GDR
1949-
1990 RIP. The German Democratic Republic, better known as
East Germany, was set up as a puppet state by the
USSR out of the
Soviet controlled zone at the end of
WWII. Economically, the GDR had a tough start compared to the
FDR. While the west was being rebuilt with huge cash infusions from the
Allies through the
Marshall Plan, the east was looted by the Soviets. Despite this, the
GDR rose to aquire the highest standard of living of all
Eastern Bloc nations. Culminating in
1961 with the erection of the
Berlin Wall, the border between the Germanies was gradually sealed, completely isolating the countries.
Relations slowly relaxed beginning in the early 1970's. In 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev formally discarded the Brezhnev Doctrine, which effectively meant the Soviets would not invade a non-communist East Germany, like it had Czechoslovakia in 1968. With the unity of the Warsaw Pact broken, the Communist regime began to crumble. Less than a year later, the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1990, East Germany was offically absorbed into the West.
When the GDR was dissolved, it was absorbed into Germany as the following Bundeslander: