OWTF Comenius 2012-2014. Exile in Germany

1. THEMA
Structure:
-Government of the GDR
-Government of the FRG
-Isolation of the GDR
-Living Conditions in the GDR
-Escapes from the GDR
-Deprivations of citizenship
(example Wolf Biermann)

2. Government of the GDR
(German Democratic Republic)
• Founded in 1949
• Leading Politicans:
Wilhelm Pieck
Walter Ulbricht
Otto Grotewohl
Erich Honecker
• Capital: East Berlin
• Governmental System: Dictatorship of one Party (SED=
Socialist Unity Party of Germany); People‘s Republic
• Economical System: Command Economy
• Member of the Eastern Bloc

3. Government of the FRG
(Federal Republic of Germany)
• Founded in 1949
• Leading Politicans (until 1990)
Konrad Adenauer
Theodor Heuss
Erich Köhler
• Capital: Bonn
• Governmental System: Democracy; Federalism
• Economical System: social market economy
• Member of the Western Bloc

4. Isolation of the GDR
REASONS: EXECUTION:
•Propaganda against the
•Fear of losing workers to the
Western World
FRG •Prohibition of the departure
•Afraid of an economical to Western States
collapse •Prohibition of Western media
•Refusal of the Western
systems
•Cold War between the two
blocs

5. Living Conditions in the GDR
• Government apportions goods
• Less liberty in choosing your jobs
• Observation of the community by the Stasi (State‘s Police)
• Apportion of flats and houses
• Less posibilities to travel
• Government fixes the wages

6. Escapes from the GDR
• Until 1961 (building of the Berlin Wall):
less difficult to get out of the GDR
• From 1961: Border Police is
commanded to shoot escapers
 Escapers chances are little
EXAMPLES:
 Flight tunnels under the Wall
 Spectacular flight in selfmade balloon
 Hiding in a car to get across the border

7. Deprivations of citizenship
• This means the person is EXAMPLE WOLF BIERMANN
not longer a member of •Born in 1936
the State •Songwriter and artist
• GDR uses the deprivation •Settled to GDR
to get critics and •Nov ´65: Concert prohibition and
opposition members out prohibition of publishing
of the state/ keep away •Had concerts in FRG
the oppostion opinions •One of the most radical critics of the
away from community GDR
•Deprivation of citizenship in 1975 
goes to FRG
•Protests from GDR & FRG
•Today he‘s popular all over the world