Founding of the German Democratic Republic
Also called: Founding of East Germany, DDR
The German Democratic Republic was founded in the Soviet zone, with East Berlin as its capital and real power held by the Socialist Unity Party (SED) under Ulbricht.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S88643 / Walter Heilig · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Source
In the Soviet zone the Communist and Social Democratic parties had been forcibly merged in 1946 into the Socialist Unity Party (SED). After the Federal Republic was founded, the People’s Council in East Berlin turned itself into a provisional People’s Chamber on 7 October 1949, brought a constitution into force and proclaimed the German Democratic Republic. Wilhelm Pieck was president and Otto Grotewohl prime minister, but power lay with the SED’s general secretary, Walter Ulbricht.
Through land reform and the nationalization of industry East Germany built a Soviet-style planned economy. Two states with opposing systems now stood on German soil. A year earlier two separate governments had likewise been set up in the north and south of the Korean peninsula.