East Berlin

East Berlin was the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin that became the German Democratic Republic’s capital in 1949 and remained so until German reunification in 1990.

Berlin Wall: A fortified barrier that divided East and West Berlin from 1961 until 1989. It enclosed East Berlin and sharply restricted movement between the city’s sectors.
Battle of Berlin: The final major battle in Europe during World War II, fought in Berlin in April and May 1945. The Soviet capture of the city preceded its division among the victorious powers.
Walter Ulbricht: The East German communist leader who headed the ruling party from 1950 to 1971. He helped shape East Berlin’s government and the construction of the Berlin Wall.
East German uprising of 1953: A mass revolt against the East German government that began in June 1953 and was suppressed by Soviet forces. East Berlin was a central site of the uprising and its violent suppression.
West Berlin: The Western-occupied sectors of Berlin, politically linked to West Germany but surrounded by East Germany. It was East Berlin’s counterpart across the city’s Cold War division.
Inner German border: The fortified boundary that separated East Germany from West Germany during the Cold War. It placed East Berlin within a wider system restricting movement from the GDR to the West.
Allied-occupied Germany: Germany’s division into occupation zones administered by the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union after 1945. East Berlin emerged within the Soviet zone and the separate occupation of Berlin.
Erich Honecker: The East German leader who headed the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 to 1989. His rule oversaw East Berlin during the final decades of the GDR.
Peaceful Revolution: The largely nonviolent movement that ended communist rule in East Germany in 1989. Protests in East Berlin helped bring down the GDR government.
Berlin: The German capital, historically divided into occupation sectors and later reunited as one city. East Berlin was one part of a city whose four-power status complicated its role as the GDR capital.

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