The German Democratic Republic: 1949-1989

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) as it emerged following the Second World War, from 1949 to 1989. It looks at how this was a pivotal time for the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and how East and West Germany were significant fronts in the Cold War. The paper looks briefly at the end of the conflict, with the peaceful revolution of 1989.

From the Paper:

"After five decades of international conflict, waged between the imperial champion of the communist ideology and the frontrunner for western democracy, the latter prevailed in the peaceful revolution of 1989. With the reunification of Germany, and two years later, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cold War had ended with little violence or resistance. And from the perspective that the invasive and draconian presence of Soviet supported regimes had fallen in Hungary, Romania, Czechloslovakia and Poland, the end of the Cold War certainly appeared to light the way toward the pervasion of civil liberty, capitalist evolution and democratic policy representation."

Sample of Sources Used:

• AP. (1990). Israel and East Germany to Talk About Ties. The New York Times. Ret. 4/29/08 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D7123FF93AA15752C A966958260.
• BICOM. (Nov. 2005). The Israel-German Special Relationship. British Israel Communications and Research Centre. Ret. 4/29/08 http://www.bicom.org.uk/publications/israels_foreign_relations/s/1207/the-israel german-special-relationship/.
• Byrne, Malcolm. (2001). Uprising in East Germany, 1953. National Security Archive. Ret. 4/29/08 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB50/.
• Government Printing Office. (1945). The Potsdam Conference. The Avalon Project: Yale University. Ret. 4/29/08 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/decade/decade17.htm.
• U.S. Department of State. (1952). German Compensation for National Socialist Crimes. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the U.S. Department of Justice. Ret. 4/29/08 <http://www.ushmm.org/assets/frg.htm>.

More papers on The German Democratic Republic: 1949-1989:

• Cause and Effect Essay # 115554 : "The Collapse of the German Democratic Republic"
• Analytical Essay # 73712 : "The German Refugee"
• Essay # 68594 : "Democratic Republic of Congo"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: