and allow its citizens to migrate to West Germany. Unable to resist the tide of reform sweeping across communist states, the East German government agreed in 1990 to the reunification of Germany under the leadership of West Germany.

Other Word Forms

• East German adjective

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How does east-germany compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• East Germany vs. West Germany

Example Sentences

Rep. Chris Stewart compared the government’s pressure attempts to East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, which would pressure newspapers to hinder positive coverage of regime skeptics.

From Washington Times

For more than three decades, it stood just behind the wall which divided West and East Germany.

From BBC

Poland has around 28 MIG-29s, most of which it received from Germany after it absorbed East Germany and disbanded the Soviet-equipped air force there.

From New York Times

Persecuted by the Nazis and carefully watched by the Communist secret police in the former East Germany, the group struggled for decades to be given equivalent status to Germany’s other religious communities.

From New York Times

Three decades later, Mr. Hébras testified in what was then East Germany against Heinz Barth, an SS sergeant who had participated in the massacre at Oradour.

From Washington Post