East Germany
East Germany (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR; in English: German Democratic Republic or GDR) was a satellite state of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 East Germany became genuinely democratic and a year later, at the end of the Cold War, the East German people voted to reunite with West Germany.
Its longest serving, and most famous, leader was Erich Honecker. It was widely said to be the most prosperous and nicest of the Eastern Bloc states, but that is a bit like saying Pubic Molluscum is the best STD. Nevertheless, Herr Honecker had a falling out with the Russians and openly disobeyed Moscow. This however still failed to bring any major improvements to East Germany, and Honecker was ousted. After falling from power, Honecker escaped to Chile and became the butt of numerous German jokes (yes such things exist).
[edit] Stasi
Like most communist countries, East Germany had a secret police, the Stasi. Their stated aim being "to know everything about everyone", it has been estimated that 1 in 63 East German citizens collaborated with the Stasi (in a country of 16M people)[1]. Other subsequent estimates indicate that the Stasi maintained a greater degree of surveillance over the East German population than any other domestic intelligence force in history. Off the back of this, the Stasi are considered to have been one of the world's most effective secret police forces; they even helped set up "state security" organizations for other countries.[2] Other activities included supporting West German anti-Semitic groups[3] and running a brothel to entrap homosexuals.