East Berlin

In the part of Berlin that was occupied by the Soviets (Eastern Sector), on November 30, 1948, a magistrate controlled by the SED and its organizations was constituted under Mayor Friedrich Ebert (* 1894, † 1979; SED). The Soviet occupying power recognized this magistrate as the “only legitimate city administration body” and prevented the elections for all of Berlin on December 5, 1948 in the area of ​​the Eastern sector; according to their editions was on November 30th. a provisional city council meeting was formed. On October 7, 1949, the GDR was proclaimed in Berlin (East). Since then, in line with Soviet foreign policy, the GDR has increasingly integrated the eastern part of Berlin into its state structure; he illegally took over the function of the capital. Thus, although Berlin (East) was not an integral part of the GDR from a western point of view, Article 1 of the GDR constitution of 1968 (in the 1974 version) referred to it as its capital. With the law on the local organs of state power from 17.1. In 1957 a binding to all legal acts of the GDR as well as a subordination of the constitutional organs of Berlin (East) to the corresponding organs of the GDR was introduced (e.g. 1962 introduction of compulsory military service despite demilitarized status of the whole of Berlin); Nevertheless, allied occupation reservations (e.g. freedom of movement for Allied personnel in the whole of Berlin) remained unaffected. According to the State Council decree of September 7, 1961, Berlin (East) exercised the “function of a district” of the GDR, but it did not have the status of a district. It sent 66 directly elected members of the People’s Chamber. Berlin (East) became the seat of the People’s Chamber, the Council of State and the government (Council of Ministers) as well as the Supreme Court of the GDR. The Lord Mayor was a member of the GDR Council of Ministers.

According to recipesinthebox, the border to Berlin (West), which remained open after the four-power status, was used in the following years by hundreds of thousands to flee the GDR and the eastern sector. The GDR (May 28, 1952) forbade West Berliners to enter their territory; Berlin (East) remained freely accessible. The telephone connections between the two halves of the city were interrupted, and in January 1953 the tram and bus services were also interrupted. After the suppression of the June uprising (June 16/17, 1953; June 17th, 1953) that began by the construction workers on Stalinallee (later Karl-Marx-Allee) in East Berlin) by Soviet troops, the GDR government increasingly interrupted the traffic connections between the two parts of Berlin. With the construction of the Berlin Wall (August 13, 1961) this policy reached its climax; From the GDR’s point of view, it was primarily intended to stop the emigration of urgently needed workers and stabilize economic development. From then on, the residents of East Berlin and the GDR were barred from any way to the West, and from August 23, 1961, the way to East Berlin was also blocked for West Berliners. The Western powers accepted this under protest, but continued to secure the free access of their personnel to Berlin (East).

The GDR and the USSR set the separation of Berlin (East), whose city council assembly was composed from 1954 on the basis of a unit list kept by the SED and its magistrate from 1967 by Herbert Fechner (* 1913, † 1998), from 1974 by Erhard Krack (* 1931, † 2000; both SED) continued from the four-power status. Against the protests of the USA, Great Britain and France, the GDR included the eastern part of Berlin directly in the general elections for the People’s Chamber in 1981; In 1986 the GDR tried in vain to enforce a visa requirement at the sector border for diplomats in Berlin (West) and Berlin (East).

Increasingly since the 1970s and 80s, the SED leadership endeavored to build and expand Berlin (East) into a representative center of power at the expense of the rest of the GDR; Nevertheless, an alternative counterculture developed in the eastern part of Berlin – albeit partially subverted by state power (especially »Prenzlauer Berg«, punks) as well as the beginnings of an opposition and citizens’ movement (inter alia. “Initiative Peace and Human Rights”, “Environment Library” of the Zionskirchgemeinde, Gethsemanekirche); Nevertheless, Berlin (East) in particular remained more strongly influenced by the adaptive behavior of the majority of its residents and its extraordinary concentration of functionaries and sympathizers of the SED regime until 1989 than other large cities in the GDR. A movement of refugees to the west of unimagined proportions in the summer and autumn of 1989 as well as ongoing protests, initially around the 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR (October 6-8, 1989), which the GDR government celebrated with pompous effort in Berlin (East), then with the beginning of the “peaceful revolution” in the GDR (highlight in Berlin: rally on November 4, 1989 on Alexanderplatz with over 500,000 participants, already under legal conditions), led – de facto forced by the population – in the late evening of November 9, 1989, to the opening of the Berlin Wall (on December 22, the Brandenburg Gate; dismantling of the Wall from January 1990) and thus to unhindered access to Berlin (West). On January 15th, 1990 the headquarters of the State Security Service in Normannenstrasse was occupied (Berlin-Lichtenberg; from 1990 the seat of the “Gauck” or “Birthler Authority”, also the “Research and Memorial Berlin-Normannenstrasse”). After the first free local elections in Berlin (East) on 6.5.1990 developed under the mayor In 1990 the headquarters of the State Security Service in Normannenstrasse was occupied (Berlin-Lichtenberg; from 1990 seat of the “Gauck” or “Birthler Authority”, also the “Research and Memorial Berlin-Normannenstrasse”). After the first free local elections in Berlin (East) on 6.5.1990 developed under the mayor In 1990 the headquarters of the State Security Service in Normannenstrasse was occupied (Berlin-Lichtenberg; from 1990 seat of the “Gauck” or “Birthler Authority”, also the “Research and Memorial Berlin-Normannenstrasse”). After the first free local elections in Berlin (East) on 6.5.1990 developed under the mayor Tino Schwierzina (* 1927, † 2003; SPD) increased cooperation between the two districts in many areas; on July 11th Berlin (East) had received a new democratic constitution.