EAST BERLIN

'East Berlin' was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a ''de facto'' part of West Germany. Despite its status as part of an occupied city, East Berlin was claimed as the capital of East Germany. From August 13, 1961 until November 9, 1989 it was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. The East German government referred to East Berlin simply as "Berlin" or often ""Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR" (Berlin, capital of the GDR). The term "Democratic Sector" was also used until the 1960s.
The Western Allies (the USA, Great Britain and France) never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin; the official Allied protocol recognized only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with the occupation status of Berlin as a whole. In fact, the three Western commandants regularly protested the presence of the East German National People's Army (NPA) in East Berlin, particularly on the occasion of military parades. Nevertheless, the three Western Allies eventually established embassies in East Berlin in the 1970s, although they never recognized it as East Germany's capital. Treaties instead used terms such as "seat of government."
On October 3 1990 West Germany and East Germany were united, thus formally ending the existence of East Berlin.

Contents

East Berlin today

Commandants of Berlin Soviet Zone

Borroughs of East Berlin

Images of East Berlin

See also

References

External links

East Berlin today

Since reunification, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin. Despite this, there are still obvious differences between eastern and western Berlin. Eastern Berlin has a distinctly different visual aspect, partly because of the greater survival of prewar façades and streetscapes, some still showing signs of wartime damage, and partly because of the distinctive style of urban architecture used in the GDR. As in other former East German cities, a small number of GDR-era names commemorating socialist heroes have been preserved, such as Karl-Marx-Allee, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße; this followed a long process of review in which many such street names were deemed inappropriate and were changed. Still visible throughout former East Berlin are the characteristic "Ampelmännchen" on some pedestrian traffic lights.

Commandants of Berlin Soviet Zone

Name [1]	Term
Nikolay Berzarin	2 May 1945 - 16 June 1945
Aleksandr Gorbetov	17 June 1945 - 19 November 1945
Dimitry Smirnov	19 November 1945 - 1 April 1946
Aleksandr Kotikov	1 April 1946 - 7 June 1950
Sergey Dienghin	7 June 1950 - April 1953
Pavel Dibrova	April 1953 - 23 June 1956
Andrey Chamov	28 June 1956 - 26 February 1958
Matvey Zakharov	26 February 1958 - 9 May 1961
Andrey Soloviev	9 May 1961 - 22 August 1962
Helmut Poppe	22 August 1962 - 31 May 1971
Artur Kunath	1 June 1971 - 31 August 1978
Karl-Heinz Drews	1 September 1978 - 31 December 1988
Wolfgang Dombrowski	1 January 1989 - 30 September 1990
Detlef Wendorf	1 October 1990 - 2 October 1990

Borroughs of East Berlin

At the time of German reunification, East Berlin comprised the boroughs of

★ Friedrichshain

★ Hellersdorf (since 1986)

★ Hohenschönhausen (since 1985)

★ Köpenick

★ Lichtenberg

★ Marzahn (since 1979)

★ Mitte

★ Pankow

★ Prenzlauer Berg

★ Treptow

★ Weißensee

Images of East Berlin

See also

★ History of Berlin

★ Berlin Wall

★ Bonn

★ Cold War

★ Checkpoint Charlie

★ Ghost station

★ History of Germany since 1945

★ West Berlin

References

1. Commandants of Berlin Soviet Zone

External links

★ Berlin Photos 1989-1999

★ East Berlin Past and Present

★ Old East Berlin Fades Away Amid Renovations

★ The Lives of Others official website