Hello everyone and welcome to our blog post in which we will be looking at the history of eastern Berlin when the place was still under communism. For approximately 4 decades, and with such output, this period was one of the most important eras within Germany’s history and immediately influenced the city of Berlin today.

1. Introduction to East Berlin

East Berlin was the capital of the German Democratic Republic [GDR] since 1949 until 1990. The country was a socialist state which obtained a lot from the Soviet Union. This split happened immediately after the second world war and was a consequence of the agreements made between World War II Allies.

1.1 The Berlin Wall

The last but not the least known landmark of East Berlin was the Berlin Wall. First constructed in 1961, the wall stretched across the cities physically dividing East and West Berlin and served as eliminating the interest of East Germans in traveling to West. The wall stood and epitomised the cold war and the division of Germany.

2. Daily Life in East Berlin

In this paper, living in East Berlin during the period of communism is described through certain peculiarities and hardships. The GDR has a centralised economy and a stringent social regulation, and these have a massive influence on the people.

2.1 Education and Work

Schools in East Berlin were so Marxist Leninist oriented in terms of education. They learned how schools, families and the state, everyone,}>{¶102}children included the principles of socialism among other ideas and higher education provided the knowledge and experience for the state interest. Likewise, the job market was designed with an eye on the needs of the planned economy where the career opportunities for a person were essentially few.

2.2 Housing and Infrastructure

The East Berlin was characterized by state-owned buildings and many residents resided in high-rise building called Plattenbau. Linked to this, we see that the state controlled construction industry rewarded volume and not quality, which affected the physical appearance by producing standard and sometimes even monotonous built forms.

2.3 Consumer Goods and Services

Consumer goods were relatively scarce, especially for the people of East Berlin with a comparison to the west Berlin. Deficiency and long waits were possible, and almost all products were seen as amenities. Holders of state management civil servant identity cards went to a state-owned store called ‘HO’ for their shopping.

3. Culture and Politics

Living under a socialist regime also meant to come to terms with the social and political context of East Berlin. The government successfully restricted citizens’ freedoms and increasingly crushed dissident voices and encouraged a culture of spying.

3.1 Stasi and State Surveillance

The bad boys of the GDR; the Ministry for State Security, also more familiarly known as the Stasi. Stasi played an important role spying on their own population and penetrated almost all spheres of their life, from educational establishments to workplaces, families, etc.

3.2 Propaganda and Media

The media in east Berlin was officially used as a propaganda machine that served the interest of the government. Newspapers, radio and television had little freedom while dissenting opinions or otherwise negatively perceived information were suppressed. That is why the government wanted to set the public opinion and keep it for its own and avoid any discussion on the matter.

4. Cultural Scene and Heritage

Nonetheless, East Berlin displayed considerable cultural development which grew in reaction to political limitations. This meant that most art forms started appearing and some of them include the following and still remain an important part of the culture of the city.

4.1 East Berlin’s Architecture

The architecture of East Berlin was characterized by something that was symbolic of socialism during that time. Public structures that necessarily included large constructions as well addressed the readiness for construction of monumental buildings that were intended to represent the power and greatness of the state. Some of the key examples include; the Television Tower, Alexanderplatz, and the Karl-Marx-Allee Street.

4.2 Art and Culture

Still, in order to suppress the freedom of art, East Berlin encouraged other types of art styles. Subway exhibits along with punk rock and new wave music along with underground theater threatened the socialist government and provided a space for the marginalized to vent out and be artistic.

5. The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, marking the slow pulling down of the communists dominated era of East Berlin. The event led politically to the Reunification of East and West Germany and was indeed a monumental event in German history.

Present day Berlin is a wonderful place to get a taste of what life was like under communism. Fortunately, much of the history of East Berlin can still be captured in the museums, memorials and parts of the Berlin Wall with preserved fragments of that history.

Conclusion

Ideological value of communism was significant to influence the overall spatial organization of East Berlin with shaping the specific landscape, society and popular culture. On one hand, it came with many problems and limitations; on the other hand, it helped develop new ideas and foster artistic defiance. It is crucial to know about the past of East Berlin to comprehend its evolution to what it is now and first of all people’s stories who were living in this city.