East Germany

East Germany (German: Ostdeutschland), officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) was an authoritarian Communist country and 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 to form the current German state.

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  is the best STD. It ignores the estimated 327 people who died trying to cross from East to West Germany, many shot by guards or killed by mines, as well as other human rights abuses catalogued below.

Nevertheless, Herr Honecker fell out with the Russians and openly disobeyed Moscow, especially when that dubious Mikhail Gorbachev guy started to speak about a less authoritarian style of leadership. However, Honecker still failed to bring any major improvements to East Germany, and he was finally ousted just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. After falling from power, Honecker escaped to Chile and became the butt of numerous German jokes (yes, such things exist). The fact that Honecker was from the West German Saar area (bordering France) but still sounded like a stereotypical Easterner in his incredibly bland, hour-long speeches must have helped.

Stasi
Like most communist countries, East Germany had a secret police, the Stasi (short for Staatsicherheit—"State Security"). The Stasi had the stated aim "to know everything about everyone"; it has been estimated that one in eight East German citizens collaborated with the Stasi (in a country of 16 million people). Other subsequent estimates indicate that the Stasi maintained a greater degree of surveillance over their population than any other domestic intelligence force in history. Off the back of this, the Stasi counted as one of the world's most effective secret police forces; they even helped (à la the KGB) to set up "state security" organizations for other countries. Other activities included supporting West German anti-Semitic groups and running a brothel to entrap homosexuals. There is speculation about how closely the Stasi were involved with the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof gang) and West German terrorism, but they definitely had some links. Some of its members of the third generation got citzenship from the GDR and lived under a different name in the area of East Germany, which they even talked about in German TV. They were involved in the shooting of Benno Ohnesorg involuntarily, as the shooting Policeman was also an IM (infozieller Mitarbeiter) of the StaSi.

They also used female prostitutes to extract information from Western visitors during trade fairs in Leipzig, as well as a "Project Romeo" where Stasi agents were to cultivate relationships with people who had access to classified information (so they knew occasionally in the biblical sense in order to know in the literal sense).

Economic failures of East Germany
Much like most other Communist states, East Germany suffered poor economic performance throughout its existence. The 1950s comprised two Five-Year Plans, both of which failed miserably. The First Five-Year Plan was implemented in June 1950 and concentrated on widespread nationalisation of the economy. Both small- and large-scale businesses would be brought under centralised "People's Enterprises." Walter Ulbricht, the First Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), announced plans for expansion of heavy industry, despite low productivity and access to technology. There subsequently emerged widespread social dissatisfaction at the long working hours and continual underinvestment in consumer goods—as regional managers would push for higher productivity without wage increases. The First Five-Year Plan would struggle to rival the economy of West Germany, leading the SED to adopt the Second Five Year Plan (1956–1959). Also, the BRD benefitted greatly from the Marshall Plan leading to the "Wirtschaftswunder", the economic miracle in the 1950s. Meanwhile the Soviet occupation zone and the following GDR were forced to rather "pay" reparations, in destructing railway systems and industrial productions in general until 1953. The GDR had in general a worse standing compared to the BRD in the beginning. Economic development 1945-1948 (German) Demontage and rebuilding of German Railway tracks after 1945 (German)

Not dissimilarly to North Korea, the DDR was one of the strongest economies in the Eastern Bloc because of its exports to other communist countries. However, when the Warsaw Pact collapsed, demand for inferior East German products collapsed, resulting in the region's economic collapse. East German cars such as the Trabant and Wartburg were highly desirable to those in the East who faced 15-year waiting lists, but laughable (albeit cheap) death traps when compared to Western cars.

Generally, poorer economies than richer economies, but East Germany always, or, at worst, almost always, had lower growth than West Germany until reunification.

Many tankies bring up how East Germany was always poorer than West Germany to explain the poverty of East Germany throughout its communist period, but estimates suggest that East German GDP per capita was 3 to 7 percent higher than West German GDP per capita in 1936, and East German GDP per person employed was 2 percent higher than the West German figure, so that claim just isn't true. Moreover, the share of the gap between the GDP per capita (adjusted for 1990 ) of West Germany and East Germany increased from 1950 to 1990, so East Germany couldn't keep up:

After unification, life got much better for East Germans and many gaps in various indicators between East Germany and West Germany decreased. Around nine in ten Germans living in both the West and East say that German unification was a good thing for Germany. Life satisfaction in East Germany has skyrocketed since 1991 and now is closing in on opinions in the West. In 1991, 15% of those living in former East Germany said their life was a 7, 8, 9, or 10 on a 0-10 scale, but in 2019 that ballooned to 59%. Meanwhile, life satisfaction in the West has also increased since 1991, from 52% to 64% today. 83% of people in East Germany approve of the transition to a market economy that occurred in 1989, and only 13% disapprove of it.

Despite this, East Germany is still the poorest region of Germany to this day, and many East Germans long for the time of guaranteed economic security under the DDR.

Good things it did
Well look kinda retro... In general, the GDR had much more progressive views towards homosexuality and other non-confirmative sexualities, as well as being much more open about sexual education than its western counterpart, leading to the (scientifically backed) stereotype that East Germans had much better sex.

Abortions were legal since 1972, and available since 1950s, in stark contrast to the BRD. Which were also one of those highly discussed. Child care and child support was heavily supported and controlled by the state. As women were "encouraged" to get back into work as early as possible after giving birth, early child care was common and widely available as normal child care (nursery and Kindergarten). As marriages were supported by a interest free credit which could be payed off by having children, and also getting a flat when you're married only (living space was sparse, and most of the flats in old buildings were molding away...), early marriages were supported (even a bit forced), but divorces were not shunned upon generally by the state. Household days (Haushaltstage) were PAID days for working women once a month for household chores. Still one should consider while East Germany had the highest employment rate for women and was quite emancipated in many areas, there were mostly political reasons for that. And the higher the status the less women worked there. Margot Honecker was one of the very few women (or the only woman) in government position.

For as small a country as it was in population it did extremely well in the Olympic Games. It invested heavily in athletic training but also in shady "performance-enhancing substances".

It had an attractive national anthem that, although made for a Marxist-Leninist state, had largely-benign lyrics that paradoxically better fit the other Germany in achievements such as creating more prosperity, having more creativity in culture, and avoiding military entanglements. The DDR anthem was more undeniably German than the anthem of the German Federal Republic. Unlike territory of the old DDR and like its symbols and economic practices, it was not incorporated into the unified Germany.

Overseas colonies
In 1972, Fidel Castro's Cuba renamed the island of Cayo Blanco del Sur after German communist politician Ernst Thälmann. Ernst Thälmann Island was gifted to East Germany, although the Cuban government claims this was symbolic and it's really still part of Cuba. The micronation of Molossia, in the vicinity of the US state of Nevada, formerly affected to be at war with East Germany, and having outlived the DDR, Molossia now claims to be at war with Ernst Thälmann Island.