East Germany
24
3.5
- proper noun
:
Alemania del Este
- Prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, vast numbers of people were leaving East Germany.
- the former East Germany
- communist East Germany
- East Germany as a state
They talked about the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, talked about in East, in East Germany, nothing much happened.
- They talked about the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, talked about in East, in East Germany, nothing much happened.
Examples
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The Deutsche Mark, for example, was a parallel currency in East Germany before the currency unification in July 1990.
Academic text (1990) -
I grew up in East Germany in the GDR, the part of my country which was not free at that time in a dictatorship.
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Approximately 40 percent of its assets were in territory that became part of East Germany.
Academic text (1991) -
9 November 1989: East Germany opens its border with the West, allowing freedom of travel to its citizens.
Academic text (1990) -
Because there is so little industry in East Germany, the number of industry-funded projects is still very small.
Academic text (1996) -
The economy of East Germany faces not only difficult, painful adjustments but also new opportunities.
Academic text (1991) -
There is, obviously, the massive cost of incorporating and reconstructing the former East Germany.
Academic text (1994) -
Moreover, the human cost of East Germany's athletic achievements began to come to light.
Blog text (3) -
6-7 October 1989: Erich Honecker hosts Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in East Berlin, as East Germany celebrates its fortieth anniversary.
Academic text (1990) -
I grew up in East Germany, a place where many people were not free during the Cold War.
Synonyms
1
5.5
A former country in central Europe that existed from 1949 to 1990
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'East Germany' directly denotes the eastern part of Germany, a meaning an average B1 learner can infer from knowing 'east' and 'Germany'. Although detailed historical facts (that it was a separate state 1949–1990 under Soviet control) require extra background knowledge, the basic geographic/compositional interpretation is regular and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
East Germany gets its name because it was the eastern part of Germany after the Second World War, when the country was split into two parts. The east was set apart and ruled by the Soviet Union, so it existed as a separate country from 1949 to 1990, and that's why East Germany refers to that 'former country'.