Germany, East
gee-19730529-k-001
page = 1
Click here for higher resolution image
Width: 158 mm
Height: 112 mm
Location: Ice Hockey Volume LIII
Stamp ID = 4165
Cachet for the 20th anniversary of ice hockey in East Germany.
From Linn's "Stamp Issuing Entities Of The World" page.
German Democratic Republic (1949-90)
Stamp-issuing status: inactive; Population: 16.7 million. During 1945-49, the Soviet Union occupied the eastern zone of Germany, which included the provinces of Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg and Thuringia. On Oct. 7, 1949, the Russian zone was united as the German Democratic Republic. Although East Germany became fully independent in 1954, some 400,000 Soviet troops remained in the country. The East German economy was held back by heavy-handed central planning until the mid-1960s. A relaxation of controls brought rapid industrialization, and by the early 1970s, East Germany was the ninth ranked economic power in the world. Economic progress stalled during the 1970's, and many young East Germans emigrated to the West. East Germany's communist regime was always among one of the most repressive in the Soviet Bloc, and it resisted the Soviet policy of glasnost in the late 1980s. Popular demonstrations forced the resignation of the unpopular government of President Erich Honecker in October 1989. Within a month the new government had opened its borders with Czechoslovakia and West Germany, and East and West Germany began negotiations for reunification. On October 3, 1990, formal reunification took place.