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| 2. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) |
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| The outbreak of the cold war left eastern Germany in the Soviet sphere of influence. The new German state that emerged east of the Elbe, constructed in conformity with Soviet social, economic, political, and cultural patterns, became one of the Eastern European bloc of countries known in the Soviet Union as people's democracies, referred to in the West as satellites of the USSR. With a largely agricultural economic base and a peripheral relationship to the Soviet Union, East Germany's economic recovery in the postwar decades was far less meteoric than West Germany's. Still, held up in comparison with Eastern Europe generally, the economy in East Germany during the 40 years after the Second World War was one of the most successful in the region. | 1 |
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| 1948, May 16 |
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| Elections for a People's Congress in eastern Germany, despite official pressure, gave only 66.1 percent backing to the single list of Communist-approved candidates. On May 30 the Congress adopted the draft constitution of the Democratic Republic. | 2 |
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| 1949, Oct. 7 |
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| As a countermove to developments in the West, the GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC was established in eastern Germany without an election and with WILHELM PIECK as PRESIDENT and OTTO GROTEWOHL as MINISTER PRESIDENT (a figurehead role for an aging Social Democrat), and with a predominantly Communist cabinet. The Soviet military government was replaced by a Soviet Control Commission. | 3 |
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| 1950, June 6 |
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| An agreement between East Germany and Poland recognized the Oder-Neisse line as the final German-Polish frontier and evoked protests from West Germany. | 4 |
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| Oct. 15 |
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| Elections to the East German legislature brought the expected “victory” for the official list of candidates. | 5 |
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