7 October: The German Democratic Republic – GDR (‘Deutsche Demokratische Republik’ – DDR) is established

The establishment of the GDR in the territory of the Soviet occupation zone completes the division of Germany. Based on the model of Stalinism, a socialist party dictatorship is constituted. Economic life is organised in the form of a planned economy. Landowners are dispossessed, industrial companies pass into public property. Democratic opposition and freedom of expression are not envisaged. Thus, the people of East Germany move from one totalitarian system into the next.