Introduction Flashcards
What where the names of the two different German States?
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
What were the two ideologies that the German States believed? Who were the countries involved?
The FRG was a Capitalist Society and it included the USA, and other western states such as Britain and France. The GDR was a Communist ideology and it included the USSR and other communist states in Eastern Europe
What city was divided into East and West?
Berlin (the capital city of Germany) was divided into East and West Berlin (made up of three sectors)
What did many people believe about the German Division?
Many people believed that this post-war division was only temporary
What was very threatening to the GDR’s existence?
Was the fact that every year, hundreds of thousands of its citizens illegally emigrated to the FRG. The vast majority of those who emigrated were young, skilled workers so they were the very individuals the GDR needed most for its economic livelihood as well as for its political credibility
When were the GDR’s living standards the highest in the Eastern Bloc? When were they said to surpass those of the FRG?
The GDR’s living standards were the highest in the Eastern Bloc by the later 1950s. In 1958 the GDR’s government said that they would soon pass the FRG in the next couple of years
What was different about the GDR’s flag to the German Flag?
The GDR flag had the German Flag behind a hammer with a compass surrounded by grain which represented industrial workers, the intelligentsia and agricultural workers.
Why did the GDR make their own flag? What did the FRG do with the flag?
This was deliberately done in 1959 to distinguish East Germany from West Germany. In West Germany the flag was banned until 1969
