1.
Allied-occupied Germany
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The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in Autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces, and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the Rhine River. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
2.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
3.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
4.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
5.
Governing Mayor of Berlin
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The Governing Mayor of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. The title Governing Mayor of Berlin is the equivalent of Lord Mayor in the meaning of an executive leader. According to the Berlin Constitution, the Governing Mayor is member, the two deputies additionally hold the title of Mayor. The title Mayor is also held by the heads of the boroughs of Berlin. He is entitled to appoint and release the senators of his government, the seat of the Senate is the city hall Rotes Rathaus in Mitte. He served as head of the city council called Magistrat, the two-stage administration and the office of the boroughs mayors were implemented in the course of the wide-ranging incorporations by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act. West Berlin introduced its own constitution, accounting for the changed facts, the government of West Berlin claimed to be the legitimate government for all of Berlin within the borders established by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act until the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. According to the new ordinance the head of the city was titled Stadtpräsident, following Berlins provisional post-war constitution, enacted under quadripartite Allied rule, the head of city government was titled again Oberbürgermeister. Continuation of the Mayor of West Berlins office, politics of Berlin History of Berlin Timeline of Berlin List of people from Berlin Governing Mayor of Berlin
6.
Friedrich Ebert Jr.
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Friedrich Fritz Ebert, Jr. was a German politician and East German communist official, the son of Germanys first President Friedrich Ebert. Born in Bremen, Fritz Ebert underwent an apprenticeship as a printer from 1909 to 1913, in 1910 he joined the Socialist Workers Youth and in 1913 the SPD. From 1915 to 1918 he fought in the First World War, during the Weimar Republic, he worked for various social democratic newspapers. In 1933, he was arrested for political activity and detained for eight months in various concentration camps, e. g. Oranienburg. In 1939, he was conscripted into the army, in 1940, he worked at the Reichsverlagsamt. Until 1945 he was under constant police surveillance, after the demise of the Third Reich, he was elected chairman of the SPD in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. Being the son of a former President made Ebert one of the foremost political leaders in East Germany and his role in this period can be compared with that of Jan Masaryk in post-war Czechoslovakia. Ebert was courted by the leaders of the Communist Party, who were aiming for unification of the much larger SPD with the smaller KPD. They wanted to use his fathers supposed role in the breaking-up of the unity of the German working class in 1918 to get the young Eberts support for the unification, in 1946 the unification of the two parties branches in the Soviet Occupation Zone was carried out under Soviet pressure. After the creation of the new party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Ebert was elected to the Central Committee and he served as President of the Landtag of Brandenburg 1946–1949. After the end of Allied cooperation and the breakup of the administration of Berlin, Ebert became mayor of East Berlin, between 1949 and 1971 he served as the chambers deputy president. In 1971 he was elected chairman of the SED faction in the Peoples Chamber, from 1960 he was also a member of the Council of State and from 1971 its deputy chairman. As such, he was acting head of state in 1973 after Walter Ulbrichts death until the election of Willi Stoph, Ebert lived in Majakowskiring street, Pankow, East Berlin. Ebert was decorated with the Order of Karl Marx, the Patriotic Order of Merit, Star of Peoples Friendship, after his resignation as mayor, the magistrate of East Berlin awarded him honorary citizenship, which was however declared null and void in 1992
7.
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
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The partys dominant figure from 1950 to 1971, and effective leader of East Germany, was Walter Ulbricht. In 1953, an uprising against the Party was met with violent suppression by the Ministry of State Security and the Soviet Army. In 1971, Ulbricht was succeeded by Erich Honecker who presided over a period in the development of the GDR until he was forced to step down during the 1989 revolution. The partys last leader, Egon Krenz, was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the SEDs hold on political governance of the GDR and was imprisoned after German reunification, the SEDs long-suppressed reform wing took over the party in the fall of 1989. In hopes of changing its image, on 16 December it renamed itself the Party of Democratic Socialism, abandoning Marxism–Leninism and it received 16. 4% of the vote in the 1990 parliamentary elections. In 2007, the PDS merged with Labour and Social Justice into The Left, official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties. However, there is evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed. By all accounts, the Soviet occupation authorities applied pressure on the SPDs eastern branch to merge with the KPD. The newly merged party, with the help of the Soviet authorities, however, these elections were held under less-than-secret conditions, thus setting the tone for the next four decades. A truer picture of the SEDs support came with the elections in Berlin. In that contest, the SED received less than half the votes of the SPD, the bulk of the Berlin SPD remained aloof from the merger, even though Berlin was deep inside the Soviet zone. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany directly governed the areas of Germany following World War II. Also reported was a deal of difficulty in convincing the masses that the SED was a German political party. Soviet intelligence claimed to have a list of names of an SPD group within the SED that was covertly forging links with the SPD in the West, a problem for the Soviets that they identified with the early SED was its potential to develop into a nationalist party. At large party meetings, members applauded speakers who talked of nationalism much more than when they spoke of solving social problems, although it was nominally a merger of equals, from the beginning the SED was dominated by Communists. By the late 1940s, the SED began to purge most recalcitrant Social Democrats from its ranks, by the time of East Germanys formal establishment in 1949, the SED was a full-fledged Communist party—essentially the KPD under a new name. It began to develop along lines similar to other Communist parties in the Soviet bloc, over the years, the SED gained a reputation as one of the most hardline parties in the Soviet bloc. When Mikhail Gorbachev initiated reforms in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the party organisation was based on, and co-located with, the institutions of the German Democratic Republic
8.
Social Democratic Party in the GDR
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The Social Democratic Party in the GDR was a reconstituted Social Democratic Party existing during the last phase of the East German state. Slightly less than a year after its creation it merged with the West German Social Democratic Party of Germany, what became East Germany was traditionally the heartland for the SPD in united Germany. In 1946, the Soviet occupation authorities forced the branch of the SPD to merge with the eastern branch of the Communist Party of Germany to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Within a short time, however, the few independent-minded members from the SPD side of the merger had been pushed out, early in 1989, the Protestant theologians Markus Meckel and Martin Gutzeit took the initiative to revive a Social Democratic Party in the GDR. The two made organisational preparations and in April 1989 produced the first draft of the foundation appeal, in August, the appeal was presented at the Golgathagemeinde parish in Berlin. The appeal was signed by Meckel, Gutzeit, director and human rights advocate Ibrahim Böhme, the SED based its claim to power on being the sole representative of the working class. The party chose the abbreviation SDP to avoid associations with the SPD that had merged into the SED, stephan Hilsberg, a programmer, was elected as the first party spokesman, while Ibrahim Böhme became manager. Between October and December, local groups of the SDP were formed in different towns, the talks resulted in representatives of the opposition groups joining Modrows cabinet as ministers without portfolio until free elections to the Peoples Chamber could be held. On 29 January, Walter Romberg became the first Social Democrat appointed to the cabinet, on 13 January 1990, the partys first Conference of Delegates assembled in Berlin and decided to change the short form of the party name to SPD, to conform with the West German SPD. At the same time, party organisation was created at the level of districts, elections were scheduled for 18 March. Three weeks before that date, the SPD held its first party congress from 22 to 25 February 1990 in Leipzig. The congress decided on a manifesto and a statute of the party and also elected an executive board, with Böhme serving as party chairman. The election yielded disappointing results for the Social Democrats, instead of gaining an absolute majority, as they had expected, they won 21. 9% of the vote, resulting in 88 seats and second place. The party fared best in the districts of Berlin, Potsdam and Frankfurt, when the new parliament constituted itself, Social Democrat Reinhard Höppner was elected vice-president of the Peoples Chamber. On 12 April, Lothar de Maizière of the CDU formed a coalition cabinet including six Social Democrats, among them Markus Meckel, Regine Hildebrandt. The SPD initially supported de Maizières policy of speedy reunification with West Germany, Ibrahim Böhme was slated to have been a senior minister in the government. However, during the talks he had been unmasked as a longtime Stasi informer by the West German news magazine Der Spiegel. Though Böhme failed to acknowledge this, he agreed to suspend his party functions, on 8 April 1990, Meckel was chosen as the interim chairman, until an extraordinary meeting in Halle on 9 June 1990 elected Wolfgang Thierse as the new party chairman
9.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
10.
German reunification
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The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
11.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
12.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
13.
West Berlin
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West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was formally controlled by the Western Allies and formed a de facto part of West Germany, and was entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners as an island of freedom. A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its liberal and cosmopolitan character. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the biggest population of any city in Cold War Germany and it was 100 miles east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and was de facto part of West Germany and it had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided West Berlin from its East German surroundings until it fell in 1989. The Potsdam Agreement established the framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries, according to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road, at first, this arrangement was intended to be only a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations, in 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food, in May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed, however, in cases this proved only temporary. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, as a direct result the electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic
14.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
15.
Capital of Germany
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The capital of Germany is the city state of Berlin. It is the seat of the President of Germany, whose residence is Schloss Bellevue. The Bundesrat is the representation of the Federal States of Germany and has its seat at the former Prussian Herrenhaus. Though most of the ministries are seated in Berlin, some of them, as well as some departments, are seated in Bonn. Prior to 1871, Germany was not a nation state. The capital of the ruling house was Vienna. Subsequently, Frankfurt briefly became the official German capital during the short-lived Revolutions of 1848 in the German states and it was only during the 1871 Unification of Germany that the newly unified German Empire was first assigned an official capital. Since Berlin was the capital of Prussia, the state of the new Reich. Berlin had been the capital of Prussia since 1518, Berlin remained the capital of the united Germany until 1945. However, for a period of a few months following the First World War, in 1945, Germany was occupied by the Allies as the outcome of World War II, and Berlin ceased to be the capital of a sovereign German state. In 1949, with sovereignty regained the country split up into West Germany, Berlin was also divided, into West Berlin and East Berlin. Originally, Frankfurt was to be the capital of West Germany. However, West German authorities had every intention of making Berlin the capital if Germany were ever reunified and they feared that since Frankfurt was a major city in its own right, it would ultimately be accepted as a permanent capital and weaken West German support for reunification. For this reason, the capital was located in the university city of Bonn as a more obviously provisional solution. Another factor was that Bonn is close to Cologne, the hometown of West Germanys first chancellor, East Germany claimed East Berlin as its capital, even though Berlin as a whole was still legally occupied territory, and would remain so for 45 years. In 1990, with the reunification of Germany, Berlin was also reunified, there was some debate, however, on whether the seat of government should move to Berlin. Many believed that Bonn should remain the seat of government – a situation analogus to that of the Netherlands, in 1991, after an emotional debate, the Bundestag voted to move the seat of government to Berlin by 1999. Although Berlin is officially the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany,8,000 out of the 18,000 total officials employed at the federal bureaucracy still work in Bonn,596 km away from Berlin
16.
Berlin Wall
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The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992, the barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, fakir beds and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany, the West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the Wall of Shame—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Walls restriction on freedom of movement. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration, during this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany, crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall, contrary to popular belief the Walls actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, the capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the citys location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the occupying powers. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone, if statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism became a part of school curricula, sending professors. The East Germans created a political police apparatus that kept the population under close surveillance. In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several countries began a massive airlift, supplying West Berlin with food. The Soviets mounted a public campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, in May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, by a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control, East Germany differed from West Germany, which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government
17.
Allied Kommandatura
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The Allied Kommandatura, or often just Kommandatura, also known as the Alliierte Kommandantur in German, was the governing body for the city of Berlin following Germanys defeat in World War II. The victorious allied powers established control of post-war Germany and other territories via shared Military Government councils, the Kommandatura was often known as the little brother to the Allied Control Council, which had the same function for the whole of Germany, and was subordinate to it. It originally comprised representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kommandatura had its home in the Berlin district of Dahlem. President Roosevelt declared at the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 that the goal of the war was the surrender of Germany. To that end, and during the many months, the leading Allied powers planned and gave form to the task of dividing Germany. The London Protocol of September 1944, established the division of Germany into zones of occupation, additionally, Berlin was to be governed by an Allied Komendatura. The Soviets fought for and captured Berlin by the beginning of May 1945, and set up not only their own sector. The U. S. and British entered Berlin later, on July 1, by that time the Soviets had plundered and pillaged the western sectors of Berlin. They had removed vital industrial infrastructure on a scale, and had taken most of what was left in the city in terms of agriculture. By this time the French had also obtained their own sector in the north of Berlin, carved out of the British sector, in any case, Howleys plan was in preparation for the first high-level post-war meeting between the Allies regarding Berlin, and outlined conditions for quadripartite governance. General Lucius D. Clay, Eisenhowers deputy, Robert Murphy, Eisenhowers political adviser, berlins fate was sealed, however, prior to the July 7 meeting. Clay and others let Parks know, in no uncertain terms, Howleys plan was carefully worked out and allowed governance on a divided basis when unanimity could not be obtained, but Clay was following orders from Washington. General Clay and the British, including Gen, Sir Ronald Weeks and Sir William Strang, were caught flat-footed at the meeting, and subsequently deferred to the Soviets on so many issues. Their chief representatives were Marshals Zhukov and Sokolovsky, both of whom had experience in moving a situation to their advantage. Howley indicated that the signed Komandatura agreement put the Soviets in the saddle, the next meeting on July 11,1945, represented the first actual meeting of the Allied Kommandatura, where the four-power Council of Commandants began governing the city. One major, initial task remained, where to meet and this was left to the Kommandatura deputies to resolve. The Soviets offered one possible location for Kommandatura headquarters, but it was far removed in a distant Berlin suburb, the British offered several damaged buildings and a hotel in their sector. Howley initially offered a building on Lake Wannsee, but others objected that they would never get any work done in such a beautiful setting
18.
Volkskammer
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The Peoples Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic. Despite the appearance of a multi-party system, all these Bloc parties were completely subservient to the SED, in addition, seats were also allocated to various mass organizations affiliated with the SED, such as the Free German Youth. Initially, it was the house of a bicameral legislature. The upper chamber was the Chamber of States, or Länderkammer, but in 1952 the states of East Germany were dissolved, in theory, the Volkskammer was the highest organ of state power in the GDR. Both GDR constitutions vested it with great lawmaking powers and it also formally appointed the Council of State, the Council of Ministers, and the National Defence Council. All other branches of government—including the judiciary—were theoretically responsible to it, in practice, like most other legislatures in Communist countries, the Peoples Chamber did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the SED and its Politburo. All parties were expected to respect the principles of democratic centralism, as a result, all but two measures put before it before the Peaceful Revolution passed unanimously. A1972 vote on liberalising abortion laws saw 14 CDU representatives vote nay and eight abstain, during Peoples Chamber elections, voters were presented with a single list from the National Front, with seats allocated based on a set quota rather than actual vote totals. By ensuring that its candidates dominated the list, the SED effectively predetermined the composition of the legislature, the democratic centralist principle extended to the ballot box as well. A voter simply took the paper, which contained only one name. A voter could vote against the candidate by crossing out his or her name, the consequences for such an act of defiance were severe—loss of ones job or expulsion from school, and close surveillance by the Stasi. The table below shows an overview of the results of all parliamentary elections before 1990. ¹Eastern Bureau of the Social Democratic Party of Germany In 1976, the Volkskammer moved into a building on Marx-Engels-Platz. On paper, the president of the Peoples Chamber was the third-highest post in the GDR and was vice president of the country. The last president of the Peoples Chamber, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, was interim head of state during the last six months of East Germanys existence due to the State Council having been abolished. Presidium of the Peoples Chamber Show election A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People Deliberations of the Volkskammer on nuclear disarmament,1981
19.
Berlin Blockade
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The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies railway, road, the Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, the Soviets did not disrupt the airlift for fear this might lead to open conflict. By the spring of 1949, the airlift was clearly succeeding, on 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe. These zones were located roughly around the then-current locations of the allied armies, also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located 100 miles inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. The United States, United Kingdom, and France controlled western portions of the city, factories, equipment, technicians, managers and skilled personnel were removed to the Soviet Union. Stalin and other leaders told visiting Bulgarian and Yugoslavian delegations in early 1946 that Germany must be both Soviet and communist, a further factor contributing to the Blockade was that there had never been a formal agreement guaranteeing rail and road access to Berlin through the Soviet zone. At the end of the war, western leaders had relied on Soviet goodwill to them with access. The Soviets also granted only three air corridors for access to Berlin from Hamburg, Bückeburg and Frankfurt, in response, the Soviets started a public relations campaign against American policy and began to obstruct the administrative work of all four zones of occupation. Until the blockade began in 1948, the Truman Administration had not decided whether American forces should remain in West Berlin after the establishment of a West German government, Berlin quickly became the focal point of both US and Soviet efforts to re-align Europe to their respective visions. As Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov noted, What happens to Berlin, happens to Germany, what happens to Germany, Berlin had suffered enormous damage, its prewar population of 4.3 million people was reduced to 2.8 million. After harsh treatment, forced emigration, political repression and the hard winter of 1945–1946. Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist protest vote, Berlins citizens overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city council. Meanwhile, to coordinate the economies of the British and United States occupation zones, after March 1946 the British zonal advisory board was established, with representatives of the states, the central offices, political parties, trade unions, and consumer organisations. As indicated by its name, the advisory board had no legislative power. The Control Commission for Germany – British Element made all decisions with its legislative power and it created its own central bodies headed by a secretariat seated in Stuttgart. Eventually the London Agreement on German External Debts, also known as the London Debt Agreement, was concluded, in response to the announcement of the first of these meetings, in late January 1948, the Soviets began stopping British and American trains to Berlin to check passenger identities
20.
Republikflucht
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Some estimates put the number of those who left the Soviet sector of Berlin, the Soviet occupation zone, and the GDR between 1945 and 1961 between 3 and 3.5 million. Close to one million of those who left were refugees and expellees from World War II, several hundred Republikflüchtlinge were shot, about 75,000 were caught and imprisoned. The trial was postponed due to his bad health, and he died in 1994, former Stasi chief Erich Mielke was also put on trial for the same charge. In November 1994, however, the judge closed the proceedings. Deutsche Vertriebene und Flüchtlinge aus der DDR1945 -1961, Osnabrück,1995, flucht und Ausreise als Problem der DDR-Führung, in, Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Hermann Wentker, Vor dem Mauerbau. Politik und Gesellschaft der DDR der fünfziger Jahre, Munich,2003, Henrik Bispinck, Flucht- und Ausreisebewegung als Krisenphänomene,1953 und 1989 im Vergleich, in, Henrik Bispinck, Jürgen Danyel, Hans-Hermann Hertle, Hermann Wentker, Aufstände im Ostblock. Die Flüchtlingspolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland bis zum Bau der Berliner Mauer, damian van Melis, Henrik Bispinck, Republikflucht. Flucht und Abwanderung aus der SBZ/DDR 1945-1961, Munich,2006
21.
Marshall Plan
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The plan was in operation for four years beginning April 8,1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous once more, the Marshall Plan aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, the largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom, followed by France and West Germany. Some 18 European countries received Plan benefits, although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not called Marshall Plan, the initiative is named after Secretary of State George Marshall, who also served as the United States Army Chief of staff during WWII. The plan had bipartisan support in Washington, where the Republicans controlled Congress, Marshall spoke of an urgent need to help the European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the recovery of nations after WWII as well as to antagonize the Soviet Union. In order to combat the effects of the Marshall Plan, the USSR developed its own economic plan and it was not as effective as the Marshall Plan, and in some ways contradictory to eastern block countries that served alongside the axis powers in WWII. The phrase equivalent of the Marshall Plan is often used to describe a proposed large-scale economic rescue program, the reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5,1947. It offered the aid to the Soviet Union and its allies. In fact, the Soviet Union prevented its satellite states from accepting, Secretary Marshall became convinced Stalin had no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3,1948, the Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951, that new plan gave away about $7 billion annually until 1961 when it was replaced by another program. The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery, the plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. By 1952, as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels, for all Marshall Plan recipients, by the end of World War II, much of Europe was devastated. Sustained aerial bombardment during the war had badly damaged most major cities, the regions trade flows had been thoroughly disrupted, millions were in refugee camps living on aid from United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and other agencies. Food shortages were severe, especially in the winter of 1946–47. From July 1945 through June 1946, the United States shipped 16.5 million tons of food, primarily wheat, to Europe and Japan
22.
Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic
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The Border Troops numbered at their peak approximately 47,000 troops. Except the Soviet Union, no other Warsaw Pact country had such a border guard force. The border guards were responsible for deaths at the Berlin Wall. At least 29 border guards were killed in the line of duty, by December 1945—within six months of the end of the war—each of the five states in the Soviet occupation zone had a central police force, in clear violation of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements. In November 1946, the Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland directed the organization of the Deutsche Grenzpolizei, the initial 3,000 recruits were organized and trained from Peoples Police resources, and by April 1948 the branch numbered 10,000, the total reaching 18,000 in 1950. The Grenzpolizei were armed and organised like a force, and were subordinate to the Main Administration of the Border Police. Eventually, the East German regime demanded a reorganization of the force along military lines, similar to their Soviet counterparts, in 1961, the Grenzpolizei were reorganized as the Grenztruppen der DDR. As part of the reorganization, the Grenztruppen der DDR were moved from the GDR Ministry of the Interior to the GDR Ministry of National Defense. Although the border troops were part of the National Peoples Army, in 1973 they were separated from the NVA. From 1973 on, service in the Grenztruppen der DDR was voluntary - no draftees involuntarily served in its ranks after 1973, as opposed to the NVA. In contrast to the massive efforts along the borders with the West, there were only about 600 members of the Grenztruppen assigned to guard the GDRs borders with Czechoslovakia and Poland. Following the rise of the Solidarity trade union in Poland in the 1980s, on 1 July 1990, the border control regime along the borders with West Germany and West Berlin was ended. Although they wore Grenztruppen uniforms, the members of the PKE were in members of the 6th Main Department of the GDR Ministry of State Security. The structure listed immediately below was that which existed prior to 30 November 1989, the headquarters of the Grenztruppen der DDR was located at Pätz, near Königswusterhausen. The Grenzkommando Nord, with headquarters at Stendal was responsible for the sector of the East German border. The GKN consisted of six frontier troops regiments, two training regiments, a flight and some smaller support units. The organizational structure of the GKS was similar to that of the GKN, with six frontier troops regiments, the GKM consisted of six frontier troops regiments, one border crossing point regiment, two training regiments, an artillery regiment and some smaller support units. For command-and-control purposes, the GKK was incorporated into the GDRs Peoples Navy, in accordance with a June 1989 decision of the National Defense Council of the GDR, the Grenztruppen der DDR were extensively reorganized as of 30 November 1989
23.
Socialist state
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A socialist state or socialist republic refers to any state that is constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. Aside from the Communist states, a number of states have described their orientation as socialist in their constitutions. In such cases, the system and machinery of government is not specifically structured to pursue the development of socialism. The concept of a socialist state is related to state socialism. Specifically, the state would become an entity for production as opposed to a mechanism for political control. According to Friedrich Engels, Saint-Simon foreshadowed the classical Marxist notion of the development of the state in a socialist society, karl Marx understood the state to be an instrument of the class rule, dominated by the interests of the ruling class in any mode of production. This transitional stage would involve working-class interests dominating government policy, in the manner that capitalist-class interests dominate government policy under capitalism. Karl Marx described the Paris Commune as the prototype for a government of the future. Friedrich Engels noted that all officials, high or low, were only the wages received by other workers. In this way an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up, such a state would be a temporary affair, Engels argued. A new generation, he suggested, brought up in new and free social conditions, the Leninist conception of a socialist state is tied to Vladimir Lenins theory of the revolutionary party and organizational principles of democratic centralism. These ideas were adopted by Vladimir Lenin in 1917 just prior to the October Revolution in Russia and published in The State and Revolution, a central text for many Marxists. Vladimir Lenin argued that as socialism is replaced by communism, the state would wither away as strong centralized control progressively reduces as local communities gain more empowerment, as he put succinctly, So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state, states run by Communist parties that adhere to Marxism–Leninism, or some variation thereof, refer to themselves as socialist states. The Soviet Union was the first to proclaim itself a socialist state in its 1936 Constitution, another well-known example is the Peoples Republic of China, which proclaims itself to be a socialist state in its 1982 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China. In the West, such states are known as communist states. This often includes at least the commanding heights of the economy to be nationalized, usually operated according to a plan of production, at least in the major production and social spheres. These Communist states often dont claim to have achieved socialism in their countries, rather, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea used to be a Marxist–Leninist state
24.
Economic inequality
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Economic inequality is the difference found in various measures of economic well-being among individuals in a group, among groups in a population, or among countries. Economic inequality is sometimes called income inequality, wealth inequality, or the wealth gap, economists generally focus on economic disparity in three metrics, wealth, income, and consumption. The issue of inequality is relevant to notions of equity, equality of outcome. Economic inequality varies between societies, historical periods, economic structures and systems, the term can refer to cross-sectional distribution of income or wealth at any particular period, or to changes of income and wealth over longer periods of time. There are various numerical indices for measuring economic inequality, a widely used index is the Gini coefficient, but there are also many other methods. Some studies say economic inequality is a problem, for example too much inequality can be destructive. However, too much income equality is also destructive since it decreases the incentive for productivity, the first set of income distribution statistics for the United States covering the period from was published in 1952 by Simon Kuznets, Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings. It relied on US federal income tax returns and Kuznets’s own estimates of US national income, National Income, economists generally consider three metrics of economic dispersion, wealth, income, and consumption. A skilled professional may have low wealth and low income as student, low wealth and high earnings in the beginning of the career, peoples preferences determine whether they consume earnings immediately or defer consumption to the future. The distinction is important at the level of economy, There are economies with high income inequality. There are economies with low income inequality and high wealth inequality. There are different ways to measure income inequality and wealth inequality, Different choices lead to different results. g. Annual wages, including wages from part-time work or work during only part of the year, individual earnings inequality among all workers – Includes the self-employed. Individual earnings inequality among the entire working-age population – Includes those who are inactive, e. g. students, unemployed, early pensioners, household earnings inequality – Includes the earnings of all household members. Household market income inequality – Includes incomes from capital, savings, household disposable income inequality – Includes public cash transfers received and direct taxes paid. Household adjusted disposable income inequality – Includes publicly provided services, There are many challenges in comparing data between economies, or in a single economy in different years. Examples of challenges include, Data can be based on joint taxation of couples or individual taxation, the tax authorities generally only collect information on income that is potentially taxable. The precise definition of income varies from country to country
25.
Western Bloc
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The Western Bloc or Capitalist Bloc during the Cold War refers to the countries allied with the NATO against the Soviet Union and its allies. The latter were referred to as the Eastern Bloc, a common term in English than Western Bloc. The governments and press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the Free World or the Western world, new York, Simon & Schuster,1994
26.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
27.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
28.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
29.
National People's Army
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The National People’s Army was the name used for the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic. The NVA was first established in 1956 and disbanded in 1990 and its participation with the Soviet Armed Forces against the Czechoslovak interim government during the Prague Spring of 1968 was cancelled at the last minute. However, there were frequent reports of East German advisors working with communist African governments during the Cold War, the German Democratic Republic established the National Peoples Army on March 1,1956 from the Kasernierte Volkspolizei. During its first year, about 27 percent of the NVAs officer corps had formerly served in the Wehrmacht, of the 82 highest command positions, ex-Wehrmacht officers held 61, however, very few of them had served in high ranks. The military knowledge and combat experience of veterans were indispensable in the NVAs early years. In its first six years the NVA operated as an all-volunteer force, the GDR introduced conscription in 1962, and the NVAs strength increased to approximately 170,000 troops. The proportion of SED members in the officer corps rose steadily after the early 1960s, the NVA saw itself as the instrument of power of the working class. According to its doctrine, the NVA protected peace and secured the achievements of socialism by maintaining a deterrent to imperialist aggression. The NVAs motto, inscribed on its flag, read, For the Protection of the Workers and Farmers Power. The NVA never took part in combat, although it participated in a support role in the suppression of the Prague Spring of 1968. Instead, the NVA provided logistical help when Soviet troops advanced into Czechoslovakia, during the 1970s, and increasingly in the 1980s, the NVA achieved new standards of mobilization times and combat readiness. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisations submarine-based missiles were seen as its most potent weapon, ultimately,85 per cent of all NVA units were on constant alert, trained to depart within 25 to 30 minutes from their bases to designated areas about five to seven kilometers apart. Mobilization of reserves would have been completed two days. These unprecedented levels of combat readiness were considered the asset of GDR military deterrence but have never been proven to be accurate. These preparedness levels placed a strain on military professionals and conscripts alike. In the early 1970s the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany high command assigned to the NVA the wartime mission of capturing West Berlin. The NVA plan for the operation, designated Operation Centre, called for some 32,000 troops in two divisions, accompanied by the GSFGs Soviet 6th Guards Separate Motor Rifle Brigade. The plan was updated until 1988, when a less ambitious plan that simply aimed at containing Berlin was substituted
30.
Stalinist architecture
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Stalinist architecture is associated with the socialist realism school of art and architecture. As part of the Soviet policy of rationalization of the country, each was divided into districts, with allotments based on the citys geography. Projects would be designed for whole districts, visibly transforming a citys architectural image, the interaction of the state with the architects would prove to be one of the features of this time. The same building could be declared a formalist blasphemy and then receive the greatest praise the next year, as happened to Ivan Zholtovsky, the Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki, high-rises are a group of skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style. The English-language nickname for them is the Seven Sisters and they were built officially from 1947 to 1953 in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles and the technology used in building American skyscrapers. In terms of methods, most of the structures, underneath the wet-stucco walls, are simple brick masonry. Exceptions were Andrei Burovs medium-sized concrete block houses and large buildings like the Seven Sisters which necessitated the use of concrete. The masonry naturally dictated narrow windows, thus leaving a large area to be decorated. Fireproof terra cotta finishes were introduced during the early 1950s, though this was used outside of Moscow. Most of the roofing was traditional wooden trusses covered with metallic sheets, about 1948, construction technology improved – at least in Moscow – as faster and cheaper processes become available. Houses also became safer by eliminating wooden ceilings and partitions, ideologically they belong to mass housing, an intermediate phase before Khrushchevs standardized buildings known as Khrushchyovka. Stalinist architecture does not equate to everything built during Stalin’s era and it relied on labor-intensive and time-consuming masonry, and could not be scaled to the needs of mass construction. This inefficiency largely ended Stalinist architecture and resulted in construction methods which began while Stalin was still alive. Although Stalin rejected Constructivism, completion of constructivist buildings extended through the 1930s, industrial construction, endorsed by Albert Kahn and later supervised by Victor Vesnin, was influenced by modernist ideas. It was not as important to Stalins urban plans, so most industrial buildings are not part of the Stalinist category, even the first stage of the Moscow Metro, completed during 1935, was not scrutinized by Stalin, and so included substantial constructivist influence. Before 1917, the Russian architectural scene was divided between Russky Modern, and Neoclassical Revival and these people would eventually become Stalinisms architectural elders and produce the best examples of the period. Another school that began after the Revolution is now known as Constructivism, some of the Constructivists were young professionals who had established themselves before 1917, while others had just completed their professional education or didnt have any. They associated themselves with groups of artists, compensating for lack of experience with public exposure
31.
Karl-Marx-Allee
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The Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental socialist boulevard built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin Friedrichshain and Mitte. Today the boulevard is named after Karl Marx, the boulevard was named Stalinallee between 1949 and 1961, and was a flagship building project of East Germanys reconstruction programme after World War II. The avenue, which is 89 m wide and nearly 2 km long, is lined with monumental eight-storey buildings designed in the wedding-cake style, at each end are dual towers at Frankfurter Tor and Strausberger Platz designed by Hermann Henselmann. The buildings differ in the revetments of the facades which contain often equally, most of the buildings are covered by architectural ceramics. It remained there until 1961 when it was removed in an operation in the course of de-Stalinization. On June 17,1953 the Stalinallee became the focus of an uprising which endangered the young states existence. Builders and construction workers demonstrated against the communist government, leading to a national uprising, the rebellion was quashed with Soviet tanks and troops, resulting in the loss of at least 125 lives. De-Stalinization led to the renaming of the street, after the founder of Marxism, since the collapse of Eastern European communism in 1989/1990, renaming the street back to its prewar name Große Frankfurter Straße has periodically been discussed, so far without conclusive results. The boulevard later found favour with postmodernists, with Philip Johnson describing it as city planning on the grand scale, while Aldo Rossi called it Europes last great street. Since German reunification most of the buildings, including the two towers, have been restored, after its completion in the 1950s, the boulevard was very popular with Berliners and visitors alike. Taking the E line to the shops on Stalin Boulevard was not only a catchy slogan, people could find things they would not see elsewhere, and the shopping facilities set an example for the whole of the GDR. The shops offered great variety and were attractively decorated, the boulevard soon developed into a shoppers paradise in the GDR. It also served the function of introducing visitors to the culture of its socialist sister states. Shopping was an experience for visitors from the West. In the West, the rate was 1,8 but most restaurants. Subsequently, several media outlets reiterated this claim, no alternative verification for the term was given, making it a self-referential claim. In 1963 the tiled facades of buildings were falling off. Stalinist architecture Seven Sisters The Straße der Pariser Kommune connects with Karl-Marx-Allee Media related to Karl-Marx-Allee at Wikimedia Commons Homepage A photo tour of Karl-Marx-Allee
32.
Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
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The Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is a square in Berlin-Mitte, Germany. The square is dominated by the Volksbühne and by the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, the partys predecessor, the Communist Party of Germany, opened its headquarters on the square in 1926. Later that year, with the rise of the Third Reich, following the fall of Berlin and Soviet occupation, the square, then part of communist-controlled East Berlin, was renamed Liebknechtplatz after German communist Karl Liebknecht. It was then renamed Luxemburgplatz after communist leader Rosa Luxemburg, until it was given the name Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz by the East German regime in 1969. The square is noted as the scene of the murders of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck, police captains who were the victims of a double homicide in 1931 at the hands of members of the KPD
33.
Nikolai Berzarin
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Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin was a Soviet officer in the Red Army during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became the first town mayor of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin, Berzarin was born in Saint Petersburg as the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress. He had one brother and four sisters, in 1925, he married bank employee Natalja Prosinjuk, with whom he had two daughters, Larissa and Irina. In 1918 Berzarin enlisted in the Red Army and fought against Allied troops in Archangelsk, between 1921 and 1923 he received more military training at the Leningrad Command Courses, machine gun course at the Vistrel and a command course at the Siberian Military District. In 1922, he became a member of Komsomol, in 1923 he was assigned to Siberia. In 1926, after training, he became a member of the CPSU. In 1924 he was serving as a officer in the Amur region against the bandit raiders. In 1927 he returned to Siberia, where he was an assistant to commander of a training unit in Irkutsk. From 1933 to 1935, he served in the staff of the Separate Far Eastern Army, until 1938, he was the chief instructor of the Amur group. During the Great Purge, he was accused of owing his career to the enemies of the people, as division commander, he repelled Japanese attacks at Lake Khasan, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After his appointment as Major General, he was transferred at his own request to Riga and he fought against the German armed forces after their assault on the Soviet Union. From December 1941 to May 1944 he was Commander-in-Chief of several armies and he received the Order of Lenin and was promoted to Colonel General for his success in breaking through German lines in the Jassy-Kishinev Offensive. After conquering Kishinev in August 1944, the Belorussian and Ukrainian Fronts began their march on Berlin, during the Battle of Berlin, Berzarins 5th Shock Army reached the eastern outskirts of Berlin on April 21,1945, making them the first Soviet Army to do so. On April 24, he was appointed commander of the city by Marshal Zhukov,1, Berzarin assumed all governmental power. On May 17, he appointed non-partisan Arthur Werner the first post war Mayor of Berlin presiding over a city government. On June 16,1945, after only 55 days in office, he was killed in an accident when he collided with a truck convoy near his office in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. Rumors that scattered Nazi Werwolf forces had assassinated him were never established, Berzarin is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. In 1975 Berzarin posthumously was bestowed honorary citizenship of East Berlin, after German reunification he was formally removed from the roll of honorary citizens by the Senate of Berlin in 1992
34.
Boroughs and neighborhoods of Berlin
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Berlin is both a city and one of Germany’s federal states. Since a 2001 administrative reform, it has made up of twelve boroughs or districts, each with its own local government, though all boroughs are subject to Berlin’s city. Each borough is governed by a council with five councillors and a borough mayor, the borough council is elected by the borough assembly. The borough governments power is limited, and subordinate to the Berlin Senate, the borough mayors form a council of mayors, which advises the Senate. Each borough is made up of several officially recognized subdistricts or neighborhoods, the neighborhoods do not have their own governmental bodies, but are recognized by the city and the boroughs for planning and statistical purposes. Berliners often identify more with the neighborhood where they live than with the borough that governs them, the neighborhoods are further subdivided into statistical tracts, which are mainly used for planning and statistical purposes. The statistical tracts correspond roughly but not exactly with neighbourhoods recognized by residents, by 2000, Berlin comprised 23 boroughs, as three new boroughs had been created in East Berlin. Today Berlin is divided into boroughs, reduced from 23 boroughs before Berlins 2001 administrative reform. An administrative reform in 2001 merged the existing boroughs into the current 12 boroughs, the power of the borough governments is limited and their performance of assigned tasks is subject to a regulatory supervision by the Senate. The BVV assembly is elected by the boroughs population and therefore acts as a borough parliament. It elects the members of the council, checks its daily administration and is able to make applications and recommendations. The twelve borough mayors regularly meet in the Council of Mayors, led by the citys Governing Mayor, the localities have no local government bodies, and the administrative duties of the former locality representative, the Ortsvorsteher, were taken over by the borough mayors. Only the unchanged boroughs of Neukölln, Reinickendorf and Spandau havent changed their field, the coat of arms of Pankow was created with a new design in 2008, having been the only district without an emblem for 7 years. As of 2012, the boroughs are made up of a total of 96 officially recognized localities. Almost all of them are subdivided into several other zones. The largest Ortsteil is Köpenick, the smallest one is Hansaviertel, the most populated is Neukölln, the least populated is Malchow
35.
Friedrichshain
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Friedrichshain is a district of Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Friedrichshain is named after the Volkspark Friedrichshain, a vast green park at the northern border with Prenzlauer Berg. In the Nazi era, the borough was called Horst-Wessel-Stadt, Friedrichshain is one of the trendy districts of Berlin and has experienced gentrification. The largely working-class district was created in 1920 when Greater Berlin was established by referendum, Friedrichshain united the Frankfurter Vorstadt, already part of Berlin, and the villages of Boxhagen and Stralau. It took its name from the Volkspark, which was planned in 1840 to commemorate the centenary of Frederick the Great’s coronation, much of the district was settled in the rapid industrialization of the 19th and early 20th centuries, led by growth in manufacturing and crafts. It owed much to the opening of the line between Berlin and Frankfurt in 1846, and the opening of the first waterworks in 1865 at Stralauer Tor. In 1874 the Krankenhaus im Friedrichshain was opened, Berlins first hospital beside the university clinic Charité, in the early 1900s, the districts largest employer was the Knorr-Bremse brake factory, the Knorrpromenade, one of Friedrichshains most attractive streets, was built to house the management. The street network of Friedrichhain was originally specified in the Hobrecht-Plan, during World War II Friedrichshain was one of the most badly damaged parts of Berlin, as Allied strategic bombers specifically targeted its industries. As late as the nineties, some buildings still displayed bullet holes from the house to house fighting during the Battle of Berlin. After the war ended, the boundary between the US and Soviet occupation sectors ran between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, with Friedrichshain in the east and Kreuzberg in the west and this became a sealed border between East and West Berlin when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. In the period of De-Stalinization following the Soviet leaders death, the boulevard was renamed Karl-Marx-Allee at one end, neither of these buildings serve their original function today. It is known for its bars, clubs, pubs. There were numerous squats in Friedrichshain, with many in and around Rigaer Straße, Mainzer Straße, following German reunification, the availability of comparatively cheap rented accommodation attracted students and artists. Nowadays numerous restoration works are under way and Friedrichshain is developing at a fast pace becoming more and more gentrified itself, at the opposite end of the district, the Volkspark Friedrichshain is a large park serving the densely populated area of Prenzlauer Berg on the other side. Its distinctive features include the Märchenbrunnen and two green and pleasant mountains consisting purely of rubble and the ruins of two World War II Flak towers, peaceful green oases like the Volkspark Friedrichshain offer opportunities for sports and recreation in leafy nature. The Spreeufer is lovely for walks along the riverside, concerning its culinary offerings, this area also boasts a great choice of restaurants in all price ranges as well as many charming cafés. Culture lovers enjoy this neighborhood because of various small exhibition spaces, venues, cinemas, Frankfurter Allee features various shopping facilities as well as the Ring-Center shopping mall
36.
Hellersdorf
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Hellersdorf is a locality in the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin. Between 1986 and Berlins 2001 administrative reform, it was a borough in its own right, before German reunification in 1989 it was part of East Berlin. Situated at the part of Berlin, the area is mainly a large housing estate from the 1980s. The historic village of Helwichstorpp was first mentioned in a 1375 land registry of Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, the city of Berlin acquired the former Hellersdorf manor in 1886, it was finally incorporated by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act as a part of the Lichtenberg borough. During German reunification on October 3,1990, a part of Honow was annexed by this borough. Gründerzeitmuseum, situated in the building Gutshaus Mahlsdorf and this museum is dedicated to life around the 20th century Berlin Hellersdorf Media related to Hellersdorf at Wikimedia Commons Hellersdorf page on info-marzahn-hellersdorf. de
37.
Marzahn
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Marzahn is a locality within the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin. Berlins 2001 administrative reform led to the boroughs of Marzahn. After the Thirty Years War it fell to Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg, the new village church was finished in 1871 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, another landmark is the Marzahn post mill, rebuilt in 1994. The village became part of Greater Berlin in 1920, as a locality of the Lichtenberg district. Marzahn was the site of a camp, where Romani were interned from July 16,1936 on. As a part of the Nazi Porajmos extermination policy, up to 2000 inmates remained there until in 1943 they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, in 1941 the large factory of the Carl Hasse & Wrede machine tool company was erected, where hundreds forced labourers were employed. The victims were buried at the nearby Parkfriedhof, a memorial marks the site, on April 21,1945 the district of Marzahn was the first in Berlin to be conquered by the Red Army under General Nikolai Berzarin. The first freed house stands on Landsberger Allee, a part of East Berlin from 1949, Marzahn remained a rural site until from 1977 vast housing estates were built on its fields by order of the East German authorities. The construction, carried out in the typical style, dragged on until the late 1980s. In the course of the population growth Marzahn was separated from Lichtenberg in 1979 to become a borough in its own right, in 1987 Marzahn hosted the Berliner Gartenschau, a horticulture show, on the occasion of Berlins 750th anniversary. After 1989, the Marzahn estate became known for neo-Nazis and foreigners were warned not even to visit there, Marzahn is served by the S-Bahn lines S7 and S75 at the stations Springpfuhl, Poelchaustraße, Marzahn, Raoul-Wallenberg-Straße, Mehrower Allee and Ahrensfelde. Tramway connections to the city are provided by the M6. Berlin-Marzahn concentration camp ORWOhaus Media related to Marzahn at Wikimedia Commons Marzahn page on info-marzahn-hellersdorf. de
38.
Mitte
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Mitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. It was created in Berlins 2001 administrative reform by the merger of the districts of Mitte proper, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs which comprises former West and East Berlin districts, note that when Berliners speak of Mitte, they usually refer to the smaller locality and not to the larger borough. Mitte is located in the part of Berlin along the Spree River. It borders on Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in the west, Reinickendorf in the north, Pankow in the east, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in the southeast, in the middle of the Spree lies Museum Island with its museums and Berlin Cathedral. The central square in Mitte is Alexanderplatz with the prominent Fernsehturm, Germanys highest building, juni to the Victory Column and the centre of former West Berlin in Charlottenburg, or Karl-Marx-Allee from Alexanderplatz to Friedrichshain and the eastern suburbs. The former Mitte district had established by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act and comprised large parts of the historic city around Alt-Berlin. Brandenburg Gate was the exit at the Berlin city boundary until 1861. Between 1961 and 1990, Mitte was the part of East Berlin, however at the same time it was surrounded by the Berlin Wall at its north, south. The immigrant community is diverse, however, Turks, Africans, Eastern Europeans. Kerület, Budapest, Hungary since 2005 Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia since 2006 Berlin Mitte Official homepage Official homepage of Berlin
39.
Pankow
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Pankow is the most populous and the second-largest borough of Berlin. In Berlins 2001 administrative reform it was merged with the boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee. The borough, named after the Panke river, covers the northeast of the city region and it borders Mitte and Reinickendorf in the west, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in the south, and Lichtenberg in the east. Pankow is Berlins largest borough by population and the second largest by area, between 1945 and 1960, Schönhausen Palace and the nearby Majakowskiring street in the Niederschönhausen locality of Pankow was the home to many members of the East German government. Western writers therefore often referred to Pankow as a metonym for the East German regime—as reflected by Udo Lindenbergs song Sonderzug nach Pankow, the Rykestrasse Synagogue, Germanys largest synagogue, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg locality. The Weißensee Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, in northern Prenzlauer Berg, the Wohnstadt Carl Legien is part of the Berlin Modernist Housing Estates UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Weißer See is the boroughs largest natural body of water, s-Bahn service is available at the Berlin-Pankow, Pankow-Heinersdorf and Wollankstraße railway stations. Another connection to Berlins inner city is provided by the M1 line of the Berlin Straßenbahn. The Bundesstraße 96a federal highway from Berlin toward Oranienburg runs through the locality along Mühlenstraße, furthermore, Pankow can be reached via the Bundesautobahn 114 from the Berliner Ring at the Prenzlauer Promenade junction
40.
Prenzlauer Berg
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Prenzlauer Berg is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban part of the district of Pankow. Since its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right, however, that year it was incorporated into the greater district of Pankow. It was an important site for the revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989. In the 1990s the borough was home to a vibrant squatting scene. It has since experienced rapid gentrification, Prenzlauer Berg is a portion of the Pankow district in northeast Berlin. To the West and Southwest it borders Mitte, to the South Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, to the East Lichtenberg, geologically, the borough straddles the southernmost edge of the Barnim glacial deposit formed during the last Ice Age. Prenzlauer Berg was always seen as a hill by the inhabitants of historic Berlin situated to the South in the valley along the river Spree. Until the 20th century the area was referred to as Windmill Hill. Today, the highest point of the district is 91 meters above sea level in the northwest of Volkspark Prenzlauer Berg. This hill consists of the rubble from the houses that were destroyed in World War II during allied air raids. Prenzlauer Berg is characterized by Wilhelmine buildings, that were erected at the turn of the 20th century, over 80% of all housing in this area was constructed before 1948, with the oldest building still standing being from 1848 at 77 Kastanienallee. Though substantial, there was less war-related destruction here than in parts of the city. At the time of German Reunification the boroughs residential areas were characterized by dilapidated grey facades that had not seen a coat of paint since the 1930s. In the 1990s the buildings who belonged to state-owned housing associations were sold to investors who had them renovated and raised the rents. Most of the original inhabitants were not able to afford the increased costs and have since moved away. In the 21st century the many empty lots that were sites for the street culture integral to the character of the borough were filled by high-class condominiums. Today, Prenzlauer Berg forms a nearly homogeneous historic building area, over 300 buildings remain protected as historic monuments, like the municipal swimming pool at Oderberger Straße and the breweries on Milastraße and Knaackstraße. The borough is famous for its restaurants and bars, the nightlife concentrates around the U-Bahn station Eberswalder Straße
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East Berlin1
West Berlin3
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Subdivisions of Allied-administered Germany (1945–1949/1956/1990)
