VA - Damals in der DDR

On Oct. 3, 1990, West Germany and East Germany officially became one nation after 45 years of postwar division.

Germany had been split into four zones in 1945 following the surrender of the Nazi regime to the Allied Powers. Initially, the United States, Britain, France and Soviet Union each governed one of these zones. The Allies intended to run Germany like a single country, but as the Soviet Union and the West grew apart due to ideological differences, the country was split into West Germany and East Germany.

East Germany closed its borders to the West in 1952, and in 1961, erected a wall through the city of Berlin - and in the process forming East Berlin and West Berlin - to prevent East Germans from escaping to West Germany. The wall became a symbol of the division between the free-market West and the communist East.

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc countries began to crumble economically. In August 1989, communist Hungary opened its East German border, giving East Germans a new route to the West. That November, East and West Berliners began tearing down the Berlin Wall in celebration.

The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the beginning of the end of East Germany. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl soon began negotiations with East German officials to return Germany to a single nation. The two countries signed a treaty on Aug. 31, 1990. Berlin was chosen as the capital of the new Germany, Mr. Kohl was made its chancellor, and October 3rd became a national German holiday.

Ideas of a socialist ‘third way’ were an attempt to preserve what were rightly seen as the more progressive elements of East Germany. But there was no force, no party, which could concretely show how these aims could be won. The result was growing support for unification which was seized upon by the then West German chancellor Kohl.

The East German revolution changed the world. It closed the chapter of stalinism but, unfortunately, the way it unfolded meant that it was capitalism rather than socialism that profited.

The compilation "Damals in der DDR" ("Back in the GDR") tells the history of the GDR in three sections (1949 - 1960, 1961 - 1975, 1976 - 1990). The three cds are something between an educational audiobook and an entertaining album: music, comments, radio and tv-spots and a good portion of satire give an insight into the history and the changing daily life in the GDR. With a laughing and a weeping eye you can learn about the political, economic, social and cultural situation in the GDR. Highly recommended!

VA - Damals in der DDR 1
VA - Damals in der DDR 2
VA - Damals in der DDR 3
(192 kbps, cover art included)