The German Democratic Republic
"A ghost is haunting Germany: the ghost of Communism" Karl Marx
The German Democratic Republic was created on the 7th October 1949 by the Soviet Union, grouping together the German territories which it had occupied since the end of the Second World War. It was created in response to the creation by the Western Powers of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 in an attempt to stop an ever growing emigration to the West, and resulted in increased tension between the two states.
In Confronted with a permanent economic crisis, the country experienced major internal conflicts which came to a head with at/in the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9th November 1989. The country immediately began the process of democratisation. On 3rd October 1990 the extension of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany to the GDR's territories, voted by the new Assembly, took effect and marked the end of an era: from that date the GDR ceased to exist.
