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DDR
East Germany

East-Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in German known as Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), is a former state in the Eastern Bloc, that existed during the Cold War from 1949 to 1990. It comprised the region of Germany that, after World War II, was occupied by the Russians, including East Berlin (but not West Berlin) [1].

This section of the website deals with encryption devices and other cipher systems that were developed, built and/or used in the former DDR. In 1990, East-Germany was reunited with West-Germany.

  

East-German cipher systems on this website
M-125 (Fialka) wheel-based cipher machine
Parolen- und Gesprächstabelle (message translation table)
Cipher procedure 50010 and substitution table 535
DUDEK StG-1 (T-352 / T-353) one-time tape cipher machine developed in Poland
Geography
East Germany was a country in Central Europe, formed on 7 October 1949. It was the part of Germany that, after WWII, was in the Soviet-occupied zone (German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone - SBZ). As such, it became a statellite state of the Soviet Union (USSR). Regarded by the West as a comunist state, it described itself as a socialist workers' and peasants' state [1].

Map of Europe, showing the positions of East and West Germany during the Cold War.

The official language in East Germany was German, although schools were teaching Russian as a second language. The country was 108,333 km2 in size and initially had 18,388,000 inhibitants (1950), but by the time of the reunification (1990), the population had shrunk to 16,111,000 [1].

In Eastern Europe, the period from 1989 to 1990 is generally described as Die Wende (the turn) or the pieceful revolution. Following the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, East-Ger­ma­ny was reunified with West-Germany on 3 October 1990. The four powers that had occupied and controlled West-Germany since WWIIUSA, USSR, UK and France – renounced their rights over Germany, after which the united Germany became fully sovereign on 15 March 1991.


Nomenclature
During its existence, the DDR was known under the following names:

  • DDR
  • Deutsche Demokratische Republik
  • GDR
  • German Democratic Republic
  • SBZ
  • Sowjetische Besatzungszone
  • Soviet Occupied Zone
  • East-Germany
  • Ostdeutschland
  • Ostzone - (Eastern Zone)
  • Sogenannte DDR (so-called GDR)
References
  1. Wikipedia, East Germany
    Visited May 2016.
Further information
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Saturday 23 April 2016. Last changed: Monday, 17 August 2026 - 09:11 CET.
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