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The official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik ('German Democratic Republic'), usually abbreviated to DDR (GDR). Both terms were used in East Germany, with increasing usage of the abbreviated form, especially since East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners to be foreigners following the promulgation of its second constitution in 1968.
The Council of Ministers (Ministerrat der DDR) was the government of East Germany and the highest organ of the state apparatus. Its position in the system of government and its functions and tasks were specified in the Constitution as amended in 1974 as well as in the "Law on the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic" of October 1972.
Other states were converted into Soviet Satellite states, such as the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Hungary, [11] the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, [12] the People's Republic of Romania, the People's Republic of Albania, [13] and later the German Democratic Republic from the Soviet zone ...
The German Democratic Republic (GDR), German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), often known in English as East Germany, existed from 1949 to 1990. [1] It covered the area of the present-day German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Brandenburg , Berlin (excluding West Berlin ), Sachsen , Sachsen-Anhalt , and Thüringen .
The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, within which the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy, with an unlimited Soviet exercise of the occupation regime and Soviet penetration of administrative, military and secret police structures. [25] [26]
The 1949 constitution had declared Germany a "democratic republic", whereas the new one described East Germany as a "socialist state of the German nation". [19] Under the old constitution, power derived from "the people", while Article 2 of the new Constitution stated that power emanated from "the worker in city and country".
The formal head of state was originally the President of the German Democratic Republic. After the death of incumbent Wilhelm Pieck in 1960, the office was replaced by a collective body as head of state, the State Council. The position of chairman was the de facto head of state and commonly held by the party leader.
In East Germany—the former German Democratic Republic (GDR or DDR)—the peaceful revolution marks the end of the ruling by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1989 and the transition to a parliamentary system. This peaceful transition later enabled the German reunification in October 1990. The peaceful revolution was marked by ...